Adrian Beltre hits his tenth home run of the season, in what is, hopefully, not his last season.

That great Cinderalla story might be coming to its “and they lived happily after ever” part.

Bartolo Colon is running on fumes. The ageless wonder, who so brilliantly and surprisingly dominated early this season, was picked up off the scrap heap where his general manager is owns a frequent buyer’s card after posting a 6.48 ERA in 2017.

His season started in the bullpen because even his bosses didn’t think he had it in him. But after being one of the few competent pitchers with Texas on his uniform, Colon was moved into the rotation. After six starts, his ERA was 2.82.

It felt good to finally have a feel good story about a Rangers pitcher. Sadly, it didn’t last.

His next game he allowed six earned runs in just over five innings. And he never was the same after that. Or maybe, sadly, he was the same pitcher he was in 2017.

Maybe time has finally caught up to him, like hitters are catching up to his fast ball. Last night, he allowed five runs in just four innings against the Angels, even in spite of the fact that Mike Trout wasn’t in the lineup. (Yet, Shohei Ohtani was, after announcing he would undergo Tommy John for his pitching elbow. Obvioulsy it doesn’t affect his batting elbow; he went 4-for-4 with two home runs.)

When Colon left the game down 5-0, it was too big of a hole for the Rangers to crawl out of, eventually losing 9-3.

Colon’s performance puts the Rangers in a tough spot. He’s a free agent after this season and probably not in their long-term plans, although you cannot count that out with this front office. So, do they continue giving Colon starts? Or do they give those starts to others to try to sort out for next year this mess of the pitching staff?

But then the question becomes, who? It’s not like there is a long line of starters in waiting. And what do September starts really teach anyone if they come against other teams also just playing out the string?

Even though he has struggled of late, Bartolo Colon has had a remarkable career, became the winningest Latin-born pitcher of all time this season. That’s significant. You can’t take that away from him.

*****
NO GAME TODAY.