After opening the season with some offensive potency, the Texas Rangers have cooled off.
Considering how strong the Chicago Cubs’ Justin Steele looked in his 2023 debut, the Rangers’ offense might be in for another challenging afternoon on Saturday.
Looking to get back on track at the plate, the visiting Rangers aim to even their three-game set with the Cubs on Saturday.
Texas opened the season with a three-game home sweep of reigning National League champion Philadelphia Phillies, totaling 27 runs in the first two contests of that set. The Rangers also clubbed five homers and drew 12 walks in those two games.
Since then, however, Texas is 2-3. In those games, the Rangers have totaled nine runs, homered four times and walked just six times. They managed only three hits on Friday, when they stranded the bases loaded in the sixth inning of a 2-0 loss at Chicago. It was the second time in 2023 that Texas was shut out.
“Hitting’s gonna come and go,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said.
Things might not get any easier for the Rangers against Steele (0-0, 0.00 ERA). He posted a solid 3.18 ERA over 24 starts of his second big-league season of 2022. In his first outing of 2023, Steele yielded three hits and a walk while striking out eight over six scoreless innings in Chicago’s 3-1 home loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on April 1.
Steele feels good about his performance, especially when it comes to mixing and matching his pitches. He also expects to improve.
“That’s kind of always been my thing … throwing a lot of fastballs and a lot of breaking pitches,” Steele said. “And yeah, as I mature and get older, I want to implement more pitches into my repertoire and just keep growing.”
Two runs on Friday were more than enough for Chicago, which has split its first six games of 2023. Cody Bellinger had an RBI, and he is 5-for-12 with five RBIs in the past three games after going 0-for-11 in the first three.
Fellow Cubs Trey Mancini and Eric Hosmer are a combined 10-for-30 against scheduled Rangers starter Martin Perez (1-0, 1.59 ERA). The 32-year-old left-hander overcame eight hits and three walks to yield just one run while fanning seven over 5 2/3 innings of Texas’ 2-1 victory over the Phillies on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Rangers’ bullpen has been stellar. After giving up two runs in the opener versus Philadelphia, Texas relievers have allowed six hits over 21 2/3 scoreless innings of the next six games following a combined 2 1/3 one-hit innings from Cole Ragans and Ian Kennedy on Friday.
“It’s a very versatile bullpen,” Bochy said. “It’s a fun bullpen to balance, with lefties and righties.”
Texas’ Marcus Semien went 5-for-14 in the first three games of the season but is 1-for-15 in the past four. Meanwhile, teammate Nathaniel Lowe has hit safely in three straight games.
With the Friday defeat, the Rangers have lost six straight road games dating back to last season and 15 of their past 19 away from Arlington.
Texas also announced on Friday that veteran right-hander Jake Odorizzi would miss the entire season due to shoulder injury.
–Field Level Media
