Thoughts on a 7-5 Rangers loss

Pirates 7, Rangers 5

• A sweep at home, to Pittsburgh. It’s just a two game series, but still...
• And both games were winnable. Today, Shelby Miller was on the mound, and for three innings pitched well and gave you reason to think, to hope, maybe he was back.
• Then in the fourth, everything fell apart. Single, walk, wild pitch, walk, single, and then, after a pop out, a double that chased Miller. After allowing one baserunner in the first three innings, Miller allowed 4 runs while getting one out in the fourth, blowing his ERA up to 7.99 on the year.
• Ariel Jurado came in and retired all 5 batters he faced. I’m still not necessarily convinced on Jurado, but he’s done solid work since coming up in a bullpen role.
• Wei-Chieh Huang pitched a scoreless inning despite a leadoff double allowed to Josh Bell, and I had forgotten he was on the roster.
• Kyle Dowdy came into a 4-2 game in the 7th and allowed a pair of runs on a walk and two doubles. After the Rangers cut it to 6-5 in the bottom of the 7th, Dowdy retired just one batter while allowing a run on a pair of walks and single before being lifted for Brett Martin. While I get that the Rangers have said they like Dowdy’s arm and want to see him pitch in meaningful situations, with an off day on Monday and another tomorrow, I question whether he needed to be pitching in a close game late.
• Brett Martin pitched the final 1.2 IP and struck out 2. He’s looked pretty good overall since coming up.
• Texas scores first, in the second, on an Asdrubal Cabrera double followed by a Danny Santana double. The other Ranger runs were via the long ball — a 6th inning Joey Gallo laser, a 7th inning Santana solo shot, and a 7th inning two run Shin-Soo Choo shot that got Texas back within 1.
• Texas had a chance in the 9th, as well. Santana led off with a walk, and after a Logan Forsythe pinch hit fly out, Delino DeShields doubled, putting men and second and third. Choo, who was lifted for a pinch hitter last night against closer Felipe Vazquez, got up 2-0 before chasing what would have been ball 3, and then striking out. Hunter Pence pinch hit for Rougned Odor, and though he battled deep into the count, Pence struck out swinging to end the game.
• Texas only had 7 hits today, but 6 were for extra bases. So that’s weird.
• So Texas is back below .500, and we get to stew over it the rest of today, and then all day tomorrow with an off day. Day losses before off days are the worst.