FORT WORTH — Nobody feels good after a loss.
But you can have a good feeling, if you know what Jim Schlossnagle was trying to say.
“A lot of the new guys keep asking what the makeup is of some of the teams that we’ve had here,” the TCU coach said after a 9-8 loss to Oklahoma State on Sunday at Lupton Stadium, a setback that cost his Horned Frogs the series and left them at .500 in the Big 12 after two conference series at home.
“Because they hear us talk about them.”
The veteran coach spoke slowly. Losing back-to-back one-run games takes it out of you.
But his tone was purposeful. It said he senses something about this team, despite injuries that cost two pitchers before the season, a shortstop and a right fielder who missed games in March, a .968 fielding percentage that is about 10 points south of OK, a bullpen that both giveth and taketh away, and a hole — maybe two, now, after Sunday — in the starting rotation.
There’s something there.
“This team has that,” Schlossnagle said. “They have that special grit. They have that special competitiveness.”
He paused. Fifty feet away lay the dirt where Adam Oviedo’s smashed ground ball had been stopped on a backhand by Oklahoma State third baseman Christian Funk with the bases loaded in time to to win a footrace to third base for the final out.
The Frogs (17-9, 3-3) had come that close to rallying after giving up two runs in the top of the inning, a frame that included the ejection of pitching coach Kirk Saarloos and a throwing error. Just an inning earlier, Oviedo’s two-run double had tied the game, completing a long climb back from a 7-4 deficit.
“Obviously we have to get some things figured out on the mound, some adjustments to make. A lot of coaching to do,” Schlossnagle said. “We got to get the right guys in the right spots. But in terms of competitive excellence, this team has that.”
For example, Charles King.
The junior right-hander is a career long reliever, with five starts in 47 appearances before Sunday. Always has to settle things down.
He entered in the fourth Sunday and got the game to the ninth. His career-high 5 1/3 innings included only two hits allowed, four strikeouts and two walks. He gave up a run on two singles and a sac bunt in the seventh. Two inherited runners scored on a fielding error in right field in the fourth against the first batter he faced.
It was a monumental 97-pitch performance that just about earned a look in the rotation, where the Frogs appear to have an opening on Saturdays, although to be honest, the door may also be open for Sundays, too, now that Brandon Williamson has worked past 3 1/3 innings only once in the past four starts.
King had retired 12 in a row when shortstop Andrew Navigato took a ball over the outer edge, hip-high, for ball four on a full count with one out in the ninth inning in a 7-7 game that TCU had just tied.
Saarloos went to the mound. Home plate umpire Casey Moser joined the conference. It lingered with the tension of the game situation, then broke up. Walking back to the dugout, Saarloos yelled at Moser, “That’s horsesh—!” and Moser ejected him.
Saarloos used the word again, yelled, “You set me up for that,” and Schlossnagle intervened to protect his assistant. The head coach and the umpire talked calmly while Saarloos left the field. A one-game suspension may be next, per Big 12 rules.
Schlossnagle said, “Everybody’s emotional there. The umpire said some things he shouldn’t have said. Umpires are supposed to be above that. And Kirk said some things he shouldn’t have said. It’s unfortunate.”
King appreciated the gesture.
“I was smiling ear to ear because, as a player, you don’t want to cross the line into that area where you’re arguing with the umpire,” he said. “To see Saarloos come out and lobby for me and fight for me to get those strikes, that just shows the kind of competitor he is as a pitch-caller. Even though the coaches can’t play, they’re vouching for you and making sure you have every opportunity to compete how you can compete. That’s huge. That shows the kind of love they have for us.”
King induced a lineout to center, but a throwing error at third base kept the inning going and finished King. Reliever Augie Mihlbauer fell behind 3-0 to the only batter he faced, and the Frogs opted to complete the walk intentionally. Against a new reliever, Cal Coughlin, Carson McCusker singled in two runs on the first pitch.
In its half, TCU loaded the bases on a leadoff walk, a two-out single, a run-scoring wild-pitch third strike and an intentional walk.
Oviedo, with seven RBIs in the series, nearly added two more, the game-tying and winning.
“Obviously we’re just not consistent enough in, really, any role outside of Lodolo, Perez and King,” Schlossnagle said. “”That’s it. That’s the difference. We outhit them. We almost had double the hits. We didn’t hit any home runs, and we left some guys on base.”
He’s right about those numbers. TCU out-hit the Cowboys 15-8 on Sunday. The Frogs stranded an astounding 16 (and 34 in the series). They were out-homered two to nothing (seven to nothing in the last two games of the series).
And yet …
“Funk made a heck of a play there at the end of the game. Otherwise we’re cheering at home plate and running off the field,” Schlossnagle said. “It’s that close. The whole series was that close. We got to rebound from it. It’s a long year. Sometimes these things, they’re meant to refine you and make you better. You just got to live through them.”
It could feel good.