Latz 'a little off' as late lead disappears in loss to Brewers

MILWAUKEE -- Rangers rookie Wyatt Langford is a man of few words, but during the last homestand, he gave maybe the best insight of his short professional career.

“It’s been a little tough, I feel like we haven’t been able to bounce back,” he said following the Rangers’ loss to the Mets on June 18. “We’ll bounce back for a couple of games, and then something will go wrong and we’ll lose another couple of games. It’s something that we have to figure out.”

After that night, the Rangers rattled off a four-game winning streak, including a win in the series finale against the Mets and a sweep over the Royals.

Texas came into Milwaukee on a high, hoping to carry the winning streak into the three-game set with the NL Central-leading Brewers.

But like Langford said, something went wrong.

The Rangers held a brief lead over the Brewers after a couple of good offensive innings and a solid start from Michael Lorenzen, who allowed two runs across five innings.

Then Jacob Latz, who had been scoreless over his last eight games (7 innings) and also in 10 of last 11 games (1 earned run in 11 innings), allowed a grand slam to Rhys Hoskins in the sixth inning, which proved to be the final dagger in a 6-3 Rangers loss at American Family Field.

Latz issued walks to Christian Yelich and Willy Adames to load the bases before Hoskins came to the plate.

“He was a little off tonight,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said of Latz. “He got to two strikes, he just couldn't get that last one there. The walks hurt him and the first pitch [to Hoskins], he couldn’t quite get it where he wanted it. He has been so good for us. It's going to happen occasionally. Looking back, it's the walks that hurt him.”

The grand slam in that situation was even more notable because the Rangers are 2-27 when trailing after six innings this season.

Lorenzen failed to go at least six innings for just the third time in 13 starts this season, leading to the usage of Latz in the sixth inning after the right-hander gave up a leadoff double to William Contreras, who would eventually score on the grand slam.

“I didn't feel great,” Lorenzen said of his start. “I felt hit or miss. I was really having to think about mechanics and making good pitches rather than just allowing myself to trust myself to make good pitches. I felt really forced today. I just knew I did everything I could to keep the game close and keep the team in it for as long as I could. I always want to go deeper. We'll work on it between this start and the next one and get better.”

Prior to the run Lorenzen allowed in the fifth inning, Rangers pitchers had combined to toss a season-high 26 consecutive scoreless innings, dating back to the sixth inning of Friday night’s win over Kansas City. It was the club's longest scoreless streak since June 9-16, 2011 (33 innings).

“That’s a tough one to lose, especially when you have a bullpen that has been throwing the way ours has been,” Bochy said. “It just got away from us.”

Despite the recent hot streak, the Rangers' bullpen has not been good this season. Entering Monday’s matchup with the Brewers, Texas relievers compiled a 4.56 ERA, the fifth-highest in baseball.

Latz has arguably been the Rangers' best full-time, healthy reliever not named Kirby Yates (0.99 ERA) and David Robertson (3.48 ERA). Even José Leclerc, who became a stable part of Texas’ bullpen last postseason, has a 4.54 ERA, compared to Latz’s 2.59 ERA entering the day.

Latz was almost definitely the best option in that situation, with Robertson and Yates potentially closing out the eighth and ninth innings.

Latz had nearly even splits, with a .186/.269/.243 line against right-handed batters and .222/.327/.333 line against left-handed batters, protecting the potential struggles of the three-batter minimum.

“I didn't see anything in particular,” Bochy reemphasized on Latz’s rough day. “He had two strikes twice. Yelich fouled off a lot of pitches and finally worked the walk there. I know he wanted to try to get ahead there but he didn't have it. … We had our guy out there. Lefties, righties, he's been doing a terrific job now.”