Texas' bullpen STRUGGLES(and that's being nice), lose last 2 games of the series, lose series versus Seamen

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Yesterday Wilhelmsen gave up 2 homers and 2 extra base hits and did not record an out. That means his current ERA is INFINITY.

Tollseson blew a save opportunity in the 9th today and his ERA is now 45.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Wilhelmsen was visited on the mound yesterday by the new pitching coach Doug Brocail after getting beat up and not recording an out. Then he beaned the next batter and was thrown out. You gotta think that cane from the dugout. Maybe, right? And then Banny was jawing at the Seamen's manager. In which case, awesome! I cannot wait till we face the Seamen again.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Off to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, United States of America, Earth, Milky Way (look it up, that's their official name) who I believe are paying Josh Hamiltn $30 million to sit on our bench.

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Reality really is stranger than fiction: Josh Hamilton is a Ranger. Again.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, USA, planet Earth, Milky Way galaxy are paying Josh Hamilton a lot of money to play for the Texas Rangers, their division rival. Brilliant move by JD.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, USA, planet Earth, Milky Way galaxy are paying Josh Hamilton a lot of money to play for the Texas Rangers, their division rival. Even with the Halos paying most of his salary, is JD still wasting the small amount of money the Rangers are paying for him?

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Please, please, please let us see even a small glimpse of the Jedi Josh who helped lead the Rangers to back to back World Series appearances. A long shot? Sure. But remember, a lot of time reality is strangers than fiction.

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Rangers beat the Halos 8-2 behind another good start by Nick Martinez.

The celebration of last night's victory was short-lived because of course when I just checked the score of today's day game the Rangers were losing 7-0 in the 5th.

Ray Davis, the reclusive leader of the group that owns the Rangers, gave an interview. The first one he's ever given. And according to him it might be his last. 

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Rangers lose to 'Stros in extra innings 6-4, lose series

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Once again the Rangers can't get through a game without an error. And the Rangers cannot win 2 in a row.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers also haven't lost 2 in a row this young season. They just won last night after all. I guess that's something.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Next up the Halos come into town lugging their boatload of Josh Hamilton luggage.

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Rangers avoided getting swept by the Halos, won in walk off fashion

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Poor Choo. He just cannot figure it out at the plate.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Tepesch pitched well against a potent Halos offense. And Rosales got his first walk off hit of his career.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The Rangers celebrated the walk off win like they just clinched the division. Far from it of course. But the Rangers played a good game and got a tough win, with help from the youngsters on the team, never too early to think look forward to next year. On top of that, it's a division rival that's definitely playing for something. In fact, with the loss the Halos are .5 GB of the A's. So if  down the stretch the Rangers get to play spoiler, great. And that begs the question, if the Rangers do get to play spoiler which team's season would you rather spoil, Halos or A's?

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Swept by the Halos the Rangers limp into the All-Star Break...

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: ...with the worst record in MLB, on an 8 game losing streak, after getting swept in 2 straight series, having lost 22 of their last 25. Since June 1st they've lost 29 out of 39.  To put it into perspective another slightly different way how fast the fall has been, on the morning of June 8 the Rangers were at .500. Now they're 19 games below .500.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers can't lose any games during the break. And Yu and Beltre made the AL All Star team.

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It just gets worse and worse and worse...

That's 21 losses in the last 24 games. That's also 7 losses in a row. And in this current 4 game series they're on the verge of getting swept by the Halos. And if that happens that'll be back to back sweeps against the Rangers leading into the All-Star break.

Today the offense managed 2 runs on 4 hits.

It's just tough to watch. And it's only the midway point of the season. Damn. 

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Nope. That wasn't rock bottom apparently for the Rangers. How is that even possible you ask?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: It's possible because one of the few times the Rangers got a decent to good performance from their pitchers (3 runs given up all by Tepesch in 6 IP) the Rangers bats put up a goose egg against the Halos. I've asked before but will ask it again, how many games are you going to win when you score zero runs? Oh, that's right, none.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Pitching was good enough to win.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: That's 20 losses in the last 23 games played and 6 losses in a row. That's almost a month of just bad. I really don't remember a bad run like this since I started following the Rangers in 2000.

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When last we left our heroes....

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: ...your Texas Rangers are riding a 4 game losing streak into the series finale versus the hated Halos. The Rangers are 11.5 GB in the division. Ouch.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: But somehow your Rangers are only 4.5 GB in the wild card standings, albeit looking up at 7 teams ahead of them. Still, there some hope. Some. But it's going to take more winning than losing for a prolonged stretch.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Still wondering if/when the front office is going to throw in the towel and start trading away big pieces. We will see.

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Rangers got swept in 3 game series versus A's, are on a 4 game losing streak

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Is it bad to only score 4 runs in a 3 game series? 'Cause that's what your Rangers did in their 3 game series versus the A's. Are 4 errors in a game good? 'Cause that's what your Rangers did in the last game versus of the A's.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers still have one of the best records in the AL.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Your Rangers are now 3 GB behind the A's in the division after getting swept by them. Is it too early to be looking at the wild card standings? The Rangers are in first place in the wild card standings and .5 ahead of the Halos in the wild card standings. And the Rangers have 3 at the Halos starting tomorrow night.

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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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So You're Saying the Rangers Have a Chance...

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Of course if you heard the national broadcast team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver announce game 2 of the 3 game series against the A's on Saturday you would have thought the A's were up in the division by 10 games AND that the A's had won the night before.

Oh yeah, and as fully expected, Nellie was suspended by MLB for the rest of the regular season.

Kins continues to amaze on the base pads, again inexplicably he got caught flat footed and was picked off 2nd base, wasting his lead off double.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Despite Buck and McCarver falling over themselves to sing the praises of the A's, the Rangers did in fact take 2 out 3 from the A's in Oakland.

And the Rangers took the first game of the series against the Halos Monday night.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: After the win versus the Halos, and with the A's having the night off, the Rangers trail the A's in the division by 2 games.  And the A's play 2 against a Reds team that's not too shabby.

I keep on going back to the following: if you  would have told me that the pitching would have been as beat up and injured as it has been (for example see Grimm and Tepesch getting multiple starts) I would have thought the Rangers would have been out of the race.  Especially with as mediocre as the offense has been.

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Rangers Rally in Bottom of 9 to Beat Halos

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud:  The Rangers still have a pretty big whole to dig themselves out of in the divisional race versus the A's, especially since the A's don't seem to lose.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Great comeback.  The catchers came through in the 9th, each with a solo shot.  And Kins had 2 RBI's earlier in the game for the 4-3 win.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Seriously, the A's just won't go on a losing streak.  The Rangers play the A's 9 more times the rest of the season.  Yeah, those might be important games.

I would still like the Rangers to add a bat.  Or two.

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Rangers' Offense Continues to Struggle

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The All Star break has come and gone and the Rangers will trail the A's by 3 or 4 games in the division (depending on whether the A's beat the Halos in a late game) going into the weekend.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers are only 3 or 4 games back!  Are you kidding me?  Had you told me that the Rangers would...
1. be without Colby Lewis all season to this point
2. have Pierzynski, Berkman, Ogando and Yu spend time on the DL
3. have Murph and Elvis batting under .250
4. have an offense that just generally looks mediocre at best
5. and have Kins continue to look like he's trying to figure out what this base running thing is all about...

...I would have expected the Rangers to be behind in the division by double digits at this point.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The Rangers play the A's plenty of times the rest of the way.  And I really think Elvis and Murph will bat better down the stretch.  And now they've added Matt Garza to the starting rotation (and he looked pretty good in first start in a Rangers' uniform), so yeah, I'm still pretty excited to watch this thing.

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Rangers Pound Halos Like a Drum 11-3

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers' bats beat up on a young guy making his first MLB start so let's not assume the offense has turned the corner just quite yet.

And Moreland took a step backward against lefties, and generally at the plate as the only Ranger without a hit.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Pretty much almost every Ranger contributed at the plate, especially in the 4th inning when they put up a huge crooked number.

And Yu Darvish was, one again, amazing giving up only 3 hits in 6 IP, and had 11 K's against only 2 BB's.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: I know it's early in the season but the Rangers still have not lost a series.  They did split a 4 game series versus the Mermen and split their 2 games versus the Cubbies (the middle game was rained out and will be made up).  Not too shabby with the offense still not quite out of its early season funk.

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Rangers Lose in 11 Versus Halos

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The first inning gave us yet another example of extra outs leading to runs.  A 3rd strike against Trout got away from Pierzynski and Moreland mishandled the throw so Trout was safe at first with 1 out.  And of course the Halos scored both their runs (Trout and Pujols) with 2 outs.

Baker went out with an injury in the top of the 1st when he slid into the wall in foul territory in left field making a catch for an out.

In the top of 10 with 1 out Robbie Ross (who up to that point had pitched well in relief) gave up back to back singles.  Trout, a righty, was due up.  And Wash left Ross, a lefty, in to face Trout.  And Trout walked to load the bases.  Then, Wash brings in another lefty, Joe Ortiz, to face right handed batting Pujols.  Why oh why not go with a righty-righty match up?

In that at bat against Ortiz Pujols hit a grounder to Beltre.  It looked like Beltre could have stepped on 3B and then thrown to 1B for an inning ending double play.  Instead he went to home for 1 out.  And it looked like Pierzynski wasn't expecting him to go to home plate since he wasn't even standing on home and had to tag the runner out.  All that said, Everyday Joe Ortiz got the next batter, Hamilton, out to get out of a 1 out bases loaded jam.

But Ortiz gave up the game winning walk off homer to Kendrick (another right handed batter) in the bottom of 11.  Again, what happened to righty vs. righty and lefty vs. lefty match ups?

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Ogando battled in 7 IP with 2 ER's (the other 2 in the first inning were unearned, again that error really hurt).

Nellie hit a towering 3 run shot in the top of 6 cutting the Halos' lead to 4-3.  In the top of 8 the Angels had and error and the Rangers tied it up 4-4 with 2 outs.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Sometimes (all the time?) there really seems to be no rhyme or reason to why Wash makes pitching moves.

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Thank You Mr. Pierzynski, Rangers Come Back and Beat Halos 7-6

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Doogie Holland issued some early walks and got himself in some jams.  Some of the jams he got out of.  But he couldn't get out of the jams he got himself into in the 4th and 6th innings, when he gave up 3 ER's in each of those innings.  Holland had been on the edge all night so why didn't Wash pull him before it got out of hand in the 6th I wonder?

And the Rangers left a lot of guys on base early.

Hamilton was 4-4.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Elvis started the ballgame with 2 straight hits, and was 3-5.  Mitch Moreland batted well too, going 3-4.  David "Charlie" Murphy was 2-3 also.  Nice to see on all counts since they've had a slow start.

The Rangers rallied after Holland struggled and tied the game up in the top of 7, making it 6-6.  Then in the top of the 9th A.J. Pierzynski had a solo homer to win the ballgame.

Pujols was 0-5 and struck out 3 times.

Scheppers was strong in 2 IP and Nathan got the save against the top of the Halos' batting order.

Again the offense looked A LOT better than it had just a few games ago.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Josh Hamilton was moved down the lineup.  The Angels' order is now Pujols, Trumbo then Hamilton (it used to be Pujols, Hamilton, Trumbo).  Maybe Sioscia was getting tired of other managers walking Pujols to pitch to Hamilton, like Jim Leyland did with 2 outs and no one on base in extra innings.  The strategy worked for Leyland by the way, at least that inning.  The new batting order worked for Hamilton against the Rangers unfortunately.

The A's lost thanks to ex-Ranger Napoli hitting a grand slam for his new team, the Boston Red Sox.  Rangers expanded their lead in the division with the win tonight.  I know it's early to be watching the division race but each game matters.  A win in April equals a win in September.

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First Place Texas Rangers, Rangers Sweep Series, Win 3-1 As Offense Goes Off On Seamen

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Kins had an error in the 1st that looked like it might be a sign of a long day.  Otherwise, that's about it for any bad stuff.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Every starter except Soto (giving Pierzynski a day off behind the plate) had at least 1 hit and 1 run scored.  And the Rangers had 4 homers (Beltre, Martin, Moreland and Nellie), power we had not seen to date this season.

Grimm went 6 IP with 1 ER.  Kirkman went 3 IP with 1 ER as well, effectively giving the rest of the bullpen a day off.

And the Rangers won a get away game to boot.

And, and at least for the time being you're watching the first place Texas Rangers.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Next up, Mr. Hamilton and the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles, CA, West Coast, USA, North America in Anaheim, CA.

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Rangers Beat Seamen 3-1

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers managed only 5 hits.  And Ogando looked shaky in 5 IP.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: But Ogando only gave up the 1 ER and kept the Rangers in it.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: And Wash threw out a funky lineup.  Murph was moved down, Pierzynski was moved up the batting order, Baker played 1B, Garcia played SS, Berkman and Moreland sat, and Elvis DH'ed.  It got the job done in the end though.

Now the Rangers will try to win the 4 game series against the Mermen tomorrow afternoon.

The A's finally lost a game (versus Detroit) and their lead is now 1 game over the Rangers.

In other division news, the the Halos got a taste of Josh Hamilton checking out mentally in a ballgame when he lost track of the outs in the final inning and got doubled up on the base pads to end the game yesterday in a loss against the 'Stros.  Since Hamilton is fond of comparing himself to Jesus, I wonder if Jesus ever lost track of the number of outs when he was running the bases.

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Rangers Beat Halos 7-3, Win Series

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The wind was jet streaming out to right field, which, as the national ESPN announcers pointed out about 27 times before first pitch, could help the visiting team.  Yu got off to a little bit of shaky start in the top of the first giving up 2 runs.

Wash pulled Yu due to a blister that affected him throwing his change-up after 5 IP.  In the 6th he was due to face the bottom third of the of the Halos' order with righties due up, instead lefty Robbie Ross came in.  Why not throw a righty?  Ross put two on before getting out of the inning.  Also the blister only affected Yu's change-up and he had only thrown 85 pitches.  So why not just have Yu not throw the change?

For at least one game, Hamilton broke out of his slump with a single and a double.  I also question if you can call it only a "slump" since it dates back to last June.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The wind was jet streaming out to right field, which of course could help your Rangers and did.  Berkman and Murph went yard back to back in the first putting 3 runs on the board. Soto, giving Pierzynski a breather behind the plate, had a double and then scored on a hit by Kins.  Speaking of Kins, what did I say?  It's an odd (versus even) year.  Kins also had a 3 run homer to increase the Rangers' lead from 1 run to 4 in the bottom of 6.

Here is yet another example of Yu being strong to very strong: in the top of 3, with no outs, Yu walked Pujols and then gave up a double to Hamilton.  Pujols held at 3B.  Then Yu struck out Trumbo and Kendrick and induced an inning ending fly ball to CF.  Nice.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Pujols doesn't look right when he's running.  In fact it's painful to watch him run.

Why Leonys Martin instead of Gentry in CF?  Again I know it's a small sample size but right now Gentry is playing better this year.  And given how well Gentry played last year for the club I would have thought it'd be his spot to lose.

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