What went wrong Sunday for Texas Rangers’ Kohei Arihara? Well, just about everything.
The first Texas Rangers home game at Globe Life Field that fans are allowed to attend arrives March 29, in an exhibition against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Tickets for that game and all others in March and April — except for the April 5 home opener — go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday at texasrangers.com or by calling 972-726-4377 (RANGERS).
The Rangers have decided to open Globe Life Field to capacity, which is 40,518. That doesn’t mean that many fans will be at every game, however, and the Rangers have created socially distanced sections for fans who are wary of COVID-19.
All fans must wear masks inside Globe Life Field except when eating or drinking at their seats.
Until then, the Rangers still have some Cactus League games to play.
Here’s the Surprise Five from Sunday’s 7-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians and some morning B-game action.
Arihara not happy
B games are designed strictly for pitchers to get in their work. At the end of the day Sunday, that’s the No. 1 thing right-hander Kohei Arihara accomplished in a back-field game against the Kansas City Royals.
The pitching itself was not remotely good.
Arihara pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowing five runs. He walked four, three of them in the first inning, and hit two batters. And it could have been so much worse.
The Rangers rolled three innings, the first, third and fourth. Arihara recorded only seven outs, none in the first in which he went walk, walk, hit batter, walk.
But he logged 74 pitches, which keeps him on track for his MLB debut the first time through the Rangers’ quirky five-man rotation.
What was his issue Sunday? Was it ...
A) His body wasn’t synced up?
B) He couldn’t find a grip on the ball?
C) He is dealing with fatigue?
D) All of the above?
The answer is D, though A seemed to cause the most problems.
“My body was diving in, and my arm action wasn’t the way it usually is,” Arihara said. “So fastball, curveball, all my pitches, they didn’t feel quite right.”
Fatigue is an interesting answer. Arihara is adjusting his professional life to an MLB schedule, though the thinking there is that it would be more of an issue during the regular season than in spring training.
But his outing was the fourth straight in which a Rangers starter struggled, beginning Thursday with Mike Foltynewicz. Pitchers often go through a dead-arm phase in spring training, and perhaps it’s hitting all at once for the Rangers.
Kyle Cody, who lasted only 2 1/3 innings Friday, said he might have run out of gas.
Before the case of hiccups, the rotation had been performing well. Kyle Gibson can attempt to buck the trend Monday in a B game against the Royals.
Weird one for Hearn
Left-hander Taylor Hearn ran into some trouble Sunday in the second inning against the Indians. A throwing error by third baseman Andy Ibanez didn’t help the cause, and manager Chris Woodward eventually had to go get Hearn.
The Indians scored three runs, each one unearned.
Hearn, though, wasn’t done.
In a spring in which rules don’t necessarily apply, Hearn returned for the third inning and pitched until being lifted with one out in the fourth.
The re-entry rule, which has some support around the game, might have been odd, but it led to Hearn’s best inning.
“It’s the weirdest thing ever,” said Hearn, who tossed a 1-2-3 third.
Also weird for Hearn was throwing 60-plus pitches, something he hadn’t done since possibly early in the 2019 season at Triple A Nashville. He admitted some fatigue, and he lost some of his command at the end when he allowed a fourth run.
But he’s glad it happened so that he can get through it in case he ends up working in one of the two tandems the Rangers will have in their rotation.
“I needed it because I’m not used to doing it,” Hearn said. “Now it’s just keep doing it so I can get used to it.”
White’s roster push
Eli White could very well be the Rangers’ Opening Day center fielder, which was evident Sunday as he started at first base against the Cleveland Indians.
First baseman Ronald Guzman started in left field.
What?
Woodward pulled the surprising lineup shuffle because the Rangers need another option at first base, preferably a right-handed hitter. White, who came up as an infielder, has been working at first for about a week.
The more versatility White can show, the more valuable he becomes.
It would seem as if Nate Lowe could back up Guzman at first, or vice versa. But Guzman is now a backup corner outfielder in light of Willie Calhoun’s groin injury and Khris Davis’ woeful defense.
So, in a possible scenario in which Guzman is in left, Lowe is at first and Davis is at designated hitter, it’s conceivable the Rangers would need a backup first baseman.
It seems a little overkill, doesn’t it? It’s also an indication that the Rangers really want righty-hitting first basemen Curtis Terry and Sherten Apostel playing every day in the minors.
Still, it’s better to try out White at first now than during the regular season, not that that’s ever stopped the Rangers.
Davis logjam
As highly as Woodward has spoken about Davis in the past week, and as valuable as the Davis of old would be hitting behind Joey Gallo, and as badly as the Rangers need offense, Davis is causing a roster logjam.
No Davis would allow the Rangers to keep White and Taveras, Guzman and Lowe, or even Charlie Culberson and Brock Holt as utility players. Once Calhoun is healthy, no Davis would allow the Rangers a pain-free way to put Calhoun on the active roster.
The Rangers are in a position where they need to evaluate as many young players as possible. They know what Davis, 33, can do, and they also know that if he were to do it in their uniform that they likely couldn’t afford to bring him back in 2022.
Even amid his praise of Davis, Woodward hasn’t said that Davis has clinched a roster spot. It’s hard to imagine the Rangers letting Davis go and eating the $16.75 million he is owed this season, and it’s hard to imagine another team willing to take on even half that contract in a trade.
In other words, expect Davis to be on the Opening Day roster.
Fantasy land
The ol’ annual fantasy baseball draft took place Sunday morning, bright and early, and my team, the Rock Ridge Johnsons, held the No. 1 overall pick.
My team is awful year in and year out.
I’ve been in this league since the late 1990s and have finished in the money maybe three times. I’m perpetually in rebuild mode in this keeper league.
As such, the Johnsons, with the first overall pick, selected Bobby Witt Jr.
The Royals promptly sent him to minor-league camp.
As Johnsons GM, I was braced for the demotion of the former Colleyville Hertiage star. He’s never played above Rookie ball.
However, it seems as if the Royals are open to letting him make his MLB debut this year, only two years after selecting him second overall in the MLB draft.
The Rangers are in the Royals’ draft position this year. There’s even a highly touted local prep shortstop, Jordan Lawlar of Dallas Jesuit, in the draft class.
Johnsons’ management is intrigued.
This story was originally published March 21, 2021 at 6:13 PM.
