Thoughts on a 10-6 Rangers loss – Lone Star Ball
clock
more-arrow
no
yes
mobile
Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images
Orioles 10, Rangers 6
I’m kind of over extra-inning games at this point, to be honest.
The Rangers didn’t have their first extra inning game of the season until June 14. They’ve now gone to extra innings in five of their last six games.
They are 3-3 in extra inning games this year, and you’d figure extra inning games are going to be a coin flip, so they’ve done what would be expected, really.
Patrick Corbin’s continuing to be a functioning innings eater is an ongoing matter of befuddlement to me. I’m not sure how he’s doing it.
I mean, to be clear, he’s not particularly good. His 4.26 ERA on the year is good for an 88 ERA+, and that may be overstating things a little given how pitcher-friendly the Shed has been this year.
I would have guessed that his peripherals were worse than that, but tis not the case. 4.26 xERA, 4.31 FIP, 4.17 xFIP. His ERA reflects his actual pitching performance about as well as any pitcher’s ERA can.
You may be thinking, why is this surprising, but as a reminder, he had a 5.71 ERA and a 71 ERA+ from 2021-24 for the Washington Nationals. His best ERA+ in that stretch was 82, in 2023, when he had a 5.20 ERA in 180 innings for the Nationals, but he also had a 6.16 xERA.
Corbin allowed three runs, all in the third inning. The bullpen, ridden hard in recent days, kept the Orioles off the board from the seventh through the ninth. Unfortunately, keeping the opponents to three runs isn’t good enough too often this season, and thus the extras.
And in extras, the bullpen fell apart.
I am not going to carp about the bullpen at this point. The Rangers went cheap with the bullpen this offseason, have asked a lot of them, and the bullpen has exceeded expectations. These sorts of games are going to happen, and I’m not going to dwell on it.
The underwhelming effort by most of the offense for most of the game was really the bigger issue. Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia combined to go 6 for 12 with three walks. The rest of the lineup went 1 for 28 with two walks.
Part of the badness of the loss is that interesting things happened. Both teams lost their DH because both teams used a catcher at DH and that catcher ended up needing to, you know, catch. Chadwick Tromp (which is a Game of Thrones-ass name) had to leave early in the game, with Gary Sanchez moving to catcher from DH, and Orioles pitcher Trevor Rogers ended up having to bat twice. Kyle Higashioka was lifted for pinch runner Ezequiel Duran in the ninth, and actually stole second base and third base, but he was, of course, stranded there.
Michael Helman tied the game in the seventh on a remarkable play, one that saw him, having reached on a two out walk, steal second, see the throw go into the outfield, advance to third, and then get waved home by Tony Beasley on an extremely aggressive send. Sanchez couldn’t handle the throw home, and Helman ended up scoring.
That’s a send that, more often than not, is going to result in an out, and is going to result in people being mad at Tony Beasley. But with Sam Haggerty at the plate, two out, one strike on him, even if you think Helman is going to be out 70% of the time, it probably makes sense to send Helman.
I’ve gotten a lot more sanguine about being aggressive sending runners home with two outs over the years, in part because it seems like catchers drop or miss throws home an inordinate amount of the time. Like, it seems like 20% of the time a throw home goes wide or pops out of the catchers mitt or whatever. Or maybe the catcher gets called for blocking the plate. All sorts of weird things can happen on plays at home.
It also would have been nice if Adolis Garcia’s home run to tie the game in the 10th would have meant something more than Adolis maybe getting going again.
Patrick Corbin’s sinker reached 92.5 mph, averaging 91.0 mph. Jacob Webb hit 94.7 mph with his fastball. Chris Martin’s fastball maxed out at 95.4 mph. Robert Garcia reached 94.8 mph with his fastball. Shawn Armstrong touched 94.8 mph with his sinker. Hoby Milner’s fastball topped out at 87.9 mph.
Adolis Garcia had a 108.4 mph home run. Marcus Semien had a 108.4 mph home run and a 105.7 mph single. Corey Seager had a 101.5 mph fly out. Alejandro Osuna had a 101.0 mph fly out.
Maybe the Rangers can play a nine inning game on Tuesday. Be a nice change.
