The Texas Rangers limped into Anaheim after being embarrassed by the Seattle Mariners. Thankfully for the Rangers, the Anaheim Angels are embarrassment personified. The Angels looked weak in all three of their losses. The Rangers offense still really never got going despite facing the worst bullpen in baseball. The Rangers rode another excellent Tyler Mahle start to a 4-0 win in the opener. Bochy continues to get the most out of his bullpen. Robert Garcia, Chris Martin, Jacob Webb, and Luke Jackson all turned in scoreless efforts. Bochy has made every right move with the bullpen so far this season. He has made a career out of this. He is the Anti-Chris Woodward.
The Angels are so wretched they were held to one run by the famously inept Patrick Corbin. The Rangers posted a meager three runs in this tepid affair. The offense looked stagnant as usual. The Rangers have rode great pitching to most of their wins. The offense has simply been awful. It has looked uncompetitive. The Rangers have one of the worst walk rates in the league. They have a very high chase rate. The offense this season looks like a carbon copy of the vexing 2024 offense. Massive blackholes sprinkled throughout a cadre of underperforming “name” guys. Joc Pederson has made a fool of himself again and again. He ended the week setting the record for lowest batting average through 20 games. He is simply lost. He is the one major addition the Rangers made to the lineup this season. Other than signing an actual backup catcher, the Rangers’ only move for the lineup was to add Joc Pederson. He has been insidiously awful.
The Rangers fan viewing experience is defined by watching Marcus Semien vacuously pop out, Adolis Garcia strikeout, Jake Burger strikeout, Joc Pederson’s comedy act… it gets very old. It is so tiresome you almost forget to pretend to expect something out of Leody Taveras. Evan “The Little Savior” Carter is nowhere to be found in this grotesque display. He is down in AAA trying to get his back to cooperate. Josh Jung and Wyatt Langford are taking turns on the injury list. The “gee if only they could stay healthy” bit with those two is growing as wary as it is with the Dallas Stars top end players.
Every game matters in baseball. That is part of the beauty of the sport. Wins and losses in April count just as much as the ones in September. Sweeping the jokish Angels was important. It was necessary. You pick up all three of those games because you will lose some you are not supposed to later. You can also look bad in a sweep. The Rangers managed this. The fact that they sucked less than the wretched Angels means less and little.
The Angels’ lifeless offense looked outmatched by rookie Kumar Rocker. Rocker has been getting crushed in all of his appearances. He has displayed poor control of his tepid fastball. The Angels will make anyone look good though. Rocker went 7 IP and gave up 3 ER. Hopefully the start gives him confidence and he becomes a solid starter. Young outfielder Dustin Harris tallied two hits in this game. Pederson was the only Ranger to not get a hit. Yet they only managed 5 runs? Why? That is what having a wretched black hole hitting third in your lineup does. The Rangers 2024 season was defined by different players taking turns playing like this, or simply not playing at all. Heim was lost. Garcia and Semien were never the same after colliding early in the season. Seager started and ended the season hurt. He seemingly never starts the season healthy. Langford and Jung got hurt. This season? Essentially all the same negative things have occurred again so far. Lanford and Jung have both been hurt, multiple times. Semien and Garcia did not collide, but Semien is sleeping until July as usual. Seager came into the season hurt again as usual. Heim has returned to playable form. Josh Smith has been banged up. Zeke Duran managed 15 hitless plate appearances before being sent down.
The Rangers are a total mess. The fact they swept the Angels should not distort this fact. The offense is essentially not functioning. Bochy might be brilliant with the bullpen, but some of these lineups have been very odd. Jake Burger, Leody Taveras, Joc Pederson, and Marcus Semien have all been truly awful. Burger might be pressing because he is on a new team. Taveras just is not that good. At least he is bunting and stealing a bit more this season. Semien does not prepare properly in the offseason and takes seventy games to hit his stride. Pederson is simply making a fool of himself on a daily basis. The Rangers could have gotten cute local gimmick player Joey Gallo to do his homegrown muscle bound freak show act for pennies on the dollar. Gallo turned his nose up at a Rangers six year, 20 million dollar AAV offer years ago. He went to New York, flamed out, failed in a couple other cities, and is now pursuing a pitching career. Gallo’s dog and pony show style went from hilarious charade to sad tragedy. Joey Gallo was a player who got cheered vigorously to hit .190 and play good defense. He thought he was a star. He was not even liked outside of Texas. Sort of like Delino DeSheilds Jr: he was beloved in Texas, did not appreciate it, took his bit to a new town, burned out, and found himself out of the league.
The Rangers could be paying Joey Gallo the league minimum to strikeout over and over like Pederson. Gallo plays gold glove defense. Pederson cannot play defense at all. The Joc Pederson contract has been a disaster so far. Marcus hitting first and Pederson hitting third is a big reason why the offense is such a repulsive joke.
The Rangers traveled home to play a real team on Friday after their 5-3 win. The Los Angeles Dodgers sent Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamaoto to the mound. The Rangers countered with Jacob deGrom. Tommy Edman led off the game with a solo shot. The pitchers traded zeros after that. The Rangers offense was utterly uncompetitive throughout. Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott shut them down with an inning each. Scott gave up two hits. The game ended on a weird ball down the third base line Josh Jung did not bother running out. It ended up being fair. Jake Burger, Jonah Heim, Leody Taveras, and Joc Pederson all went hitless. You can see why Jung quit on the play: he had been watching his teammates quit all day! Loss 3-0.
Game 2 – Another exceptional pitchers duel occurred in the second game. Nathan Eovaldi and Rori Sasaki both went six strong and gave up two runs. The Rangers offense wallowed around listlessly until the 9th when Adolis “El Bombi” Garcia smoked a two-run walk off bomb. Like the Angels series showed- the pitching severely overperformed and the game was still very close. In 2023 the Rangers frequently pummeled teams and won by double digits. The level of pitching they are getting is not sustainable. Their record is not even that good with the phenomenal pitching they have been getting. The Rangers sit a mere game ahead of Seattle at the top of the division. That deeply flawed Seattle team has as many offensive issues as the Rangers, as well as pitching injuries like Texas. Houston is forging their new identity still. The A’s have no identity. The Angels identity is set in stone as a joke like Spike Lee. The Rangers are wasting this valuable opportunity to build a division lead. They made the same mistake last season when the Astros started very slow.
The Rangers did not bother to show up for the final game of the series. Dodgers flamethrower Tyler Glasnow left the game after four innings due to an injury. The Dodgers threw a litany of relievers you have never heard of to shutout the Rangers. They did not use Alex Vesia, Blake Trienen, Dustin May, Michael Kopech, or Brusdar Grateral. The dregs of the Dodgers bullpen were enough to blank the Rangers offense for six innings. This game was a great example of why sweeping the Angels, which although necessary and funny, means nothing.
Shohei Ohtani returned from paternity leave in this game. He walked once. So did the Rangers leadoff man Marcus Semien. Neither recorded a hit. Corey Seager went hitless in this game. Adolis Garcia, Dustin Harris, Josh Jung, and Jake Burger all also went hitless. Kevin Pillar took Harris’ last AB away and did nothing with it. Pillar has actually been very solid this season overall. The same can be said of Josh Smith. He got three hits in this vexing affair.
Tyler Mahle was exceptional in this game as usual. 7 IP. 2 hits. The Rangers offense slept through this masterpiece. They have been asleep all season! Loss 1-0.
The Rangers will travel to the Athletics’ AAA Park next. They will then go to San Francisco to play the red hot Giants.
An intelligent baseball fan follows every game. They understand some wins mean more than others. They also understand some wins mean less than others. The Rangers collected a few walkover wins this week. The way they lost should worry the Ranger fan. The offense is anemic in a very scary way. The Rangers are bottom 5 in WRC+. They are currently playing far beneath their combined skilled level. In 2023 the offense would snowball on opponents. The hitters brought each other up. The 2025 offense, like the 2024 offense, seems to be getting far less out of the components than it should be. Players like Semien, Taveras, Duran, Burger, and Pederson not hitting is what is killing this team. Their grotesque ineptitude is a malignant virus eating away at the soul of the team.
Skipper Bruce Bochy often preaches being even keel. His approach is to never get too high or too low. That might work for pitchers, but maybe Marcus Semien needs a guy like Billy Martin or Big Dallas Green to scream in his face until he starts hitting his weight. Semien is a notorious “slow starter,” which means he does not properly prepare during the offseason and soft throws the first 40 games of the season or so. It’s great when you’re the guy with the guaranteed money, but a slap in the face to the fan watching you pretend to care.
Jake Burger and Joc Pederson have both been nothing short of horrific. Pederson looks like he is on the take. Burger is proving why cute little “lateral moves” to save money are not as simple as often presented on surface level. Former Rangers first baseman Nate Lowe has been very good up in Washington. His consistent approach is worth the money when you have Pederson making a fool of himself on a nightly basis. The Rangers traded Lowe, planning to use a mix of Burger and Pederson to replace him. Now the Rangers have two guys that cannot hit or play defense. Nate Lowe could do both! Go figure. Burger and Pederson have done a tremendous amount of damage to the Rangers. They have been aggressively below replacement level. Their big contracts make Bochy obligated to start them consistently. Thus Bochy is batting Pederson third. THIRD!? Give him the 2007 A-Rod in the playoffs treatment and hit him EIGHTH!
Heim and Garcia have both been above average despite having some stinker games. The Rangers should employ the following build order to maximize success:
Stop batting Semien leadoff. Sunken cost fallacy. Use Langford. He is insanely fast. Smith is a decent option too.
If you are going to play him, Pederson should only hit him 7th or 8th.
Leody should only hit 9th. He is a good bunter and speed guy. This makes him better at 9.
Stop trying to be cute and pinch hitting with guys who cannot hit. Kevin Pillar should NEVER be used as a pinch hitter. Same with an ice cold Pederson. Is this veteran worship? Bochy is a pitching genius. His choices with the offense so far have been made with an extreme focus on the long term. How many games does Joc Pederson get to solo lose before he gets aggressively dropped in the lineup? The same should be asked of lazy Marcus Semien. 0-4 with a walk is not good enough for a man paid to carry the team along with Seager. Bochy boomerishly putting them at 1 and 3 has got to stop.
The Rangers managed to go 4-2 last week behind great pitching. They have several players who are total blackholes. Hopefully the bats get going in… wherever the A’s play now.
