Rangers stacking bad breaks with blowout amid tough stretch

TORONTO -- And the going gets tougher.

Little to nothing went the Rangers’ way on Saturday afternoon, their struggles on both sides of the ball intensifying in a 14-2 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. It was a fresh, painful chapter of one of the most testing moments of their season, and the chances to turn the page are getting slimmer.

“You get in a run like this and it seems like balls don't bounce your way or calls [don’t go your way],” said manager Bruce Bochy. “That has nothing to do with this game, or some of these games, but that is part of it. But still, we have to find a way to put up runs consistently. That's been the biggest problem from day one. We have been brilliant at times with the runs that we have had, where we have rolled off some nice wins, but we just get shut down a little bit too much, and that's what we're trying to fix.”

That’s what makes this one sting a bit more. It’s the contrast with how things went down just one game prior.

Saturday’s blowout was a brutal way to follow an intense one-run loss on Friday night, when the Rangers did plenty to shake off their offensive issues, but the bullpen couldn’t hold onto a late lead. The goal was to use that disappointment as fuel to even the series, but the Rangers’ misfortunes started before they even took the field.

The first sign of trouble came with the absence of Marcus Semien, held out of the lineup for the first time since April with swelling and soreness on his right wrist after being hit by a pitch the previous night. Semien’s X-rays came back negative for fractures, a bit of good news to sprinkle into a rough day.

Things unraveled quickly once the game got underway. Looking to give his club length after exiting early in his past two starts, Patrick Corbin got ambushed in the second, allowing six runs to score on seven hits (including a three-run home run by Myles Straw) and one walk for a total of 40 pitches in the inning. A one-out walk ended Corbin’s day in the following frame.

“Corby’s stuff was fine, just his command, it was off,” said Bochy. “He was in the middle of the plate a little bit too much.”

That brought in Jon Gray, the veteran swingman tasked with saving the Rangers’ bullpen for Sunday’s finale. But the Blue Jays tabbed him for four more runs, putting the game out of reach and bringing Rowdy Tellez to the mound for the seventh and eighth.

More often than not this season, the Rangers have been on the good side of blowout games -- they own a 19-13 record in contests decided by five or more runs. That’s in large part due to the pitching staff, the one area this club has been able to consistently rely on.

Corbin has been a nice piece of that success, but he’s still searching for a rhythm in August. Over three starts this month, the lefty owns a 12.10 ERA in just 9 2/3 innings, a far cry from the 2.30 ERA he posted in July.

“That one's on me,” said Corbin. “I’m just not pitching deep into games right now, and kind of sticking to my strengths and going after guys -- how I've done earlier this year. So I’m frustrated about that. Just [have to] look back and try to find a way to get better.”

That’s true for the Rangers as a whole, who have now fallen to 4-11 after the Trade Deadline and dipped two games below the .500 mark. There’s still time to retrieve their best brand of baseball and go on a run toward October, but the moment to turn the tide is now. There’s still plenty to play for.

“Everyone has ups and downs throughout the course of the year,” said Corbin. “ ... We're just not winning games. So it's frustrating, but we can only try to come and get better and move on.

“We've played some good teams, but I think we're a very good team, and these are teams that we can beat. So we need to come and battle every day.”