After his team’s club-record 13th consecutive road loss Tuesday night, one filled with at least three instances of just straight up rotten luck, Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward wasn’t have any of it.
That’s baseball. Stuff happens. Stuff happened that made the bad luck costly.
But then there were the things his team didn’t do, like score in extra innings when given a runner at second base with no outs. Twice.
The bottom line, Woodward said, is the Rangers must play better.
That’s it. He’s right. The Rangers have to figure out how to get a hit with runners in scoring position, how to bury a slider just a little better, how to move better from the one-knee catching technique.
The Rangers have to be better.
It’s up to this group of players, though. There’s no help coming, at least not immediately and not enough of it to suddenly make a massive difference.
And, to be fair, there’s not a lot Woodward and the coaching staff and even the front office can do.
Dropping, say, Joey Gallo to ninth in the order or, say, dropping Khris Davis all together or, say, moving Kolby Allard into the starting rotation is not going to turn things around.
Firing Woodward or Jon Daniels, or ownership selling the club won’t magically make the Rangers good. So stop calling for that.
And, again in the interest of fairness, this season was never expected to be anything more than a win-loss dud.
Rebuilding teams lose. A lot. They have to wait for their young players to gain experience and learn how to win ballgames. There is no margin for error or bad luck, as was the case in the 3-2 loss Tuesday to the Rockies in 11 innings.
Again, that fairness thing, it’s not like the Rangers have been getting laughed off the field. They have been mostly competitive, with nine of the 13 losses by two runs or fewer.
Opponents have had to use their closers. They have to make plays late in games to make sure the Rangers weren’t given an opening to tie games or pull ahead.
Were there instances where Woodward could have made a difference during the road slide? Probably. One suggestion: Stop pinch-hitting for Jose Trevino so that the Rangers have their best defensive catcher on the field late.
But in a season when player evaluation is the goal, not giving Jonah Heim a chance to catch in extra innings could hinder his development.
Should Daniels and general manager Chris Young promote outfielder Delino DeShields, who is just toying with Triple A pitching, to help give the offense a boost while also making a difference defensively? Possibly.
But he’s not going to be Mike Trout, the healthy version.
Ultimately, it’s up to this group — Gallo, Adolis Garcia, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Nick Solak and on down the line.
They’re capable of doing better. They shouldn’t lose 13 straight on the road.
But they have, and no one is coming to rescue them.
