The Texas Rangers Fail to Go Streaking Once Again

Posted on April 23, 2015 by colonelsportsnation

The Rangers have had 6 opportunities to start a winning streak this season and 4 opportunities to win series and have failed each time. Last night they lost 8-5 due to Yovanni Gallardo not being as sharp as he had been, a defense that faltered in helping Gallardo, and not being able to capitalize early on a wild Archie Bradley. Each of those reasons had the same importance in determining the result of the game last night. Lets talk about each of those reasons separately as we go about recapping the game from last night.

It was Yovanni Gallardo going last night for the Rangers trying to get his 3rd win of the season. He had been great in his last start against the Mariners in getting 14 groundball outs. It was hoped that Gallardo could follow the same gameplan Nick Martinez executed the previous night. He was handed a 1-0 lead before they even got to the mound, but we will discuss that inning later in more depth. Gallardo just was not as good last night. He gave back that lead to the Diamondbacks by the end of the 1st inning as Arizona led 2-1. Arizona added to that lead again in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. By the time he left the game in the 5th it was 5-1. Gallardo last night was not helped by his defense, but he didn’t have the same type of control last night either. His pitch count was extremely high as he left the game after 5 innings with 96 pitches. The comparison that I could think of last night was that Gallardo was the guy who broke up with the National League (NL) last season and was coming back to Arizona with a new girlfriend in the Texas Rangers. Gallardo who had been with this girlfriend for several years was basically saying it wasn’t your fault that I left, it was mine. Gallardo was also trying take away any awkwardness, but the nervousness was clearly noticeable as he was not on his game. He tried to help this girlfriend in Arizona feel better about themselves. That is what I thought was happening last night. Hopefully his next outing against a NL team will go better now that the awkwardness is out of the way.

He also was not helped by his defense. With it being in a NL park Prince Fielder was forced to play first base in order to get his bat in the lineup. It started in the first inning with an off-balance throwing error from Adrian Beltre on a throw to first base that likely would not have gotten the runner anyways. That error allowed the runner, Ender Inciarte, to score from first base and allowed the batter, A.J. Pollock, to advance to 3rd on the 2-base throwing error. Pollock then scored on a groundout by Paul Goldschmidt. The next error occurred in the 3rd inning when Roughned Odor made a bad throw to first base that Prince Fielder could not barehand. It was a throw that went to his bare hand instead of to the glove side of his body. That allowed Inciarte to reach first. He eventually came around to score on a groundout by Mark Trumbo. Then this next one wasn’t an error but it was a play that should have been made. It was a drive to center field off the bat of Mark Trumbo that Leonys Martin was able to get to, but he went into a slide in trying to catch it and in doing so the ball bounced off his glove. That would have been the 3rd out of the inning and kept the score at 4-1. He dropped it and Paul Goldschmidt was able to score from first base to make it 5-1. The game might have been completely different if not for a leaky defense. That is something the Rangers have to shore up. The defense is very inconsistent. They have the second most errors in the American League (AL) and the worst fielding percentage in the AL. It is something that has caused them to lose some games this year. That has to improve and it is worrisome that this is happening this early in the year when their bodies are supposed to be as fresh as they will be all season. Most of these errors are coming from the infield and so that has to change if they expect to win anything this season.

The offense also should have done more with what they were given. They loaded the bases in the first inning with two walks and a hit-by-pitch (HBP), but could only manage one run when Robinson Chirinos was able to work a 9 pitch walk to force in a run. They couldn’t score any more though. They forced Bradley to throw 37 pitches through the first inning, but yet he only threw 55 more pitches in the next 5 innings. They worked 5 walks and a HBP, but could only manage that one single run and only 2 hits against Bradley. They had him on the ropes in the first and second innings, but could not finish him off. It was as if they were playing Mortal Kombat and the guy was saying “Finish Him”, but the Rangers would let the guy recover and continue the fight. Then the guy just kept getting stronger to the point that the Rangers lost the fight. The Rangers got leadoff hitters on base in the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th innings, but could not take advantage of any of those opportunities. They have to be able to capitalize. It is all about when presented with chances the approach has to change at the plate and the batter has to do what it takes to either move the runner over and get him in. Too many times the Rangers grounded right into the teeth of the Arizona defense and right into a double play. Last night it was actually 4 double plays that they grounded into. Before last night they had only grounded into 4 double plays. Not being able to take advantage of Bradley’s wildness and getting into the Arizona bullpen earlier is the final reason why they lost last night.

They walk out of their only trip to Arizona this season with a split. The Rangers now have today off and will play again on Friday night in their first trip to Los Angeles to play the Angels in a 3 game series and the start of a key 9 game stretch. These next 9 games will see them play the Angels on the road and then Oakland and Seattle in 3 game series at home. The Rangers are tied right now with the Angels at 6-9, but they really need to start winning some series. Each series they lose they get further away from being at .500 and further away from the other teams in their division. It will be vital that they at least go 5-4 or 6-3 in these next 9 games. That way they can start to make up some ground and ensure that they can end April with a close to .500 record.

Other Game Notes

Some news was announced before the game. Wandy Rodriguez will replace Ross Detweiler in the rotation on Friday night against the Angels. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News says that Detweiler is not losing his spot in the rotation, just that the Rangers are going to be putting him on a throwing program to help him improve before his next start. I imagine Detweiler will get the start the next time the Rangers need their number 5 starter. Rodriguez has pitched the last 3 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates and last season went 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in his 6 starts before being released at the end of May last season. He will be making his first major league start since then as he was not picked up after that. The Rangers clearly feel more comfortable with the veteran lefty making the start this time around than Detweiler, but they are not taking him out of the rotation. Ross Detweiler will make another start, it will just be a matter of when.
Choo continues to struggle. Evan Grant had a sobering stat about Choo in the last 365 days.

For the last 365 days, Shin-Soo Choo is now hitting .219 for 424 at-bats.

— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) April 23, 2015

That is something that goes to show how bad that contract the Rangers are paying him really is. Choo can be very good, but at this point it looks like it is a bad fit and there are still 5 years plus the rest of this season left on the contract. This offense will get better once Choo starts hitting and getting on base at his normal .400 clip. He is a guy that lines balls all over the field and is able to get on a base a variety of ways. That is the Choo this team needs. I really hope he snaps out of it and is able to get back to being the player he was before he signed that big contract.

One player who did have a good game is Adrian Beltre. Beltre had been in a slump this entire road trip, but he bounced back last night with 2 base hits in 3 plate appearances including his 397th home run of his career. He is another player this team needs in order to succeed. When he is playing well it gives the offense a whole new look.
The offense did score 5 runs, but 4 of them were in the 9th inning when the score was 8-1. It did get interesting for a split second though. Leonys Martin had a base hit to make it 8-5 and Elvis Andrus came up to the plate, with Fielder on deck as the potential tying run if Andrus could get on base. Andrus grounded out to end the game. That took away any hope the Rangers had of making a miraculous comeback.
Finally, today I am going to start making a video blog documenting the Rangers. It will be me stating my opinions on the team and the direction this team is headed. I will be posting it on my Youtube page. I will provide a link here once it is posted. I will be posting a video every week. It may not be on the same day every week, but I will try to stick to making a video every week.

Rangers win behind the Prince and the Young Gun

Posted on April 22, 2015 by colonelsportsnation

Fielder and Martin help the Rangers toward a big road win.

The Rangers bounced back to win last night in the first of the two game series against the Diamondbacks 7-1 behind another great effort from young gun Nick Martinez and power-hitting first baseman Prince Fielder. There was more to it than that, it was what can be called a team win. Leonys Martin and Elvis Andrus were good at the top of the lineup, Fielder was good in the middle of the lineup, and the pitching was very solid. After the disappointing loss on Sunday it was good to see the offense bounce back late and get 6 runs in the last two innings, and to see the bullpen be able to close it out. It was a good win overall and evens their record on the trip to 2-2 and 6-8 overall.

The actual game was quite interesting. Nick Martinez and Chase Anderson were involved in the pitchers duel part of the game and the bullpens were involved when the offense for the Rangers finally broke through. Martinez came in with a streak of 14 innings without an earned run. It was 5 innings shy of matching the Rangers record for most consecutive innings without an earned run to start a season. The streak came to an end at 15.1 innings as the Diamondbacks put together two softly hit singles through the infield and then an RBI groundout. That allowed the Diamondbacks to tie the game. That is where it stayed as both starters, Chase Anderson and Nick Martinez really settled in. Martinez was able to make it through 6 innings. It could have been longer, but an error by Roughned Odor extended the inning in the 6th and caused him to throw 12 more pitches. Those pitches were high stress as the bases were loaded in a tie game, but Martinez was able to get out of it with another ground out. Martinez finished the game with 13 groundball outs. Chase Anderson though was able to match him and even do one better, he went 7 innings in his start. The Rangers could not really threaten Anderson in his 7 innings. The best they could do was the first inning when Leonys Martin led off with a double, went to third on a high chopper groundout by Andrus, and then Fielder laced a double to deep left center field to score the run. After that Anderson only gave up 1 more hit in his last 6 innings. He kept the Rangers off-balance with a good mixture of fastballs and changeups. The Rangers did make him work though and after 7 innings he was removed. The score was still tied 1-1.

In the 8th the Diamondbacks brought on former starting pitcher Daniel Hudson. Hudson who had to undergo Tommy John surgery in back-to-back years and is trying to reinvent himself as a late inning reliever was brought on to help keep the game tied. He immediately got in trouble though as Smolinski reached on a error with one out. Then he walked a patient Leonys Martin. Elvis who had been struggling to this point in the game, was able to chop the ball over the 3rd basemen’s head into left field and score the go-ahead run. Then Martin was able to score on a double steal of 3rd when the ball was thrown away into left field. Prince Fielder followed that up with this.

That moment when the baseball doesn’t stand a chance. pic.twitter.com/OW2H9hn40A

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) April 22, 2015

That was Fielder’s first home run of the season. It was a no-doubter. He got close to a home run with his lined double into the gap in left center in the first, but this one he got all of. That gave him another multiple hit game. It was his 9th game with multiple hits and 3 of the last 4 games he has multiple hits. He has been hitting it just has been of the single or double variety. It was nice to see another team not employ a shift on Fielder. As long as he continues to drive it to all fields the shift will not be on. It is up to him to not fall back into bad habits though. For now though, he is showing how great of a hitter he is, and not just a power hitter. He is carrying this offense on his broad shoulders. That home run made it 5-1 and they tacked on two more for good measure in the 9th and Scheppers was able to close out the 7-1 win for the Rangers.

Other Game Notes

Have to continue talking about Nick Martinez. Right now I would say he is the best pitcher the Rangers have. He is doing exactly what you would expect an ace to do and that is stop losing streaks. Each of his last two starts he has come in with the team on a two game losing streak and was able to pitch well enough to end it. He has made three starts so far this season and each of them have came after a loss. He has pitched well in every game he has started. Make that 20 innings pitched so far with only 1 earned run. He has been outstanding as last night he showed he could get groundball outs in bunches. Last night he showed that he can pitch well without getting run support. In his previous two starts he got 10 runs of support and 8 runs of support. Last night it was 1 in his 6 innings of work. He did what it took to keep it a tie game and give the Rangers offense a chance in the late innings. He just continues to impress and hopefully he can keep that up through these next two months without Derek Holland.
Leonys Martin has been really good on this trip. He is 8-17 for a .470 BA and he is showing patience at the plate as well. He saw 31 pitches last night in his 5 plate appearances. He worked a walk twice and even in one of his outs he still saw 6 pitches. He is clearly seeing the ball better and showing that he knows what it takes to be a leadoff hitter in this league. It not only takes the ability to hit, but also the ability to get on base. Last week he was removed from his leadoff responsibilities due to his lack of plate discipline. Manager Jeff Banister gave him two days off from the leadoff role and ever since then he has been more patient and has started to really hit. If he gets on base that is when things happen for this offense, because Prince is hitting very well with runners in scoring position. If Martin can continue to get on base that will give Prince someone to drive in.
A couple of player continue to struggle though, Shin Soo Choo and Adrian Beltre. Choo since returning from having back spasms in the home opener is 2-22 and with only 2 walks. Beltre is 4-33 since a multiple hit game against the Astros on April 11th. Combined they are 6-55 and the big problem is they hit back-to-back in the lineup often times. The offense would be a lot better if the team could get more consistent contributions from both of these guys. Fielder has done his part for this team. It is time for Beltre and Choo to snap out of it and start playing like the All Stars that they can be.
Nice to see the bullpen bounce back after a tough game against Seattle on Sunday. Kela, Tolleson, and Scheppers combined to throw the last 3 innings and did not give up any runs. There was also only 1 walk and that was by Keone Kela. Tolleson though came in with maybe the biggest out of the game. Kela had allowed a walk and single and had runners on 1st and 3rd with NL MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt coming up. Banister decided to make a double switch at that point and go to Shawn Tolleson. Tolleson rewarded his faith by getting Goldschmidt to strike out on a 94 mph 4 seam fastball. At that point it was still a tie game. Good call by Banister to go with the more experienced Tolleson in that situation. I also thought it was a good move by Banister to get Scheppers in a less high-pressure situation. Since coming back from the injury on Friday every situation has been high pressure for him and obviously it was too much for him on Sunday. In his one inning of work last night though he pitched his one inning with only 1 hit and got the strikeout to end the game. He was certainly in more control and that is the pitcher the Rangers are going to need in the 8th inning for them.
The Rangers will go for their first series win again tonight in the final game of this quick 2 game series. The Rangers have lost in their last 3 opportunities to win a series. They will be going for their first tonight. It will be a matchup of Opening Day starters Yovanni Gallardo and Archie Bradley. Gallardo will be going for his 3rd straight win and Bradley will be looking for his 2nd win of the season. First pitch is tonight at 8:40. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!