'I hate feeling like this': Amidst unusual last two weeks, Mike Minor's struggles continue in loss to Astros

ARLINGTON - To say the last two weeks have been a little unsettling for Mike Minor would be an understatement.

To wit:

-- He had one start canceled after the death of Tyler Skaggs, then had to pitch on a night when nobody in the park had their mind on baseball.

-- He backed out of pitching in the All-Star Game because of scheduling, then was scratched from his last scheduled start of the first half, which meant, that had he wanted to, he would have been able to pitch in the All-Star Game.

-- He came back from the break to find general manager Jon Daniels wasn't summarily dismissing the idea of entertaining trade offers for him. Daniels said it "probably" didn't make sense for the Rangers to trade Minor, but also didn't rule out listening to offers.

Against that backdrop, Minor struggled through 92 pitches in five innings Saturday, having to give way to a rookie pitcher, who promptly allowed a go-ahead run in a game the Rangers eventually lost 7-6 to Houston in 11 innings. The Astros eventually won it on a Jose Altuve two-out double off rookie reliever Brett Martin, which scored George Springer. Springer had worked his way to a walk.

"I've pitched like [crap] the last two times," Minor said. "I feel like there are lapses in there in focus or something. I am not throwing the put-away pitch. I feel like I served them up a little bit tonight. I hate feeling like this, but I look forward to getting back out there."

Consider the first inning alone. Minor walked leadoff hitter Springer, then allowed a two-out rocket-fired double to Yordan Alvarez and was down by two runs quickly. It was that kind of struggle for the entirety of his evening.

He left with the game tied only because Joey Gallo threw out Jose Altuve trying to stretch a single into a double. Immediately after the play, Alex Bregman homered on a 1-1 fastball just above the heart of the hitting zone. After the inning, the Rangers turned to Phillips Valdez, who was making just his third major league appearance.

"We wanted to keep him under 100 pitches," manager Chris Woodward said. "With the time off and him being at the All-Star Game [he attended as a member of the team, but did not pitch], it was just a lot of time. If they had been clean innings, we might have let him go back out. But there were a lot of stressful innings, starting with the first."

After the bullpen worked hard on consecutive nights, the Rangers needed Minor to go deeper. Since he didn't Valdez was called on in a high leverage situation. He could not escape the inning, which forced the Rangers to use temporarily-assigned starter Adrian Sampson as a long man for a second straight night.

And with Shawn Kelley and Jose Leclerc unavailable, the Rangers' 11th inning choices came down to lefties Martin, Jesse Biddle or rookie Kyle Bird. Martin got the first two outs, but lost Springer after getting ahead 1-2. Altuve followed by lining an 0-2 curve ball to the gap in left center. Springer scored and Altuve ended up at third after the relay throw to the plate. Myles Straw added a single through the right side to give Houston a two-run lead.

The Rangers scored a run in the bottom of the inning, but Tim Federowicz flied out to center to end the game.

"I thought our bullpen was incredible," Woodward said. "We asked a lot of those guys and they stepped up."

They asked a lot because their most dependable pitcher - Mike Minor - couldn't give them what he typically has this season.




Be the smartest Rangers fan

Be the smartest Rangers fan


By signing up you agree to our privacy policy

BlueConic Segments

BlueConic Profile Data