Rocker's home debut plagued by uncharacteristic free passes

ARLINGTON -- Kumar Rocker felt he overthrew in his Major League debut a week ago in Seattle, so he tried to dial it down a little bit as he made his home debut on Thursday afternoon at Globe Life Field.

That approach didn’t exactly pay off, as Rocker was uncharacteristically wild in the Rangers’ 4-0 loss to the Blue Jays.

“Stepping off the gas put me on my heels a little bit,” Rocker said. “It didn’t put me in a good position.”

Rocker, the Rangers’ No. 2 prospect, allowed five free baserunners on four walks and a hit batter over three innings. This is a pitcher who had never issued more than two walks in a game in his professional career. He ranked fifth among all Minor League pitchers with an 11.0 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season.

Rocker acknowledged putting a self-imposed “governor” on himself was not ideal.

“It’s hard,” said Rocker, who threw 71 pitches, 41 for strikes. “But it’s what I went out there trying to do and I learned from it.”

Rocker found himself in jams every inning with all the walks. He managed to get out of the first inning unscathed, striking out Davis Schneider for the final out, but the Blue Jays scored a run in both the second and third innings.

In the second, Rocker issued a leadoff walk to Addison Barger and plunked Leo Jiménez. That drew a visit from Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux. Rocker responded by striking out Joey Loperfido on an 85.8 mph slider, but he then loaded the bases by walking the No. 9 hitter, Tyler Heineman.

The Blue Jays scored one run on a sacrifice fly by Nathan Lukes. Rocker minimized the damage to just that run by striking out Ernie Clement to end the frame.

In the third, Rocker again walked the leadoff man, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and then gave up a single to Spencer Horwitz. Rocker almost worked around that, but saw an unearned run score with two outs when Rangers third baseman Ezequiel Duran couldn’t come up with a grounder.

Rocker then capped his home debut by striking out Loperfido for a second time. In the end, despite battling control issues, Rocker showcased stuff that will play well at this level in the long run.

“He’s got good stuff. There’s probably going to be days that he’s lights-out and you’ve seen that from him this year,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “He’s got good stuff and he’s a big guy. It’s a weird release angle. I thought we did a good job against him on a tough day game where you’ve lost a couple. I think he’s got good stuff, for sure.”

Added Rangers catcher Carson Kelly: “You can tell he’s got what it takes. Today was just one of those days.”

Kelly went on to say that Rocker has shown poise considering he’s made just two starts in the big leagues.

“He seems pretty level-headed regardless of what happens,” Kelly said. “If it’s going good or going bad, I think that shows a lot about him as a person and as a competitor. It’s easy for a young guy to come up here and you see kind of a ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ moment. But for him, he just stayed on course and controlled what he could control.”

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy echoed those thoughts, saying he thought Rocker’s stuff wasn’t as sharp and was a “little lighter” than normal.

“You’re going to have days like that,” Bochy said. “Just couldn’t quite get it going like he did his last start. Still, battled well, we could’ve come out of that with one run. The pitches caught up with him, that’s why he came out, he was just a little off today.”

Rocker is expected to make his next start against the A’s on Thursday in Oakland, which will be the last MLB game at Oakland Coliseum.