ARLINGTON — This is admittedly a different story if Rangers center fielder Evan Carter didn’t climb a fence to save the night, and as much as Kumar Rocker’s own performance will get its due, it did hang in the balance while the burly right-hander stood on the mound “just praying” while a batted ball rocketed through the air.
“He deserves something good,” Rocker said of Carter. “I’m going to spoil him a little bit.”
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So what do you get the pitcher who, per manager Skip Schumaker, “gave us a chance to win”?
Try a checklist. Rocker, given a chance to open the season in the big league rotation, has already crossed a good deal of items off of a metaphorical one. Tuesday’s 5-1 win vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates at Globe Life Field, in which Rocker pitched a season-best six innings, allowed him to cross off a few more in his development.
“I really feel like he’s growing and taking the next step,” Schumaker said. “Today was another really good example.”
The Pirates scored a run before Rocker recorded an out. Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz singled, stole second base, advanced to third on an error and scored the game's first run when first baseman Ryan O'Hearn slapped a base hit into center field. Rocker then retired 12 of the next 13 batters that he faced, a stretch that included two strikeouts with his slider to strand O’Hearn in the first, and he didn’t run into trouble until Cruz nearly hit a three-run home run off of him in the fifth.
"There's a lot of things that could've sped up on him and, all of a sudden, we're going to the 'pen early," Schumaker said. "Maybe that happens earlier in his career. I don't know, but today he settled down, settled in, and [kept us] in the game and provided the innings after that and just shut the momentum down on their side. It was a huge step for him."
Rocker, who has a 3.48 ERA this season, continues to take strides in what may ultimately become his first full season as a big leaguer. In his first start of the season, vs. the Cincinnati Reds, Rocker held his poise and held base runners in a later-than-expected debut. In his second, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he finished a crucial fifth inning in a hostile environment and fearlessly threw his project pitch against baseball’s best lineup. On Tuesday, in his fourth start, the 26-year-old worked with the kind of efficiency that he hasn’t yet displayed on a consistent basis.
He averaged 14.6 pitches per inning vs. the Pirates, the second-fewest in any of his 21 major league starts, and he threw 15 or fewer pitches in three of his last four frames of work. He recorded 11 outs on ground balls with a combination of his sinker and slider, didn’t walk a batter until the sixth and stranded five of the batters that did reach on base.
It marked the first time he's pitched six or more innings and allowed one or fewer runs and one or fewer walks a big leaguer. It meant that the Rangers didn’t need to utilize their bullpen, which has three pitchers on the injured list and another classified as day-to-day, until the seventh as they prepare for eight games in the next eight days.
"Seeing him grow in the big leagues is awesome," catcher Danny Jansen said. "He’s got the ability to do that. That just preaches efficiency and how important that is. He can get his punchouts, but he can also get groundball outs, and that’s a big part of his game too. That’s going to allow him to go deeper."