Another lefty starter quiets the Rangers. That was only one of their issues vs. Mariners
For whatever reason the past few seasons, the soft-tossing left-handed starting pitcher has given the Texas Rangers problem. Anyone have a metric for that?
Tommy Milone, who broke in with Oakland A’s in 2012, put the Rangers’ bats mostly to sleep Monday for the second time in a week for the Seattle Mariners.
His night was aided by the Rangers having five lefty hitters in the lineup, though Ronald Guzman homered against Milone and Joey Gallo singled. Those were two of the four hits the Rangers collected against Milone in 5 2/3 innings. Another theory is that he might have benefited from shadows around home plate with the game starting an hour earlier than normal.
The Rangers are in the midst of seeing five straight lefty starters, with two more to follow Tuesday and Wednesday.
The best they can finish this run of lefties is with a 2-3 record.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from a 6-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners.
1. Things weren’t going great for the Rangers in the seventh inning, but they were only down 3-2 with Jose Leclerc on the mound. As of late, that had been a good thing.
There was one on and two out when Daniel Vogelbach hit one to the moon for a two-run homer, a call that stood after a video review. The Rangers, now down 5-2, couldn’t believe it.
A pitch later, Leclerc was walking off the mound with athletic trainer Matt Lucero.
He had been dealing with shoulder stiffness the past few games, manager Chris Woodward said during his pregame briefing. The Rangers held Leclerc out Sunday despite his objections, and he was cleared for Monday.
The good news: It wasn’t his shoulder. He could even pitch Tuesday.
He had cramps in each calf and was dehydrated. It was 80 or so Monday in Seattle, but come on.
“I’m good,” he said.
The Rangers went to Leclerc after Lance Lynn turned in the Rangers’ fourth straight quality start to open the road trip. Lynn wasn’t at his best in the third and fourth innings, when the Mariners scored three times against him, but he still managed to record 10 strikeouts.
But a loss is a loss, and Lynn will always say he didn’t pitch well enough when the Rangers lose one of his starts.
“I walked too many guys, gave up too many hits and gave up too many runs and we lost,” Lynn said.
As for all the lefties the Rangers are facing, they don’t have ton of options with five regulars who are lefty batters. Rougned Odor probably needs to get a game off, though a really good case can be made that he need a game off against a right-hander, too.
But Woodward said that the five lefties are core players who have to learn to hit lefties. He was actually looking forward to seeing the lefties to help the hitters get more comfortable against them.
He might be changing his thinking.
“I hope we don’t go 0-5,” Woodward said.
2. The shoe dropped on the bullpen Monday afternoon, as Rangers Reaction from Sunday thought might happen. Jeanmar Gomez is out, designated for assignment, and left-hander Kyle Bird was recalled from Triple A Nashville.
It seems as if Gomez has been living on borrowed time. He hadn’t been pitching much, but had been surviving each time the Rangers needed a roster spot. Rangers Reaction thought he would go, not Delino DeShields, earlier this month at Pittsburgh.
Bird, who has been pitching better than when he made his MLB debut as part of the Opening Day roster, has better success against lefty hitters than Jeffrey Springs, and the Mariners have a lot of those.
But he walked two of them in emergency relief of Leclerc, and the second turned into a run as Mallex Smith stole second, third and home in the eighth. The swipe of home came on a pickoff throw to first base.
Bird said that he was sent to Nashville last month to clear his head after trying to do too much to make a favorable impression. Bird isn’t the first rookie to have fall into that trap, and he said that he has learned from it.
Here’s hoping he learns how to hold runners a little closer.
He also has minor-league options, which gives the Rangers two pitchers they can shuttle back and forth to Nashville. Springs is the other, and roster flexibility is a beautiful thing.
The Gomez DFA also keeps Rule 5 pick Kyle Dowdy on the active roster and gives the Rangers a spot on the 40-man roster. The Rangers have two veterans at Nashville, Josh Fields and David Carpenter, who are pitching well and might be worthy additions.
The Rangers will also need a roster spot once outfielder Scott Heineman is ready to come off the 60-day injured list.
Or they could just go ahead and sign Craig Kimbrel. That would solve some of these bullpen issues.
3. Remember the mini poop storm Woodward created on Opening Day, his first game as an MLB manager, when he sat Shin-Soo Choo out of concern for the lack of at-bats Hunter Pence was going to get that first week, and, in theory, all season?
Woodward later admitted that he messed up, that the veteran Choo should have played even against a left-handed pitcher. But Woodward also had no idea that Pence, who after last season looked to be on his way out of baseball, would become the offensive force he has.
A dramatic swing change is behind the Pence surge, but he didn’t just show up one day and begin swinging differently. He dived in early in the off-season, went to the Dominican Republic for winter ball and worked through spring training playing as much as anyone.
But it goes deeper than that, and it’s something that fellow Arlington High grad Chris Martin pointed out about Pence in spring training.
“I love baseball,” Martin said. “But he loves baseball.”
As Pence talked about all the work he put in, Rangers Reaction responded with something to the effect of, “If you want it badly enough, you’ll do anything.”
Pence, though, asked, “What if you love what you’re doing?”
He was a 12-year veteran, a three-time All-Star and a two-time World Series winner when he volunteered to go to winter ball. He took a non-roster deal and had to win a spot on the Rangers’ Opening Day roster.
Pence has made a ton of money. He didn’t need to play a 13th season. But he didn’t want to give up on a job and sport he loves.
This story was originally published May 28, 2019 at 12:21 AM.
