Rangers Lose Series, Road Trip

The Texas bullpen pitched 10.2 scoreless innings before Ross Wolf (1-1) allowed the game-winning hit to Rajai Davis in the bottom of the 18th. The Rangers (36-25) have now tied a season-high with three losses in a row.

Yu Darvish went the first 7 innings and surrendered 3 runs (2 ER) on 5 hits, striking out 7 Blue Jay hitters. It’s now the 10th time in 13 starts this year where he’s punched out at least 7 batters in one game.

After Darvish, Texas’s bullpen was light’s out. I’ll save my obligatory Ron-Washington-Sucks-At-Deploying-His-Bullpen for another article; for this one let’s chalk it up to everyone pitched well, while also acknowledging that Ron Washington does, indeed, suck at using his bullpen.

Neal Cotts (1.1 IP), Jason Frasor (1.0 IP) and Robbie Ross (1.2 IP) combined to hold Toronto scoreless through the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th.

The rest of the game was up to Ross Wolf, who, to his absolute credit, did a magnificent job containing the opposition, supplying the Ranger offense 7 different opportunities to put a run on the board for him.

Regrettably for Wolf, they failed, but not for lack of chance. In 18 innings — 54 outs — the Rangers delivered 10 hits, drew 8 walks, and were hit by a franchising-high-tying 4 pitches;

There were 22 base runners, and 3 scored. The lineup combined to go 1-19 with runners in scoring position. Again, as I’ve mentioned ad nauseam — that’s not going to get it done most days.

At 1-4 with only tomorrow’s matchup remaining, the Rangers have guaranteed themselves a losing road trip, but help is on the way (we hope). After Toronto, the Rangers head home for their fattest home-stand of the 2013 season — an 11-game stretch against Cleveland, Toronto and Oakland. I don’t want to put a figure on it but, yeah, it would be nice to win 7 or 8 games. Just sayin’.

When Texas loses, baseball all of a sudden becomes terribly less fun. And that sucks. But it’s a long season, and even the best teams — especially the best teams who aren’t at full strength — go through little losing streaks. There are a few concerns mounting, which should be fairly obvious at this point, but I have neither the time nor the #want to waste more words talking about them.

Not right now, at least.

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Perspective (noun):

1. A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.

2. True understanding of the relative importance of things; a sense of proportion.

After 61 Games:

2010: 33-28

2011: 34-27

2012: 35-26

2013: 36-25