For a brief moment, the Rangers were in the lead last night. Then the fourth inning happened.

Baseball is a funny game.

A team can be riding high, like the Rangers were on its recent ten-game home stand in which it went 8-2, and then, in an instant, and with no warning signs, the bottom falls out, like the Rangers in their last five games.

The Rangers rotation has taken its turn getting battered.

Darvish, Hamels, Perez, Griffin and Holland are a combined 1-4 with an ERA of 11.70.

So what do you make of that? Is it just one of those baseball things? Is it a case of a team running into a Mariners’ club that was hot? Is it a reflection of last season, when the Rangers struggled to put away the division once it was within their grasp?

In the last twenty innings, Rangers starters have allowed twenty-six earned runs. Mainly because they’ve giving up fourteen walks in that time.

Twenty innings from five starters average out to four innings per start.

Not good.

But there is hope. It’s name is Colby Lewis. And he comes back

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Yu Darvish (5-4, 3.45) vs. Tyler Scaggs (3-3, 4.71)
Game time: 9:05

How the Rangers hit against Scaggs
How the Angels hit against Darvish.