Leiter's night ends early against two-time reigning champs

LOS ANGELES -- Just two games into a long early-season road trip, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker is keenly aware of the balancing act he must strike with his pitching staff.

On one hand, his starters are still building up toward the 90-100-pitch mark as they make their third turn through the rotation. On the other hand, playing 10 games in 10 days means he has to be mindful of his bullpen’s workload.

“I think the dangerous thing with this stretch of games that we have, if we go to our bullpen too early too often, we’re going to feel it in not only this series, but in Sacramento and Seattle,” Schumaker said after Friday’s 8-7 series-opening loss.

On Saturday, Texas turned to rising star Jack Leiter, who entered the night with 17 strikeouts in 11 innings with a 2.45 ERA through his first two starts.

Facing the Dodgers for the first time in his career, Leiter immediately discovered just how difficult the two-time defending champions’ lineup can be. In a 30-pitch first inning, Leiter surrendered two home runs, a single and a walk as the Rangers quickly fell behind by three. The deficit would prove to be too much, as the Rangers ultimately lost, 6-3.

Leiter settled in a bit after that opening frame, but his pitch count had gotten too high too fast, and Schumaker pulled him after 3 2/3 innings and 93 pitches.

“It was kind of a perfect storm of just not having my stuff,” Leiter said. “The way my pitches were moving wasn’t what I’ve gotten accustomed to through Spring Training and the first two starts. And you pair that with bad command and execution, I wasn't executing pitches when I needed to, it’s going to be a grind of an outing. ... I was hopeful to cover innings for the guys at the very least, and I wasn’t able to do that, so obviously frustrating.”

Leiter said his changeup in particular wasn’t at its best. He averaged 89.4 mph on the pitch, 1.4 mph below his average this season. He generated only one swing and miss on 22 changeups.

Leiter ended his night with a strikeout of Shohei Ohtani, his 200th career punchout. He became the third pitcher to start his career with the Rangers/Senators franchise and reach 200 strikeouts within his first 41 career games, joining Yu Darvish and Bobby Witt.

Schumaker turned the ball over to Tyler Alexander, who gave the Rangers 2 1/3 innings of solid relief, striking out two with one walk and two hits allowed.

“He had an amazing outing, kept us in the game the whole time,” Schumaker said. “[Robert] Garcia put up a zero. So we were in the game. I know Jack only went around four innings; however, the way Alexander pitched really covered us, and we have a pretty fresh bullpen for tomorrow.”

Alexander said he had built up in Spring Training to be able to handle longer outings, but his first six appearances of the season had all been three outs or fewer.

“I guess the role I expected going into the year would be one time through the order, however many ups or innings that is,” Alexander said. “That’s kind of what I prepared to do, that’s what I did tonight.”

Alexander’s work did not go unnoticed by his teammates.

“Obviously, feel for the bullpen when you kind of leave them hanging like that,” Leiter said. “Every starting pitcher wants to cover innings, help out the bullpen a lot. Those guys picking me up, it helps the not-fun feeling of not covering the innings. Obviously, you get back to work and figure out ways to bounce back and cover some more innings for those guys.”

Speaking of picking up your teammates, right fielder Brandon Nimmo continued his scorching-hot start to his Rangers career. Nimmo accounted for three of Texas’ four hits -- two home runs and a double -- and drove in all three runs. It was his 15th career leadoff homer and his 11th career multihomer game.

“Brandon is one of the smarter hitters that I’ve been around,” Schumaker said. “The game-planning is elite, the way he thinks about the game, offensively and defensively. It’s not surprising, the production that he’s had throughout his career. I had no idea how his mind worked, and it’s not just unbelievable talent, but the way he prepares is as good as anybody. So it’s not surprising, what he’s doing on the field.”