ARLINGTON — The figurative tea kettle boiled over Tuesday night when Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy offered a level of pointed criticism toward his own offense that he’d yet to this season.
Wednesday morning, in a pregame setting inside the Globe Life Field dugout that tends to be serene in comparison to postgame debriefs, the 70-year-old manager was markedly less hot.
He was, in no tangible way, any less direct.
“It has to come from within,” Bochy said. “We’ve got to find a way and keep things moving.”
Rangers
Bochy often ends that sentiment with some form of declaration that the Rangers have no choice but to do so.
We’ll take it from here.
The Rangers, after Wednesday’s 6-4 loss vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks, are a .500 team for the first time since July 20 with a 61-61 record. Only seven teams in the Wild Card era, which dates back to 1995, have qualified for the playoffs after the same or worse record through their first 122 games.
They’ll start a seven-game road trip Friday against the first-place Toronto Blue Jays and a Kansas City Royals team that swept them at Globe Life Field two months ago.
It arrives on the heels of late inning meltdowns in consecutive losses that clinched a 3-6 homestand. Wednesday’s loss — which saw the Texas offense score early, add insurance late and hand a ninth-inning lead over to a trusted high-leverage arm —did not elicit a fiery manager. It did force him to double down on the fact that the Rangers have only the option to plow forward with the means at their disposal.
“There’s baseball left,” Bochy said before a brief pause. “We’ve got to win games. We’ve got to win on the road.”
It’s both simpler said than done and also the lone course of action that the Rangers are left with as just 40 games separate them from the conclusion of the regular season.
“It’s obviously not where we wanted to end this homestand,” first baseman Jake Burger said after he hit a two-run home run and scored twice in the loss. “For us it’s having that sense of urgency to realize where we’re at in the standings and the race. It’s go time for us.”
The Rangers now trail the first-place Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros by seven games in the American League West. In the Wild Card race, which may now represent their last best shot for a playoff berth, the Rangers are four games behind the third-seeded New York Yankees. They have the fourth-hardest schedule left to play and have been one of baseball’s least-productive clubs against teams with records of .500 or better this year.
And, to Bochy’s point, any help that the Rangers can give themselves is now almost entirely internal. The July trade deadline is now two weeks in the rearview mirror and, against the Diamondbacks, the club’s two bullpen additions — left-hander Danny Coulombe and right-hander Phil Maton — both allowed go-ahead home runs to All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte in the ninth inning of each loss.
The Rangers did not make external additions to an offense that ranks bottom five leaguewide in batting average (.232), on base percentage (.299) and slugging percentage (.375). Only the last-place Chicago White Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates have a worse offensive output than the Rangers and their .674 OPS.
Their last potential reinforcement arrived Wednesday morning in the form of outfielder Evan Carter. The 22-year-old, who’d been sidelined since Aug. 2 with back spasms, was activated after an expedited one-game minor league rehab assignment in place of struggling right fielder Adolis García.
García, who has slashed .188/.220/.333 with 30 strikeouts in 24 games since the All-Star break, was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left ankle sprain. According to the wRC+ metric, which measures offensive value with “100″ as league average, García’s rating of 50 since the second half began suggests that he’s been half as productive as a league average hitter.
Bochy acknowledged a potential “silver lining” to García’s injured list assignment may exist. It may give the 31-year-old a chance to reset after a stretch of at-bats that included largely poor swing decisions. He also acknowledged that it’s forced the Rangers to rush Carter back.
That, at the very least, may give him a runway.
Carter hit fifth Wednesday and went 2 for 4 with a double, a stolen base, a run driven in and a run scored. Both hits came against Arizona right-hander Zac Gallen, who Carter doubled off of three times during the World Series two years ago, and helped contributed to what qualifies as an above-average performance from the Texas offense.
There is belief that Carter’s speed and plate discipline can benefit and balance out a Rangers lineup that ranks average or below in pitches seen per plate appearance, walks and strikeouts. It will also take resurgence from second baseman Marcus Semien (.473 OPS since the break), the expected output from shortstop Corey Seager (.817 OPS since the break) and a level of consistency from outfielder Wyatt Langford, designated hitter Joc Pederson and Burger that the Rangers have yet to completely receive.
“I think any time a team lets what just happened roll into what’s about to happen, that’s usually when bad stretches start to come,” said right-hander Merrill Kelly, who pitched six innings of two-run ball in his first start vs. his former team since the Rangers acquired him two weeks ago. “We have an off day tomorrow and hopefully everybody can rest and regroup.”
They’ve got no choice but to.
Hump day bummer: See photos from Rangers’ brutal afternoon loss to Diamondbacks
View GalleryRangers fall back to .500 after Phil Maton’s ninth-inning meltdown costs them vs. ArizonaAltered career course for Cole Winn has landed RHP productive role in Rangers’ bullpen
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.