ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After a weekend that included being no-hit and shut out in a span of three days, Rangers manager Chris Woodward had a few things to say to his struggling young lineup.
“But I’m not going to overwhelm them,” he said.
No need.
Tyler Glasnow took care of that part.
Tampa Bay’s Glasnow, who made two World Series starts in Arlington last year, struck out a career-high 14 batters Monday in a 1-0 win. It was the Rangers’ fourth consecutive loss. They have been shut out in three of them. It’s only the fourth time since the franchise came to Texas that they have suffered three shutouts in a four-game span. The Rangers have not scored in 23 innings.
At least the Rangers didn’t become the second team in the last 100 years to be no-hit twice in a week. The 1923 Philadelphia A’s futility stands alone. Eli White broke up the no-hitter with a one-out ground-ball single in the fifth. Jose Trevino added an eighth-inning single. Glasnow left with two outs in the eighth after 102 pitches.
What should not be lost, though, was a second consecutive solid start by the tandem pairing of Dane Dunning, who worked four scoreless innings Monday, and Taylor Hearn, who backed him up with three innings, allowing the only run on a two-out homer to No. 9 hitter Willy Adames in the seventh. It hit off the top of the fence in left field.
The Rangers have limits on Dunning early in the season as they try to responsibly get him through a full season after Tommy John surgery and a shortened 2020 season. Dunning left after 71 pitches, countering Glasnow’s explosive fastball with a sharp sinker.
“Our pitchers pitched their butts off,” Woodward said. “I can’t wait until I can let him roll deeper into games. I can’t say enough about him. He competes. But we need to be responsible. We need to be really, really smart with him.”
Offensively, the Rangers are trying to be responsible, too. They know there will be failure for young hitters against elite pitchers. They must decide what is beneficial and what is not. After an opening week full of patient at-bats against Kansas City and Toronto, the Rangers’ young lineup has run into a brick wall against the staffs of playoff contenders San Diego and Tampa Bay.
The offensive struggle, monumental as it has been, is not a complete surprise to Woodward.
“It’s kind of what I expected, especially with a younger team,” Woodward acknowledged before the game. “You see guys who are like, ‘I’ve got my opportunity; I can’t waste this.’ You can start to see some of that happening now. They are trying to hold on to something instead of just letting it go and trusting themselves to go out and compete and know it will be OK.”
In particular, it’s happening with Nick Solak, trying to prove he has a future as the Rangers’ second baseman, and rookies Anderson Tejeda and Leody Taveras, both of whom got accelerated trips to the major leagues last year because of unique coronavirus pandemic roster structure.
Solak, who had been batting fourth or fifth, was dropped to the No. 7 spot because of an uncharacteristic slew of early-season strikeouts. Tejeda and Taveras followed. The trio faced Glasnow a total of seven times. They struck out in six of them before Solak bounced into a fielder’s choice in the eighth. They have combined to strike out 39 times in 81 at-bats this season.
“He’s trying way too hard to make things happen instead of letting them happen,” Woodward said of Solak, who has struck out 17 times in 40 plate appearances this year (42.5%). “When you let them happen, that’s where your natural ability takes over. And you can check off pitches, you can be patient at the plate, you get really good swings on strikes. But if you are trying to force it, that’s when you tend to chase. You muscle up. You foul off your pitch. You miss the barrel.”
Solak’s strikeout rate is alarming. Over 2019-20, he struck out only 19.2% of the time. Making contact was a strength.
Tejeda and Taveras are different. Both are 22, and neither had played above Double-A before being elevated last year because of the 60-man player pool rules. They have simple appeared overmatched. Even with a ninth-inning, opposite-field single by Taveras, they are a combined 4 for 41 with 22 strikeouts. Tejeda is on the roster only because of an injury to Brock Holt. The question on the two may not be if they end up in the minor leagues, but when.
Jon Daniels, the Rangers’ president of baseball operations, said before the game that the Rangers had set the beginning of May as a “loose” benchmark for an evaluation. The minor league season begins May 4 for Double-A Frisco and May 6 for Triple-A Round Rock.
Are the Rangers perhaps impeding their progress by keeping them in the majors right now?
“Our guys are tough as nails,” Woodward said. “This game is always a test. We have young hitters. They are going to have to learn. They are fighting. They are trying.”
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