Marlins 4, Rangers 2
- The Rangers did not win the series in Miami.
- They did not win the series in Miami despite some excellent work from Jacob deGrom.
- Jacob deGrom ended up taking the loss in the game due to allowing a pair of runs and leaving the game with the team down 2-1. Its unfortunate, because he pitched really, really well.
- deGrom is not vintage deGrom. He’s not “best pitcher in baseball” Jacob deGrom any more. But he’s still awfully damn good.
- Like Kumar Rocker on Monday, deGrom threw the slider for about half of his pitches. And like Rocker, he missed a bunch of bats with it, generating swings and misses on 12 of the 25 sliders that the Marlins swung at, out of 45 sliders total.
- Unlike Rocker, deGrom has a fastball and a changeup that can also miss bats. He got whiffs on 9 of 15 swings on his fastball and 3 of the 5 swings the Marlins attempted on his changeup.
- In all, that’s 24 swings and misses, tied for the 6th most in MLB this season. He racked up 8 strikeouts in all.
- Unfortunately, deGrom also issued a pair of walks in the game. One of them, a leadoff walk to Otto Lopez to start the fourth, came around to score on a two out Griffin Conine double. The other, which came with no one out in the fifth, put Owen Caissie, who had a leadoff single to start the inning, at second. Caissie came around to score on a Xavier Edwards one out single after a sac bunt.
- That Edwards single was the only hit with a runner in scoring position today. The Rangers were 0 for 1 with runners in scoring position, the Marlins were 1 for 5.
- deGrom allowed just four hits in the game — three singles and the Conine double. They came at inopportune times, though, and with a Ranger lineup that, well, only had one at bat with runners in scoring position all game, deGrom needed to be close to perfect for the Rangers to win.
- Cole Winn gave up a two run homer in the eighth to turn a one run game into a three run game, which ended up being all the more lamentable when the Rangers scored in the top of the ninth.
- Winn’s ERA is now up to 6.38 on the season.
- Last year, Winn’s 1.51 ERA was belied by his 4.19 xERA and 3.90 FIP. He’s doing the opposite this year, with a 4.35 FIP and an xERA that won’t be updated until tomorrow, but is, I’m pretty sure, less than 6.38.
- Still, the real problem was the lack of offense. The Rangers scored twice, on a Wyatt Langford solo homer and Joc Pederson’s solo shot in the ninth off of Pete Fairbanks. That Pederson shot makes you want to metaphorically shake your fist at Winn for allowing the two runs in the eighth, but then, maybe Fairbanks doesn’t challenge Pederson if its just a one run game, pitches him more cautiously.
- The Rangers got just four other hits in the game, all singles, one of them by Wyatt Langford. They drew no walks. They also sent four batters more than the minimum to the plate because Nick Lopez, who had one of the hits, was caught stealing, and Ezequiel Duran, who hit into a fielder’s choice after a Jake Burger infield single, got picked off first to end the inning.
- Langford did successfully steal a base, and that’s good and all, but Meat Loaf’s song wasn’t called “One Out Of Three Ain’t Bad.”
- There was some bad luck for the Rangers on balls in play. Brandon Nimmo had a couple of blasts that qualified as “barrels” by the Statcast measure, each of which went 390+ feet, but both of which were caught. Justin Foscue, pinch hitting for Lopez to start the sixth, crushed a line drive off of former Ranger John King that, a little to the left or right, could have been a double, but instead was caught for an out by former Ranger Heriberto Hernandez.
- But even taking that into account, the bats let the team down on Wednesday.
- Maybe the much awaited return of Corey Seager, expected to be in the opener against Toronto on Thursday, will provide a shot in the arm.
- Jacob deGrom topped out at 98.9 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.4 mph. Tyler Alexander hit 92.1 mph with the one fastball he threw. Cole Winn touched 95.9 mph with his fastball. Robby Ahlstrom’s sinker maxed out at 93.4 mph.
- Wyatt Langford’s homer was 106.5 mph off the bat, and he had a 100.5 mph single. Justin Foscue had a 105.8 mph fly out. Joc Pederson had a 103.9 mph ground out and a 102.0 mph home run. Brandon Nimmo had a 103.8 mph fly out (that would have been a homer in 10 of 30 major league parks) and a 100.5 mph fly out.
- Three down, seven to go.
