What is the story about?
Rangers
5, Orioles 2
- That was quite the performance there from Jack Leiter.
- It didn’t seem like it would be early on. Leiter started off the first two batters of the game 2-0, with the second of those, Gunnar Henderson, taking the third pitch of his at bat out of the park to center for a home run. The next two batters started out 1-0, with the second in that series, Adley Rutschman, doubling on the second pitch. Leiter got out of the inning when Tyler O’Neill hit a soft liner that was snagged for the third out.
- It was not looking encouraging for Leiter after one inning, and was especially worrisome given the need to get innings out of him, in light of the fact that there were essentially three relievers available in the game.
- Leiter’s next three innings, though, were perhaps the best three innings we have seen him pitch. Leiter retired nine of ten batters in the second, third and fourth, with the lone baserunner coming on an eight pitch walk to Colton Cowser. Five batters were retired via strike out, with Leiter striking out the side, swinging, in the fourth inning on eleven pitches.
- Things got a little hairy in the fifth, with a Cowser infield single, a Blaze Alexander regular single, and a Henderson single leading to a second Oriole run. The inning was bookended by strikeouts, however, and Leiter retired the side in order in the sixth on three very high fly balls that the Oriole hitters got under, though Tyler O’Neill’s fly ball to left was scary, and would have been a homer in 24 of 30 parks, per Statcast.
- Jack Leiter’s fastball has long been his calling card, but on Monday, it wasn’t working for him. He threw his fastball 16 times. Nine of those were balls, two were called strikes, and the Orioles made contact with five. Do the math, and you’ll see that that was 0 swings and misses on the fastball, his bread-and-butter pitch. Ditto with his sinker, which he threw 9 times without getting a swing and a miss.
- You’ll note that’s just 25 pitches, though, of the 92 Leiter threw in the game. With his fastball command not there, Leiter turned instead to his changeup and his slider. Out of Leiter’s 27 changeups, he got 18 swings, including eight whiffs. Leiter threw the slider 22 times, getting 7 whiffs on 11 swings, plus another 5 called strikes.
- Leiter used six pitches in all on Monday, throwing his curveball 12 times and the newest addition to his arsenal, a cutter, six times, with the Orioles whiffing on three of the six cutters he threw.
- When one looks at Leiter’s heat map, his inability to command his fastball is obvious, and he threw more non-competitive pitches with it than he did pitches in or near the strike zone. He also still has work to do in regards to tightening his command on his change, which quite a few times wasn’t close to the strike zone.
- But the fact that Leiter was able to not just survive, but thrive, with his fastball being close to useless is incredibly encouraging. Generating 21 swings and misses and picking up a Quality Start, under those circumstances, is remarkable, and makes you dream on what he will be able to do on a day when he is locating his fastball well.
- The Rangers went with Jakob Junis, Jalen Beeks, and Tyler Alexander for the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Junis needed just eight pitches to get his three outs, and I was surprised that Skip Schumaker lifted him after that one inning, given that Beeks and Alexander were the only other guys likely available, unless you wanted to turn to Kumar Rocker and not have him available to start either of the last two days of the series.
- The bats got on the board early. Brandon Nimmo and Wyatt Langford singled, then advanced a base apiece on a Corey Seager ground out. Jake Burger then hit a comebacker to Orioles pitcher Chris Bassitt, who made one of the worst throws home from a pitcher I’ve ever seen, spiking the ball well in front of Rutschman, allowing Nimmo to score easily.
- Texas put three more up in the second. Evan Carter led off the inning with a double, and scored on a Brandon Nimmo single after Kyle Higashioka walked. A Langford line out and a Seager walk loaded the bases. Jake Burger singled and Joc Pederson hit a sac fly to give the Rangers a 4-1 lead.
- The Rangers bats had some opportunities but didn’t push across any more runs until the ninth, when they brought one home on a Burger double, an Andrew McCutchen infield single (that would have been an RBI single if Henderson hadn’t made a great stop to keep the ball in the infield), and a Josh Smith single.
- Andrew McCutchen? He’s off to a pretty good start.
- Not off to a good start is Josh Jung, who was 0 for 5 with a pair of Ks, and has now started the season 0 for 17 with 7 Ks.
- Jack Leiter touched 98.4 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.3 mph. Jakob Junis hit 91.0 mph with his sinker. Jalen Beeks topped out at 94.5 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s sinker maxed out at 91.3 mph.
- Jack Burger had a 110.2 mph double and a 102.9 mph single. Corey Seager had a 104.4 mph ground out. Wyatt Langford had a 104.1 mph ground out. Josh Jung had a 104.1 mph line out. Evan Carter had a 101.9 mph double. Brandon Nimmo had a 100.8 mph single.
- That’s three in a row. Let’s make it four on Tuesday.
