Everything went right for the Rangers yesterday, including tying Rickey Henderson on the all-time hit list as well as becoming the all-time leader in hits among Latin American planers.

I hope Jon Daniels was paying attention to yesterday’s game. And the game before. He would have seen the value of defense. And, more specifically, how detrimental bad defense is to a team.

He doesn’t seem to get that. Year after year his teams are near the bottom in defense. They surrender unearned runs like they are the French trying to protect Paris.

As bad as Texas has been the last few years on defense, though, one team has consistently been worse: Oakland.

Wednesday is was the Rangers shoddy defense giving away a game. Yesterday, it was the Athletics. A throwing error in the second inning led to four runs scoring, and that was the difference between the Rangers winning or losing.

Defense matters. But the Rangers front office doesn’t get that.

The turning point in yesterday’s game came on a great play by Nomar Mazara. Those words are rarely spoken. Mazara has no speed, seemingly has no instincts, and routinely misplays balls or is unable to get to them. But he has a cannon for an arm.

He is like a Yugo with a really nice stereo system.

After picking up four runs in the second, the Rangers hung on inning after inning as the Athletics put on runners and chipped away, finally making it 4-3. But every time they threatened, the Rangers bullpen shut them down.

Then, with that razor thin lead in the eighth and one out, Stephen Piscotty hit a sure double. Except Mazara played it perfectly and threw an absolute laser beam to nail him stretching it out to a double.

Defense matters. Too bad it doesn’t matter to the people in the Rangers organization who matter.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Marco Estrada (0-0, 3.86) vs. Matt Moore (0-1, 9.00)
Game time: 7:05

How the Blue Jays hit against Moore.
How the Rangers hit against Estrada.