ARLINGTON -- The Rangers last won the Silver Boot Series in 2016. Ten years ago. Four managers ago. That unfortunate stretch will continue for at least another year.
The Rangers marched into Minute Maid Park on Friday night, needing to sweep the three-game set in order to secure the Silver Boot for the first time in a decade. Instead, they stumbled through the series opener, with co-ace Nathan Eovaldi getting knocked around, while the offense continued its post-All-Star break inconsistencies.
The Rangers fell, 11-2, to the Astros, surrendering their half-game lead in the American League West to the very team sitting in the dugout across the field. The Astros have now secured the Silver Boot in six straight and nine of the past 10 years (5-5 in 10 games in 2020), which very well could have postseason implications if the two clubs are close come the end of September.
Eovaldi -- who was coming off an outing in which he tossed seven innings of one-run ball against the Mariners -- never seemed to have it on Friday. He ultimately allowed six runs on 10 hits and a walk in five taxing innings.
“Obviously it was really frustrating mechanically,” Eovaldi said. “Again, I wasn't quite there. I was a little too rotational, which therefore made my splitter just not where I wanted it to be. It felt like I fell behind a lot of the hitters. For me being pushed back to make this start and to do what I did tonight is very disappointing in my eyes. It’s not the way you want to go out there and set the tone for the first game.”
Eovaldi is a big believer in the idea that starting pitching wins championships. Manager Skip Schumaker believes that each game -- good or bad -- begins with the starting pitching. This game alone is a good indication of that belief.
“We're back at .500 now, and I feel like the times that we've been playing really good baseball is when the starters have been able to go deep into the games,” Eovaldi said. “We just have to find a way, especially me. I got to do a better job of finding ways to go deeper into the games and just being consistent throughout. I haven't had a lot of, you know, shutdown games. It's just frustrating all around.”
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The offense has now been outscored 18-8 on this pivotal road trip between St. Petersburg and Houston leading into Monday's 5 p.m. CT Trade Deadline. The Rangers already broke the dam when they acquired reliever Chase Silseth and catcher Logan O’Hoppe from the Angels in exchange for Minor League infielder Angel Arredondo.
The AL West isn’t lost, not by any measure. The AL Wild Card race is entirely up for grabs as well. But the Rangers need to get back on track in the coming days.
The silver lining is that in games following a loss by six or more runs this season, the Rangers are 9-4.
“Well, the good news is we've been pretty good at bouncing back after games like this,” Schumaker said. “So the hope is that we get a really good [Jacob] deGrom, and fight back and try to, you know, at least tie the series after the after the tough one tonight.”