ARLINGTON - As last week ended, Rangers manager Jeff Banister looked at the detritus after being swept by Chicago and said his team learned some things about itself.

He wasn’t ready to reveal what they had learned though.

It is becoming evident, though.

They are learning that they are going to face a lot more offspeed and breaking pitches. And they are also learning that right now, they aren’t very good at hitting those pitches. Hence, the offensive slump and four-game losing streak they dragged into Tuesday.

Banister started to break down the difference between Prince Fielder in April last year when he hit .333 with a .385 OBP and the guy who went into Tuesday batting just .187 with a .247 OBP.

“You talk about the punch back between pitchers and hitters, the pitchers are punching back,” Banister said. “Actually, our whole team is being pitched differently.”

Monday’s no-hit flirtation by New York’s fastball-loving Nathan Eovaldi only underscored that. Consider this: Eovaldi threw more offspeed pitches (58) than in any of his previous three starts this year; he also threw fewer fastballs (40) than any of the others.

The Rangers began Tuesday having seen two-seam and four-seam fastballs for 50.4 percent of all their pitches, the fourth-lowest percentage of fastballs seen in the majors. A year ago, teams were challenging them with fastballs 57 percent of the time in April.

Based on the percentages, available through the MLB PitchFx system, Fielder hadn’t seen a tremendous difference in fastballs through the same period in 2015. He was seeing 54.6 percent fastballs (not including cutters) through the first 20 games this season compared to 54.7 a year ago.

The difference is far more pronounced for some of the club’s other struggling hitters. Most notably: Mitch Moreland. He saw fastballs 58 percent of the time in the first 20 games last year on the way to re-establishing himself as a run producer. This season, it was only 45.5 percent. Moreland, who entered Tuesday just 1 for 14 during the team’s four-game losing streak, saw a pair of sliders and a two-strike changeup from Luis Severino to complete a strikeout in his first at-bat.

Another guy struggling against the breaking ball: Delino DeShields. DeShields, who entered Tuesday in a 2-for-23 slump, has been dropped to ninth in the batting order for his last two starts. He is seeing fastballs only 55 percent of the time, down from 57 at this point a year ago. DeShields began the day hitting .313 against the fastball, .176 against everything else.

“Does it come down to being more selective or does it come down to hunting soft [stuff],” Banister asked rhetorically. “I know when you hunt soft, it’s a challenge to hit the heater.”

If the Rangers have learned opponents are going to change their approach, they must find their own counter punch.

They entered Tuesday still seeking that.

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant