Allard Shines In Rangers' Ugly Loss To Tigers
Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
ARLINGTON, Texas — After going 3-3 on their latest road trip, the Texas Rangers carried some momentum with them back to Texas to kick off their final homestand before the All-Star break.
Instead, the Rangers looked like a team that thought the All-Star break began a week early.
"Maybe it was just one of those nights. I don't know how to explain it," said manager Chris Woodward. "Outside of Kolby [Allard] and a couple homers in the ninth, that was probably our worst game of the year."
Don't let the box score fool you. Kolby Allard turned in one of his best performances of the season. He allowed five total runs (two earned) on five hits with a career-high nine strikeouts and two walks in 5 1/3 innings.
Allard limited the damage after loading the bases with one out in the third inning, giving up just one run. However, the wheels fell off in a dreadful sixth inning for the Rangers defense. The blunder of the night came on a play where first baseman Nate Lowe committed two errors on one play.
Lowe failed to cleanly field a grounder to first base, then blindly flipped the ball to first base expecting Allard to be covering the bag. Two Tigers scored on the play.
"It kind of looked like he was going to charge it and go to home," Allard explained. "So when I [saw that], I stopped. Things like that happen."
The Rangers offense didn't fare much better. Prior to the ninth inning, the Rangers only had four hits on the night. Trailing 7-0 in the final frame, Nate Lowe reached on an infield single, then Joey Gallo and Jonah Heim clobbered back-to-back home runs to pull the Rangers within four. But it didn't make up for a night where the Rangers lineup failed to put together a cohesive attack at the plate.
"We didn't really stick to the plan with [Wily] Peralta," Woodward said. "He was good, don't get me wrong. ... But we had a lot of weak contact. There were some easy punch outs where we didn't have as much fight as I'd like."
When the Rangers have really struggled this season, it's been when the team puts too much pressure on themselves. When they're in a good headspace, even if they lose, they play hard and never feel like they're out of a game. When they're bad, a one-run deficit can feel insurmountable.
Chris Woodward doesn't think his team has fallen back into the latter after losing back-to-back games. However, he wants to make sure they don't allow another game like this to happen for a long time.
"I think everybody on the field should be a little bit embarrassed about how we played tonight," said Woodward. "You're going to lose games at times. Nobody's ever won 162 games in a row. I know we will lose games, but it's how you lose them. Tonight, I didn't like the way we lost."
More on SI's Inside The Rangers:
- Rangers Trio of Gibson, Gallo, García Named To MLB All-Star Game
- Rangers Midseason Report: The Pitchers
- Rangers Midseason Report: The Position Players
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