Rangers’ offense confident, but struggles again in 12-1 loss to Orioles

The good news for the Texas Rangers’ offense Tuesday was that Adrian Beltre is continuing his march toward 3,000 hits and that Mike Napoli is enjoying his best stretch of the season.

That puts a wrap on the good news segment.

The other 10 players who make their living swinging a bat were in a funk entering Tuesday, stretching from a minimum of five games to a max of 31. The more cynical reader would say the max has been all 93 games, and they wouldn’t wrong in some cases.

The best of the batting averages among those bringing the funk of late was .206. The worst was a John Blutarski special — 0.0 (actually .000).

There is actually one more piece of good news: The hitters remain incredibly confident that they are going to bust out, that they are going to live up to expectations, and that they are going to do their fair share to keep the Rangers in the postseason hunt.

“We’re having good at-bats, but the results haven’t been there,” shortstop Elvis Andrus said. “We just started the second half, but I don’t really see anything drastic. Collectively we haven’t put anything together, but at the same time we’re having good at-bats and that’s the beginning in getting a good streak offensively.

“We just need to keep working and find a way to create a situation, because we haven’t done that.”

Maybe they’ll start on that offensive turnaround Wednesday.

The Rangers were foiled again Tuesday, this time by Dylan Bundy over six innings, and Tyson Ross was rocked for six first-inning runs and nine overall as the Baltimore Orioles cruised to a 12-1 victory at Camden Yards.

Former Rangers first baseman Chris Davis homered twice, including a grand slam, and drove in a career-high six runs in a game the Rangers actually led 1-0 after a leadoff homer by Shin-Soo Choo.

The loss was the third straight for the Rangers, who were let down by their starting pitcher for the first time since before the All-Star break. The offense, though, has been mostly in no-show mode for all five second-half games and the first-half finale.

Fair warning: Here come the numbers.

The Rangers entered Tuesday batting .160 in their past five games.

Choo was batting .150 (6 for 40) in his past 10 games; Elvis Andrus was batting .182 (6 for 33) in his past eight; and Rougned Odor was riding an 0-for-19 skid.

Then, there was the trio scuffling in their past 18 games: Nomar Mazara at .159 (10 for 63), Carlos Gomez at .203 (13 for 64) and Jonathan Lucroy at .206 (13 for 63).

Over his past 31 games, Robinson Chirinos was batting .188 (19 for 101). Joey Gallo was at .111 (3 for 27) in his past 17 games.

Want more? Pete Kozma was at .050 (1 for 20) and Drew Robinson was batting .200 (4 for 20) in the first seven games of his career.

Make it stop.

“I expect that to change,” Lucroy said. “We’re too good offensively.”

Making the offense’s woes worse, Andrus said, is that the rotation has been performing well. The starters entered Tuesday with a 1.78 ERA over their past eight games, having allowed 11 runs in 55  2/3 innings, but that came to a sudden halt.

The first six Orioles scored against Ross in an inning that started with Beltre whiffing on an Adam Jones line drive. After a walk to Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop doubled in two to erase the Rangers’ 1-0 lead.

Davis was next, and his towering drive to center field landed in the Orioles’ bullpen but only after a leaping Gomez saw it bounce out of his glove.

Two batters later, Trey Mancini connected for another two-run shot.

Ross rebounded to work scoreless innings in the second and third, but the Orioles loaded the bases against him in the fourth and Davis took Austin Bibens-Dirkx out to center field.

That made it 10-1. With the state of the Rangers’ offense, this one was over at 2-1.

Maybe the Rangers will get started on that offensive turnaround Wednesday.

This story was originally published July 18, 2017 at 10:17 PM with the headline "Rangers’ offense confident, but struggles again in 12-1 loss to Orioles."