'Bipolar' Rangers Shutout By Mariners In Ninth Straight Road Loss
The focus early on this season was if and when the Texas Rangers would figure out how to play more consistently at home.
Now, the Rangers need to figure out how to get back in the win column away from Arlington.
The Rangers were shutout for the fifth time this season, losing to the Seattle Mariners by a score of 5-0. The loss was the ninth straight defeat on the road, dropping Texas to a 3-10 road record in May.
The last road win for the Rangers was back on May 6 in Minnesota, where Texas won three of four games.
It would be easy for a team, especially a younger team, to give into the tough situation. But this group refuses to panic.
"I believe in our guys. They're talking about the right things," said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. "I hate to use the word, but we're a little bit bipolar offensively at times, but just overall. I think that's [typical] with a young team, but I love what we're talking about."
The offense struggled immensely against Seattle right-hander Chris Flexen, who the Rangers had a bit of success against earlier in the season. This time around, Flexen shutout the Rangers bats for seven innings.
"A lot of the guys came back and said he was better than the last time," Woodward explained. "He's got decent stuff and he's pitched well at times. ... At the same time, we're a big league offense. We've gotta pride ourselves in doing a better job than that. That's the type of guy we feel like we can handle pretty well."
In his first start of 2021, Kolby Allard lasted four innings, which was about the length of time Woodward and the coaching staff initially planned for him. The only two hits he allowed were solo home runs to Tom Murphy and Jacob Nottingham, which gave Seattle a 2-0 lead in the third inning.
Taylor Hearn continued his good form with two scoreless innings of relief, but ran into some bad luck with a couple of weak hits in his third inning of work. Hearn then issued a critical one-out walk to load the bases, which prompted Chris Woodward to make a move to the bullpen. Brett Martin came in and couldn't put out the fire, as Seattle put up three more runs and put the game out of reach.
On the positive side, Adolis García made two highlight reel plays in center field. In the first inning, García robbed Mitch Haniger of a home run, which might have been more impressive than his robbery of Shohei Ohtani earlier this season. Then in the Mariners' big seventh inning, García fielded a two-out base hit and fired a dart home that saved a run from crossing the plate.
The Rangers (22-30) will try and snap this extensive losing streak away from Arlington as they take on the Mariners (24-27) on Friday night. Jordan Lyles (2-3, 5.94 ERA) will take the ball for the Rangers, and square off with Seattle southpaw Justus Sheffield (3-4, 5.11 ERA).
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