Our Texas Rangers against the Oakland A's 9/2 -9/4

[BLeslie59Rangers]

The Angels are playing better than us right now. I mean we barely won 1 game from Minnesota at home. We stink at home right now.

The Angels are playing extremely well right now...I'm worried about going in there later this week. This won't be the same rollover team we beat up last month...

 

[BLeslie59Rangers]

Pitt struggles on the road.

We can't beat Minnesota pitching...even with Pitt not playing well on the road, we are at a big disadvantage against their pitching staff...

 

[WastinSomeTime]

I was out of town yesterday but was curious why we were willing to start Baker who has a terrible time with right handed pitchers for some reason but not start Gentry who two nights before that had a triple as a PHer and was stranded and a walk the next night against a RH as a PHer during the 9th inning rally. We keep leaving his speed on the bench. Makes no sense to me. Plus that fact that he has been hitting over 300 lately.

 

[BLeslie59Rangers]

I was out of town yesterday but was curious why we were willing to start Baker who has a terrible time with right handed pitchers for some reason but not start Gentry who two nights before that had a triple as a PHer and was stranded and a walk the next night against a RH as a PHer during the 9th inning rally. We keep leaving his speed on the bench. Makes no sense to me. Plus that fact that he has been hitting over 300 lately.

You are asking the million dollar question....baker did start at 3b however to give Beltre a rest in the field. That's why he was in there. But later Baker was still in there during a key AB when you would have thought Gentry should have been inserted. I guess maybe Wash was limited with what to do about 3b having Beltre at DH? But Rosales was available, could have juggled the infield....

 

[donaldson79]

Yeah, this whole Murphy situation has gone beyond anything which could possible make sense to anyone other than Murphy and Wash. And I wonder if Murphy himself would pencil himself in. For heavens sake, the guy is hitting .167 for his last 36 AB.

Your assessment on Profar vs EA is right on.

I don't know about getting rid of Wash. I wonder what options are available for replacements. It's easy to fire someone - not that Wash doesn't deserve it - but have a good option when doing so.

 

[donaldson79]

You are asking the million dollar question....baker did start at 3b however to give Beltre a rest in the field. That's why he was in there. But later Baker was still in there during a key AB when you would have thought Gentry should have been inserted. I guess maybe Wash was limited with what to do about 3b having Beltre at DH? But Rosales was available, could have juggled the infield....

You answered your own question: Rosales. Didn't understand this lack of move at all.

 

[TDs3nOut]

Big series at Oakland. Really need to get back on track. The team has shown an extraordinary ability to the right the ship several times this season. Hope that continues, beginning today.

 

[Hambombs]

Really have nothing else to say after today's game. Just hope everyone has a safe and happy Labor Day!!

Not going to watch this game. Rangers seem to win more when I don't care what happens we will see. The showing the last 3 games for the offense looks terrible. Atleast we have yu and Holland in this series.

 

[donaldson79]

Big series at Oakland. Really need to get back on track. The team has shown an extraordinary ability to the right the ship several times this season. Hope that continues, beginning today.

The "lack-of-Cruz" effect has taken hold. We just don't have the bats to make a good offensive showing, game in and out. And now our hottest bat, EA, is hurt. Gawd, we can't catch a break.

But, we do seem to play better against the better teams. Unfortunately, the Angels and A's are both playing well now. Again, we just can't catch a break, and we're running out of time.

 

[DT LUNA]

Not going to watch this game. Rangers seem to win more when I don't care what happens we will see. The showing the last 3 games for the offense looks terrible. Atleast we have yu and Holland in this series.

Yu and Holland should make a difference but they get almost no run support. That needs to change now or they have little to do with winning.

 

[Sexy]

Yu and Holland should make a difference but they get almost no run support. That needs to change now or they have little to do with winning.

They don't have a sub-1 ERA. If the offense doesn't get something going it doesn't matter who is on the mound.

 

[donaldson79]

And if things weren't going bad enough as it is, we now have to play 2 games against the A's in the day. Our record is 18-19 for daylight contests.

 

[donaldson79]

They don't have a sub-1 ERA. If the offense doesn't get something going it doesn't matter who is on the mound.

Isn't that the truth.

 

[DT LUNA]

They don't have a sub-1 ERA. If the offense doesn't get something going it doesn't matter who is on the mound.

Exactly and after a 20-7 August I can't fault the lack of Cruz for not getting the needed run support. One man can't carry the team. Things that might help would be pulling Murphy and inserting Gentry. Gentry, Kinsler, Beltre, AJ and Elvis are the heart of the offense and if they step up and support Yu and Derek we can take two for sure. If not, no chance.

 

[TDs3nOut]

The "lack-of-Cruz" effect has taken hold. We just don't have the bats to make a good offensive showing, game in and out. And now our hottest bat, EA, is hurt. Gawd, we can't catch a break.

But, we do seem to play better against the better teams. Unfortunately, the Angels and A's are both playing well now. Again, we just can't catch a break, and we're running out of time.

We are 17-7 without Cruz since he was suspended. Hard for me to attribute losing two of the three over the weekend to the Twinks to not having Nelly. Rather, baseball is a game so full of random variation that it's typically not possible to identify a single variable that explains the outcome of a game or a series. I have a lot of confidence in the team and I expect a strong showing the rest of the way. May not happen, but I'll be more surprised if it doesn't than if it does.

 

[DT LUNA]

We are 17-7 without Cruz since he was suspended. Hard for me to attribute losing two of the three over the weekend to the Twinks to not having Nelly. Rather, baseball is a game so full of random variation that it's typically not possible to identify a single variable that explains the outcome of a game or a series. I have a lot of confidence in the team and I expect a strong showing the rest of the way. May not happen, but I'll be more surprised if it doesn't than if it does.

Agree. As nice as it would be to have Cruz in the line up, he alone is far from the lack of run support.

 

[donaldson79]

We are 17-7 without Cruz since he was suspended. Hard for me to attribute losing two of the three over the weekend to the Twinks to not having Nelly. Rather, baseball is a game so full of random variation that it's typically not possible to identify a single variable that explains the outcome of a game or a series. I have a lot of confidence in the team and I expect a strong showing the rest of the way. May not happen, but I'll be more surprised if it doesn't than if it does.

I understand. But the law of averages are what they are. And we've been living on borrowed time IMO until it caught up with us.

Now with EA out and he didn't sound all that positive - according to this mornings DMN - about coming back anywhere close to 100% when he does come back, I don't think this bodes well.

Hope I'm being pessimistic. But I've tried to be the opposite all season.

 

[TDs3nOut]

Agree. As nice as it would be to have Cruz in the line up, he alone is far from the lack of run support.

I think our offense has been streaky all year. Certainly not as if most, if not all, teams don't go through scoring droughts. Take two of three in Oakland and all the hand wringing stops -- at least for a few days.

 

[donaldson79]

Exactly and after a 20-7 August I can't fault the lack of Cruz for not getting the needed run support. One man can't carry the team. Things that might help would be pulling Murphy and inserting Gentry. Gentry, Kinsler, Beltre, AJ and Elvis are the heart of the offense and if they step up and support Yu and Derek we can take two for sure. If not, no chance.

I feel like we've all bloodied ourselves up on Murphy. It's beyond comprehension he still gets in the line up. After playing awful all season, he's now actually in a slump. He's hitting like .167 over his last 37 AB.

You're right one man doesn't carry. But without Cruz it hurts the overall depth of our hitting when we weren't exactly loaded to start with. Now our hottest hitter, EA is out.

 

[TDs3nOut]

I understand. But the law of averages are what they are. And we've been living on borrowed time IMO until it caught up with us.

Now with EA out and he didn't sound all that positive - according to this mornings DMN - about coming back anywhere close to 100% when he does come back, I don't think this bodes well.

Hope I'm being pessimistic. But I've tried to be the opposite all season.

I understand the concern, but I think that the team has shown enough resiliency that it's not unfounded to expect them to shake the recent modest slump. Would love to see Profar step up while EA is out.