BOSTON — Well, if nothing else, the Rangers got clarity on Thursday. On a clammy night at Fenway Park, the Red Sox spelled out exactly what the current issue...
It’s rare a single inning can so clearly encapsulate all a team’s problems as the seventh did on Thursday. But, man, did the seventh ever do that Thursday. Leading by a run, the Rangers put two runners on with no outs for the middle of the order. They ended up scoreless and leaving the bases loaded. The Rangers are hitting just .226 with RISP over the last month, 28th in the majors.The problem is particularly acute at the top of the lineup.
“He’s giving it all he has,” Bochy said of Semien, the only Ranger to start each of the team’s first 88 games. “He is just a little off with his timing, to keep it as simple as I can. He’s just not on time for the fastball or the breaking ball.”From the end of May until the end of the season, though, he was one of the AL’s most productive hitters. This year: The exact opposite. And it shows in the RISP at-bats.
Yeah, the hits were soft, but the inning was complicated by Josh Sborz walking a pair of hitters with one out. It loaded the bases and forced Bochy to make the first of his many pitching changes in the inning. Grant Anderson got ahead of Kiké Hernandez with four consecutive sliders, then left a sinker up. Hernandez lined the ball softly to left to give Boston a 6-5 lead. It got uglier after that. Trust us.
“This was a tough part of the schedule,” Bochy said. “I saw this a while back. We talked about it. We knew it was going to be a little bit of a grind to be honest. But you know what: That’s why it’s important. We’ve already talked about how important it is to keep our focus during this time. So hopefully, we can finish strong.”Well, they at least know what they must do. They got complete clarity on Thursday. So, at least they’ve got that going for them.
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