ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers are going to stick with left-hander Ross Detwiler for now.
That may be because their options are limited.
Detwiler dropped to 0-5 Thursday as he lasted just five innings in a 6-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals. Detwiler is now winless in seven starts this season as he allowed nine hits, walked one and allowed three earned runs all while throwing a career high 108 pitches.
He had a good start in Houston May 4 but has now allowed at least three earned runs in five of his seven starts. He's only pitched more than six innings in one of those starts.
Thursday's outing wasn't too bad considering the Royals had so many scoring opportunities against him but managed just one run in the first and two more in the forth. But not too bad won't get it done and Detwiler knows that.
"You leave the ball up and this is a good team," Detwiler said of facing the Royals. "They just hit the ball the other way. They didn't try to do too much. I've been leaving a lot of fastballs up, especially in bad counts."
Detwiler said his fastball command once again eluded him but manager Jeff Banister thought the Royals only "barreled up" three balls against him. But doing that against one of the best offenses in baseball can cause problems and Detwiler found that out.
"He couldn't get the outs when he needed to in certain situations," Banister said. "I still believe he has good stuff. I still think it's about the same as what we've seen. It's not as sharp as two outings ago, the one against Houston when he had the fastball in play and threw the changeup for strikes."
The Rangers nearly bailed Detwiler out with two runs on the bottom of the fifth on RBI singles from Delino DeShields and Prince Fielder. But with Detwiler on fumes the Rangers had to turn to a scuffling bullpen to try and keep the game close.
That didn't happen as Kansas City answered the two runs with three in the sixth off the duo of right-hander Anthony Bass and new lefty Sam Freeman. The Texas bullpen has now allowed 26 earned runs in 39 innings of work this month.
While that's distressing, shorts starts like the one Detwiler had leaves the bullpen in the role of having to get extra outs. That hasn't happened and Detwiler is aware of it.
"I'm mostly just frustrated with myself," he said. "I'm the one who's not getting the ball where it needs to be. I feel like I'm fighting myself. I feel like I took a big step forward in Houston and the last two just haven't been as good as that one."
Banister still has confidence the Houston Detwiler can return.
"He's one of five," Banister said.
