The Texas Rangers didn’t have an extra-base hit in a 4-1 loss to the Astros while Houston hit four home runs against Jacob deGrom, one of the best pitchers of his generation.
HOUSTON — Here’s a head-scratcher, though Jacob deGrom doesn’t think so.
The right-hander said that the reason the Texas Rangers lost Saturday night, 4-1 to the Astros, is because he allowed four solo home runs. Two in the first, two in the fourth, and that was that.
He’s not too far off track, in regard to home runs. Ultimately, the real stumper is this: Why could the Astros hit four home runs against a potential Hall of Fame pitcher while the Rangers couldn’t collect any, or even an extra-base hit, against a 27-year-old from Taiwan who entered the game with 5.67 career ERA?
Of all the problems the Rangers have offensively, topping the list is the inability to slug. They have some guys who can do it — five who have hit at least 25 homers in a season — but they aren’t doing enough of it.
Oh, they had base runners Saturday night against Kei-Wei Teng and five relievers, 15 of them. The Rangers, though, left 13 on base and had one thrown out at home on a wild pitch.
“The difference tonight was we [left] 13 guys on base and just couldn’t get anybody in,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “We had our chances, the bases loaded a few times. Some good at-bats up and down the lineup. We just couldn’t cash in.”
That’s not to say deGrom doesn’t get some blame for a second straight loss to open a nine-game road trip. He said he should take all the blame for allowing four solo shots, all on fastballs. The first two came in the first, by Jose Altuve leading off and by Yordan Alvarez two batters later.
Christian Walker and Zach Cole got deGrom in the fourth. He allowed only one other hit, a two-out single in the second, but was frustrated throughout his six innings as he repeatedly struggled with his command.
“I gave up five hits, all on the fastball, and four of them went over the fence,” deGrom said. “I did not do a good job, didn’t put us in a position to win a game, so that one’s on me.”
The Astros did not take an at-bat with a runner in scoring position, and deGrom faced only one batter from the stretch. Compare that to the Rangers, who went 1 for 10 and put pressure on Astros pitchers throughout.
The problem is that the one hit was a Joc Pederson single in the seventh, the Rangers’ third single in the inning. Getting so many runners on base is a good sign for an offense, but the inability to deliver more than one hit with runners in scoring position and no extra-base hits continues to foil the Rangers.
“We had some guys that went up the middle today, better at-bats,” Schumaker said. “But, again, we just couldn’t get that big hit.”
The Rangers took four walks in five innings against Teng but struck out seven times and had only two hits. They loaded the bases with two outs in the second inning, but Teng escaped as he tagged out Evan Carter at home as he tried to score on a wild pitch.
The Rangers brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh, eighth and ninth, albeit with two outs. Andrew McCutchen and Justin Foscue hit deep flyballs, with Foscue chasing Cole to the right-field fence.
The Astros hit their deep flyballs over the fence. They were mistake pitches, deGrom said, fastballs that should have been hit a long way, but Astros pitchers made mistakes, too. Their mistakes, for the most part, turned into outs.
The Rangers have one run in two games at Daikin Park after being no-hit into the eighth inning Friday. The lone Houston run against Jack Leiter came on an Isaac Paredes homer.
Only one of the Astros’ runs this series hasn’t been on a solo homer. The saying in baseball is that solo homers don’t get a team beat, but that applies, apparently, when the team surrendering them can also hit a few of their own.
“Both nights it felt like a winnable game,” Schumaker said. “The guys are fighting like heck to do whatever they can to get runs across but just didn’t do it.”
Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com
