Never throw water on a grease fire.

And never bring in the Rangers bullpen unless you have a ten-run lead or more.

Texas took a 10-0 lead, then an 11-1 lead, then hung on for dear life to an 11-8 victory over Oakland, who scored four runs in the eighth and three in the ninth.

Martin Perez was cruising through seven innings. But he committed the unpardonable sin of getting near one hundred pitches. He was at ninety-nine. No human being in the history of recorded history has thrown one hundred pitches. Like running the three-minute mile, it’s a fantasy. 

So, naturally, he had to come out of the game he was dominating. One certainly cannot be expected to allow any human being to break the one-hundred pitch barrier.

Thankfully, Perez wasn’t asked to do the impossible and throw one hundred pitches, and the Rangers bullpen wasn’t asked to do the impossible and preserve a lead of less than ten runs. 

There’s only so much impossible you can expect in one game.

*****