Texas Rangers offense improved, but pitching worst in MLB after another loss to Angels
It comes as no surprise, but the Texas Rangers have pitching issues.
Yes, it’s still way too early to make summary judgments on the 2022 season after the club’s first full week concluded Sunday with a 8-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field.
But the first nine games, however, did give us a glimmer of what is likely to dog the Rangers this summer.
The Rangers (2-7) start a six-game road trip at 8:40 p.m. Tuesday in Seattle.
Pitching, both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen, is going to wear on manager Chris Woodward like the tread on one of a car’s four tires that eventually takes the whole thing into a ditch.
“We didn’t play well enough at all to win the game,” said Woodward, whose club lost the last two games against the Angels by a combined score of 15-5. “We have to play better if we expect to compete and win major league baseball games. We’re not doing anything well right now. There’s a lot of things we need to improve on. Today and yesterday were two of our worst games.”
The Rangers have allowed 57 runs (53 earned), second-most in the majors. Their 6.19 ERA is the worst in the majors. Their 18 home runs allowed are the most in the league.
When the starters have been decent, the bullpen has faltered, and vice versa. The Rangers’ starters have an MLB-high 6.96 ERA. Rangers relievers have an MLB-high 5.66 ERA.
That’s not a winning formula, no matter how improved the offense is with the additions of Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Kole Calhoun. We’ve seen this before, of course, when the Rangers were scoring big and losing big in the 2000s.
Semien, who is in his 10th major league season and first with the Rangers, cautioned to not make too much of the poor start.
“I’ve been part of good starts and bad starts, but there’s ups and downs. Right now, we started with a down. It’s not for a lack of effort,” he said. “Nobody wants to go 2-7. I don’t think we should really dwell on it. You want to play better at home, of course. All you can do is have a good day off and go into Seattle and have that killer instinct and get a win.”
The offense is among the top three in scoring in the league and near the bottom in strikeouts. Their .244 team batting average is 11th in the majors. They’re getting on base (.325 team on-base percentage) and tied for eighth with 10 home runs.
But none of that has been enough to outweigh the pitching problem. No Rangers starter has recorded a win. The rotation’s 32.1 innings so far this season are the fewest in MLB, including Martin Perez’s four innings Sunday in which he left losing 4-3.
Batters are hitting an MLB-high .296 against Rangers pitchers, including .350 against the starters.
The relievers have pitched five or more innings in seven consecutive games, including eight innings in a scheduled bullpen game on Friday.
The Rangers have committed seven errors in nine games, including three on Sunday. Their defensive efficiency is second worst in the majors. Defensive efficiency, which is tracked by baseball-reference.com, is the percentage of balls in play that are converted into outs based on estimated team defensive and pitching stats.
Perez, the veteran left-hander who is back with the Rangers after three seasons away, struck out five and allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits and three walks in four innings Sunday.
“We just have to keep our heads up,” Perez said. “It’s going to be fine. We have to learn from this 10 [days] and stay focused and come back with good energy and go out there and enjoy the game. I think the way we’re playing right now is not how we play. We’re going to be fine.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2022 at 5:11 PM.
