Rangers Show Fight, Yet Bats Remain Dormant In Seventh Straight Loss
The Rangers have been struggling worse than any other time since the club moved to Texas in 1972. And while the Rangers avoided tying the franchise record with four straight shutout losses, they didn't fare much better.
After a rain delay that lasted over two hours, the Rangers fell to the Detroit Tigers by a score of 4-1 on Tuesday night. The lone run came on an RBI double by Andy Ibáñez in the sixth inning, which snapped a streak of 27 scoreless innings. But Tarik Skubal and the rest of the Tigers pitching staff kept the Rangers bats quiet throughout the night.
Even without results, Rangers manager Chris Woodward saw more resolve and fight in his team. Adolis García put together a good at-bat prior that led to a single in the first inning. Several other Rangers worked counts and got ahead of pitchers by controlling the strike zone.
The only thing missing were results.
"We knew we were up against a tough pitcher," Woodward said. "We had a pretty good discussion today. I definitely saw some more fight and some better quality at-bats. In the first inning, we had some pressure on them. And in the sixth inning, we hit three balls hard. We obviously couldn't get much going after that."
The Rangers could only muster a total of four hits with two coming in the first inning of the game. Eli White slapped a one-out double into right field and García followed with a line drive that ricocheted off of Zack Short's glove at shortstop, forcing White to hesitate before advancing. It was the team's first hit with runners in scoring position since July 10, and it didn't even produce a run.
The inning came to an ugly end when García got caught leaning too far off first base. White broke for home while García tried to buy as much time as possible, but first baseman Jonathan Schoop nabbed White at home for the final out of the frame.
"We've obviously preached bring aggressive on the bases," Woodward said. "That was just a mistake on his part, not letting [Tarik Skubal] go to the plate. There's a pretty good chance they're not throwing the ball to second base in that situation with a runner on third base."
Rangers starter Dane Dunning was unable to get through five innings, giving up three runs on four hits with one walk and two strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. Dunning surrendered two homers on the night as well. Robbie Grossman got the Tigers on the board with a solo homer in the first inning, and Eric Haase answered the Rangers' run in the sixth inning with a lead-off homer in the home half of the frame.
The Rangers (35-60) will try and end a five-game losing skid as they continue their series with the Tigers (45-51) on Wednesday night. Jordan Lyles (5-6, 5.20 ERA) will get the nod for Texas and face off against Detroit right-hander Matt Manning (1-3, 6.95 ERA).
More From SI's Inside The Rangers:
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- A 'Frustrating' Day Quickly Puts Rangers Under Microscope
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