Gallardo streak ends as Rangers’ skid continues
Not even Yovani Gallardo, unscored upon for nearly a month and passed over for the American League All-Star team, could save the Texas Rangers from their losing ways Tuesday night.
At least he gave them a chance, in theory, extending his scoreless streak to the third-longest in club history at 33 1/3 innings before finally yielding a run.
But the Arizona Diamondbacks had the good sense to start a left-handed pitcher. No, it wasn’t Randy Johnson, but Robbie Ray was just as effective as Johnson, set for enshrinement into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in a couple weeks, would have been.
Ray took a shutout into the eighth inning, and Arizona scored three runs against Gallardo en route to a 4-2 victory that left the Rangers winless at Globe Life Park halfway through an eight-game homestand.
The Rangers have lost seven straight home games, and Gallardo lost for the first time since May 19. The Rangers lost their fourth straight game started by an opposing left-hander and have lost to seven of the past eight lefty starters faced.
“Just keep going up there and grinding out at-bats,” said first baseman Mitch Moreland, who had one of the two Rangers hits off Ray in the first seven innings. “You’ve got to slow it down, take it one at-bat at a time and try to get it back on track.
“We’re trying to score runs every time we walk out there. Maybe we’re trying to press, trying to make things happen. I can’t speak for everyone out there. If we get back on track and get back to playing our game, we saw how fast this team can turn things around.”
The Rangers’ struggles against lefties rate as their biggest problem, not their rotation as it hiccups toward the All-Star break or their bullpen as it tries to survive until the All-Star break.
There isn’t an easy fix.
The Rangers could sit lefty-hitting right fielder Shin-Soo Choo, batting .153 against lefties, in favor of the righty-hitting Ryan Rua. But Rua is batting .138 against lefties, though in a far smaller sample.
General manager Jon Daniels could attempt to trade one of the surplus lefty bats for a righty hitter, but Choo, for instance, is owed roughly $109 million over the rest of his contract and will be difficult to trade.
Prince Fielder and Moreland have been the Rangers’ best hitters this season, and Josh Hamilton and Rougned Odor aren’t going anywhere.
Neither are the Rangers.
Gallardo allowed at least one runner in every inning he pitched and threw 107 pitches before manager Jeff Banister removed him with two outs in the sixth after an RBI single by A.J. Pollock to make it 3-0.
He kept the scoreless streak alive through four, thanks to the Diamondbacks running into two double plays. Arizona, though, broke through in the fifth after a one-out triple by David Peralta off Josh Hamilton’s glove in left field and a walk to Paul Goldschmidt.
Yasmany Tomas struck out as Goldschmidt stole second, but Jake Lamb muscled a broken-bat single to center for the first two runs against Gallardo since June 10 at Oakland.
Gallardo (7-7) gave the Rangers their best start of the homestand, which isn’t saying much, but he kept them in the game until finally losing his shutout streak in the fifth inning.
He allowed three runs on eight hits and five walks in 5 2/3 innings.
“My mechanics were a little off,” Gallardo said. “I’d make a good pitch and the next one was getting away from me. Games like that you have to battle and get through as many innings as you can.”
But the Rangers’ offense was again dormant against a lefty starter. This time it was Ray, who took a no-hitter into the fifth before allowing an Elvis Andrus single with two outs.
After Prince Fielder walked with two outs in the first, Ray retired the next 12 batters.
“He used his fastball tonight,” Banister said. “We struggled with his fastball throughout the night.”
Arizona led 4-0 before the Rangers scored two unearned runs against Ray in the eighth, a rally that was fueled by Tomas fanning on an Andrus liner to right field and turning it into a three-base error to start the inning.
Fielder batted as the tying run, but lefty reliever Oliver Perez got him to bounce out to end the threat.
Left-handed starters have been the Rangers’ biggest problem.
“The guys are going to hit,” Gallardo said. “We haven’t been able to swing the bats the way we’ve wanted to, but we haven’t pitched the way we wanted to. It’s just a bad stretch for all of us. We just have to battle through it.”
Jeff Wilson, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published July 7, 2015 at 11:25 PM with the headline "Gallardo streak ends as Rangers’ skid continues."