Rangers Reaction: Is 'Big Sexy' losing his appeal?

Being a long reliever isn't glamorous, though it's not like he doesn't get to fly on the team charter.

For the most part, the long man is going to pitch when the game is out of reach, either way but usually when his team is getting trounced.

There are exceptions, like injuries or extra-inning games, and the long man can help pitch his team back into a game if the offense cooperates.

It goes without saying that the hope for a team is that it rarely had to use its long man.

And then there are the Texas Rangers, who have found themselves turning to Jesse Chavez seemingly at least once each time through the rotation.

That's not too far off.

Chavez has logged 36 innings already this season, five of which came Friday night. Each one was scoreless.

That was the Rangers' highlight.

Here's some Rangers Reaction from a 6-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.

1. Fans of exit velocity had a field day as they watched the Angels tee off on Bartolo Colon. Mike Trout lined a double at 111 mph. Justin Upton nearly ripped Rougned Odor's left arm off with a liner at 109 mph.

(More on Odor shortly.)

Those were two of what seemed like, oh, 30 balls hit with a 100 mph exit velocity.

That's an exaggeration, of course, though not as wild as it sounds. The bottom line is that Colon was no match for the Angels.

Their eight-hit, six-run, two two-run homer onslaught rates as "Big Sexy's" worst start of the season, though even some of the good ones of late have have some level of difficult in them.

And a pile of home runs.

Colon has surrendered 15 of them in 66 1/3 innings. They haven't all just been wall-scrapers either.

At 45 years old and with a fastball in the mid- to upper-80s, it would be easy to predict that this is how the rest of his season will play out. His command has to be nearly perfect for him to have success, and he doesn't have the velo to get away with mistakes.

But he's also only three starts removed from seven scoreless innings. He allowed three runs over seven innings in his previous start.

It's probably safe to say that he's not going to finish the season with a sub-3.00 ERA, but it's probably too knee-jerky to say that his season is about to go in the toilet.

That said, the Angels flushed him pretty quickly Friday.

2. The game could have just ended without incident, but Andrelton Simmons had other ideas and the writers all had another story to crank out.

The Angels shortstop felt that Odor's slide while trying to break up a game-ending double play wasn't within the rules, and it probably didn't help that Odor's spike caught Simmons on the left shin.

So, Simmons started yapping at Odor, who was trying to explain that it was a clean slide. Then, Simmons gave Odor a push, and the benches cleared.

Odor said that Simmons was angry and clearly was the instigator. Odor said that Angels second baseman Ian Kinsler was trying to keep things from escalating.

But they did escalate, and, as only Twitter can do, Odor was getting blown up.

Was it a cheap slide? The Rangers don't think so. Simmons clearly does. Angels manager Mike Scioscia actually tried to curb the severity by saying the slide looked to veer toward Simmons.

In fairness to Simmons, the slide looked questionable. In fairness to Odor, he was still within reach of the bag and it wasn't like he log-rolled into Simmons.

As far behind the bag as Simmons was, the slide was going to look dicey unless Odor had gone straight. He tried to break up the double play instead.

From this vantage point, Simmons should have saved his angst for a much more serious infraction.

This one was pretty ticky tack as far as take-out slides go, but, then again, I don't have gash on my shin.

(I do, actually, but it's an old mosquito bite I scratched too hard.)

3. Nomar Mazara was the Rangers Player of the Month for May after swatting 10 home runs, which tied for third in the league and was tied for the second-most in club history.

While he didn't homer Friday, he collected a ninth-inning single that left him 7 for 15 during a mini four-game hitting streak, and he and Shin-Soo Choo have been the Rangers' two best hitters all season.

That shows in the stats. For those who still believe that batting average has value, Mazara leads Rangers regulars with a .278 average and Choo is second at .264. The best of the rest of the lineup Friday was Isiah Kiner-Falefa at .247.

There are other barometers to measure hitters these days, namely on base-plus-slugging percentage. The Rangers fare better there, especially after their May.

Though the club batted only .228 last month, 13th in the American League, they drew 101 walks (second) and swatted 36 homers (fourth). That pretty much covers the O and the S in OPS.

But the batting averages tell a big part of the story with the inconsistent, offense. Seven batters were hitting below .250, four below were below .230. Ronald Guzman, at .229, isn't moving up in the order, manager Jeff Banister said, because he needs a productive hitter at the bottom of the order.

That's pretty telling when .229 is considered productive.

So is the goose egg the offense posted Friday.

This story was originally published June 2, 2018 at 2:50 AM with the headline "Rangers Reaction: Is 'Big Sexy' losing his appeal?."