ARLINGTON, Texas - For much of the last few weeks, the Texas Rangers' offense has struggled to produce any sustained success.
On Wednesday night, that sentiment remained true.
Texas was shut out by the Washington Nationals 6-0 as the offense managed just four hits and one walk while striking out 13 times.
For much of the night, the Rangers were shut down by Nationals starter Cade Cavalli, who went six innings with 11 strikeouts.
“We had five base runners all night” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “He [Cavalli] was tough. He has a lot of different weapons, I don’t generally like giving the other side credit, but he was as good as I’ve seen in the league all year. 97 MPH at the top, 92 MPH changeup, 95 MPH cutter and a really good sweeper with a 90 MPH curveball, he had sone weapons.
“We just couldn’t get anything going, that’s the bottom line, we had a guy on first and second a couple times and that was about it," Schumaker continued.
"I thought [Jarred] Kelenic took some good at-bats, Evan Carter took some good at-bats, obviously Corey Seager, love the way he’s swinging the bat right now but other than that it was a challenging night for our offense."
Kumar Rocker got the start for the Rangers and posted a decent outing, going five innings, allowing six hits and two runs while walking just one and striking out three.
Throwing first-pitch strikes was once again an issue for Rocker as he now has the fourth-worst first-pitch strike percentage in all of baseball.
“I think first pitch strikes are big,” Rocker said after the game. “I’d like to see that percentage increase and that’s just kinda things we work on during the week and just keep pounding on it.”
In the third inning, Rocker left a splitter over the middle of the plate, and Nationals left fielder Jose Tena deposited it into the Rangers' bullpen for a solo home run to get the scoring started.
The very next inning, Washington would extend their lead on an RBI single off the bat of catcher Kebert Ruiz.
After Cole Winn allowed a run in the sixth, the Nationals would come through with the big blow of the night against Peyton Gray in the seventh.
Designated hitter Andres Chaparro drove a three-run home run into the left-field seats to make it 6-0 Washington and put the game away.
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