Rangers fans have seen this before. In fact, eight times before. 

Since the Rangers finally reached .500 on May 31st, only to then immediately lose seven of its next nine games, they had crawled back to within two games of .500 eight times before last night.

They lost all eight times.

It just seems they cannot get over that hump. They’ve had their chances, too. Golden opportunities against a really bad Detroit Tigers team. Against an even worse Washington Nationals team. Now they are facing a really bad Kansas City Royals team. 

They should win this three-game series easily. Maybe even sweep. But recent history has not been kind to the Little Team That Thought It Could.

For a brief moment last night, it looked like they were going to get off to a bad start to this Kansas City series. After taking a 4-1 lead, with the nearly unbeatable Martin Perez on the mound, the Rangers gave back the lead as only they know how. With bad defense. With two outs and a two one, Leodys Taveras slipped while catching a routine fly ball that would have ended the inning. Instead, it fell for a cheap double, two runs scoring, and that runner eventually scoring to tie the game at 4-4.

It wiped out the lead and did some major damage to Martin Perez’s ERA as well. All three of those runs were earned. 

Luckily, Perez settled down. Kansas City didn’t hit too many more to Taveras. And the Rangers blanked the Royals the rest of the way while their bats came out of semi-retirment to pile on six more runs.

The Rangers would eventually win 10-4. To pull to within two games of .500.

Let’s not run that streak of futility to nine.

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