Thoughts on a 7-3 Rangers loss

Angels 7, Rangers 3

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• This was such a frustrating game. Cody Bradford, asked to make a spot start on short rest, came through. He wasn’t great — the Angels had some really loud contact against him — but he did his job and balls found gloves, and when he came out of the game after striking out Mickey Moniak for the first out of the fifth, he had allowed just one run, which is better than we had any right to expect from him.
• Owen White came in behind Bradford and looked really good in the fifth. The first batter he faces, swinging K. Then an F9 to end the inning. Things are looking good.
• Top of the sixth, White protecting a 3-1 Rangers lead, he starts the inning with a K. Shohei Ohtani singles. Brandon Drury gets a seeing eye chopper just between Josh Jung and Corey Seager. Two on, one out for Anthony Rendon, who sends a hard hit chopper up the middle that Marcus Semien makes a nice play on behind the bag, flipping to Corey Seager at second who then turned to make the throw to first.
• Seager couldn’t make the throw, and ended up dropping the ball on the transition, allowing Ohtani to come around to score to make it 3-2. A fateful play in the game? Maybe. Rendon isn’t fast. Seager might have been able to get Rendon at first, had he been able to make the throw, ending the inning with a GIDP. But it was a slow developing play and it may be that the out wasn’t there, that Seager dropped the ball in the first place because he opted to hold the throw knowing he wouldn’t be able to get Rendon at first.
• Either way, Hunter Renfroe followed that up with a home run to right field that gave the Angels a 4-3 lead, and that, as it turned out, was that.
• White got a groundout to end the inning, started the seventh allowing a weakly hit single and a walk, saw Zach Neto sac bunt with two strikes, then was pulled for Brock Burke who fanned the next two batters to end the inning. White showed good stuff and good composure out there, and it was an encouraging debut.
• Burke finished out the eighth and got the first batter in the ninth before giving way to Jose Leclerc, who had pitched well in his last several outings.
• Leclerc did not pitch well on Tuesday. Walk, homer, K, walk, stolen base, run scoring single before giving way to John King, who got the final out.
• Leclerc is so incredibly frustrating. The stuff is legit. He got six swinging strikes out of 24 pitches, which is a tremendous rate. And he also continues to have command issues that result in walks and, on Tuesday, a 1-2 home run to Zach Neto. I don’t know what the answer with Leclerc is at this point.
• Speaking of frustrating...the Rangers had nine hits off of the Angels, including a pair of doubles and a pair of home runs, along with two walks and two HBPs, and they only scored three runs. The team that, for the first two months of the year overachieved with runners in scoring position, is now struggling in those situations, going 1 for 8 last night and leaving 11 runners on base.
• Corey Seager continues to mash — he had three hits and was a triple shy of the cycle. Nathaniel Lowe had three hits, including a homer. Jonah Heim had a pair of hits. But the stringing together of baserunners, the sequences that led to the big crooked numbers earlier in the year, have been harder to come by, and didn’t appear at all on Tuesday.
• Its a long season. Teams go through things like this. It happens.
• It doesn’t make it any more fun, though.
• Cody Bradford’s fastball topped out at 92.8 mph. Owen White hit 95.3 mph with his fastball. Brock Burke maxed out at 95.6 mph with his fastball. Jose Leclerc hit 96.1 mph with his fastball. John King threw one sinker at 92.6 mph.
• Jonah Heim had a 110.3 mph double. Leody Taveras had a 108.9 mph single and a 103.4 mph line out. Corey Seager had a 108.3 mph homer, a 106.7 mph double, and a 104.3 mph fly out. Adolis Garcia had a 103.8 mph fly out. Josh Jung had a 103.8 mph ground out. Ezequiel Duran had a 103.2 mph fly out. Nathaniel Lowe had a 102.7 mph home run and a 102.0 mph single. Marcus Semien had a 101.1 mph ground out.
• Let’s move on.