Changes to Texas Rangers’ batting order fail to make offense any better vs. Arizona
Good news: It rained much of the day Tuesday in the Metroplex, and lawns and flower beds were glad to have.
It was still spitting when around 4 p.m. when Globe Life Field opened to the media. The rain, though, ended well before first pitch, and it was only 78 degrees.
In July.
If dry and 78 aren’t ideal conditions for opening the retractable roof, what are?
The first condition for closing the roof is a temperature at 80 degrees or above. That wasn’t met.
High winds can be a reason to close the roof, but winds were light.
There was a 15% chance of rain after the storms cleared out and a pocket of light rain to the southwest, but it never headed toward Arlington. If it had, the decision could have been made to just the roof.
Maybe the fresh air would have breathed some life into the Texas Rangers’ offense.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from a 4-1 loss, the Rangers’ third straight after winning on Opening Day.
Lineup shuffle
Word is there is an urgency to this 60-game season and little time to waste when a player isn’t performing.
The lost weekend for the Rangers offensively featured several hitters who didn’t hit, so the batting order was swiftly changed for Arizona, notably a new No. 2 hitter.
And they didn’t work.
Elvis Andrus slid from the two hole, where spent the opening weekend, all the way the seventh spot. He entered 1-for-10 on the season.
The move, though, wasn’t necessarily about him as much as it was Danny Santana, who batted third the first three games and was batting .077 (1 for 13). He somehow looked worse than that while going 0 for 4.
Manager Chris Woodward said the Rangers need to get Santana’s bat going, and need him to start hitting for the pop he showed en route to becoming the Rangers Player of the Year for 2019.
Rougned Odor hopped from fifth to third, Todd Frazier moved to fifth behind Joey Gallo, and Willie Calhoun moved from seventh to sixth as Woodward attempted to give the middle of the order some more left-right balance.
But it’s not just Santana. The entire lineup, which batted .174 in the first weekend, needs to get going.
The Rangers were no-hit into the seventh inning.
“I want our best guys at the top,” Woodward said. “I like where Elvis is at. It’s just a matter of putting him in a spot where they can’t manipulate our lineup later on in the game. I think that was the reasoning for putting him down a little bit lower. Putting Frazier fifth and putting some righties around Willie so they can’t manipulate us.
“I just wanted to get Danny going. He’s a big part of our team. We need him to be successful for us to have a chance.”
Right-hander Merrill Kelly did the job for Arizona, allowing one run in 7 2/3 innings. The Rangers didn’t have much experience against him, and Woodward speculated that might have aided Kelly.
“But he definitely threw a good game for sure,” Woodward said.
The Rangers were no-hit for 6 1/3 innings before Odor connected for his first homer of the season. Andrus and Robinson Chirinos collected back-to-back one-out singles in the eighth, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Shin-Soo Choo didn’t get them in.
Despite the funk and the shortened season, Woodward said it’s not yet time to scrap their season-opening plans. But that can’t be far away.
“We need to get better, but at the same time it’s not time to press the panic button by any means,” he said. “It is only a 60-game season, but we just need to relax, have quality at-bats, and focus things we can control out there.”
The lack of offense is the reason Leody Taveras lost his roster spot after only three games. Adolis Garcia, who has shown some nice pop in the minors and at summer camp, was recalled from the alternate site.
If Santana continues to not hit, and he currently looks completely capable of that, perhaps Taveras will return in a more prominant role.
What could it hurt at this point?
Pitching still sharp
Only one of the four Arizona runs was earned, which suggests two things:
First up is that the Rangers’ pitching staff is performing to expectations, even with Corey Kluber lasting only one inning before leaving with a shoulder injury that could cost him the rest of the season.
(Shut down for the next four weeks, Kluber has gone home to the Boston area.)
The Rangers entered the day fourth in the majors in ERA at 2.33, and improved upon it.
But the second item is that the defense needs to be cleaned up.
A throwing error on Kiner-Falefa with two outs in the first inning, on a ball Frazier should have caught at first base, opened the door to three unearned runs and a 33-pitch inning for Kyle Gibson.
Two scored on the play, and Gibson allowed an RBI single to the next hitter, David Peralta.
“Mistakes are part of the game,” Gibson said. “Kiner and Frazier both thought they were in the wrong. It’s one of those plays that wasn’t made, but it’s not a big deal. For me, I’m more disappointed that I gave up that extra hit and the extra run in that situation.”
The extended inning limited Gibson to only five innings in his Rangers debut and also put the Rangers in an early 3-0 hole.
When a team isn’t scoring, any deficit might cause hitters to start pressing. When a team isn’t scoring, it can’t afford to give up extra outs.
The offense, though, is in such a slump that Woodward said fielding his best defensive player at first base, Ronald Guzman, isn’t the right move.
“At first base you need to have the offense,” Woodward said. “Obviously, a mistake gets magnified for sure because we lost the game, but I trust Todd over there. It’s not that glaring of a difference. We need offense, especially at the first-base position. We need somebody who can hit the ball and drive the ball. I don’t think it’s going to change the way we do things from here on out.”
COVID strikes
The outbreak of COVID-19 among the Miami Marlins, which has hit half of their 30-man roster, was impossible to avoid at Globe Life Field.
The reaction to the news, either by news sources or the general public, ranged from this isn’t good to shut it all down. Those who applauded the decision to keep playing were in the minority, even though their argument is reinforced by the testing statistics MLB shared.
Miami is the only team to have a positive test since Friday.
MLB apparently has decided it will continue with the 60-game season until multiple teams are rendered helpless. The Marlins have been shut down at least through Sunday, and their front office has been busy on the waiver wire in an attempt to field a competitive club.
Good luck with that. Of course, they were already playing this season for the worst record and first overall draft pick.
Pending further testing of their opening opponent, the Philadelphia Phillies, the outbreak has been contained to the Marlins. There’s been no word yet on any contact tracing, but whatever is discovered needs to be revealed.
If every single Marlins player followed the safety protocol strictly, well, that’s a concern. If just one or two players were not as careful as necessary, that might be a relief to the other 29 teams.
It would also be a reminder that the protocols work, and all hell might break loose if they aren’t diligently followed.
For now, baseball is moving on without the Marlins, and every player is more aware of how important it is to adhere to the safety guidelines.
One family’s experience
The Wilsons went on a little plane trip over the weekend to Colorado to see my niece’s delayed high school graduation. We had to live stream it, but we cheered anyway and then had a nice time at the party.
Anyhoo, our experience on the plane wasn’t at all harrowing. In fact, the wife and I didn’t feel like we or our kids were any more at risk of contracting COVID-19 than if we had all gone to the grocery store.
The flight wasn’t crowded. It wasn’t awful wearing masks at the airport and on the plane. We kept hand sanitizer at the ready for each time our kids felt the need to touch something, which was frequently.
This is not an endorsement of air travel. If anyone out there is freaked out by it, just don’t do it. We had our apprehensions, but felt good about our decision at the end of each flight.
Conveniently, the Rangers were playing the Colorado Rockies, so plenty of ball was watched.
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 12:12 AM.
