Rangers see Smyly’s ERA balloon to 7.93 in 12-11 loss. Will they keep him in the rotation?
Tuesday marked the beginning of the longest stretch of the season for the Texas Rangers, who played the first of 21 games over 20 consecutive days.
Each member of the starting rotation will make four starts, or be the primary pitcher behind an opener, and a pitcher will be recalled from the minors Saturday to start one of the games of a doubleheader.
That’s the theory, at least.
The Rangers might not want to see Drew Smyly three more times after he struggled again Tuesday.
The left-hander allowed four runs in a 40-pitch first inning and three home runs over 3 1/3 innings as the worst team in baseball, the Baltimore Orioles, survived a furious ninth-inning Rangers rally for a 12-11 victory.
Pedro Severino hit three home runs, though only one off Smyly, and Dwight Smith Jr. drove in career-high six runs. Half of those came on a first-inning homer. The Rangers scored six times in the ninth, but the game ended with the tying run at second base.
Smyly allowed seven runs, pushing his ERA to 7.93. He allowed seven in five innings last week at Seattle after Jose Leclerc opened with a scoreless first inning.
The Rangers won that one, though.
This clunker came in the midst of a good stretch by Rangers starters in which they have piled up nine quality starts. They entered Tuesday with a 2.80 ERA in their past 18 games, including three instances in which an opener was used.
Smyly’s outing was the first in 18 games in which a starter allowed more than three runs.
Manager Chris Woodward attributed the turnaround to being less predictable on the mound after the club’s metrics showed that they were the most predictable pitching staff in baseball.
Ariel Jurado and Adrian Sampson have been steady of late. Mike Minor and Lance Lynn have been solid most of the season.
“Our guys have gotten better,” Woodward said. “I think at the start of the year there was some uncertainty about who our guys were, what pitches are effective, what opposing hitters are doings. We had newer processes in place.”
Smyly has been the weakest link the past two times through the rotation and since Shelby Miller was moved to the bullpen. Smyly entered with the highest walks-per-nine-innings rate (6.28) in the majors among pitchers with 35 innings and the eighth-highest homers-per-nine rate (2.33) in the American League.
The Orioles had no issues against him.
Smith Jr. and Severino went back-to-back in the first. Keon Broxton started the fourth with a home run after the Rangers had closed to within 5-2.
The Orioles scored six in the inning, with Smith driving in two more. He’s a left-handed hitter, but his success against Smyly shouldn’t come as a success.
Lefty-hitters were hitting .303 against Smyly entering the game.
The problem facing the Rangers is they don’t have many options to replace Smyly. Jonathan Hernandez is pitching well at Double A Frisco, and he’s a candidate to be called up for the doubleheader against the Oakland A’s.
He’s on the 40-man roster. So is Joe Palumbo and the injured Brock Burke, both also at Frisco. After that Hernandez and Palumbo, the Rangers would need a 40-man spot for Triple A Nashville right-handers Phillips Valdez or Seth Maness.
As much as Smyly has struggled, the Rangers might not have a choice but to let him keep trying to figure things outs.
This story was originally published June 4, 2019 at 10:32 PM.
