Somewhere around the seventh or eighth straight loss, a few of the Rangers started wondering whether they would ever win a game again. Not Bruce Bochy. Just ask him.
“I wasn’t panicking!” he bellows through gritted teeth. “I’m telling you!”
He grins. He’s kidding. Of course he has been losing his mind over the past two weeks, as his team turned a 3½-game division lead into third place—a game behind the Mariners and Astros, who are tied for first, and only 2½ ahead of the Blue Jays for the final wild-card slot.
That comes as a surprise to his players, who cite as their favorite of his traits his even keel.
“I try to look calm, but don’t let that belie what’s going on underneath,” Bochy says.
Well, he’s got them fooled.
“We go through a stretch like we have been the last couple of weeks, he’s as positive as he can be,” says first baseman Nate Lowe. “We steamrolled a couple people, and he’s the same guy. He’s seen it all. He’s forgotten it all, re-remembered it all, taught it to somebody else and re-learned it.”
In other words: Bochy has been doing this for a long time. (He’s in his 26th year, he’s won three World Series and he will be in the Hall of Fame just as soon as he’s eligible.) He knows better than to overreact.
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
Instead, he behaves every day the way he did the one before. You can never tell just from looking at him whether the team won or lost yesterday. What does that look like? “Just like your grumpy grandpa,” reliever Will Smith says affectionately. Smith has known Bochy since 2016, when the Cubs beat their Giants en route to the World Series, and says the skipper hasn’t changed at all.
Bochy retired after those 13 seasons in San Francisco. (As a farewell tribute, the players and staff on the last road trip wore caps in Bochy’s gigantic 8¼ size. “Everybody looked like they were wearing their dad’s hats,” Smith says with a cackle. “Like little kids. People had their ears tucked in.”) But after three years at home in Nashville, he began to miss the game. And when Rangers GM Chris Young flew out to meet with him and his wife, Kim, last October, Bochy found himself intrigued. Texas had lost 94 games the previous year and 102 the year before that, but Young insisted that this team was ready for October. And he believed Bochy was the man to get it there.
Five months into the season, players are effusive. They praise the way Bochy trusts them both off the field—”I think he’s been in the clubhouse once this year,” says Smith. “That’s kind of the old-school side of him. He’s going to let the players figure it out”—and on it. Bochy has fiddled with his bullpen this year as it has struggled, putting relievers in positions to succeed, says starter Jon Gray, and slowly helping to build their confidence as they try to bounce back. And as younger players began to worry during the eight straight losses, and nine out of 10, he provided some needed perspective.
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“I think you have to stay calm,” Bochy says. “I do. I guess I’m lucky: I do have some time in and I’ve been through some of these tough stretches. Just gotta keep believing. Now, there’s times when we beat ourselves. That’s what bothers me, just like these guys, when you don’t play your best ball. And I said this [when I came back], I said, ‘I’m going to enjoy this.’ So I’m going to enjoy it. I mean, nobody likes to go through a stretch like that, but you gotta realize where you’re at and what you’re doing and enjoy it. And we will all be better because of it.”
Many of his players echo that idea: Losing is part of winning. In the long run, this streak is going to help them. “When you’re in first place, you can get into a spot where you’re not playing to win,” says Gray. “You’re playing not to lose.” Smith adds that it’s good to practice “getting punched in the mouth” before October. Lowe says he’s excited to watch the team rebound. Bochy will be happy to see the wins start piling up again, too. But you won’t be able to tell from looking at him.
