Final thoughts from Texas Rangers’ fifth straight loss: A light at the end of the tunnel?

ARLINGTON – Buried deep beneath the rubble of their fifth straight loss, perhaps the heartbeat of the Rangers’ offense started to beat once again Tuesday.

Adolis García’s bat has been located.

García homered and doubled in the Rangers’ 7-4 loss to Cleveland. It was double his previous total for the first two weeks of May in which he had a lone double. He hadn’t homered since April 28. He was in a bad way with 11 strikeouts in 21 at-bats over the previous five games. As he is prone to do, García was in a stretch of chasing fastballs out of the zone. And the deeper the funk of the Rangers’ offense became, the more García tried to do, which only exacerbated the problem.

“He’s been trying too hard,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy had said before the game. “And when things aren’t going well, he can get a little down on himself because he wants to help the team. He’s set the bar pretty high for who he is.”

Though García is so physically imposing, he is at his best when he doesn’t try to overpower fastballs, particularly those above the strike zone. When he falls into that habit, an extended slump can follow. He went through a stretch like this late last year. He does his most damage on secondary stuff. Both his homer and double came on sliders from Ben Lively and Scott Barlow. On the homer, it’s worth noting that Lively had tried to get García to chase with three straight fastballs either wide of or above the zone. García did not swing.

It’s also worth noting that with García’s homer in the second and Corey Seager’s in the third, it marked the first time this year the Rangers’ best homer-hitting duo both homered in the same game. If Seager and García get hot at the same time, the offense becomes exponentially better.

Alright, that said, here are some other VERY IMPORTANT observations from the Rangers’ loss Tuesday:

Best silver lining: Jack Leiter’s loss was a chance for others to gain, namely Jonathan Hernández and Yerry Rodriguez, both of whom were called on to pitch multiple innings. Both have struggled with command and to come out of the gate firing their best stuff. Bruce Bochy has all but begged for them to step up.

Granted, coming in with a big deficit is the definition of low leverage, but both were very effective. Rodriguez especially so. He entered the game throwing 97 mph, compared to 95 mph over the weekend in Denver. Bochy had mentioned the need for him to bring his max velocity with him rather than needing a hitter or two to ramp up.

Pitched four hitless innings, allowing only a hit batter who was then erased on a double play. Even made a nice reaction on a hard-hit comebacker off his glove that knocked his hat clean off his head.

“When you are aggressive and attack the zone, good things happen,” Bochy said. “We need these guys to step up. And they did.”

Worst prediction: The Rangers are going to need a relief arm to boost the bullpen on Wednesday. There is only one healthy reliever on the 40-man roster, lefty Antoine Kelly. Put those factors together and it’s easy to believe Kelly will be the callup. He might be, but here’s why he might not: Kelly, who returned from a three-week stint on the IL just 10 days ago, still hasn’t pitched two full innings and hasn’t pitched on consecutive days.

Think the Rangers either need somebody who can go two-plus innings or somebody who can pitch on consecutive days. Think it makes it just as likely that either veteran Shaun Anderson or Gerson Garabito, signed to a minor league contract this winter after pitching the last two seasons in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, would be added. It would force the Rangers to create a spot on the 40-man roster. Reliever Austin Pruitt (knee) would seemingly be easy enough to move to the 60-day IL since he’s not even around the team right.

So, if I’m making a prediction for who replaces Jack Leiter in the short-term on the 26-man roster, I’m as inclined to go with Anderson or Garabito as I am with Kelly.

Worst collision: The collision between Cleveland shortstop Brayan Rocchio and center fielder Ty Freeman was hard to watch. From the summit of the Globe, you could see the two converging on Adolis García’s pop to shallow center in the fifth and you kept thinking ‘’uh, nobody’s slowing down.”

Rocchio hit Freeman in the face with his extended glove and also in the elbow with his own face. Both crumpled to the ground. I was sure somebody had a broken jaw. Honestly, was also amazed that Freeman held on to the ball. And more amazed that after being visited by athletic trainers, both stayed in the game. It was scary and about as solid contact between two players as I’ve seen in some time.

Freeman took a beating Tuesday, getting hit twice by pitches and also making a diving catch in center field.

Worst stretch: Final score from Colorado this week: Stars 9, Rangers 6. Which tells you something about both teams, just how well the Stars played in Denver and just how poorly the Rangers did.

Worst sign of the apocalypse: When I got home from the ballpark, did another check of Ebay, just to see what people were seeking for Corey Seager World Series replica rings. Mind you: This is a replica. The stones are not real. The metal is not gold. It is a replica. It says so on the box. There were people on Ebay asking for $800 and $1,200 for their rings. Granted, they included “or best offer” in their ads. The going rate appeared to be about $125 a pop from what I saw. This was two hours after the game ended. What a racket.

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant

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