Lorenzen stays in zone, proves he's key for ailing Rangers

KANSAS CITY -- Michael Lorenzen had an awful warmup.

The 32-year-old righty was missing his spots, his body didn’t feel as good as it did in his previous starts and his fastball wasn’t getting the vertical drop he wanted. So what did Lorenzen do ahead of the Rangers’ 7-1 loss to the Royals on Friday at Kauffman Stadium? He told catcher Andrew Knizner to set up middle-middle, preparing to attack the heart of the zone against an aggressive Royals squad.

And that’s exactly what Lorenzen did. The result? The first six-inning outing in which he allowed fewer than three runs in his Rangers career.

The Royals knew it was coming, too. Only one Kansas City batter saw more than three pitches through the first seven plate appearances, a stretch in which Lorenzen induced three first-pitch outs. He attacked the zone -- strikeouts a distant thought -- and got outs at a rapid pace.

“My warmup was awful, I was literally all over the place. So I told Kiz, ‘Hey, set up middle-middle and make sure I’m in the zone and we might be in the fourth with like 35 pitches tonight,’” Lorenzen said. “Otherwise, if we went the other way and I’m trying to hit all my spots, we’re going to be in the fourth with like 90 pitches, so it ended up working out that way. But that just comes with experience.

“A lot of the time the catchers’ targets are a big deal with making sure you’re staying on the plate, and he did a good job of that.”

Lorenzen’s plan worked to perfection early. The Royals didn’t get their first baserunner -- a walk -- until the third inning and Lorenzen had just 17 pitches (15 strikes) after the first two frames. His control got away from him in the third when he gave up the walk and later a single, but he got Bobby Witt Jr. to pop out to escape the inning unscathed. After four scoreless innings, he was at just 49 pitches (34 strikes).

“He’s got good stuff,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s got good velocity, a good changeup … he’s a quality pitcher and we’re lucky to have him. He gave us a chance to win.

“That’s who he is. He attacks the zone. He doesn’t back off anybody. He’s a good one.”

It was just Lorenzen’s fourth start of the season after he signed late in Spring Training, but it was the third time he has gone six innings this season. He threw seven different pitches, and outside of his cutter, which he threw one time, every single pitch had a higher velocity and spin rate than his season average.

And that’s a good sign for the Rangers, who now have five starters on the injured list (Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Cody Bradford and Tyler Mahle) after Eovaldi was placed on the IL prior to the game Friday with a right groin strain.

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Lorenzen was taken out after six innings (86 pitches) of one-run ball for Cole Winn, who entered with a perfect 0.00 ERA across seven innings this season. But Winn gave up four runs in the Royals’ eventual six-run seventh that sealed the Rangers’ defeat. Lorenzen wanted to go back out for the seventh, and Bochy admitted he thought Lorenzen could have, but with the recent string of injuries, Bochy stressed that “We want to take care of these guys.”

“I think you can attribute [the Royals’ six-run seventh] to Cole being a little off,” Bochy said. “He’s been so good. Really been locked in with his command and everything, but was a little off tonight. They strung together some hits. … The floodgates opened up there.

“If you only score one run, it’s going to be tough to win.”

Lorenzen's ability to throw strikes, eat innings and put an ailing offense -- which scored just one run or fewer for the second time in three days -- in position to win has only proved more important for a Rangers squad that is waiting patiently to get back to full strength.

But Lorenzen doesn’t feel the pressure of carrying that burden. He knows his role and that others will step up in the rotation.

“My job is to take the ball 30 times a year and give it my best every single time,” Lorenzen said. “Literally, every single time I’m giving it everything I have. And my routine, from start to finish, is what allows me to do that. Nothing changes.”