The Mariners’ pitching staff mowed Rangers hitters like a weed whacker in a field of Texas Dandelions on July 15 as four Seattle hurlers combed to strike out 17 batters in Arlington and send the home team to the showers with an 8-3 loss.
Rangers Skipper Chriss Woodward said Seattle starting pitcher Robbie Ray has a “Cy Young” caliber fastball and has added a new mix of pitches over his nine-year career, which helps him baffle hitters.
“He got the slider … and he’s added the sinker, and it’s tough, man,” Woodard said. “Before, you used to have to really think about getting above him (with the bat), and now he’s got the sinker moving down … it’s got three different directions.“
The Rangers hitters are not lonely on the list of people to have struck out against Ray. In his 2021 American League Cy Young Award winner season (with Toronto), he led the league in whiffs and averages over ten strikeouts per nine innings in 2022 while also leading the league in starts and innings pitched.
Ray exited the contest after 6.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits while walking none and striking out a dozen. Ray was relieved by three different Mariners in the final three frames, striking out five more Ranger hitters.
“He was on,” Woodward said of Ray’s outing. “Guys were going up there trying to hit his fastball, and we couldn’t get to it. That’s saying something because most big-league hitters if they say they’re going out there looking for a fastball, they can easily turn it around, but; 17 strikeouts.”
As dominant as Ray was, Corey Seager belted homerun number 22 of the season off him in the sixth. Then Leody Taveras hit his third homer of the year, a two-run shot in the seventh, to keep the Rangers in the contest, trailing 4-3 heading into the eighth inning.
The Rangers bullpen has been subpar of late and wearing thin from a slew of innings pitched heading into the MLB All-Star Break. Matt Bush made just the fourth career start in his five years of MLB service, and he threw a lone inning in which he allowed a hit and lowered his ERA to 3.52.
Taylor Hearn relieved Bush in the second, and the Royce City native was making his first appearance on the mound for the Rangers when he pitched four innings against the Nationals on June 25.
Hearn would be the eventual loser in the contest, dropping his record to 4-6 after he allowed two earned runs — four total — on five hits while yielding two walks and striking out five over four innings.
Rookie righty A.J. Alexy made his first appearance of the 2022 season, faced 11 batters, and was relieved by José Leclerc after loading the bases and earning no outs in the eighth with his team trailing 4-3.
Rookie sensation Julio Rodríguez — who will join Seager in the 2022 Home Run Derby in Los Angeles on July 18 — worked Leclerc to a full count before knocking a 96 MPH fastball into the deepest part of the ballpark for a grand slam home run and a commanding 8-3 lead.
“I really thought he was going to get out of that,” Woodward said of the bases-loaded jam faced by Leclerc. “Especially once he got 1-2 on Rodriguez. I’ve got the give the kid (Rodriguez) credit. Hit a fastball that was down in the zone to dead center of our park saying something, so I’ve got to tip the hat a little bit to him.”
