Why the Texas Rangers’ offense getting ‘loose’ wasn’t a good thing in loss to Seattle

The Houston Astros have returned home to the boo-free confines of Minute Maid Park after three days of catching plenty of heckling from fans at Yankee Stadium.

New York fans had their first opportunity since Houston’s cheating scandal in 2017 to show the Astros how they feel. Houston beat the Yankees in the 2017 American League Championship Series to advance to the World Series and win it.

Jose Altuve, who hit the series-clinching homer off Aroldis Chapman, was the No. 1 target of Yankees fans. They believe that Altuve was tipped off on the pitch he hit out, either by a buzzer under his jersey or the banging of a trash can.

He also won the MVP that season over Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, and that, too, is deemed illegitimate by Yankees fans.

The Astros visit Globe Life Field for the first time May 21-23. The Yankees have set a high heckling bar for Texas Rangers fans.

A crowd of 26,047 piled into Globe Life Field on Friday for the opener of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners.

They had plenty to cheer, just not the one big hit late in the game.

Here is some Rangers Reaction from a 5-4 loss.

Offense goes flat

A two-run first and single runs in the third and fourth had Mariners starter Chris Flexen on the ropes. The top of the Rangers’ order was particularly good against the right-hander.

Yet, Flexen was still flexin’ in the seventh inning, and his work allowed the Mariners to rally from a 4-2 deficit after the third inning.

The Rangers’ typical grinding approach at the plate was replaced with early swings at pitcher’s pitches. The Rangers still managed 12 hits in the game, but manager Chris Woodward said there should have been more production.

“I was a little frustrated the third time around,” he said. “We got a little bit loose, I thought. First-pitch swinging at breaking balls. We’ve got to stick to our plan there and kind of wear him down.”

Nick Solak collected three hits, including a first-inning RBI double and a leadoff single in the eighth ahead of Nate Lowe and Joey Gallo.

Lowe had connected in the third inning for the longest home run at Globe Life Field by a Rangers hitter, 451 feet. In the eighth, though, he bounced into a double play and Gallo was a quick out as he tried to bunt his way on rather than swinging away with two outs and his team down one.

“I’m never going to fault him for trying to do that,” Woodward said of Gallo’s decision. “I know everyone’s thinking he could have tied it up there. We can always talk about it.”

Folytnewicz getting closer

When it comes to pure stuff among the Rangers’ starting pitchers, Mike Foltynewicz is at the top of the list. He has mid-90s velo and a slider that can wipe out hitters.

Foltynewicz, though, is still trying to recapture the stuff he had in his breakthrough season in 2018, when he was a National League All-Star with the Atlanta Braves.

He had upper-90s velo then, and he threw his slider as hard as 90 mph.

After a lost 2020, in which he lost strength and his velocity, Foltynewicz is encouraged with the progress he has made but is still a work-in-progress.

He believes the work is almost done.

“It was a weird year for me last year, but I kept battling,” he said. “Now it’s getting more comfortable in games where everything is clicking and putting it all together. Not to be cocky or arrogant, but we’re pretty close.”

The home run has bitten Foltynewicz this season, and he allowed two two-run homers Friday that wiped out leads of 2-0 and 4-2. The first came on a middle middle fastball to Dylan Moore, and the second came on a down-and-in changeup to the lefty-hitting J.P. Crawford.

The first could have been a poor pitch choice, Woodward said, and the second was poor execution.

But the Rangers are encouraged with the stuff, especially with him potentially returning next season in his final year of arbitration.

“He’s one of our better guys from a stuff standpoint,” Woodward said.

No spike on no spike

A word or two about a story published Friday in the Star-Telegram on the COVID-19 spike that has yet to happen in Tarrant County since the Rangers opened Globe Life Field to full capacity.

First, everyone should read the story and feel good about the numbers. The quotes by Dr. Diana Cervantes with the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth are very balanced and informative. She said those who are vaccinated should start going out in public, even in large gatherings. Vaccinated people are protecting and they are protecting others around them.

Second, the numbers cited in the story are seven-day averages, which offer a more complete look at trends than the day-to-day numbers. Daily numbers might include statistics from a previous day or two. The trends in the county according to the seven-day averages plainly show case numbers didn’t rise sharply after the April 5 home opener and are going down.

Cervantes also said that she expects to see “little blips” in rises of COVID numbers from time to time, but she believes massive outbreaks are unlikely to occur because more and more are becoming vaccinated and people are still using common sense.

This isn’t 2020. The game has changed since then, when she admits large gatherings would have been asking for trouble. Many vaccinated people still hesitant about COVID need to consider how much the vaccine has changed things.

Lastly, anyone who thinks the story is a gotcha moment or politically motivated, it’s not. Facts don’t have a party affiliation. Many, including the most powerful man in the world, raised fears that a Rangers game would be a superspreader event.

Shouldn’t they be held accountable?