Eight straight losses and no end in sight. But don’t tell Texas Rangers they’ve quit.
Justin Dunn entered Sunday with one quality start this season for the Seattle Mariners.
It came Aug. 10 against the Texas Rangers as he allowed two runs in six innings for his first career victory.
It was the only time in four starts he had lasted more than four innings.
Until Sunday, when he worked six scoreless innings on one hit.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from an eighth straight loss, 4-1, and their first winless road trip of more than four games since 1991.
No quit
When a team has lost eight straight, when it falls behind early seemingly every game and doesn’t have any thump in the lineup, the knee-jerk reaction is to assume the team has quit.
Quit on each other, quit on the manager, or just quit.
The Rangers will strongly disagree with anyone who spouts that tired opinion.
“I don’t know when it will turn around, but I feel like guys aren’t just going to give up,” left-hander Mike Minor said. “We still have pride and we still want to do well, so I feel like guys are still going to grind, still going to work every day each week and we’ll see what happens.”
Minor was honest: He doesn’t know when the losing with stop. The Rangers will host the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers this week at Globe Life Field, and they are two of the best teams in baseball.
The Rangers have already been swept this season by the A’s, losing three straight earlier this month.
The goal is to continue the search for solutions to their woes. The Rangers found themselves in another deep hole Sunday, 4-0 after five innings, and the offense was as inept as it has been all season.
They didn’t have a hit until Isiah Kiner-Falefa doubled with one out in the fifth. They didn’t score until Jeff Mathis hit a solo homer with one out in the eighth.
The good news is that that pitching was better. The defense played fairly clean for a change.
The Rangers just haven’t been able to put all three elements — offense, pitching and defense — together.
Lance Lynn will start Monday. The Rangers have had a chance to win all six of his starts, but have only won half of them.
But at least they can be confident he will give them a chance.
“We haven’t pitched as well as we’re capable of, we haven’t scored runs as well as are capable of and we haven’t played defense as well,” Lynn said. “When all three of those go wrong at the same time, you see what happens. You don’t win games. Even when you’re in close games something pops up.
“We’ve got to figure out how to right the ship and not make the errors, the bad pitches and or give away at-bats. We’ve got to fight till the end and might be able to scratch one out. We have to stay positive and not let the last week define who we are.”
Odor sliding again
Remember a few days ago, when Rougned Odor was riding a five-game hitting streak that included home runs in two games? Remember?
Forget it.
The second baseman hasn’t had a hit since Wednesday and will take an 0-for-18 skid into the Rangers’ seven-game homestand. His average has dipped to .143, not that it ever got above .200 or anything like that.
Manager Chris Woodward has spoken of changes that could be ahead in the coming days, and has mentioned only seeing more of Leody Taveras, right-hander Kyle Cody and left-hander Wes Benjamin.
What Woodward hasn’t said is that he has seen enough of Odor. Maybe he’s just keeping it to himself.
It’s an easy move: Nick Solak to second base and Taveras to center field. Scott Heineman can handle left field, where Solak played at Seattle, and Taveras can play center.
Shin-Soo Choo could be returning soon, but he can become the full-time designated hitter. Robinson Chirinos will be activated from the injured list to start the homestand, and the Rangers will consider keeping three catchers on the active roster.
Jose Trevino isn’t going back to the alternate camp site. Some will have to go, though, for the Rangers to make the moves they need (reliever Nick Goody is also close to coming off the IL) and want to make.
Derek Dietrich, who stormed onto the scene two weeks ago, snapped an 0-for-15 slide Sunday.
Yadiel Rivera took Elvis Andrus’ spot on the roster because he can play shortstop in case something were to happen to Kiner-Falefa.
Rob Refsnyder has played regularly against left-handed pitchers.
Something is going to have to give to clear the roster logjam. The Rangers likely wouldn’t release Odor and eat the rest of his contract, but that doesn’t mean that can’t put him on the bench.
They have threatened to do that in the past. That bill is past due.
Minor improves, but ...
Minor still wasn’t as effective Sunday as he was last season in becoming an All-Star, but he was better than he was last week against San Diego.
The problem, though, was the same: The long ball. Minor surrendered three of them, beginning with two outs in the first inning.
All four Mariners runs came off of homers by Kyle Lewis, Austin Nola and Sam Haggerty. They had only two other hits off Minor, who completed six innings for the first time this season after battling arm fatigue.
His fastball velocity remains shy of his 2019 numbers, but he is sustaining it better. He also said his changeup, which was a problem in his start Tuesday against the San Diego Padres, was sharper.
“I think it’s more about finishing the pitch,” he said “So that was the adjustment I made. It was finishing out front instead of trying to make the ball move. I guess going back to the basics. It felt better today out of the hand and I got some swing-and-misses on it.”
But he fell to 0-5, and the Rangers have won only one of his six starts this season. His ERA sits at 6.75 in a season in which he was expected to be one of the reasons the Rangers would contend for the postseason.
He’s been disappointed after every start, even when he tossed four scoreless innings Aug. 11. Minor holds himself to a very high standard, one that he has yet to meet in his walk year to free agency.
He still has time to turn things around and establish himself as a top arm on the free-agent market. After six starts, though, the Rangers look wise for not jumping to sign him to a contract extension.
