ARLINGTON -- It took four pitches on Thursday night for the Astros to take a lead over the Rangers.
After 13 pitches, Nathan Eovaldi had given up a pair of homers and a walk to the top of the Astros’ order. That was all Houston needed to secure a victory.
After being swept by the Angels, who are tied with the Tigers for the worst record in the American League, in Anaheim over the weekend, the Rangers returned home and dropped three of four to their Silver Boot Series rivals, concluding with a 5-1 loss on Thursday night at Globe Life Field.
The series loss included a combined no-hitter by the Astros in the first game, a season-high 10-run win in the second game and a pair of ho-hum losses on Wednesday and Thursday night to close it out. It was as demoralizing of a week as you can have in May.
The Rangers have lost six of their last seven games, dropping to a season-worst six games under .500 at 25-31.
“I think a lot of the times when [a stretch like this] happens, we all start trying to do a little too much,” said Nathan Eovaldi, who shouldered the loss on Thursday. “That's where maybe the snowball effect starts to happen, as opposed to sitting back and just remembering that it's the little things. If we go out there and we do the little things, that's going to lead to big situations. We don't need anybody to step up and be heroes, we just go out there and play our ball and do the little things right.”
But now that they’re officially more than a third of the way through the regular season, it’s still a hard group to unpack. The Rangers made their first big roster decision of the season on Wednesday, when they designated Andrew McCutchen for assignment amidst team-wide offensive struggles.
President of baseball operations Chris Young isn’t one to ignore the issues in front of him. But he also admitted it’s a tough season for him to evaluate right now.
The list is familiar at this point. Wyatt Langford has been out for more than a month with a forearm strain, though is nearing a return. Corey Seager’s back issues linger as he continues with light baseball activities. Josh Smith returned to join the team, but still has an unknown factor with a return from viral meningitis.
“It's hard to say perfectly what we are, because we've been playing for some period of time without one of our best players in Wyatt, and then now for the last 10 days without Corey Seager,” Young said. “When you take two players of that caliber out of any lineup, it's going to be hard. I'd like to see us get healthy before making any assessments as to what we are.”
But it’s clear this is where they are right now, with the roster at hand. So sure, it may be hard to evaluate the team as a whole, but there’s a balance that comes in evaluating the roster and depth that’s being put to the test during this stretch of baseball.
“I think we have expectations for every player and what we project the player to be,” Young said. “We try to put those players in positions to achieve those projections and make sure that we're not asking them to be somebody they're not. Sometimes that's required. Sometimes the health component thins your depth, and you've got to get more from players that you weren't necessarily depending on.
“But there's also a reasonable expectation with guys that are established Major League players that they are going to perform at a certain level, and when that doesn't happen, we have to evaluate why that is and what we can do to help those players get back to their accustomed level.”
The Rangers’ one solace to this point is that the American League Wild Card race and the AL West are both wide open for the taking. At the end of play on Thursday, the entire AL West was under .500, with the division-leading Mariners sitting at 28-29.
“I think that with a good stretch of baseball, we could put ourselves in a very good position,” Young said. “But really, at this point, I'm not focused on the standings, I'm focused on how we play our best baseball, how we get our main guys helping, and how we go out and live up to the talent level that I believe this team can. We have high expectations. The record sort of takes care of itself when you go out and play your brand of baseball and play well.”