ARLINGTON, Texas — Before the eighth inning, an infielder trotted to the mound Saturday at Globe Life Field.
It was the second time this year that a Texas Rangers position player pitched, but Brad Miller had the honor — or ignominy — of pitching longer than any Rangers position player ever has before, finishing off the final two innings of a 16-3 defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It’s a clunker,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said afterward. “That’s what it is, and we’ll move on.”
The Rangers did that, bouncing back Sunday to salvage the series. Still, the pitching deficiencies on both sides were glaring this past weekend.
They haven’t doomed the Rangers or Dodgers, who remain in first place in their respective divisions behind the two highest-scoring offenses in baseball. Both World Series hopefuls are good enough to be selective about the pitchers they add. But the needs on the mound are obvious as the Aug. 1 deadline approaches.
“We have the luxury, we’ve earned the right to say no, to set the bar at a certain level for who plays for our ballclub,” manager Dave Roberts said about potential additions. “It’s got to make sense for the roster. It’s got to make sense for the clubhouse. So, I feel good about that, as far as whatever kind of levers we choose to exhaust as this deadline approaches.”
Those levers will likely involve an arm or two (or three).
Both the Dodgers and Rangers are in the market for pitching — both in the bullpen and the rotation. As brilliantly as their forceful offenses have masked their middling arms, the facade came down while facing each other this weekend.
The Rangers started the second half 7-0 until a Dodger barrage of 31 runs over the first 19 innings at Globe Life Field. Neither Texas’ starters nor its relievers could avoid the fusillade.
On Friday, the Rangers watched their 5-4 lead turn into an 11-5 meltdown, with the Dodgers scoring seven unanswered runs in the final three frames off three rookie relievers. Runs came across in a variety of manners — doubles, run-scoring groundout, and even a bases-loaded walk.
Starter Andrew Heaney, facing his former team, encountered his own struggles, allowing four runs on five hits and three free passes through five innings. But he gave his team a chance. The same could not be said a day later for Dane Dunning, whose positive contributions since joining the rotation in May did not continue into this past Saturday.
Dunning fell victim to the Dodgers’ relentless attack, unable to put hitters away as he registered just two whiffs. With his pitch count at 79 after getting tagged for five runs, his day was done three innings in. The three Rangers relievers to follow — one of them a position player in Miller — did not fare better, surrendering a combined 11 runs in front of the biggest crowd in Globe Life Field history.
“Part of this whole deal is learning how to perform under pressure,” Bochy said.
It is a constant evaluation period for both pitching staffs as the deadline nears.
The Rangers are the only team with a bullpen ERA over 4.70 that’s not in last place. Despite a 7-2 start out of the break, their relievers sport a dismal 6.41 ERA this month.
They wasted little time beginning the process of addressing those needs, trading for the best reliever on the market in Aroldis Chapman before the start of the month. He has not allowed a run in his seven appearances with Texas — on Sunday, he set a Rangers Statcast record when he finished off Yonny Hernández with a 103.4 mph pitch — but more work will likely need to be done to get the Texas bullpen to a reliable place.
The rotation has also seen its tribulations. The potential Cy Young impact of Nathan Eovaldi has helped make up for the season-ending loss of Jacob deGrom, but Eovaldi has already surpassed his inning total of last season. The workload might be catching up. Despite tossing six scoreless innings in a 5-3 win against the Tampa Bay Rays, his velocity was down more than two ticks. This week against the rival Houston Astros, his turn in the rotation will be skipped.
Texas revamped its rotation this offseason, but with deGrom and Eovaldi out, it does not resemble the group team brass envisioned — one capable of carrying the Rangers through October. To make matters more difficult, they also lost Corey Seager (sprained thumb) to the injured list and saw Adolis García take a 98-mph fastball off the fingers.
They persevered through the absences on Sunday, when it was their turn to highlight their opponent’s similar vulnerabilities.
After Bobby Miller earned Saturday’s win Saturday, the Dodgers could not get a second straight quality outing from a rookie. The day before his Sunday start, Emmet Sheehan said the key for him is to work ahead. He failed to do that, unable to protect an early 4-0 lead courtesy of a Max Muncy grand slam as he set career highs in runs (eight), hits (eight) and walks (five) allowed in a career-low 3.2 innings.
Max Muncy smashes grand slam to start Dodgers off against Rangers
Following an impressive start at the big-league level after jumping straight from Double-A into the Dodgers’ rotation, Sheehan’s 2.65 ERA at the end of June has climbed to 6.75. He struck out 14.9 batters per nine innings at Tulsa but hasn’t been able to put hitters away similarly at the big-league level, despite eating up valuable innings.
Through the peaks and valleys, the contributions from Sheehan, Miller and Michael Grove have been essential for a shorthanded Dodgers rotation that wasn’t expected to require so many rookies so soon. Dustin May is out for the year. Clayton Kershaw is still on the mend. Ryan Pepiot, who was supposed to start the year in the rotation, is still working his way back from an oblique issue. Neither Julio Urías nor Tony Gonsolin have demonstrated their usual consistency.
The poise of both Sheehan and Miller has been evident to manager Dave Roberts, but for a Dodgers team with championship aspirations, one looking to hold off the D-backs, Giants and Padres for a 10th division title in the past 11 years, demonstrating patience through the growing pains will be a challenge.
And yet, neither the Dodgers’ beleaguered rotation nor its mercurial bullpen stopped them from ascending into first place.
Their bullpen found its form on the nine-game road trip, posting a major-league best 0.80 ERA since the All-Star break while holding opponents to a .152 batting average. Still, the Dodgers’ bullpen ERA (4.10) and starters’ ERA (4.68) both rank uncharacteristically in baseball’s bottom half.
Two high-powered offenses in Texas and Los Angeles have covered up the pitching blemishes.
Perhaps, with some deadline moves, those burdens will be lessened.
Rowan Kavner covers the Dodgers and MLB as a whole for FOX Sports. He previously was the Dodgers’ editor of digital and print publications. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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