Rangers’ Hamels struggles with command as Pirates romp in opener

The weekend wasn’t supposed to begin like this for the Texas Rangers.

Friday night was to be the beginning of the Cole Hamels-Yu Darvish Show.

Instead, Hamels had his worst outing with the Rangers and took a beating against the Pittsburgh Pirates. They forced him from the game after 4  2/3 innings to win the series opener 9-1 at Globe Life Park.

Hamels allowed six earned runs against the Tigers on Sept. 29 but went six and still earned the win. In that game, he settled down and put up zeroes in his final three innings.

On Friday, he flirted with trouble early, but except for a second-inning solo homer by Starling Marte, he prevented a big inning. Until the fifth.

The Pirates batted around and scored five in the inning on four hits, a hit batter and two walks by the No. 9 hitter Sean Rodriguez.

“Sometimes you leave certain pitches in the zone and hope they make a mistake,” said Hamels, who lost for the first time this season to drop to 5-1. “The few pitches I left up in the zone, they hit the ball out. If you pitch long enough, you are going to have good games, bad games and a ton in between.”

It’s the first time Hamels failed to go at least five innings for the Rangers. The last time he had a shorter outing was July 19 when he left after three innings with the Phillies. Hey, maybe it’s a good omen. In his next start he pitched a no-hitter against the Cubs before being traded to the Rangers.

Yu Darvish starts Game 2 in the series at 6:15 p.m. Saturday. It’s his first game back with the Rangers since August 2014. He had Tommy John surgery in March 2015.

Hamels’ previous season-high for earned runs was four in five innings against the Angels on May 1.

“He’s human,” said Nomar Mazara, who was shaken up after colliding with Ian Desmond in right-center in the sixth inning. Both stayed in the game after being checked by trainers. Mazara had two of the Rangers’ 10 hits. “It was just one of those days where we couldn’t come back. Their pitching staff was pretty strong.”

Pirates’ left-hander Jonathon Niese held Texas to one run on seven hits and a walk over six innings. He improved to 5-2.

Hamels’ command issues weren’t apparent in the first when he got ahead of three of the four batters 0-2. But in the second, he was behind in the count to five of the six batters with a first-pitch ball. Only one made him pay when Marte homered to deep center field for a 1-0 lead. After a 1-2-3 third, Hamels fell behind two of the four batters he faced in the fourth but stranded Marte at third by retiring Josh Harrison and Gregory Polanco. Hamels threw only 12 first-pitch strikes to the 27 batters he faced.

“That is indicative of him not being as sharp as he’d like to be,” manager Jeff Banister said.

In the fifth, the Pirates took advantage of the control issues and a throwing error by Mitch Moreland on a grounder to first. He threw wide to second trying to start a double play. Instead, the Pirates had runners at second and third with no outs. Andrew McCutchen and David Freese both singled before Jung Ho Kang’s three-run homer put the Rangers in a 6-0 hole.

“The biggest thing [is] we were unable to make the play after the walk,” Banister said of the error. “Then the two singles and obviously the home run was the most damage there. Not anything that really changed throughout the game. He was probably not as sharp as we’re accustomed to with Cole.”

McCutchen and Polanco added homers off Luke Jackson and Alex Claudio in the sixth and ninth innings to stretch the lead to eight.

“I don’t think I ever want to have a game where you give up five-plus runs, period,” Hamels said. “At the same time, when you’re grinding away, you’re getting close to the 100-pitch mark and the results aren’t in you’re favor, it’s not necessarily for the best to keep being out there.”

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Rangers’ Hamels struggles with command as Pirates romp in opener."