Texas Baseball Keeps Winning, but One Problem Still Won’t Go Away

No. 2 Texas Baseball did what good teams are supposed to do this weekend.

It won the series over No. 5 Auburn, securing another series over an excellent SEC ballclub and improving to 20-3 on the season.

But within the series came two pretty embarrassing late-inning collapses from the bullpen. Luckily for Texas, it recovered mightily on Sunday with a clean, shutout performance.

But now the question remains: was it a fix, or simply just a lapse?

A lingering issue

Texas pitcher Max Grubbs throws a pitch in game two of the Big 12 baseball series. | Chase Seabolt/For the Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s a pretty unavoidable reality; the bullpen is a real issue, and one that may not go away anytime soon.

Friday night exposed it in the worst way possible.

With a two-run lead entering the ninth, Haiden Leffew had already done the hard part, delivering a strong eighth inning with three strikeouts. But then everything fell apart: a leadoff double, a four-pitch walk, and suddenly the tying run was on base with no outs.

Ethan Walker entered and immediately allowed a single to load the bases. One out later, Auburn’s Bristol Carter sent a shallow liner to center field that skipped between Aiden Robbins’ legs and rolled to the wall, clearing the bases and ending the game.

And then came Saturday.

Texas built a six-run lead. The game should’ve been over early. Instead, the bullpen let Auburn chip away. Max Grubbs allowed a two-out home run in the seventh, then a single and a walk. Brett Crossland followed with back-to-back RBI singles, allowing inherited runners to score.

An inning later, Sam Cozart added to the traffic, and even Thomas Burns -- who secured the save --made things uneasy, issuing three straight two-out walks in the ninth to load the bases.

Texas escaped on a fielders choice.

Sunday was much more promising, however.

For the first time all weekend, Texas closed without drama. Cozart and Crossland attacked the zone, limited traffic and finished the game cleanly. And when Auburn put two runners on with no outs in the ninth, there was no detrimental spiral. Max Grubbs came in, threw strikes and shut the door.

But one clean outing doesn’t erase what happened in the first two. And doesn’t necessarily mean the troubles are exactly over either.

That’s the unfortunate tension Texas leaves Auburn with.

Because the highs are obvious. The starting pitching is elite. The lineup, while not always explosive, continues to deliver in key moments. And this team, clearly, has the resilience to bounce back after getting punched and still win a series like this.

But sustaining it? That’s a different question.

In the SEC, leads don’t hold themselves. And bullpens don’t get the luxury of figuring things out over time. Not against lineups like Auburn’s, and certainly not in environments like Plainsman Park.

They survived this weekend, which is the good news. But the concern is how close they came to not doing so -- twice.

Sunday suggested progress. It showed what this bullpen can look like when it’s in control. But until that version shows up consistently, the question isn’t going anywhere.

Texas won the series. Now it just has to hold onto the next one.

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