Thoughts on a 6-2 Rangers loss

Brewers 6, Rangers 2

• Well that was a lost weekend.
• Sunday’s game seemed much like a rerun of Saturday’s game. Starter gives up three runs in a relatively short outing, pen gives up three runs, the offense doesn’t really do anything much.
• In the ninth it looked like the Rangers might try to make it look like Friday’s game, when Texas came back in the ninth to cut the deficit to 9-8 before Corey Seager shut a 400+ foot fly ball that got caught near the wall. Texas went into Sunday’s ninth down 6-1, got a run home, and put a pair of runners on base with two outs, putting the tying run on the on deck circle, before a line drive by Nathaniel Lowe was snagged to end the game.
• Max Scherzer looked more like the guy who was pitching for the New York Mets this season than the guy who was seemingly untouchable since coming to Texas (at least, after his first inning as a Ranger). A 1-2-3 first was followed by a 26 pitch second, where he allowed just baserunner, on a walk, but labored to out batters away.
• It was foreshadowing for an agonizing third inning. Eight batters, only two balls put in play, a Christian Yelich single and an inning ending Andruw Monasterio pop out on the tenth pitch of the at bat, the 42nd pitch of the inning. After a Mark Canha seven pitch walk loaded the bases with one out, Mike Maddux came out and did his shoulder rub thing. It seemed to work — Scherzer got Carlos Santana swinging on three pitches, then went up 0-2 on Willy Adames. After a slider wasn’t close, a wild fastball way up and in clipped Adames on the top of the helmet, forcing in a run. A second run came in on a Rowdy Tellez walk before the marathon ten pitch at bat finally ended the inning.
• Scherzer, surprisingly, came out for the fourth, and retired the first two batters before being chased by a pair of doubles. Grant Anderson was brought in, the Rangers were just down two thanks to a Corey Seager homer, and things seemed salvageable.
• Solid work by Anderson, Brock Burke and Jose Leclerc kept it close until the eighth, when Will Smith gave up three runs to put things out of reach. Smith was a mile and a half down on his velocity on all his pitches.
• It was a frustrating, disappointing weekend. The offense didn’t show up the final two games. The pitching wasn’t good enough in any of the three games. Houston lost three games as well, so the Rangers kept their 2.5 game lead over the Astros, but the Astros were playing the Mariners, who are now three games back.
• Frustrating. But it’s a long season, and we are getting towards the end, and the Rangers are still well positioned. It’s been a while since we’ve experienced this.
• Max Scherzer maxed out at 95.8 mph with his fastball. Grant Anderson hit 94.3 mph with his fastball. Brock Burke topped out at 95.4 mph. Jose Leclerc hit 96.7 mph with his fastball. Will Smith threw six fastballs, the fastest one at 91.9 mph, less than even the 92.5 mph that has been his average fastball velocity this year. Chris Stratton touched 94.0 mph.
• Corey Seager’s homer was 108.0 mph. He also had a 109.6 mph ground out and a 108.4 mph single. Nathaniel Lowe had a 109.6 mph single and a 102.4 mph double. Leody Taveras had a 106.2 mph ground out. Ezequiel Duran had a 105.5 mph single. Mitch Garver had a 102.1 mph line out. Marcus Semien had a 100.2 mph grounder that went for an error.
• On to Arizona to start a nine game road trip that includes two cursed National League teams. Bah.