Skip Schumaker explains rationale of pinch-hit decision in opener

PHILADELPHIA — Skip Schumaker’s first managerial gamble with the Rangers came before the paint had dried on the 2024 season, and it arrived wrapped in a box-score line that looked, at first glance, like a mismatch.

Trailing the Phillies 5-0 and mounting a comeback in Thursday’s opener, Schumaker called on right-handed hitter Ezequiel Duran to pinch-hit for Josh Smith against struggling southpaw Kyle Backhus. Philadelphia immediately pivoted, summoning closer Jhoan Duran and turning the at-bat into a right-on-right showdown that, superficially, favored the home team.

Schumaker anticipated the optics — and the second-guessing.

“Duran is not easy on anybody,” the rookie skipper said afterward. “I understand he’s one of the elite closers in the game. Righties, though, have been a little bit better against him, so I knew that that was going to be a potential matchup. And a sidearm lefty against [Smith] isn’t ideal either. So you kind of pick your poison.”

The numbers backed the rationale. In 2023 Jhoan Duran faced 153 left-handed hitters and suffocated them to a .467 OPS — the lowest mark among 182 right-handers who logged at least 125 lefty matchups, and nearly 20 points stingier than the next-closest pitcher. Right-handers, meanwhile, scraped together a .671 OPS, modest but comparatively encouraging.

Pitch-tracking data adds another layer. Duran’s four-seam fastball darts away from lefties at the top of the zone, a swing-and-miss weapon that compounds their disadvantage. Against right-handed batters he leans more on his sinker, which yielded a .237 average last season — the highest among his four primary offerings and the lone pitch that flirted with hittability.

Schumaker, hired to inject analytical aggression into the Rangers’ dugout, processed those splits in real time and opted for the lesser poison. The decision may have invited immediate scrutiny, yet the first-year manager shrugged off the noise that inevitably shadows every skipper.

He was always going to be second-guessed eventually; the only surprise was how quickly the moment arrived.