Rangers offense 'still engaged' despite slump

Club is hitting .177 in four games after the All-Star break

July 18th, 2017

BALTIMORE -- Rangers starter was good on Monday night. His offense was not, and this time a 1-0 lead wasn't good enough.
Cashner had the slim lead going into the sixth, but the Orioles tied it with a run that inning and two more in the seventh for a 3-1 victory over the Rangers at Camden Yards.
"Cashner was pretty good," Rangers catcher said. "I thought he threw the ball well enough to get the win, we just didn't score enough runs. It's one of those things [where] we have to pick up our starter. All said and done, he gave up three runs, as an offense we're capable of scoring a lot more than that.

"I think this one falls on us as an offense. We have to be better."
The Orioles have been having serious pitching issues of late but not on Monday night against the Rangers. Starter Chris Tillman, who had a 7.90 ERA coming into the game, did most of the heavy lifting, holding the Rangers to one run on two hits through six innings.
The Rangers were only able to tack on one more hit against the Orioles bullpen over the final three innings. had two of the three hits, giving him 2,982 for his career. He is now 18 hits away from becoming the 31st player in Major League history with 3,000 hits.
The Rangers only other hit was an RBI double by Lucroy in the second inning.
"Tillman had 80-something pitches in four or five innings," Lucroy said. "He was throwing a lot of pitches and we were making him work. We just couldn't string the hits together. We just didn't get it done as an offense. I expected that to change. We are too good of an offense."
The Rangers have split their first four games since the All-Star break. Their pitchers have a 2.34 ERA in those games, but the offense is hitting .177 with just 10 runs scored. One of the wins was 1-0 on Saturday night. The Rangers needed this one to be 1-0 as well.
"I feel our offense is in good shape," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "These guys are still battling. They were battling in the ninth when we had two runners on base. I believe our offense will be able to put runs on the board. There have been a few games here where we have been challenged to put runs on the board and create scoring opportunities. But these guys are still playing. They are still engaged."