Newly acquired Renato Nunez put the Rangers on the board early with this long blast in the top of the second. Unfortunately, Martin Perez was required to pitch to Toronto in the bottom of the inning.

Don’t look now, but the Rangers have officially gone to a six-man rotation. For some reason, they are under the belief they have six qualified starters.

They will, of course, ignore yesterday’s anything-but-quality start from Martin Perez. Four innings pitched. Four runs allowed. Four walks. Five hits. Three home runs. Three game winning streak snapped.

To illustrate just how bad of a season Perez is having, he actually lowered his ERA with yesterday’s ineptitude.

You know things are bad when you drop your meat in the dirt and it still tastes better than any meal you’ve eaten lately.

After five starts, Perez’s ERA is 9.67. His WHIP is (please, if you have young children nearby, cover their eyes) a horrendous 2.318 That means he is allowing more than two baserunners per inning. No wonder he induces so many double plays. He has so much traffic on the bases.

After the game, Rangers manager Jeff Banister explained the Perez was having trouble locating his pitches. Which isn’t exactly true. He had very little trouble locating them in the upper decks at Rogers Centre.

Matt Moore isn’t much better. After five starts, he is 1-3 with a better-only-by-comparison-to-Perez’s ERA of 5.55. Moore’s WHIP is 1.726.

Putting Matt Moore’s ERA next to Perez’s, though, is like standing me next to Steve Buscemi. Yes, I may not be so hideous by comparison. But I’m no Gary Busey.

Moore seemed to be headed to the bullpen. In fact, he pitched out of the bullpen yesterday. But there is talk of him making a start on Wednesday. But it’s all up in the air now because it’s not a true six-man rotation.

Cole Hamels said no thanks to the six-man. So, he is going to pitch his normal rest. Mike Minor needs extra rest anyway, coming off so many injuries, so they are going to go normal rest plus one day with him. Which means figuring out who will start, and when, is about as easy as unscrambling a Rubic’s Cube.

If you have a pitcher who has been as dominating as Bartolo Colon, you let him start more and you let Martin Perez and Matt Moore start less. They are not equals.

Yet, there seems to be a country club attitude when it comes to Perez in the rotation. He paid his dues, he is in. It doesn’t matter that he drives the cart onto the greens and leaves huge divots and screams in the middle of someone’s swing. Perez violates all etiquette of civilized pitching society, yet all is forgiven always.

It’s because he will have that great game. And then another one. Masterful Marty shows up from time to time only to disappear and be replaced by crash-and-burn Meltdown Marty far too often.

Why wasn’t he the one banished to the bullpen? You know it’s a bad situation when Matt Moore is the better rotation choice than Martin Perez.

All the Rangers need to do now is call up Yovani Gallardo and go with the seven-man rotation.

That will show the rest of baseball how smart they truly are.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Cole Hamels (1-4, 4.41) vs. Trevor Bauer (2-2, 2.41)
Game time: 5:10

How the Rangers hit against Bauer.
How the Indians hit against Hamels.