Rangers reaction after two Smoak homers burn bullpen

You will have growing pains with youngins, as my granddad used to call them. Every parent knows you often have to let kids make mistakes before the lesson really hits home.

Perhaps that’s what’s going on with some of the Rangers on the basepaths. There was another head-scratching moment Tuesday night. This time it was Rougned Odor. He tried to tag up and move to third on a fly out to shallow right field in the eighth inning. He was thrown out easily by second baseman Darwin Barney, which sounds more like a Harry Potter character than major league baseball player, but whatever. Odor figured Barney, who had to make the over the shoulder grab with his back to the infield, would have to make an exceptional play to throw him out. In reality, Barney didn’t have to turn into Red Schoendienst (look it up, youngins!) to make the play. He just needed to be somewhat accurate, with a little zip. He was. Odor was out. And third baseman Josh Donaldson even tagged Odor a little hard on the arm to add some zing to the inning-ending out.

Odor, 22, is young and fearless. He’s fun to watch. Jeff Banister would put nine Rougned Odor’s in his lineup if he could. But even Banister, an admirably staunch defender of his players, seemed to be losing his patience with the baserunning blunders.

“The baserunning decision was not a good decision on our part but that didn’t lose the ball game for us,” he said.

The night before, after Delino DeShields was thrown out trying to tag from first to second on a flyout in center, Banister said, “I don’t know what he was thinking. I imagine he was thinking he was going to get to second base.”

To outsiders, to non-family, Banister won’t be overly critical of his players. But inside the clubhouse, among family members, you can bet he’s having a parental conversation with some of his youngins.

Here’s three brief, and I do mean microscopic thoughts after the Rangers 3-1, extra-inning loss to the Blue Jays Tuesday night:

1. Smoak’d — Shawn Tolleson blew his second save of the season when Justin Smoak tied the game at 1-1 with a solo homer in the ninth. Phil Klein took his first loss of the season when Smoak won the game with a walk-off, two-run homer in the tenth. Those were Smoak’s first homers of 2016.

2. Perez dispenser — Starter Martin Perez held the Blue Jays scoreless through five innings but he had to labor through some long innings. Miscommunication with first-time battery-mate Brett Nicholas forced some extra visits to the mound. Pitching coach Doug Brocail made several cameos, as well as Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus. All of it was getting under the Canadian bacon-infused skin of Blue Jays fans at the Rogers Centre. They started booing every time anyone took a step towards the mound to talk to Perez. “It probably doesn’t look the best to constantly go out there and talk about it but we wanted to make sure we were on the same page,” Nicholas said. What does Perez dispenser mean, you ask? I don’t know. I was hoping to come up with something funny to tie it all together but it’s late and my funny bone is hungry.

3. Gallo, Chirinos updates — Triple A Round Rock third baseman Joey Gallo was evaluated by Rangers team physician Dr. Keith Meister Tuesday morning. MRI results showed Gallo has a mild left groin strain. He’s expected to miss three to four weeks. It’s a similar injury he had in 2013. Catcher Robinson Chirinos (broken right forearm) had his broken right forearm X-rayed Tuesday. The scans show substantial healing. He will start light resistance exercises and receive another X-ray in three weeks. He won’t be eligible to come off the disabled list until June 9.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 11:50 PM with the headline "Rangers reaction after two Smoak homers burn bullpen."