The Rangers’ struggles vs. the pitch has been a fatal flaw

CLEVELAND – When the Rangers referred to as up Ezequiel Duran over the weekend, supervisor Chris Woodward’s preliminary analysis was transient and to the level.

“He can impact the baseball and hit a fastball,” Woodward mentioned.

It was a double-edged analysis, highlighting each one in every of Duran’s belongings and one in every of the Rangers’ greatest failings so far in the season. Wasn’t it Casey Stengel who as soon as mentioned of the hapless 120-loss Amazin’ Mets, “can’t anybody around here hit the fastball?” Or one thing like that?

Anyway, sure, Duran can hit a fastball. His first main league homer Sunday got here off a 99.5 mph fastball from Seattle’s Andres Muñoz. It was the hardest thrown pitch a Ranger has hit for a residence run this season.

As for the Rangers: They will go to the one-third mark of the season nonetheless struggling to hit the commonest pitch in baseball, the fastball. They will formally hit that mark after they full the first sport of a Tuesday doubleheader towards the Cleveland Guardians. The collection opener on Monday was rained out.

According to MLB’s Statcast system, the Rangers entered the week batting .239 towards fastballs, third worst in the majors. As a entire, the league hits .260 towards the pitch. The Rangers weighted On-Base Average of .317 ranked marginally higher, at twenty third.

Bottom line: Bottom tier.

Hard to succeed in the majors should you can’t deal with a fastball. Harder to stay, too.

“We’re just setting up the league for the last four months,” Woodward joked briefly earlier than acknowledging the outcomes. “I think it’s been more individual than team-wide and those guys are trying to figure it out on their own. There are certain guys who have maybe struggled with it more of their career and they’ve got more work to do, but there are no real red-flags that guys can’t [hit it].

“I think it’s more mentality,” Woodward mentioned. “There are a few physical tweaks swing-wise, guys could make. I think it’s more just getting timing right. We’ve seen a little bit of improvement, but absolutely we can get better.”

To Woodward’s level, the crew batting common has been skewed considerably by a few excessive instances of particular person struggles. Of the gamers who’ve both been optioned to the minors or designated for task, they shared one frequent trait: Fastball Failure. Willie Calhoun, Nick Solak, Andy Ibáñez and Zak Reks mixed to hit .185 towards fastballs.

Even when they’re taken out of the combine, the crew common is .249, which might rank twenty first. It’s greater than a couple of fellows. Most notably, Marcus Semien, who entered the season as a profession .277 hitter towards fastballs and a .298 hitter a 12 months in the past, is hitting .173 towards the pitch. Though his general batting common has ticked up a bit and he’s hit all three of his homers in the final two weeks, he continues to wrestle towards fastballs.

Word, clearly, is getting round. The share of fastballs the Rangers are seeing is inching increased. Until the Rangers can show in any other case, it’s prone to be a pattern. Cleveland throws the second-highest share of fastballs in the AL. That consists of former Ranger Emmanuel Clasé, the Guardians’ nearer. At a mean of 99.7 MPH, he leads the majors in fastball velocity.

“We’re not going to shy away from it,” Woodward mentioned. “You earn the fastballs you get. We’ve earned the fastballs we’ve gotten. But pretty much every major league hitter has demonstrated an ability to hit a fastball to get to this point. It’s just a matter of us being more consistent.”

The Rangers are about to cross the one-third mark of the season. No time like the current for some consistency.

On Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant

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