I could write a thousand words about last night’s game and perfectly sum it up.
I could write three words about last night’s game and perfectly sum it up.
There was a lot of positive to take away. There was a lot of negative to take away. What the Rangers took away was a 7-6 loss compounded by a lot of misfortune. A good team would have found a way to win that game.
So, look at it this way. This team either went into the ring with the best team in the league and traded punch for punch with them until the end. For that, we should feel a sense of optimism.
Or, this team keeps committing the same sins over and over again. For that, we should feel a huge sense of frustration.
Nick Martinez pitched well enough to win again. Unfortunately, Elvis Andrus committed a critical error in the sixth to help Kansas City score three runs to take a 4-3 lead. It was Elvis’s ninth error of the season. He is on pace to commit 44 errors this year.
John Gochnaur’s record of 98 errors at short stop for Cleveland in 1903 seems somewhat safe. Somewhat, I repeat. Gochnaur that year also batted .185 with no home runs. Elvis is quickly approaching Gochnaur territory.
It’s easy to pitch around Elvis when he is hitting. It’s much harder to pitch around Elvis when he is in the field.
Why take out Nick Martinez with one out in the seventh? Why let him go out there to get one out, then pull him? Either don’t bring him back out, or let him keep going. He wasn’t out of gas. Makes no sense.
Why bring in Claudio in a close game? His best pitch is a first batter gopher ball. Makes no sense.
Why pinch run for Kyle Blanks with Leonys Martin when Blanks doesn’t represent the go ahead run, and when Martin has an injured wrist and can’t risk a bad slide and he can’t hit the next turn in the order? Doing that wastes Blanks and Martin. About the only hitter worse than Martin is the one who substituted for him, Carlos Corporan. Makes no sense. You know who can hit better than those guys? Yovani Gallardo.
Why bring Neftali Feliz into a game in a non-save situation? In fact, why bring him into a game in a save situation? Makes no sense.
Why didn’t the front office sign Kendrys Morales this off season? He possessed the two qualities Jon Daniels covets in a ball player: Alive and cheap.
Why did the Rangers make so many base running blunders? Why did they keep slipping on the base paths in critical situations?
The fact that this team fought back against the best bullpen in baseball was admirable, especially in the face of countering with the worst bullpen in baseball. The fact that this team pitted one of the worst offensive teams in baseball against the best, and slugged it out mano-a-mano is admirable.
The Rangers could have and should have won the game.
End the end, it was a moral victory for the Texas Rangers. Those count in the standings. They go under the L column.
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MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR MOJO:
The Memorial Service for Lesli Buchanan, better known to all of us here as simply mojo, will be Saturday, May 23, 11:00 am, at Wylie Baptist Church , 6097 Buffalo Gap Road , Abilene TX 79606 .