After Red Sox series loss, Texas Rangers running out of time to find solutions

ARLINGTON — Bruce Bochy lamented Sunday morning the overload of information and “voices” in modern baseball, noting that he gets messages “all the time” with suggestions on how to improve the Texas Rangers’ offense.

“I don’t even answer,” the Rangers manager said with a smile.

It’s ridiculous to assume that anyone outside the Rangers organization can provide meaningful advice to a four-time World Series winner, much less one who coached the American League’s best offense just a season ago.

This does not mean that he will not seek to find solutions in one way or another.

The Rangers had just three hits — two of which were solo homers by Corey Seager (in the first inning) and Josh Jung (in the second) — in a 7-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday at Globe Life Field and took their third straight series loss.

“We had three hits and scored a couple of runs,” Bochy said after the game. “That usually doesn’t work out very well.”

Especially when there’s virtually no activity on the basepaths to capitalize on home runs. The Rangers have hit a season-high eight home runs (three by Seager, the Rangers’ player of the month for July) in the series, but only two have come with runners on base. They hit four in Friday’s loss but haven’t won either game this season in which they’ve hit that many home runs. The two homers that Boston right-hander Nick Pivetta gave up Sunday came on pitches to deep center that were served up on platters to Seager and Jung. Everything else has confounded a Texas team that is 2-7 in its last nine games and now 5.5 Mariners back game in the AL West.

And despite the offense’s struggles Sunday, it was Texas’ stout pitching staff that lost the game. The Rangers have given up 63 runs in their last nine games (the most they’ve given up in such a stretch this season), have been shelled by 20 or more runs in each of their last three series and have a starting rotation that has given up more runs (40) than innings pitched (35) during that stretch.

That’s the league’s worst ERA at 10.29. The league’s second-worst rotation over the same period (the Toronto Blue Jays and their 6.65 ERA) swept the Rangers just a weekend ago.

Boston scored 22 runs in three games this weekend against a revamped pitching staff that has become a band-aid solution after a number of trickle-down effects. Let’s start at the top.

1. The Rangers traded right-hander Michael Lorenzen to the Kansas City Royals and placed right-hander Jon Gray (groin strain) on the 15-day disabled list Monday, meaning Texas had no starting pitchers for the first two games of the Boston series.
2. José Ureña, a right-handed reliever who had already made six starts this season, started the series opener Friday, allowing seven earned runs in four innings and forcing the Rangers bullpen to eat up the other five.
3. Left-hander Cody Bradford moved from the bullpen to the rotation Saturday, pitching 3 2/3 admirable innings and allowing Texas’ leverage arms (Andrew Chafin, Jose Leclerc, Josh Sborz, David Robertson and Kirby Yates) to handle the final 5 1/3.
4. The Rangers, who have depleted their bullpen, were hoping ace right-hander Nathan Eovaldi could get off to a good start Sunday. He lasted just five innings and left with two runners on base and none out in the top of the sixth in a 3-2 game. The Rangers had to recall rookie left-hander Walter Pennington, who was acquired in the Lorenzen trade and promoted to Texas on Friday after Max Scherzer was placed on the injured list with a shoulder strain, for his second major league appearance. He allowed a three-run home run to the first batter he faced as a Ranger, Boston’s Wilyer Abreu, to make it 6-2.

Left-hander Brock Burke (who was recalled Sunday after Jacob Latz was placed on the injured list with a left forearm strain) and right-hander Gerson Garabito were the freshest options in the Texas bullpen and combined to pitch three one-run innings, but the Rangers could muster just one hit — a double by Jung in the seventh — over the game’s final seven innings.

“(Boston) started pitching really early,” said Eovaldi, who allowed solo home runs to Abreu and Jarren Duran. “It was a big day for me to get deep into the game and I wasn’t able to do that. I feel like I let the team down.”

The time for reflection is now over. The Rangers will play three games against Houston, the team directly above them in the division standings, starting Monday. They will travel to the wild-card-leading New York Yankees on Friday (with a stop at the White House), then head to Boston for three more games against the Red Sox.

“We have to be ready to face the Astros,” Eovaldi said. “They’re in front of us and a lot can happen in three games.”

The Rangers proved that in their most recent three-game series.

They need some of these events to happen next week to stay in contention before time runs out.

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