Elvis week continues. 163 comments


It’s Elvis week at RR3. Yesterday I re-printed an article from a game in which two Elvis Andrus defensive breakdowns caused the Rangers to lose a mid-May game in Boston.

In the interest of fair play, here is a re-print from a game in which the offensive star was Elvis Andrus. This one is from June 12, when the Rangers were on fire, having won 15 of 19 until hitting a brick wall called Scott Kazmir of the Oakland Athletics.

Besides, the David Price contract is so ridiculous, it’s not worth talking about.

***

DAY OF WRECKENING.

You knew it was coming.

Everything was working too well for this team. With Adrian Beltre and Josh Hamilton out of the lineup for the foreseeable future, this is a good team that was playing great, not a great team playing great.

Reality was going to arrive. Especially in the bullpen. Which always seemed like a wreck waiting to happen.

It showed up in Oakland. Given the ball at 1-0, the Rangers bullpen allowed six more runs to score in two innings and put the game out of reach.

It wasn’t one guy in particular. It was everyone Banister handed the ball to.

The Rangers lost two of three. They were, in fact, a Ross Detwiler pitch away in game one of the series, from being swept.

Are the Rangers falling apart? Has their luck run out? Is it time to bring back Tim Bogar?

No, no and no.

This is just the course correction every team and every player goes through all the time. The Rangers have been playing out of their heads. Nobody sustains that.

The saving grace is, there are no great teams in the American League.

Nobody is running away with anything. Look at the standing.

The top teams are barely above .500. Nobody is great. Everybody has holes. A team can go on a short hot streak and wind up in first, or a short losing streak and wind up in last.

And every team has done just that. Lots of hots, lots of colds.

With their offense depleted, the Rangers need everyone playing over their level of competency all the time. That’s not fair to ask.

Yesterday, it just wasn’t their game. You know that’s the case when the only hit comes from Elvis Andrus.

That’s okay. Take the beating on go home.