Thursday Newsletter time: Triple play can’t stop Rangers’ four-game losing streak
(AP photo/Ted S. Warren)
Jesse Winker hit a low line drive in the first inning to first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who snared it as Seattle Mariners runners at first and second took off thinking the ball had hit the ground.
Lowe jogged over to first base and stepped on it, then lobbed the ball over to second base to complete the seventh triple play in Texas Rangers history.
If that’s not an auspicious start for a team struggling early on, what else is?
Despite the good fortune, the Rangers’ woes continued Wednesday night. They lost their fifth straight game, 4-2, as for eighth inning the bats were as cold as things appeared to be at T Mobile Park.
The Rangers collected eight hits, though only one of them wasn’t a single and none of them was a home run. Their first two hits came back to back in the first inning, but that was the Rangers’ only multi-hit inning until Marcus Semien and Corey Seager opened the ninth with consecutive singles.
They also had the first-inning hits, and both scored this time. But that was it, and the Rangers are now (gulp) 2-9.
Seattle scored a run in the third inning and added three more in the fifth as they chased Dane Dunning after four-plus innings.
“As a competitor, I wanted to stay out there,” Dunning said. “I felt good. I felt like I was commanding the zone decently well.”
But the damage had been done, even with the Rangers turning a triple play.
Where’s Joe McCarthy?
Joe McCarthy was arguably the Rangers’ best player in spring training, albeit in a small number of at-bats. He was in big-league camp until the final day, and is on the roster at Triple A Round Rock.
But he is still going to Japan, a club official said Wednesday morning, and the sale should be finalized this week. The Rangers flirted with putting McCarthy on the 40-man roster in the hopes of him staying in the organization, but going to Japan will be a financial windfall for him.
McCarthy’s departure knocks one player out of the way for other minor-league outfielders who might be needed on the MLB roster. The white-hot Leody Taveras is on the 40-man roster and might have been ahead of McCarthy anyway. Davis Wendzel, who is also warming up, has played some outfield at Triple A Round Rock, but is not on the 40-man. Neither is Bubba Thompson.
The Rangers have one 40-man opening after Greg Holland was designated for assignment Tuesday, but that spot will go to right-hander Dennis Santana when he comes off the COVID list.
ICYMI …
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T.R.’s Memoirs: The first Rangers AL MVP
The Sunday Read: Jon Gray, nerd alert
Friday on the Farm: Who is Yosy Galan?
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Jeff Wilson, jeff@rangerstoday.com
Thanks for following up with the story on McCarthy. Like DJ Peters before him, do the Rangers retain any rights to signing them when they return to play in this country?
I don’t believe so. Otherwise, they would have had first crack at Nick Martinez. The official transaction is a sale, so I would assume that includes all rights.
Despite it being early, if they don’t play well tonight or in Oakland they’ll be returning home to play two very difficult teams. The earlier in the season they put themselves in a hole, the harder it will be to crawl out of it.
Thanks for the McCarthy follow up. Maybe one day the Rangers resign McCarthy & Peters as FA (hopefully after performing well in the Pacific).
You just never know with baseball. How many people turned off the game last night after the first inning?
Players like McCarthy and Peters have a lot of talent, but something is missing and that’s why they’re overseas. They can get better, and maybe they do. I was intrigued by Peters and would like to see him come back. I didn’t get enough of a feel for McCarthy.