Gray continues to deliver, with minimal support, amid Rangers' skid

PHILADELPHIA -- The Rangers lost, 5-2, to the Phillies on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park. It’s just one loss within a 162-game season, but this loss was notable because it’s the first time Texas has been below .500 in the Bruce Bochy era.

The Rangers have now lost 16 of their last 29 games in a brutal skid that included a number of injuries to key players.

But Bochy isn’t one to panic. Neither is his ballclub. There’s a lot of baseball left to be played this season for the reigning World Series champs, but getting things back on track will have to begin on Wednesday in Philly.

“We gotta keep pushing, that’s all you can do,” Bochy said.

Tuesday’s loss felt like more of the same for the Rangers. The struggling offense went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, even as starting pitcher Jon Gray kept the Rangers in the game for most of the night.

Pitching wins championships. That’s been the theme for the Rangers over the last two seasons, and it’s a big part of why they went on to win the first World Series in franchise history. Pitching didn’t play the biggest role in the loss Tuesday night, but Gray felt like he didn’t play his part, despite Bochy feeling otherwise.

“They’re a really good lineup,” Gray said. “I made too many mistakes and they made me pay. You just gotta limit the mistakes against these guys. You can pitch them well, but there’s not a lot of room for error."

Gray is currently going through one of his best stretches as a Ranger, posting a 2.21 ERA across 11 games (10 starts). Since his first start of the season when he allowed five earned runs in a loss to the Cubs, he hasn’t allowed more than two in each of his next 10 starts to this point.

Even as he was tagged with the loss on Tuesday, he didn’t pitch poorly while surrendering two runs over five innings.

But Gray wasn’t completely satisfied with his outing regardless.

“I mean, it wasn't too bad early on,” he said. “I just made some mistakes early on. That hurts the most now. Just a couple of mistakes today are kind of irritating me a little bit. … The fastball could have played in the zone a lot better tonight. I just felt like the misses were a little bit -- it felt like early in the year, wasting pitches, getting behind and walking guys. I'm just gonna focus on getting back to what was working well and attacking the zone with every pitch.”

That being said, entering the day, he was averaging just 3.63 runs of support per nine innings this season, which was the 15th-lowest in the American League. Gray is the biggest victim of a lack of run support, but it’s been a glaring issue for the Rangers in recent weeks as the rotation -- which is put together with a bandaid due to six starters taking residence on the injured list -- has kept Texas in most games.

“We’re getting good pitching,” Bochy said. “The pitching is doing a nice job. It got away from us tonight at the end, but the starters have been doing a nice job.”

To make matters worse, Gray left the game at just 75 pitches after five full innings with right groin tightness, leaving a close game in the hands of a bullpen that boasts a 5.15 ERA, 30th in MLB.

Bochy said postgame that Gray began feeling some tightness in his right groin after completing the fifth inning and nobody wanted to push the issue and hurt him even more. Gray was hit with a comebacker off the bat of Johan Rojas with 96.7 mph exit velocity earlier in the game, but both he and Bochy believe that isn’t related to the groin issue.

He will get an MRI, but Gray said he expects to make his next start.

“That was a tough break for us,” Bochy said.

“I mean, the comebacker feels fine,” Gray added. “Everything like that. So I just had a little groin tightness in the last inning, but I think we are on top of it and trying not to overdo it too much. I feel like it's very minimal. So just work it out this week and it should be fine.”