Rangers Still Cannot Shake the A's

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers' 8 game winning streak came to an end with the loss to the Brewers tonight.  The Rangers have won 13 out of 14 games and still will be either 1 game up or tied with the A's in the division (A's are losing to the Astros 5-1 in the bottom of 7th right now).  Why won't the A's just go on a losing streak?

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers won 8 in a row and 13 out of 14 games!  Not too shabby since it looked like the A's might be poised to run away with this thing.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Why do the Rangers have so much trouble with simple things like run downs and base running?

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It's 47 games to the end of the season, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses. Let’s roll.

The Rangers are tied in the division with the A's.

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And Now They Are 1 Game Back...

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Yu gave up 2 first inning homers.  Very uncharacteristic for him since he came back from his stint on the DL (he had a sub 1 ERA since coming off the DL).  Oh well, he's human after all.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers had 6 stolen bases.  And the Rangers had a mini offensive explosion producing 4 runs in the top 9, fueled in large part by their running.

Oh yeah, and with the win, and A's losing earlier versus the Reds, the Rangers trail by only 1 game in the division.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: It's amazing what great base running and committing no errors in the field will do for you.  Just ask the Halos, by virtue of an error in the top of 9 they gave the Rangers an extra out.  And as usually happens when you give a MLB team an extra out, the Rangers made them pay for it.

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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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3 Walk Off Home Run Wins In a Row Must Be a Record or Something Right?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Josh Hamilton continues to play well against the Rangers

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Nellie went yard and continues to hit well recently.  And then it was Beltre's turn to end the game with a homer.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Nellie has been playing well but how much longer will he be playing at all?  And how long will he be suspended?  50 games?  That means he could be back for the end of the regular season.

And the Rangers are 4 back of the A's in the division (.5 games back in the Wild Card race).  And guess who the Rangers play a 3 game series against in Oakland starting Saturday?  Then the Rangers don't play the A's until September, when they play them 6 more times.  Again, these head to head games are HUGE.

The Rangers did not trade for a bat before the deadline.  With Nellie about to get suspended supposedly will the Rangers have enough offense to make a playoff run?  I really don't know.

And can Fat Elvis please just retire already?

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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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Former Ranger Alex Rodriguez Facing Possible Lifetime Suspension!?!?

The NY Daily News is reporting that if ARod/AFraud doesn't strike a deal with MLB, Selig would seek to essentially ban him for life.  The deal being offered to Rodriguez by MLB would suspend him for the rest of this year and next year, WITHOUT PAY.  But, allow him to collect on his current contract from 2015-2017.  If there's no deal, apparently Selig is going to go for the jugular.

Wow.  And I bet Braun thought his punishment was harsh.  And for your Rangers, when is the hammer going to drop on Nellie?

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It's Tough to Win Games When You Score Zero Runs

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers were shut out by the Tribe in back to back ballgames yesterday and today.  And it looks like the Rangers will be trailing the A's by 6 games after today.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Can't think of anything right now that makes me hopeful about the team right now.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Maybe instead of adding an arm they should have added an outfield bat.

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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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Who Are Those Guys?*

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: By those guys, I'm talking about the A's.  They won't go away, they're 8-2 in their last 10 played.  The Rangers lead is down to 1.5 games in the division.

Only 1 every day player (Beltre) is batting over .300.  Is that bad?

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Speaking of Beltre, after some early season struggles he's been on fire, taking an early sub .250 BA and raising it 50 points.  Not too shabby.

And hey, even with very, very average hitting the Rangers are still leading this thing.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: *of course that question is from the great movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when they're being chased by some guys that they just cannot shake.  Sound familiar?  Hopefully this season will end better for the Rangers than the movie did for Butch and and the Kid.

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