‘Thin’ bullpen spells trouble for Rangers in walk-off loss

HOUSTON — When Chas McCormick delivered a gut-punch three-run homer to tie the sport at 9 on Monday night time, it put the already precarious Rangers bullpen in one other pickle.

The Rangers’ lineup did its half towards the group’s American League West rivals. Josh Jung kicked off the scoring with a two-run blast, his twentieth dwelling run of the season. The bats responded to the Astros’ four-run first inning by knocking in three of their very own within the second to retake the lead. Josh Smith adopted with the longest dwelling run of his profession, sending a Statcast-projected 422-foot second-deck shot to left area within the fourth.

Even after the Astros responded to knot the sport at six within the fifth inning, Texas had a solution.

“We’ve come out on the fallacious finish of those a few occasions, however I can’t say sufficient about how they saved going, saved combating,” Bochy stated.

The Rangers calmly loaded the bases and drove in three runs with two RBI walks and a sacrifice fly within the seventh inning, notching 10 hits and 7 walks to buoy starter Jon Grey, who allowed six runs over 5 frames.

However the Astros drew their very own bevy of free passes, too. Of Houston’s seven walks, 5 got here round to attain, together with the game-winning run off Speas. Kyle Tucker and José Abreu drew three walks apiece.

“We simply walked too many guys,” Bochy stated. “That haunted us.”

Aroldis Chapman got here on within the seventh inning and issued two walks to Tucker and Abreu earlier than giving up a game-tying dwelling run to McCormick, an eerily similar shot to Jose Altuve’s dagger in Sport 6 of the 2019 American League Championship Sequence.

Then, after Brock Burke threw a scoreless eighth and was not accessible to throw one other inning within the ninth, per Bochy, there simply weren’t many choices left for the Rangers. Headed into the underside of the ninth, they wanted two relievers to complete the sport.

With Nathan Eovaldi scratched from Tuesday’s begin and Cody Bradford and Owen White more likely to piggyback in his place, that left rookies Speas, Yerry Rodríguez and nearer Will Smith.

“[Smith] had been used the day earlier than, so I didn’t have him [for] greater than an inning,” Bochy stated. “So we’re hoping that we are able to get by way of the ninth there after which we’ve him for the tenth.”

Speas issued two walks, and Tucker scored on Yainer Diaz’s walk-off single for his fourth run of the sport. The loss slimmed Texas’ lead within the AL West to 2 video games over Houston.

It additionally put a magnifying glass on the Rangers’ already pressing need for pitchers heading into the Aug. 1 Commerce Deadline. Bochy definitely didn’t fault Speas for the loss however was candid concerning the state of affairs along with his relievers, calling the bullpen “skinny.”

“Speas, he had one actually good outing,” Bochy stated. “The opposite was a bit of shaky. However the place he was, along with his stuff, you’re simply hoping — hate to say hope — but when he can recover from the plate along with his stuff, he’ll be high quality.”