Brief starts, bad luck plagues Rangers' pitching staff

HOUSTON -- The Rangers’ Saturday afternoon started with a broken hand.

Left-handed reliever Brock Burke broke his non-throwing hand on Friday night following a rough outing against the Astros in which he allowed four runs in two-thirds of an inning. He punched a wall in frustration after he was removed from the game, according to manager Bruce Bochy.

“It was a bit of frustration,” Bochy said prior to Saturday’s contest. “We wanted our guys to be competitive. But with that passion, there's a fine edge. When you cross that line, there's going to be consequences. We just saw what happened last night. We love the fact that he was upset with not helping the club last night. We hope it’s not long, but it just wasn’t a smart move.”

And while Burke’s broken hand and subsequent placement on the injured list isn’t the reason for the bullpen’s most recent meltdown in the Rangers’ 9-2 loss to the Astros on Saturday, it was no doubt emblematic of the greater struggles on the pitching staff for Texas.

The previous night, the Rangers' bullpen -- including Burke -- bent, and bent again, but didn’t break as they allowed the Astros to get back into a game that should’ve been a double-digit-run victory for Texas. On Saturday, the bullpen fully broke wide open as Houston put together a seven-run seventh inning that erased a 2-2 tie.

Rangers starter Andrew Heaney allowed just two runs, but was knocked out of the game with two outs in the fourth inning as Houston hitters drove his pitch count up. The left-hander allowed four hits and four walks before turning it over to the bullpen.

Jacob Latz allowed an inherited runner to score after a double from Kyle Tucker that tied the game at 2, but ultimately pitched 1 1/3 scoreless frames. The real trouble came when the Astros loaded the bases with one out in the seventh after three straight singles from Jon Singleton, José Abreu and Jake Meyers, who laid down a perfect bunt into no man’s land between the mound and third base.

Houston broke the game open from there, as José Ureña allowed five runs in 1 1/3 innings after allowing none over his first 9 1/3 innings this season.

A bit of bad luck, including expected batting averages of .040 and .180 on Singleton and Abreu’s singles, respectively, and poor execution against Houston’s best hitters made for an all too familiar sight at Minute Maid Park.

“Sometimes the bullpen is dictated by the workload that is going on down there,” Bochy said postgame. “So these are the guys that we had fresh today, ready to go. Latz, he gave up the hit, but I thought he did a nice job. José had some bad luck. He started with a couple of ground balls and then the bunt kind of got things going for them. I thought he was throwing the ball well.”

When looking at bullpen struggles as of late, Bochy pointed towards the starters not going deep into games, especially in this current stretch of 17 games in 17 days.

“With the bullpen, I really think we're still getting settled in,” Bochy said. “But we’ve just got to get a little deeper in the game. I think we need the starters to help things out.”

Heaney, who hasn’t pitched into the sixth inning in any of his first three starts this season, said he feels like he’s fighting himself -- both mentally and mechanically -- as he continues to work through things on the mound.

“I’m having a hard time getting some traction,” he said. “It's weird to say in a game like today, but I did feel a little bit better. But also, you've got to play the game. The execution wasn't great when I needed to make pitches. It was kind of there, but still it was kind of a slog, for sure.”

Better times may be coming for the pitching staff, though.

Michael Lorenzen -- who signed late in Spring Training -- has made his final start in Triple-A Round Rock and will join the rotation within the next week. Max Scherzer is scheduled to throw live batting practice later this week in Detroit and will be on his way soon after.

There’s no telling who will be relegated to the bullpen, and Bochy declined to divulge his plans, but it’s clear that the staff will have options going forward.

Where that leaves both Heaney and the state of the bullpen will be seen further down the stretch.

“We were OK in the ‘pen,” Bochy reiterated. “Sure, you want your guy going a little deeper, but you’ve got to take care of him, too. [Heaney will] get in a good groove here. We've seen it. I thought his stuff was really good. I thought that was a good sign.”