Foltynewicz lacks run support vs. Mariners

SEATTLE -- The Rangers haven’t won a series in Seattle since May 27-29, 2019, and with a 4-1 loss on Sunday at T-Mobile Park, the streak continues.

Manager Chris Woodward said he felt like the Rangers could’ve easily won the three-game series if a few things had gone differently, especially in the first game, which the Rangers’ lost in 10 innings, before winning on Saturday. The Rangers have lost five straight series in Seattle.

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Rangers starter Mike Foltynewicz pitched seven innings, allowing four runs on four hits, but was lacking run support. The only runs scored off Foltynewicz were via the long ball, with a three-run shot from Luis Torrens and a solo homer from Shed Long Jr.

Woodward said he felt like the Torrens homer was Foltynewicz’s one mistake in the game, but the 1-0 pitch to Long was high and out of the zone and he just took it for a ride over the right-field wall.

“If he executes a pitch to Torrens right there, it’s a totally different game,” Woodward said. “that obviously put them in the lead and from there it was hard for us to kind of battle back. It was just the wrong pitch to [Torrens] and that's the pitch that he hits well. Outside of that, I thought Folty did a really good job.

“It doesn't always come down to one pitch, though it seemed like it did today. But in his case, I thought he actually threw the ball really well through seven innings for us.”

Foltynewicz struggled early in June, going less than four innings and allowing five and eight runs in his first two starts of the month. Lately, he’s extended further into games and kept the Rangers’ within striking distance.

Sunday’s outing was his second seven-inning start in a row.

The Rangers couldn’t get much going offensively. Mariners starter Chris Flexen pitched three perfect innings before Nate Lowe got the first hit in the fourth. Texas avoided the shutout in the sixth, adding a run on three singles and an RBI from recently named All-Star outfielder Adolis García.

Woodward said the offense could have put more pressure on the Mariners, especially after falling behind 3-0. He felt that a lot of Texas hitters expanded the strike zone and gave Flexen easy outs instead of getting ahead in the counts.

“[Flexen] pitches around the edges and he was just really good,” Woodward said. “I’ll give him credit. A lot of the strikes he threw were right on the corner. He's got a good cutter, and it's probably a little bit harder in the daytime to see it. We were helping him out a little bit, but he kept executing. Hat’s off to him.”

The Rangers were 3-3 on this most recent swing through Oakland and Seattle, the first road trip since snapping the 16-game road losing streak in Los Angeles on June 12.

“We feel pretty confident in the way that we’re playing right now,” Woodward said.