Rangers searching for answers after disjointed stretch 

TORONTO -- Heartbreak comes in many forms.

For the second game in a row, the Rangers put themselves in a good position with the bats, only to watch their pitching falter in late innings. Texas’ bullpen, so reliable for most of the season, surrendered six runs between the seventh and the eighth in Friday’s 6-5 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

Lightning seldom strikes twice in the same place, especially for a relief corps that entered play as the fourth-best in the Majors by ERA (3.40), but the past couple of contests are an illustration of this moment in the Rangers’ season. As the offense seems to turn a corner, a new head-scratching problem appears. It’s been hard to have it all clicking at once.

“We are in a tough stretch,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “The bullpen has been doing a good job, so it makes it even more frustrating. We had a lead late the last couple games, and we let it get away. … Mike [Maddux, pitching coach] and I will sit and we’ll talk about how we can change things.”

You can’t blame Bochy for digging deeper for answers. The past few games have been a far cry from his club’s pitching identity.

This one had all the makings of a bounce-back outing for the Rangers, who jumped to an early lead on Kyle Higashioka’s three-run homer in the second inning. Jacob deGrom also looked destined for a better fate, holding the Blue Jays scoreless on two hits and no walks and over five innings with five strikeouts.

The visitors needed one more return to form, but the bullpen couldn’t get it done.

“We've definitely run into some tough situations with some good hitters at the plate,” said Higashioka. “We have confidence that we're going to get through those situations, but unfortunately, it's just not been working out for us lately.”

It started with Robert García, who surrendered a two-run homer to Alejandro Kirk in the bottom of the seventh to bring the game within one run. The Rangers responded with a two-run shot of their own in the next frame, a laser to left-center field off the bat of Marcus Semien. But the gravitational pull of this tough stretch was too strong.

Danny Coulombe allowed three consecutive singles and failed to record an out in the bottom of the eighth three days after yielding a ninth-inning run and taking a loss against Arizona.

Called upon to put out the fire with the Rangers’ lead down to two, Phil Maton also furthered his own struggles, surrendering two walks -- including one with the bases loaded -- and a game-flipping two-run single, again from Kirk. It was a worrisome way to follow Wednesday’s outing, in which Maton allowed four ninth-inning runs to take the loss against the D-backs.

Just like that, the Rangers (61-62) let another one slip away, falling below .500 again after a stellar month of July.

“We play 162 games, that’s a lot of games,” said Coulombe. “Nobody's gonna be perfect all year. [We have] a really good bullpen. We'll just keep going.”

The belief is still there. Look no further than last month and you’ll see that this group does have the capacity to put it all together. But the Rangers are now 4 1/2 games out of an AL Wild Card spot, and 7 1/2 games back of the Astros in the AL West.

With roughly six weeks left in the regular season, the urgency to figure things out isn’t going anywhere. If October baseball is all about clicking at the right time, Texas may need a bit of a head start.

“We'll bounce back, but it's definitely tough to take recently, because we've been on a tough stretch,” said Higashioka. “Part of it is each individual. We've got to make sure we're keeping tabs on what we're doing well and what we are struggling with, and just try to address those things as quick as possible.

“A lot of it is … not changing who you are -- usually, it's just a small tweak -- but, you know, I think as far as adjustments go, this is a game of adjustments. So we gotta make those necessary adjustments to start winning ballgames.”