Nick Tepesch had a rough outing on Wednesday in the Texas Rangers' loss to the Chicago White Sox, and Rangers manager Ron Washington accepted blame for not getting Tepesch sooner after he'd had a pretty successful run through six innings.
After a rough seventh inning in his previous start, Tepesch continued the trend on Wednesday, giving up two home runs and seeing a tie game get to a 5-2 deficit in pretty quick order as he surrendered a leadoff homer to Conor Gillaspie and then a two-out, two-run homer to Alejandro De Aza.
After the game, Washington took blame for leaving Tepesch in the game for too long and not going to the newly named JoSePH Ortiz sooner.
Ortiz was ready to go in the bullpen in a lefty-lefty matchup against De Aza with two outs and one on with Tepesch at 103 pitches, but Washington went with his gut and felt Tepesch could get the final out of the seventh. It didn't happen, and the White Sox extended their 3-2 lead to a 5-2 lead.
"Bad decision by me," Washington said in his post-game press conference. "I stayed with Tepesch one batter too long. I should have brought in Ortiz and I didn't. I'll take the blame for that one."
You win some, and you lose some, and Washington lost that one.
