Don’t Hate The Game, Hate The Luck

A lot of people are upset at interleague play after yet another starting pitcher had to be placed on the disabled list. Yes, Alexi Ogando injured himself running to first base on a bunt attempt that wouldn’t have happened if the game was three games earlier in Oakland or one game later at home against Arizona. That’s because American League parks don’t have pitchers hit and instead use the designated hitter.

As you may or may not have already guessed, I grew up with the National League game, and loved interleague play because I got to see the DH. I don’t really have a preference of one game or the other but I love changing strategies. I love seeing whether Boston will play David Ortiz in the field and what weird alignment they will use. I love seeing National League teams use their ninth best hitter and use a different lineup.

Yes, Ogando was hurt while running. But, he could have been running to field a ball, or running to catch a runner. The fact he was running to first base should be irrelevant. What it comes down to is just simply bad luck. Right after losing Neftali Feliz, they had Derek Holland put on the DL, then Ogando who himself was replacing Holland went down as well.

Mike already mentioned that Robbie Ross should probably take the next start in that spot, or at least replace Scott Feldman but with the recall of Kirkman, he may not even replace Ogando. Kirkman started in AAA (and Ross was a starter his entire career) but the Rangers have not yet announced who Saturday’s starter will be.

In the meantime, I guess the best thing to do is hope that the bats come back to life with some home cooking and that a couple of wins come before the inevitable Scott Feldman start. Yes, he was better in his last outing but it is not too fun to watch him go out there every fifth day. And that is just the way baseball goes sometimes. The Rangers had great luck in April, crappy luck since then and hopefully this is just a case of things getting worse before they get better.