After their lopsided 10-1 defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy shared a few strong comments about his team's poor showing. His comments came after Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham and rookie pitcher Michael McGreevy helped lead the way for their team to administer a drubbing on the visiting Rangers. This score is also the Cardinals' largest margin of victory this season, and it is also the Rangers' fifth loss in six games. What's worse is that the Rangers had won five straight games before this current slide.
Bruce Bochy on winning baseball games
Asked about what the Rangers need to improve on following the loss, Bruce Bochy gave honest comments to the media. “You have to play better baseball than what we did,” he said. Clarifying his comments, he added, “We've got to get these bats going. It's that simple.”
Besides the bats, the Rangers' pitching had major trouble matching that of the Cardinals.
Rookie Michael McGreevy out-pitched his counterpart Andrew Heaney, who got chased in the fifth inning with one out. With this loss, Heaney fell to 0-2 against the Cardinals in three career starts. Jose Leclerc managed to retire only one batter before getting burned for three hits on two runs. In the fifth inning, Dane Dunning took over on the mound.
While Josh Smith, Corey Seager, and Marcus Semien hit three consecutive singles, the Rangers as a team were held to only five hits. Semien had hit a double in the first inning but McGreevy ultimately allowed only five hits and one run in seven innings. The Cardinals pitcher also struck out three and left the field to a standing ovation.
Pointing to Bochy's comments, the Rangers' bottom six hitters only logged a combined 1 for 17, the only hit coming from debuting catcher Carson Kelly. This marked the Rangers' 25th time in 2024 to get limited only to five or fewer hits. It's one short of their 26 games in 2023.
On the flipside, this game was also the Rangers' ninth time this season to allow opponents 14 or more hits. Last season, they had done this in 10 games.
Rangers struggling
This loss is not a good look for a team that's struggling to tread water in the American League West. After this game, the Rangers fell five games under .500 with a 52-57 record. They come home with a dismal 1-5 record on a six-game road trip, with games against the Cards and the Toronto Blue Jays. Bochy and his team are now looking to get back on the right side of the win-loss column as they open a weekend series against the Boston Red Sox on Friday.
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