Thoughts on a 5-0 Rangers loss

Angels 5, Rangers 0

• Oh well.
• Spencer Howard made his Rangers debut, with the team indicating he’d be on a limited pitch count as they work to get him stretched out after whatever it was that Philly was doing with him.
• Howard walked the first batter of the game on four pitches, then retired the next six batters he faced, three via strike out. One of them was Shohei Ohtani. Yay!
• But bad things happened in the third inning. A lead off home run by Adam Eaton, a name Rangers fans don’t like to hear. A couple of singles, a wild pitch, a walk, a sac fly. Three runs in, one out, and that was it for Spencer Howard for the day. Demarcus Evans came in and got the two final outs.
• So two good innings and one bad inning. Could’ve been better, but, well, you know what Meat Loaf says...
• Taylor Hearn. Is he turning a corner? Is he just teasing us? Who knows? But set up in a tandem with Howard, Hearn went four solid innings, striking out four, walking two, allowing a pair of unearned runs.
• Kind of a weird outing for Hearn. He only generated three swings and misses — all on his slider — out of 62 pitches. That’s not good. But he also threw 43 of 62 pitches for strikes, which is good. He allowed an average exit velocity of 72.8 mph, which is very good. He allowed just one ball with an exit velocity more than 90.0 mph — a 92.5 mph fly out. That’s good.
• So it was weak contact inducing Taylor Hearn on Thursday. He now has a 4.13 ERA on the year.
• Jharel Cotton threw two shutout innings, striking out three. The auditions continue.
• The offense...pass.
• Taylor Hearn hit 96.1 mph today. Spencer Howard maxed out at 95.7. Jharel Cotton hit 94.2 mph. Demarcus Evans only threw four fastballs, maxing out at 89.0. He’s not a guy who throws really really hard, but 89 mph is worrisome.
• Jason Martin had a 105.4 mph single and a 100.3 mph fly out. Jose Trevino had a 103.7 mph single. Nathaniel Lowe had a 101.5 mph single, with a 2 degree launch angle, continuing his launch angle ways.
• This was not the best of games. Things will get better, though. Just probably not in Oakland for this weekend’s series.