Rangers aim to 'get back to who we are' as offense cools

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers are comfortable playing at home. They have been all season, sporting a 42-22 record in games at Globe Life Field going into Saturday’s matchup with the Brewers. They hadn’t lost a home series since dropping a three-game set to the Dodgers in late July the week before the Trade Deadline.

But Milwaukee spoiled Texas’ home field advantage on Saturday afternoon, shutting down the Rangers' high-powered offense to win, 6-1, and take the series in Arlington.

For the second time in three games, the Rangers' offense went cold. It hasn’t happened often for the 2023 Texas squad, but the current three-game losing streak has been defined by a lineup that’s looked almost out of sorts at times despite fielding one of the best offenses in baseball.

Rangers hitters struck out a combined 18 times on Saturday, going 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position and stranding seven runners on base.

“We just didn't do much offensively,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “I mean, a lot of swings and misses today. We’ve got to do a little better job of putting the ball in play. I think we had 18 strikeouts today? That's probably not going to work, as you saw. We need to flush this and come back and bounce back. We'll get back to who we are, and it's doing some little things there like maybe putting it in play.”

Texas seemingly had no answers for Milwaukee starter Freddy Peralta, who gave up just one run on a Leody Taveras RBI groundout over 5 2/3 innings. The Brewers' bullpen shut down the Rangers the rest of the way.

Texas was limited to just four hits (all singles), snapping a streak of 81 straight games with an extra-base hit, the third-longest such streak in franchise history.

“I think we saw a good pitcher tonight,” Bochy said. “He had good stuff. He had the riding fastball and good curveball and changeup. He's thrown a lot of good ballgames. Their bullpen, we saw some good arms there. That's why they're in first place. So we still have to find a way I think, maybe put the ball in play a little bit more than what we did tonight.”

The Rangers’ 18 strikeouts in the loss were the most they’ve had in a game since May 11, 2019, against the Astros at Minute Maid Park (18). Each of the Rangers’ 1-5 hitters -- Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Nathaniel Lowe, Adolis García and Mitch Garver -- had at least two strikeouts.

“Again, you have to look, we have faced good pitching,” Bochy said. “But you have to find a way to beat good pitching and score runs. Yesterday we scored runs. Today was just an off day for the offense throughout the lineup. You have to give credit where it’s due sometimes. I do think that their guys were all on top of their game over there.”

Rangers starter Dane Dunning allowed just three earned runs in five-plus innings, though he took his second loss at Globe Life Field this season.

“Just my overall command today, it wasn't where I wanted to be,” Dunning explained. “I was missing wide with the sliders, which is my most effective swing-and-miss pitch. I just wasn't able to execute. I thought my changeup command was, for the most part, pretty good and it kept hitters off balance a little bit. But when it comes to the ultimate scheme of things, I just didn't make pitches when I needed to.”

Though Dunning didn’t have his best game, it’s no doubt that he and the rest of the pitching staff aren’t used to having such limited run support this season. This was only the 13th time this year that the Rangers were held to one or no runs.

Saturday’s loss was the Rangers’ largest margin of defeat since losing 7-1 to the Padres on July 28, and the largest loss at home since falling 16-3 to the Dodgers on July 22.

“My mindset doesn't change at all because I know that at any point in time [the offense] can explode at any moment,” Dunning said of pitching when the bats are cold. “They've done a really good job this year keeping us in every game and being able to have good approaches at the plate. Baseball is a game of failure. We're going to have games like this or things like that happen. We just have to wipe it and go on to the next game and put our best foot forward.”