ARLINGTON — There are going to be days like this. Texas Rangers top pitching prospect Kumar Rocker did not have his best fastball Thursday. He did not have his best command.
What he has, though, seemingly every day is top-shelf composure.
And that can get you through.
Yes, it was only three innings in a 4-0 loss to Toronto, making it officially the first decision of his career. Yes, there were five free baserunners on walks and a hit batter. At the end of the day, though, the only thing that kept Rocker from going deeper and competing longer was the Rangers pre-ordained pitch count, governed by wanting to be cautious with a pitcher who had elbow surgery last year.
Despite eight baserunners on the walks, a hit batter, a pair of singles and a costly error by third baseman Ezequiel Duran, Rocker was charged with only one earned run. Had Duran fielded the two-out grounder in third, he might have allowed just one run, period.
“He wasn’t as sharp,” manager Bruce Bochy said afterwards. “The stuff was a little light. The command was not quite as good. You are going to have days like that. But he battled. He’s a very mature man. He battled and he limited damage.”
He had two on in the first and struck out Davis Schneider. Had the bases loaded with one out in the second and had Wyatt Langford made a little stronger throw home on what turned into a sacrifice fly, he might have gotten out of that unscored upon. He was in the process of working out of another jam in the third when Duran made a poor approach on a bouncer. It did not faze him. Even though he’d already pushed past 70 pitches, basically the limit for where the Rangers wanted his pitch count, he struck out Joey Loperfido to end the third.
In the dugout, Bochy never even uncrossed his legs or stood up, the sign he’s about to make a pitching change.
“It was as evident as it was [in the last start],” Rocker said of his struggle with command. “I was just trying to get in the zone with it, and controlling the emotions as I’m advancing to the plate. It’s going to come. I did what I could. I tried to not give up any damage. I tried to limit the walks, but it didn’t go my way. I tried to keep the team in the game.”
Wait. What? The command wasn’t good in Seattle? When he got 13 swings and misses on the slider? And seven strikeouts in four innings?
Not according to Rocker’s standards.
In Seattle, he said, he was a little nervous at the start and ultimately ended up “overthrowing” the fastball. The body was fast, sure, but that can lead to his arm and body being out of sync. His fastball averaged 96.7 mph in Seattle, but it had been between 97 and 98 and occasionally touching 100 mph in the minor leagues. On Thursday, he tried to better control the body and that led to a bit of overcompensation in another way, he said: Simply being a bit slow. His fastball averaged only 95.4 mph.
A decrease in velocity for a guy coming off elbow surgery can cause a full-scale panic. The Rangers checked with Rocker regularly, Bochy said.
“Everything felt great,” Bochy said. “You come off surgery, you are going to have some days like that where it’s not going to be as consistent. It’s going to happen.”
Said Rocker: “I think the command and velocity was down last week. I think I was just trying to overthrow a little bit. So going into this game, I tried to dial it down a little bit, get it in the zone a little bit more and I stepped off the gas a little bit. It put me on my heels and in a difficult position.”
The other big change was this: The Blue Jays are not the Mariners. Well, nobody is the Mariners, who lead the majors in strikeouts. Seattle swings and misses at the fourth-highest rate in the big leagues; Toronto at the third lowest. So, it wasn’t as simple as just firing more sliders. The Jays took them for balls.
It pushed Rocker into an uphill battle. But he kept throwing both pitches and he didn’t shy away from throwing inside to right-handed hitters. Young pitchers can get intimidated if they make a mistake too far in with the fastball and hit a batter or leave one over too much of the plate and get a pitch crushed. Put it this way: Rocker didn’t get crushed.
“He just seems pretty levelheaded regardless of what happens,” said catcher Carson Kelly. “I think that shows a lot about him as a person and as a competitor. It’s easy for a young guy to come up here and you see that kind of deer in the headlights moment. But for him, he just stayed on course and stayed in control of what he could control.
“It’s a very mature approach. It’s just been two starts, but you can tell that he’s got what it takes. Today was just one of those days he didn’t have the best feel for his stuff, but he continued to battle. He kept grinding.”
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
