HOUSTON -- The Rangers have been the best defensive team in baseball to this point.
Texas' 100 defensive runs saved and 30 outs above average both rank top three in baseball. The 100 DRS is far more than the Cubs, the club at No. 2 in the rankings (80).
The Rangers lost to the Astros, 6-3, to open a three-game set at Daikin Park on Monday night. Texas outhit Houston, 9-6, but also out-errored them, 2-1. It was messy, and the Rangers basically beat themselves.
A pair of throwing errors -- one in the first inning and one in the fifth -- were not the only reasons for the Rangers' series-opening loss in a season-defining week. But it is a big part of it.
“It wasn't our cleanest game,” manager Bruce Bochy said before anything else postgame.
Things spiraled very early for Jack Leiter and the Rangers to start the evening, when the rookie allowed a single to Jeremy Peña and a walk to Yordan Alvarez. Then a throwing error by Leiter himself as he tried to throw from a seated position allowed Carlos Correa to reach base and score both of those runs.
“Correa, with a ball like that, after two baserunners to start the game, you're just attacking it,” Leiter explained. “That's a ball that you want to turn into an out. Maybe I ran too aggressively and caused the slip. I don't know. It's just one of those unfortunate things. I tried to make a good throw from a position you never really make a throw from, and threw it away.
“That was obviously about as tough of a start to the game as you could have.”
Afterwards, Leiter retired 11 straight batters, allowing the Rangers offense to fight back and take a 3-2 lead thanks to a home run by Josh Jung.
But errors returned with a vengeance once again. Yainer Diaz reached on a throwing error by Josh Smith to lead off the bottom of the fifth, leading to a two-run homer by Zach Cole. The Astros re-took the lead and never relinquished it back.
“Yeah, it wasn't our cleanest game,” Bochy reiterated. “A couple errors really cost us today. Jack tried to make a play there, and threw it away. That ball [thrown from Smith], [first baseman Jake] Burger picks that probably nine out of 10 times. And anyway, we had some chances to break it open.”
But again, the throwing errors were not all that kept the Rangers from winning Monday’s game.
The offense went 2-for-5 with runners in scoring position, which would be a win at many points throughout the Rangers season. But they stranded seven runners on base and failed to capitalize after chasing Astros starter Jason Alexander out of the game in the fifth inning.
But Bochy is strapped for much to do with a dramatically injured position player corps and an overworked bullpen. Like many nights recently, Bochy emptied his bench late in the game, trying to get favorable platoon splits against Houston relievers.
“I considered a lot,” Bochy said simply.
As the game went deeper, Rowdy Tellez pinch-hit for Dylan Moore, Michael Helman for Alejandro Osuna, Cody Freeman for Josh Smith, Kyle Higashioka for Joc Pederson, in succession, like clockwork.
But emptying the bench when and how he did left Bochy with catcher Jonah Heim standing on second base as the tying run in the seventh inning. Wyatt Langford lined a single into left field, but third-base coach Tony Beasley aggressively sent Heim home, where he was gunned down by a mile to end the Rangers’ threat.
“I don't know if anybody would have scored on that ball,” Bochy said. “That's the move that we decided to go with. I wanted to keep Jonah in the game with Higgy ready to pinch-hit. That might have been a little aggressive. They made the play, give them credit.”