Rangers, Elvis imploded in 7th, lost the game and series. Season over.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Elvis had 2 errors in the bottom of the 7th. The Rangers had 3 total errors in the inning. Little league teams don't have that many errors in most innings. If a team has 3 errors and gives up the lead in the process that team deserves to lose.

Prince (3 hits in the series) continued his post season struggles all series long.

Questions for Banister:
If you're going to pull Hamels why not put in Gallardo, who has dominated the Blue Jays all year?
And Moreland (0 fer) didn't do anything at the plate. So why not see more of Napoli?

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Odor, DeShields, Choo, Gallardo and Hamels played well in the series.

We didn't expect the Rangers to even be in the postseason so this was a bonus, I guess.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: And the Rangers did in this series what few teams before them have done: blow a 2-0 lead in a best of 5 series.

What a way to blow/lose a series.

Elvis should offer to give back part of his salary. And Elvis should call Nelson Cruz to see how he dealt with costing the team a series win.

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It's December, the Cowboys are on the verge of not making the playoffs, so how're the Rangers doing?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: I swear I heard on the radio that Profar's recovery wasn't going as well as hoped. And I heard that Perez will likely not be ready till the All Star break. Remember when Holland was going to be ready at the All Star break last year? Remember when he wasn't ready until pretty much the last month of the season?

And to boot, no starting pitching has been signed. With Perez out, Harrison with an oft-injured back, Lewis getting older and Holland's inability to use stairs without tripping over his dog and blowing out his knee, I'd say starting pitching is still a concern.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: At least I haven't heard about any Rangers getting hurt this off season. Yay.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Still need to learn more about the new skipper. That's on the to-do list while we wait out the winter until opening day.

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That got ugly fast in the top of the 8th versus the O's

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: After 7 it was a tie ballgame, 2-2.

Then, Ogando and Cotts and Tolleson were hit like a drum in the top of 8. The O's batted around in the 8th, is that good?

After 8 the O's were winning 8-2. Ouch.

The Rangers only managed 2 runs on 5 hits through 8.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Saunders pitched an OK to good game, getting the Rangers to the 7th inning only giving up 2 runs. The game was tied 2-2 after 7.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Why can't Wash (or any manager in MLB) put in the Ranger's closer Soria (or any MLB closer) in the 8th and ask him to get 6 outs instead of 3?  Everyone would need to understand that depending on the number of pitches thrown by the closer that he might not be available the next day.

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Rangers Lose First Series of Year to White Sox

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud:  The Rangers lost 2 out of 3 to the White Sox.  The Rangers' offense only managed 3 runs in the 2 losses.  The Rangers aren't going win too many games when they score 1 or 2 runs per game, no team is.  Base running continued to be a problem for the Rangers.  Wash admitted that he left Tepesch in too long in the 2nd game of the series.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Up to that point in the second game of the series though Tepesch again looked good.  And in the the first game of the series the Rangers offense went off for 10 runs.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The Rangers lead in the division is now only 1.5 games over the A's.

Next up the Red Sox and Napoli, who is tearing it up for his new team.

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Rangers' Offense Takes a Step Backwards

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: 2 runs in the top 9 is all the Rangers' offense could manage in a 7-2 loss.  And Moreland continues to struggle at the plate so it doesn't help when he commits an error at first.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Holland was great early.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The lineup Wash put out there was weird.  Gentry was batting second.  Look, I like Gentry but he's not having a great go of it so far like he did last year.  Yeah, rest players like Elvis just maybe put someone else in the 2 slot?

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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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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 Lose 3-1 Versus Mermen

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: How many games are the Rangers going to win when they score only 1 run?  Not many, including this one.  Murph and Beltre continue to struggle in the middle of the batting order.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Yu had a good, albeit wasted performance.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Murph is batting worse than Moreland yet he's #5 in the order.  Is it time yet to move Murph down the order and move Pierzynski, batting well over .300, up?

Oh, and by the way, the freakin' A's have now won 9 straight and lead the division by 2 over the Rangers.

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Welcome to Baseball Town, TX Tampa Bay Rays! Rangers Win 5-4

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The way our local announcers, Busby and Tom, "TAG", Grieve, were talking during the first 5 innings you would have thought Ogando was getting beaten like a drum.  In fact he only gave up 1 ER on 3 hits through 6.1 IP.  Sometimes I have no idea what game they are watching.  Frustrating to listen to announcers do that, much less our hometown guys.  Usually it's the national broadcasters that do stuff like that.  Oh, and the whole time Busby and TAG are bagging on Ogando they're praising the pitching of the Rays!  The Rays, who at the time were losing the game 3-1 in a pitching duel!  To Ogando!  Again, frustrating.

Also, Ogando seemed to be on a short leash since Wash pulled him after 6.1 IP, with less than 90 pitches thrown, having given up only 3 hits and 1 ER.  Sure, in the 6th he had 2 on with 1 out, but what happened to letting your pitchers pitch their way out of trouble?  Wash?

Kins' poor awareness at times on the base pads reared its ugly head again, he got caught in no man's land in the first inning.  This is a long running (pun intended) problem for Kins dating back to last season.

Kirkman is our setup guy?  He came in with a 5-1 lead in the 8th.  He started the 8th with 6 straight balls and eventually was pulled for Lowe, with the bases loaded and 1 out.  Then Lowe walked in a run and gave up another run on a fielder's choice making it a much more tense 5-3 ballgame.  This is an ongoing experiment/adventure.  Maybe Joe Ortiz (see below) will/should get a shot at being the setup guy.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining:  Beltre is starting to come out of a mini slump he was in to start off the season, driving in a first inning run.

Pierzynski and Moreland went yard back to back in the bottom of 4.  Moreland went 3-3, staring to come out of his early season slump.

As mentioned above, Ogando was lifted for the young reliever Joe Ortiz with 2 on and 1 out in the 6th.  Ortiz got out of the inning without giving up any runs.  And Ortiz was perfect in 1.2 IP.  At least one media-type has referenced that Ortiz reminds some of an Everyday Eddie Guardado-type pitcher, especially because of the way he carries himself on the mound.  And not just because he has the same "body-type", is a lefty, a reliever, and has a Latino surname like Everyday Eddie.  Everyday Eddie, Jr.?

Elvis drove in some insurance runs (2) in bottom of 7 to give the Rangers a 5-1 lead.  The Rangers would need those runs given Kirkman and Lowe's adventures (see above) in the 8th.

Nathan pitched the 9th and after a bit of another adventure (and a terrible called 3rd strike for the final out), got the 300th save of his career.  Impressive. (Correcting my last post, his last outing against the Halos was not a save opportunity).

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Is it weird that a ball club's name is associated with a the body of water adjacent to a metropolitan area?  I think so.  Tampa, Flordia is a town.  Tampa Bay is the body of water in the Gulf of Mexico next to the city.  The Rays don't play in the bay.  They play on land, in Tampa, Florida.  The whole thing is very unstable.  Of course the Rays learned it from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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