SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The final spot in the Rangers’ starting rotation may come down to the final week of spring training.
On Friday, two days after Kumar Rocker had his most impressive outing of the spring, Jacob Latz had his roughest in the Rangers’ 9-3 win over Colorado.
Latz said he fought his mechanics for most of his four-inning outing, falling off to the first base side in his delivery and struggling to get more balanced. He allowed a walk, a double, a long sacrifice fly to center and a run-scoring single among the first four batters he faced.
The good news: He rallied to retire 10 of the final 13 batters he faced, six on strikeouts. But it was the second straight outing in which Latz allowed at least three walks and he only pitched four innings, when the intent was for five. Latz better maintained his velocity through his outing than against San Francisco last Saturday, but overall his velocity was down a tick at 93.1 mph.
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Other observations from the day:
— Josh Smith is on a heater. On Friday, playing third base as a potential contingency in case Josh Jung is not ready for the season opener, Smith walked, doubled and hit a two-run homer. Over the last eight days, he’s 6 for 13 with 3 homers, two doubles and three walks. And those numbers don’t include the two-homer game he had on March 4 against Brazil in an exhibition that didn’t count towards official spring stats.
— Not sure if this says more about the Rangers or the Rockies. But the Rangers took 11 walks Friday, tying their high for the exhibition season and their highest in a spring game since 2008. Here’s the kicker: The other 11-walk game this spring was against Colorado also. So, it might be a long year up in the Rocky Mountains. Lots of walks, plus thin air does not make for much hope.
Nevertheless, the 11-walk game gave the Rangers 102 walks this spring, pushing them into a temporary tie for the highest total in the majors this spring. Their rivals, the Houston Astros, had 102 entering a night game against St. Louis. For context, the Rangers took only 103 walks all of last spring. They are certainly willing to take more pitches.
— Hard to believe the Rangers could have envisioned a start for Andrew McCutchen better than the one he has put together. In three starts this week, he’s reached based six times in nine plate appearances, with doubles in all three games. He’s also walked three times. On Friday, he doubled off the center field wall to start the second, then took a bases-loaded walk in the third to drive home the first run of the seven-run inning.
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