With rotation in murky waters, reliable Ureña struggles

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers’ starting rotation seems to grow more uncertain every day -- Friday’s pregame placement of Max Scherzer on the injured list was the latest in a spate of setbacks -- but they began the night hoping they could fill at least one hole with José Ureña, who has been adaptable and dependable in various pitching roles this season.

After an 11-6 loss to the Red Sox at Globe Life Field, now even Ureña hasn’t escaped the recent run of misfortune. He allowed seven earned runs on eight hits Friday in four-plus innings, the hardest he has been hit in seven starts and 26 total appearances this season.

After Wilyer Abreu’s scorching 112.2 mph two-run shot to right field in the second inning, Ureña got knocked around in the fourth by Tyler O’Neill (106.5 mph single), Rafael Devers (106.5 mph double) and Abreu again (109.1 mph single). Connor Wong also had a soft liner to right that fell for an RBI single. Ureña gave up four hits on just six pitches to start the fourth inning.

“We tried to attack ... I used my changeup, I tried to get it in the bottom of the zone and they didn’t swing at that pitch,” Ureña said. “When we were using the change in the count we needed and we threw down ... they didn’t swing, so we had to squeeze some more of the zone. They took advantage of those mistakes.”

Jarren Duran led off the fifth and chased Ureña with a triple, scoring on a sacrifice fly.

Prior to Friday, the veteran Ureña had a 2.84 ERA in 31 2/3 innings as a starter this year and a 3.22 ERA in 44 2/3 innings as a reliever.

Before the game, manager Bruce Bochy praised Ureña’s contributions, saying, “He’s done a terrific job -- starting, relieving, long relief, high-leverage situations -- he’s a pro.” Afterwards, Bochy didn’t think Ureña’s performance was as subpar as his stat line.

“I thought José had really good stuff -- he got some balls in the middle, but they did some good hitting there,” Bochy said.

Ureña joined the rotation Friday because three of the last five pitchers the Rangers have started aren’t available right now: Scherzer, Jon Gray (injured this week) and Michael Lorenzen (traded this week). Bochy said Scherzer should be back as soon as he is eligible to come off the IL.

“He actually thinks in a couple more days he could be ready, but we have some concern for him,” Bochy said. “We want to take care of him and have him for the rest of the year. That's why we're giving him a break right now.”

Only Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney remain among the Rangers’ rotation regulars at the moment. So the Rangers will need workmanlike spot starts out of some of their lesser-used pitchers in the near future -- Ureña among them -- if they hope to stay competitive in the American League West division title race.

Whom Bochy will turn to Saturday was, at least officially, anybody’s guess after Friday’s game. Perhaps lefty Cody Bradford, perhaps a bullpen game, or even some reinforcements from the Minors? No starter was announced.

“You’ve got to piece it together and you keep battling, that’s all you can do,” Bochy said. “I think we’ll be fine [Saturday], we will get some fresh arms, if we have to bring somebody up, we’ll do that.”

Having dropped six of their past seven games, the Rangers are in one of their most challenging funks this season.

“We’ve been here before, we’ve had a bad stretch late last year, too, and turned things around,” said Corey Seager, who hit two solo homers among the four long balls the club hit off Boston starter Kutter Crawford. “It’s on us now. Nobody else.”