Thoughts on a 5-0 Rangers loss

Mariners 5, Rangers 0

• Well, you can’t win ‘em all.
• And the Rangers definitely didn’t win this one.
• Andrew Heaney got tagged for 4 runs in 6.2 IP, but he pitched better than that. The defense let him down in the two two-run innings he had, with Josh Smith failing to catch a fly ball it looked like he had in the third, leading to a pair of runs, and a Josh Jung error preceding Tom Murphy’s two run homer in the seventh.
• Fun fact — Andrew Heaney had 14 swinging strikes, 14 called strikes, and 14 foul balls in the game.
• Heaney had seven Ks in all, against two walks. Again, he pitched better than the line shows. He still has a 5.25 ERA on the season, with a 4.94 xERA, though you can live with that from your fifth starter. Still, I think the Rangers expected better from him, and hopefully we will see more from him going forward.
• Ian Kennedy finished things out because, well, he’s Ian Kennedy, and late in four run games is when he’s supposed to pitch.
• Regardless of the defense mishaps that resulted in runs scoring, the home run alone would have been enough to doom the Rangers because the offense was not good. Seven hits on the game, along with just one walk for the Rangers. Bleah.
• Jonah Heim and Josh Smith each had a couple of hits, so, you know, good for them.
• Anyway. Not a lot to say about this one. The Rangers didn’t hit much and they gave up runs, and so they lost. The end.
• Andrew Heaney’s fastball hit 95.5 mph, averaging 92.6 mph. Ian Kennedy reached 93.4 mph with his fastball.
• Ezequiel Duran had a single at 110.3 mph. Leody Taveras had a 107.7 mph groundout. Jonah Heim and Nathaniel Lowe had singles at 104.8 mph and 102.8 mph, respectively.
• The bats don’t enjoy the Pacific Northwest, it appears. One more and they can try their luck in the Bay Area.