Rangers Shut Down By Rays' Hill, Fall Back Into Loss Column

The Rangers were unable to build off Friday night's win as Tampa Bay's Rich Hill quieted the Texas lineup.

Chris Halicke | Jun 5, 2021

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

ARLINGTON, Texas — Less than 24 hours after snapping their nine-game losing streak, the Texas Rangers are back in the loss column.

Rich Hill and the Tampa Bay Rays shutout the Rangers by a score of 3-0 on Saturday afternoon, dropping Texas to 23-37 on the season. Rangers manager Chris Woodward sent out the same lineup from Friday night's win, but the group was unable to muster anything against the Rays pitching.

"They're tough," Woodward said. "Obviously, Rich Hill has been one of the better starters in baseball for however long. He did a really good job. We know what he's going to throw, but he was using that outside corner [against] our hitters pretty effectively."

The Rangers faced Hill earlier this season when they visited Tampa Bay and knocked him out of the game in the fifth inning after scoring four runs and hitting two homers off him. Seven of the nine hitters from that lineup faced Hill again on Saturday, but the 41 year-old veteran got the better of the young Rangers this time around.

"He made some mistakes that we jumped on at their place," Woodward explained. "But he didn't make too many mistakes [today]. He was using the liberty of some of those calls, I'm not gonna say were off the plate, but were borderline. He was pitching effectively. He got those calls, but at the same time he used his curveball, kept us off balance, and didn't make too many mistakes that we were able to jump on like last time."

One Rangers hitter that felt the brunt of home plate umpire Roberto Ortiz's strike zone was Joey Gallo, who was rung up twice on very questionable calls. Rangers hitters have seen their fair share of called third strikes this season, but Chris Woodward doesn't want his team to allow the officiating to dictate what his players do in the batter's box.

"He doesn't need to start swinging at those," Woodward said. "It is frustrating, but that's part of baseball. It's been part of our game for a long time. I don't want him to swing at balls. We've gotta let the umpire know, which we did. He should have a reputation now of being a good hitter as far as not swinging at balls. It's frustrating for him, and it's frustrating for us, but we've gotta keep him doing that. We don't want him to expand."

On the mound, Kolby Allard got off to a rocky start by walking Manuel Margot, then gave up back-to-back single to Yandy Díaz and Austin Meadows that put the Rays ahead 2-0 just three batters into the game. However, Allard righted the ship quickly and never veered off course, facing just one over the minimum the rest of the way.

Allard pitched five innings with just the two runs on three hits, one walk, and six strikeouts.

"It was just a matter of settling down a little bit, getting back to attacking, and getting ahead in counts," Allard explained. "Once you're ahead in counts, you have a lot more success."

The Rangers (23-37) and Rays (37-23) will square off in the series rubber match on Sunday afternoon. Dane Dunning (2-4, 4.67 ERA) will be on the hill for Texas, and square off with Tampa Bay's Michael Wacha (1-1, 4.63 ERA).

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Published Jun 5, 2021

CHRIS HALICKE