With a team as offensively challenged as the Rangers have been all season, it’s a mystery this team hasn’t been no-hit. Yesterday, was maybe even more embarrassing than that. The Rangers sent up twenty-seven totally batters. Three per inning.
The Mariners essentially pitched a perfect game against the Rangers on Sunday. Ezequiel Duran singled in the second with one out but the next hitter, Carson Kelly, grounded into a double play. And that was it. The Rangers went out one-two-three in the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth.
You can’t really call it a pitiful display of offense because that would imply a there was a display of offense somewhere. A sharp single through the hole on the right side in the second inning was more lucky than anything else.
And that was it.
Marcus Semien is batting .237 with an OPS of .701. Any OPS under .700 is considered below average. Langford is batting .243 with an OPS of .709. Duran, .248/.619. Kelly, .243/.693. Taveras, .224/.629. Heim, .213/.583. Jankowski, .206/.505.
Only Lowe (.267/.753) and Smith (.261/.740) would be considered average, and Smith’s offense has been in a freefall the second half of the season.
Without Seager, this team is bad. Take Jung out of the lineup, and it’s even worse.
Some might blame it on what is called the World Series hangover, a phenomenon that explains a team’s failure they year after a World Series run as the players are simply tired from playing so many more games last year than other teams, having to go deep into October, and not getting as much rest and recuperation as other teams.
Two reasons that makes no sense. One, yes, they had one month less to recuperate than other teams in the offseason. But they still had four months of no baseball. Take four months off of anything and you’re ready to get back to what you are doing after about three weeks.
Two, if there was such a thing as a World Series hangover, how come the Arizona Diamondbacks aren’t suffering from it? They played just as many games at the Rangers, yet they are breathing down the neck of the Dodgers for first in the N.L. West and are in the driver’s seat for a wildcard spot.
No, maybe we just chalk it up for what it is. A lot of Rangers had career years last year. And the Rangers need a huge infusion of offense over the offseason.
Twenty-seven up, twenty-seven out makes for boring baseball. At least we can take comfort in knowing, it can’t get worse than that.
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TODAY’S GAME: