Monday, September 30, 2013

163 and That's the Season...Crap

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The umpire gave David Price a GENEROUS strike zone and squeezed Perez's strike zone, that was huge, especially early on.  That said, the Rangers had to play the game the ump was calling and they didn't adjust and they left their bats on their shoulders a lot.

Rangers had 2 runners (of course they were Elvis and Kins) picked off early (2 of the first 9 outs) on the base pads, can't give up easy outs on the bases in a playoff game and hope to win.  The only thing almost as precious in baseball as runs are outs.  And the Rangers gifted two outs to the Rays in a playoff game.

Speaking of playoff games, the announcers said about 199 times that this was a regular season game because the stats count towards the regular season and the teams are allowed expanded rosters and it's a tie breaker game to decide who gets to play in a play-in, "one game playoff series" versus CLE.  Whatever, it's a win or go home game, it's a playoff game for all intents and purposes.  And generally the TNT announcers sucked.

Perez had retired 8 straight when Wash pulled him for Ogando.  I disagreed with that move at the time.  Pitch around Longoria and unintentionally intentionally walk him and leave Perez in.  And if Wash had Perez on such a short leash why wasn't Ogando on a short leash?  Wash let Ogando give up 2 doubles and a walk (aside from an intentional walk) before Ogando got out of the inning.

As soon as Longoria hit the 2 run homer to put the Rays up 3-0 I thought that that would be enough for the Rays to win given how bad the Rangers' offense had been against good pitching.  3 runs turned out to be enough with the Rangers losing the game 5-2.

Nellie had nothing.  And fittingly he made the last out of the Rangers' season.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Perez did great except for 2 pitches to Longoria.  Even with those 2 bad pitches, he had only given up 4 hits and 3 ER's when he was lifted by Wash.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: That's the season.  Lots of injuries, lots of different stating pitchers and they got to this point.  Pitching was not the problem this year.  Offense was, especially after they lost Nellie.  Berkman (Fat Elvis) was a complete bust.  They had waaayyyy too many games where the offense put up 0-2 runs and the starting pitching was plenty good enough to get a win with just some half-decent run support.

Even if the Rangers had managed to win this one I really don't think that with the offense struggling they would have made any noise in October.  That said, I would have of course loved to see some October Rangers baseball.  As the saying goes, there's always next year.

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Rangers Sweep Halos (After Sweeping 'Stros) to Make Playoffs

162 games weren't enough. And now the Rangers play the Rays and former Cy Young winner David Price in a one game playoff to have the chance to play in another 1 game playoff versus CLE. 


Nellie is back. If he hits a homer and/or has 1 RBI I predict the Rangers win. 

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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Nathan Closes Game in a Down Pour

After 161 games the Rangers are tied with the Rays going into the last day of the regular season. It's simple, a Rangers win tomorrow means they at least get to play again. Who and where depends on what the Rays and CLE do tomorrow. 


Yu is on the mound tomorrow. Hopefully the offense will give him more than the usual 0-2 runs they've given him in his last several starts. 

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Friday, September 27, 2013

Profar Wins It With a Walk Off

But CLE won't lose. And it probably shouldn't have taken a walk off to win it but that's what happens when your team commits 4 errors in one inning in one game. 

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Thursday, September 26, 2013

Rangers Won Last Night. Of Course So Did the Indians

Why won't Cle lose? Rangers still 1 GB in the Wild Card race. 


And now Josh Hamilton and the Halos are up. 

How many games can I think of that they should have won and didn't because of no production from the offense?

And was spending money on Lance "Fat Elvis" Berkman the biggest waste of money since I bought the special edition DVD of the movie MacGruber?

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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Ranger Win Again Against 'Stros

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Yu pitched and again the run support is weak.  Rangers win back to back for the first time in September I think.  Is that good?  The freakin' Indians won't lose.  Rangers still 1 GB in Wild Card race.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers have started a winning streak?  Beltre went yard, could he please get hot for these last few games?

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Josh Hamilton may very well help determine whether the Rangers make the play-in game again this year with the Rangers ending the season with 4 at home against he Halos.

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

How Many Games Are the Rangers Going to Win When They Score Zero Runs?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Answer: none.  6 hits is all they managed.  This is the American League so the pitchers cannot help score runs.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Again, the pitching is not the problem, the staff gave up only 5 hits to KC, it was just too bad that the last hit was a walk off grand slam in the bottom of 10.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: 1.5 games back in the Wild Card race with 7 games left, all at home.

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Friday, September 20, 2013

Offense Manages Only 1 Run. Again.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: 1 run.  How many ballgames is your team going to win putting up only 1 run?  Answer: not many and not this one.  Feliz walked in the winning run after Frasor loaded the bases in the bottom of 8 and lose 2-1 to KC.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Of course the pitching staff did only allow 2 runs.  That should be enough to win a ballgame.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Rangers dropped out of top two in the Wild Card race with the loss.

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This All Seems Awfully Familiar...

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: I've been bad about posting but I have been watching. And this will be awfully familiar and awful if at the end of this thing they end up in a one game playoff and lose.  Again.  For the second straight year.  Or worse, the Rangers don't even make the one game play-in game.  That.  Would.  Suck.


And did I hear right that last night was Yu's first win in 7 starts?  And that might have been his worst start all year. 

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Again, there's been lot's of pitching related injuries, no Feliz, no Colby Lewis, Ogando and Pierzynski on the DL, Berkman(Fat Elvis) was a bust, and Nellie got suspended for the last 50 games.  Beltre and Kins were the only things going offensively  If you would have told me all that at the beginning of the season I would have said they'd be 10 games out of the playoffs at this point.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: And really, the playoff-type baseball started at the beginning of September and that was rough.  Let's see how the last few days of September go, hopefully a lot better.

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When Last We Left Our Boys of Summer...

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