DENVER – It’s June. Summer. Time to head out on the road again to travel after we’ve all been holed up inside for 15 months. How exciting.
Unless, of course, you are the Rangers.
The road has become a frightening and harrowing place for them. Just consider their last expedition, which mercifully ended Thursday with an 11-6 loss to Colorado. Over the course of 10 days, three cities and 3,877 miles, they zipped right past Disneyland, Mt. Rainier and Rocky Mountain National Park. Didn’t enter a one. Or pick up even a token souvenir, like, say, a win.
The 0-9 road trip was the Rangers’ longest ever without a win. It extended their current road losing streak to 15, a club record. The next trip don’t look so hot either. It starts at the home of the defending world champions and then stops in Houston where they have lost 17 of 19 games over the last three years. The best thing the Rangers can say about the road. They are off it for a week.
“I’m not going to worry about the road when we are at home,” manager Chris Woodward said. “We will look into it and try to pinpoint issues, but when we get home, we have to just go out and win some games. It will be nice to get back to our stadium, our fans.
Look deeper and the road becomes even darker and scarier. This is going on a three-year trend. Since July 1, 2019, they are 30-72. The bulk of that were the death rattles of an aging roster. The more recent stretch is about a young team trying to somehow find its way to navigate trying times.
Rookie GM Chris Young met the team on Tuesday to offer support. Woodward met with team on Wednesday. The few veterans on the current roster tried to present some grounding words. Kyle Gibson, who will return to the active roster Friday to start against Tampa Bay, went through a 13-game losing streak in Minnesota in 2016 urged his teammates to remain committed to the process.
“You can’t trust a process in spring training and when things go well and then throw it away when things don’t go your way,” Gibson said. “I told them that if you aren’t learning something when going through struggles, then you are just wasting a struggle. You don’t read stories about adversity; you read stories about overcoming adversity.”
There were times on Thursday when it looked as if the adversity was overwhelming the Rangers. In particular: Emotional Mike Foltynewicz appeared to let his shoulders slump after a fourth-inning run-scoring single by No. 8 hitter Elias Diaz. It gave Colorado a 3-0 lead. It came on a 1-2 pitch. The lone ball in the count showed up inside the strike zone frame on MLB’s StatCast system.
Woodward said he is specifically on the lookout for any evidence his team has let the losing streak impact their willingness to compete. Though Woodward ended up pulling Foltynewicz three batters later, he said the optics might not have portrayed an accurate sense of his pitcher’s state of mind.
Foltynewicz said he was disappointed, but not defeated, by the moment.
“I’m just competitive,” he said. “It sucks when things aren’t going your way. I just wanted to do so well to help our guys out with what we are going through. They got the best of me. It’s been a long road trip for us. I think I tried to do too much. It’s frustrating.”
The longer-range issue is an offense that continues to founder against teams that started throwing breaking and offspeed pitches with more regularity after the Rangers put together a competitive April.
They have not been able to give their pitchers the lead with early runs. The Rangers did not score a first-inning run on the road trip. They haven’t scored a first-inning run in their last 16-games period. When they have had chances, they haven’t been able to capitalize. They went 8 for 49 (.163) with runners in scoring position on the trip. Their lone hit with RISP Thursday came with two outs in the ninth and the team down by seven.
So where do the Rangers start to rebound?
Perhaps they can once again look to Adolis García, their lone highlight thus far this season. With the Rangers already down eight runs, he sprinted from deep right center to make a diving catch on Yonathan Daza’s fly to shallow left center.
Then, with the Rangers trailing by nine, he led off the ninth beating out an infield single on a very close play at first. The Rangers responded with four runs in the inning. It was their biggest offensive outburst in a week.
“It gave us something to smile about,” Woodward said. “I called him into the office and told him that he continues to show that’s how we play. To continue to do that regardless of the score, it matters.”
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