Part of that trouble began when the team lost two out of three to the Blue Jays in Canada last week. And guess who is in town for the next four games? That’s right, the Blue Jays. The Rangers are a better team than the Jays, but they didn’t let that stop them last week. They are a better team than the Indians too, but I digress.

The Rangers problems right now, in my opinion, are mental. The pitchers don’t believe that the fielders are going to make the play behind them, so they feel like they have to throw the perfect pitch. They also feel like the offense is not going to come through for them, which has also been the case. In their last five losses the Rangers have only scored 9 runs. Of course, they have allowed 26 and it is hard to win games with that differential. Which brings me to this weekend.

Tonight the Rangers start a four game series with the Toronto Blue Jays, and in my opinion it is a crucial series for the Rangers. Since they once again surrendered first place in the West to the Athletics, the Rangers need to get back on track. The next four should all be winnable games.

Thursday:

Yu Darvish – 7-2, 2.75 ERA

Esmil Rogers – 1-2, 3.60 ERA

Yu should be able I win this game with 3 runs or more of run support if he can avoid the big first inning. He needs to to kick start this return to this team from the brink of crashing.

Friday:

Justin Grimm – 5-4, 5.25 ERA

Mark Buehrle – 2-4, 5.06 ERA

Hopefully Justin will come through with a big game performance in this one and not pitch like a rookie. We really need to remember that he and Tepesch are very young and are going to have good games and bad games. Lets hope Friday will be one of the good ones. Buehrle has pitched pretty well but not had a lot of run support. Lets hope that continues as well!

Saturday:

Josh Lindbloom – 0-1, 5.91 ERA

Josh Johnson – 0-2, 5.40 ERA

the big difference between these two starters is that one of them is supposed to be the ace of the staff and one of them is young and has only made two previous starts. Johnson has been disappointing to say the least for the Jays, and Lindbloom held his own for the Rangers the other day. I believe that if Lindbloom can hold his own again I still have faith in the bull pen to close it out. IF that happens, the Rangers will win this game.

Sunday:

Derek Holland – 5-3, 3.11 ERA

R.A. Dickey – 5-8, 5.11 ERA

R.A. Allowed 8 runs in his last start. If he pitches like that again the Rangers should win handily. Derek had what was arguably his worst start if the season his last time out. I feel like he will bounce back Sunday. The Rangers should win this game, and they should win the series.

If they don’t, this will be much more than a skid. I, for one, don’t want to see that.

The Red Sox are second in the MLB as far as highest payroll at 162 million, the Yankees own the highest payroll at 206 million which is a 44 million dollar difference.  The Rangers payroll for 2010 is the lowest payroll in MLB with the exception of three teams at over 55 million.  The three teams with lower payrolls are the Oakland Athletics who are leading the division with a 9-5 record and then the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates.  The Pirates every year just hope to play 162 games, not much more than that is expected. 

So you have teams like the Red Sox who went out and spent a lot of money getting big time pitching in John Lackey and solidifying the outfield by acquiring Mike Cameron.  They also acquired Marco Scutaro to fill the never ending gap for the Red Sox at shortstop.  The Red Sox had money to spend and they threw it at several different free agents before this group signed on the dotted line.

The Rangers had little money to spend and had to spread it out over several free agents.  They acquired pitching, offense and defense in several players for little money.  They traded Kevin Millwood for Reliever Chris Ray.  They then used the money from freed from the trade to sign Vladimir Guerrero.  They then acquired Ryan Garko for first base off of waivers from the Mariners and then signed Matt Treanor to back up catcher after he was released from the Brewers.

Treanor was just acquired as a back up in case Jarrod Saltlamacchia wasn’t ready to start the season.  Saltlamacchia started opening day recieiving Scott Feldman.  Treanor was assigned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.  Saltlamacchia then was placed on the 15 day D.L. a couple of days later and Treanor was recalled to back up Taylor Teagarden.  Teagarden then had the stomach flu and Treanor started and impressed.  Teargarden came back and his offense still did not improve.  He is still searching for his first hit of the season and the question is who will be behind the plate to receive Colby Lewis tomorrow night. 

The Red Sox have an even worse record than the Rangers going 4-9 in their first 13 games only two games better than the Orioles who are in the cellar of the American League East.  These next three games could be a big swing for either team.  The Rangers will head home after the series to face the Tigers over the weekend in Arlington.  The Red Sox after the series will then have another three game series at home which will be against the Orioles who have a worse record than them.  The next three games should be interesting for the Rangers and Red Sox.