DENVER — They greeted him warmly at Elway’s. Even though it had been six years since Bruce Bochy’s last visit, they remembered exactly how he likes a martini and what kind of bourbon he prefers. In the clubhouse at Coors Field, they prepared him the “best bacon in the league.”
You know what? They can keep it all.
Doesn’t make up for what happens on the field. He’s been coming to Denver for nearly 30 years as a guest and it never seems to get any better. Just more surreal. Sunday, the Rockies concluded a sweep of the Rangers with a 3-1 win.
The Rockies. Who hadn’t won consecutive games all year before the weekend, let alone a series. Worse: The Rangers, who led the AL in runs scored entering the weekend, managed six runs in three games at the hitter-friendliest park in the majors. The Dallas Stars, some of whose management group took in Sunday’s game, might outscore the Rangers in Colorado this month.
“We’re officially in a funk,” Bochy said of his offense. “It’s hard to explain. It just doesn’t happen in this place here. I’m as surprised as anybody. We got great starting pitching. We just didn’t get any offense. Guys just aren’t swinging like they normally do. It’s pretty obvious. We’re not driving the ball. We could not create a good inning in three games.”
Bochy, with four World Series rings to his name, will be going to the Hall of Fame at some point. It will definitely not quote his record at Coors Field on the plaque. It is now 96-121, 25 games under .500 in Coors Field. Usually, it’s a Rockies Horror Pitcher Show for him. Not this time.
The weekend instead demonstrated everything that is wrong about the Rangers lineup at the moment. To wit:
They struggle against lefties: It is the single biggest difference in the offense from a year ago until now. Teams are noticing. Colorado started two lefties in three games, going with journeyman long reliever Ty Blach on Sunday. He threw 90-mph sinkers at them and let them beat the ball into the ground over and over. Blach needed just 70 pitches to get through his five innings and pick up his first win as a starter this season. To be fair, Blach and the Rockies’ relievers gave their defense the chance to make plays and they did it repeatedly with no fewer than six highlight-caliber plays.
As a team, the Rangers are slashing .247/.300/.358/.658 against lefties through 42 games this season. A year ago at this point, their OBP vs. lefties (.366) was higher than their slugging percentage is now. OPS? Really want to go there? OK, it was .810. The Rangers did have an extremely high batting average on balls in play (BABIP) against lefties at this point last year at .348. It was .296 entering Sunday. Maybe they have, as the analysts like to say, regressed to the mean. If so, that’s a bigger longer-term concern.
Plugging Wyatt Langford into the lineup was supposed to make them even more dangerous against lefties than they were a year ago. It’s yet to happen. And Langford was lost for probably a month with a strained hamstring earlier on this trip. On Monday, the Rangers might end up placing their other rookie on the IL, too. Evan Carter didn’t start over the weekend. Carter hasn’t hit lefties yet, anyway. He’s 3 for 27 against them this season and has been playing infrequently against them over the last two weeks.
Their stars aren’t aligned: Though he was robbed of two hits Sunday, Corey Seager seems to be emerging from the month-long slump he went through after missing most of spring training. But now it’s Adolis García funking it up.
García did have a nice, controlled opposite-field single in the first to break an 0 for 9 drought, but he went just 6 for 41 on the road trip and the slump actually stretches farther than that. He’s struck out in 32.9% of his plate appearances over the last three weeks, falling back into some bad habits of over-aggressively chasing. With the tying run on base in the eighth, he chased a pitch that may have been above the zone to fall into an 0-2 count, then got off a poor swing against a slider for an inning-ending pop-up.
The good news was that the bottom of the lineup has started to be more productive. Both Ezequiel Duran, who got more regular playing time on the trip, and Leody Taveras had successful trips. He homered, had a successful hit and run single and moved up on the bases in Colorado; he went 12 for 36 with six walks on the road trip. When the bottom of the lineup turns over with baserunners, it forces pitchers to pitch differently to Marcus Semien, Seager and, eventually García.
Left field remains an issue: With Langford and Carter going through typical rookie rough patches before their injuries, left field has once again cropped up as an offensive desert. They began Sunday with an OPS+ of 78 there, about 20% below the league average, relatively speaking. It ranked 23rd in the majors.
And against left-handed pitching, to go back to the No. 1 issue, the difference is even more stark. Against lefties, the Rangers cadre of left fielders have gone 9 for 48 (.188) with one homer and a .526 OPS.
“We’re still a top offense in the game,” said Semien, too often left to be the spokesman when the offense struggles. “We can’t look at the negativity from this series and let it affect us. We had chances and just didn’t come through. We need to figure out how to win these games when we aren’t hitting. We need to defend better, pitch better, run the bases better. When we’re not mashing, we still have to win games.”
A year ago, the Rangers went through funks, too. They were swept in Cincinnati, in San Diego, in Arizona and Cleveland during the regular season. They found ways to bounce back.
“We’re not concerned around here,” Bochy said. “But we need to figure it out.”
All the same, if he doesn’t make it back to Colorado as a manager again, he’s not going to complain. Probably won’t find him hiking here in retirement either.
“I don’t know if I’ll come up here and visit,” he said. “I’ll say that.”
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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