Quantrill hitting stride, but Rangers continuing to stumble on the road

MILWAUKEE -- Cal Quantrill found his footing.

The Rangers still can’t seem to find theirs on the road.

After surrendering a pair of first-inning home runs, Quantrill settled in and retired the final 14 batters he faced Saturday night at American Family Field. He struck out a season-high eight, didn’t issue a walk and gave Texas six innings that should have been enough to keep it within striking distance.

Instead, another quiet offensive night turned into another road loss.

The Rangers fell, 5-3, to the Brewers, dropping to 66-70 and losing for the 14th time in their past 17 games away from Globe Life Field. Texas is now 30-41 on the road this season and has lost seven consecutive road series after beginning the year 25-24 on the road.​

“I’m sick of losing on the road,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “I know those guys are sick of losing on the road.”

The frustration is only magnified by where the Rangers sit. Houston also lost Saturday, meaning Texas remained just two games back in the American League West despite dropping four straight overall and continuing to stumble away from Arlington.

“It’s still right in front of us, as crazy as it is,” Schumaker said. “That’s why I think there’s frustration, especially on the road, when the game feels like it’s right there and we just can’t close it out for whatever reason.”

Saturday fit that description.

Quantrill’s first inning looked ominous when Jackson Chourio and William Contreras each took him deep, but the right-hander never unraveled. He punched out three in the inning and viewed the damage less as a warning sign than as the consequence of two mistakes against a team that rarely wastes them.

“I made two bad pitches, and sometimes the way baseball works is the two bad pitches get hit really hard,” Quantrill said. “I’d take back two or three pitches all day long.”

After Luis Lara's second-inning RBI single, Milwaukee didn’t record another baserunner against Quantrill.

Quantrill worked ahead, mixed his pitches effectively and continued one of the strongest stretches of his season. He entered Saturday with a 0.72 ERA in August and a 15-inning scoreless streak, and although the two first-inning homers ended that run, the rest of his outing looked much like the month that preceded it.

“I thought he was fantastic,” Schumaker said. “He knew he wasn’t going to beat himself with walks or anything like that. They hit a couple home runs early. You can deal with the solo shots.”

Quantrill gave the Rangers a chance. For much of the night, the offense couldn’t take it.

Texas had opportunities against Shane Drohan, who worked through traffic and elevated pitch counts early, but the Rangers struggled to turn those chances into runs. Cody Freeman’s solo homer in the fifth accounted for their only scoring until Brandon Nimmo’s two-run shot in the eighth pulled Texas within two.​

Schumaker saw more encouraging at-bats than he did in Friday’s 6-1 loss, when the Rangers managed just two hits. But once again, the issue was finishing.

“We had some guys on base with runners in scoring position early,” Schumaker said. “I never want to say we left him [Drohan] off the hook because he had good stuff. We just -- he threw a lot of pitches early, and we could have capitalized.”

That has become a familiar refrain.

Before Friday’s series opener, Schumaker spoke at length about an offense still searching for an identity. He praised Milwaukee’s ability to manufacture runs, control the strike zone and pressure opponents in different ways.

Texas showed glimpses of that Saturday. Schumaker liked the quality of the at-bats late, particularly in the eighth, when the Rangers stayed within the zone and forced the Brewers into their bullpen.

But glimpses haven’t been enough lately.

“We get guys on base, we just can’t finish,” Schumaker said. “We’ve got to start finishing to get some more runs across the board.”

Quantrill offered a similar assessment of Texas’ road skid.

“We’re just not catching a ton of breaks on the road,” Quantrill said. “When we hit, we don’t seem to have our best pitching games, and when we haven’t pitched great, we just haven’t been able to score.”

The standings continue to offer Texas an opportunity. The road keeps making it harder to seize it.