ARLINGTON, Texas — It comes as no surprise, but the Texas Rangers have pitching issues.
Yes, it’s still way too early to make summary judgments on the 2022 season after the club’s first full week concluded Sunday with a 8-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field.
But the first nine games, however, did give us a glimmer of what is likely to dog the Rangers this summer.
The Rangers start a six-game road trip at 8:40 p.m. Monday in Seattle.
Pitching, both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen, is going to wear on manager Chris Woodward like the tread on one of a car’s four tires that eventually takes the whole thing into a ditch.
The Rangers have allowed 57 runs (53 earned), second-most in the majors. Their 6.27 ERA is the worst in the majors. Their 18 home runs allowed are the most in the league.
When the starters have been decent, the bullpen has faltered, and vice versa. The Rangers’ starters have an MLB-high 6.99 ERA. Rangers relievers have an MLB-high 5.48 ERA.
That’s not a winning formula, no matter how improved the offense is with the additions of Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Kole Calhoun. We’ve seen this before, of course, when the Rangers were scoring big and losing big in the 2000s.
The offense is among the top three in scoring in the league and near the bottom in strikeouts. Their .244 team batting average is 11th in the majors. They’re getting on base (.325 team on-base percentage) and tied for eighth with 10 home runs.
But none of that has been enough to outweigh the pitching problem. No Rangers starter has recorded a win. The rotation’s 32.1 innings so far this season are the fewest in MLB, including Martin Perez’s four innings Sunday in which he left losing 4-3.
Batters are hitting an MLB-high .296 against Rangers pitchers, including .350 against the starters.
The relievers have pitched five or more innings in seven consecutive games, including eight innings in a scheduled bullpen game on Friday.
Although they’ve only committed four errors through eight games, their defensive efficiency is second worst in the majors. Defensive efficiency, which is tracked by baseball-reference.com, is the percentage of balls in play that are converted into outs based on estimated team defensive and pitching stats.
