Rangers shut out by Athletics but head back to Texas with reasons for optimism

OAKLAND – To begin the season, the Rangers bought punched within the mouth, shedding 9 of their first 11 video games. Then, within the sequence finale in opposition to Seattle, they punched back, as Rangers supervisor Chris Woodward explicitly hoped they’d do.

Enough with the boxing references already? Agreed. Instead, let’s use one other cliché to describe the final three video games for the Rangers on Oakland: the waters of this season, on the 15-game mark, seem to be calming. And that revelation comes after a shutout loss, too.

Oakland starter Cole Irvin has been hit and miss in opposition to the Rangers, and on Sunday the Rangers principally missed in opposition to him and the remainder of the Oakland pitching workers, shedding 2-0 within the sequence finale. The Rangers had an opportunity to lengthen their profitable streak to 4 video games and sweep the A’s, but a Stephen Piscotty two-run house run within the fourth inning finally determined the sport.

Piscotty’s house run got here on a 2-2 depend in opposition to Rangers pitcher Spencer Howard, who was initially scheduled to begin Sunday’s sport, but as an alternative got here out of the bullpen for his first look since he went on the 10-day IL with a blister.

“It was a fastball in and I tried to get it in,” mentioned Howard, who was charged with the loss. “I could’ve had it more in, or more up or more down, but where it was, it kind of seemed like it was what he was hunting.”

Woodward added: “I mean, it came down to one swing.”

The Rangers had two, two-out hits within the high of the ninth and introduced the go-ahead run to the plate, but Willie Calhoun hit a line drive immediately at Christian Betancourt, who knocked it down and simply touched first base for the sport’s closing out.

“If Willie’s ball is four feet over his head, it’s probably a tie game,” Woodward mentioned.

One pitch and some ft usually are not what-ifs the Rangers need to cling their hat on, and ethical victories – particularly after a shutout loss – usually are not the aim. But, in a begin to the season that featured solely a handful of precise wins, it’s one thing to think about.

Take the state of the Rangers’ arms, for instance.

If the Rangers’ three-game sequence in Oakland proved one thing, it confirmed that pitching continues to be important, even for a group that deployed a ton of sources in including to its lineup this offseason.

By the time the sequence had ended, Woodward had talked about a number of occasions how the Friday efficiency of starter Glenn Otto set the tone for the Rangers pitching workers. Before Otto, the Rangers starters had struggled to eat innings. A couple of IL journeys performed an element in that, as did the shortened spring, but it left the group with a bullpen that was each overused and missing effectiveness.

Enter Otto from Round Rock, who threw 5 innings of one-run baseball within the Rangers’ 8-1 win on Friday night time.

On Saturday, Martín Pérez adopted Otto with six scoreless innings.

With reliever Garrett Richards getting the beginning because the group’s opener on Sunday, and Howard coming off the IL and out of the bullpen, it was unattainable to make it three robust begins for the Rangers. Still, except for the Piscotty house run and a three-walk efficiency in 4 at bats by Albert Abreu, the collective pitching effort was spectacular.

Consider Howard a starter and Richards a reliever, as they usually are, and the Rangers bullpen totaled 13 innings of scoreless pitching in three video games in opposition to the A’s.

The Rangers will now head back to Globe Life Field for a four-game sequence in opposition to the Houston Astros. Woodward mentioned he and the group really feel lots higher about the place they’re at now than they did after they embarked to Seattle final week for the beginning of a six-game street journey.

“Games like today can be a little bit frustrating because I felt like we could’ve won that game … but I like where our guys are at. They’re finally settling in. There’s a little bit of confidence, a little bit of mojo, with the group.”

And much less of a sense of getting their backs in opposition to the ropes. Oops, one final boxing reference.

Find extra Rangers protection from The Dallas Morning News right here.