{"id":10440,"date":"2025-05-08T10:50:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/10440\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T10:50:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:50:21","slug":"a-mere-33-games-into-season-texas-rangers-appear-to-be-out-of-answers-at-the-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/10440\/","title":{"rendered":"A mere 33 games into season, Texas Rangers appear to be out of answers at the plate"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 Late in a 13-1 loss to Seattle Friday that can only be described as humiliating, cameras caught Bruce Bochy in the Rangers<\/a> dugout with especially rosy cheeks. <\/p>\n

The tell-tale mark of either anger or embarrassment. <\/p>\n

Who could blame him for feeling either? It\u2019s important to remember that things can always get worse, but it\u2019s hard to imagine much worse than the Rangers\u2019 offense on Friday. Against Bryan Woo, the Rangers didn\u2019t have a baserunner for four innings. They had only one, a fifth-inning single by Jonah Heim, going to the ninth facing the Mariners\u2019 mop-up men. <\/p>\n

They were flirting with their second-straight shutout loss, their eighth straight game without a homer and do we really need to cite any more examples? Well, OK, a little more context. The Rangers have scored three or fewer runs in nine of their last 10 games and in 21 of 33 games this season. They\u2019ve shuffled the lineup, demoted their first baseman<\/a> and may be on the verge of more drastic steps to find an offense that was supposed to be this team\u2019s biggest strength. It\u2019s been a lot. <\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

As for feelings, Bochy said he wasn\u2019t angered by his team. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cI feel for these guys. I know they are doing all they can to get out of it. We\u2019ve met. We\u2019ve talked. We\u2019ve done all the things you could think of. So I\u2019m behind these guys. There\u2019s nothing to be angry about because they are giving their best effort. Granted it\u2019s not going well right now. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough stretch, a really, really tough stretch. But this is the part of the game you\u2019ve got to deal with.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got to come out tomorrow and give it our best shot. I have nothing else to really tell you on that because I know they are doing all they can.\u201d <\/p>\n

Also, because what more is there to say? <\/p>\n

Every night there seems to be a new problem that arises. First, they chased too much. Then, they got passive. Now, they seem late to the ball, which is leading to a plethora of pop-ups. They hit six pop-ups on Friday. They had six the day before. They have 22 in the current homestand, most in the majors this week. So, they are leading in something. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur contact point has been a little behind the last couple of days,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cThat\u2019s when you pop the ball up.\u201d <\/p>\n

And the issues, whatever they are, seem to be spreading. Wyatt Langford was 1 for 4 on Friday thanks to a two-out ninth inning single. He is 3 for 21 on the current homestand with five strikeouts and just one walk. This is not the Langford the Rangers have come to know. <\/p>\n

If it sounds like Bochy didn\u2019t have a lot to say on Friday, he didn\u2019t. Nobody did. Barely 20% of the way into the season, the Rangers appear out of answers. Not that they aren\u2019t searching for them, but they haven\u2019t found anything that\u2019s stuck. What\u2019s worse: This extends well behind opening day. Over their last 162 games, in which the Rangers 77-85, they are slashing .234\/.299\/.374\/.673. Their slash ranking: 27\/28\/26\/28. They are a bottom five offense for more than a year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got to change the narrative,\u201d said third baseman Josh Jung. \u201cWe cannot let the negative stuff creep in.\u201d <\/p>\n

Said Joc Pederson, the unluckiest Ranger of the night, robbed of a bloop hit on a sensational catch by Ben Williamson and again on a hard hit ball later in the game: \u201cThis has not been fun. All teams go through it. It\u2019s getting through this that makes you a good team. Everybody is putting in the work. Everybody is working hard. The harder you try sometimes, the more you fail.\u201d <\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the case, the Rangers are currently trying very hard.<\/p>\n

Maybe too hard.<\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 Late in a 13-1 loss to Seattle Friday that can only be described as humiliating, cameras…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,4,3245,149,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-10440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-mlb-texas-rangers","11":"tag-rangers","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-rangers","14":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114471831505931857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}