Taylor Hearn Can’t Get Out of Fifth Inning vs. Angels

Taylor Hearn’s start on Tuesday night started tracking like that of Jon Gray’s on Monday night.

Hearn had an unsettled start in the first inning but bounced back to retire the side in the second innings.

After that, things got away from Hearn, as he left his start against the Los Angeles Angels in the fifth inning at Globe Life Field.

Taylor Hearn

The Rangers and the Angels were tied at 3, the result of a two-run home run by Kole Calhoun in the bottom of the fourth.

Hearn left the game in the top of the fifth after giving up a leadoff walk to Angels slugger Mike Trout. Matt Moore came in to relieve Hearn. Moore stranded Trout.

Hearn went four-plus innings, giving up three runs (all earned), five hits and three walks while striking out two. He threw 78 pitches, 48 of which were strikes. He left with an earned run averaged of 5.46.

Hearn threw 22 pitches in the first inning and gave up two baserunners. He allowed a one-out double to Trout and a two-out walk to Anthony Rendon. But he induced a groundout from Matt Duffy to end the inning.

That seemed to settle him down, as he had an 11-pitch second inning during which he only gave up a two-out single to Brandon Marsh. He struck out Andrew Velazquez to end the top of the second.

But, in the third, his pitch volume went up again, as he gave up home runs to Taylor Ward (solo) and Rendon (two-run), which put the Rangers down 3-1. Both home runs came on 1-0 pitches and both pitches were four-seam fastballs.

Hearn did put together a scoreless top of the fourth. But, in each inning he failed to retire the side in order.

This was a bit of a step back for Hearn. He entered the game with a 2-2 record and a 5.26 earned run average, and both of those wins came in May — a 7-3 victory over Atlanta on May 1 and 3-1 win over Kansas City on May 12.

He benefited from 11 days’ of rest for the Kansas City start, the result of the postponed games in New York due to rain. Tuesday’s start was his first of the month on the traditional four days’ rest between starts.

Corey Seager

Matt Moore

In his two wins Hearn had an ERA of 1.80 and gave up just two earned runs. He also entered the game tied for 11th in the American League with 10.17 strikeouts per nine innings.

His start against Kansas City marked his longest scoreless start, as he went five innings. He gave up just one hit and never threw more than 18 pitches in an inning in that start.

Tuesday’s game snapped a three-game streak of Hearn pitching five innings.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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