Rangers looking to rebound from 'off night' in playoff race

CLEVELAND -- The Rangers rolled into Cleveland riding high on Friday night. They had just secured a four-game sweep of the Blue Jays in Toronto, pushing their winning streak to six games to put them right back in the thick of the postseason race.

That high came crashing down quickly against the Guardians. Texas fell behind early, and then fell behind big, before ultimately dropping the series opener, 12-3, at Progressive Field.

“This was just an off night, that’s what I chalk it up to,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “I mean, we played so well in Toronto. This is why you play the game. As good as we have looked, it's hard to believe that we would have a game like this, but we did. We did. But that's what we have to look at, how well we've been playing, not just this one game.”

• Games remaining (15): at CLE (2); vs. BOS (3); vs. SEA (3); at LAA (3); at SEA (4)
• Standings update: The Rangers (82-65) are 1 1/2 games up on the Blue Jays (81-67) and one game up on the Mariners (81-66), who dropped a 6-3 decision to the Dodgers on Friday night, for the second spot in the AL Wild Card race. Texas is a half-game behind Houston (83-65), which lost 4-2 to Kansas City on Friday night, for the AL West lead.
• Tiebreakers: Lose vs. Houston; win vs. Toronto; lead vs. Seattle.

After outscoring Toronto, 35-9, across the four-game set, the Rangers’ hitters struggled against the Guardians. Texas hitters struck out 17 times and struggled to do much of anything against Lucas Giolito and a pair of Cleveland relievers until a three-run top of the ninth.

“It starts with the guy on the mound,” Bochy said. “So that can change momentum either way. I will say tonight, we just saw a guy [Giolito] with a really good changeup that was on top of his game. You give him credit. You just hope your pitching is on and you keep it close, and find a way to scratch and claw for runs.”

Bochy emphasized that it was a rough night all-around, and while the offense couldn’t muster much early in the game, Rangers pitchers struggled all night, allowing Cleveland to steadily extend its lead.

Starter Jon Gray yielded three runs in 3 2/3 innings, and he has now allowed three or more earned runs in five of his past six road starts. Andrew Heaney, who followed Gray in relief, allowed six runs in two innings before Cleveland tagged Ian Kennedy for three more.

Position player Austin Hedges was the only Rangers “pitcher” to toss a clean inning in his fourth pitching outing of the season.

“I feel like I was off a little bit, but we battled with what we had,” Gray said. "We did the best we could and I did the best I could out there. It's unfortunate this time of the year. … It’s just disappointing that I couldn't be better for the guys behind me. It means a lot to them, but our team is in a good spot.

“I think things are still looking up for us. We don't need to get down about this one game. It was mostly me anyway, so we come back tomorrow, play our ballgame, and we'll be where we want to be.”

It was a deflating game all around for Texas, especially after building back the momentum with its six-game winning streak to tighten the AL West and Wild Card races.

But Bochy, seemingly calm as ever, isn’t worried about his team just yet. The Rangers have shown the ability to bounce back from tough games and losing streaks all season long. This one game shouldn’t be any different.

“You keep battling, that’s all you can do in this game,” Bochy said. “I've said it so many times. You're gonna have to deal with games like this, or losing streaks, and you just have to keep pushing.”

“Again, we're going to stay focused on that too, how well we played this last week,” Gray added. “It was definitely one-sided today. But if there's any bad left in us, we have to get it out now. And hopefully that was it today.”