Series Thread: Rangers Travel to Minnesota for 4 Games August 24-27

[WilltheThrill]

Tonight needs to be the night that the bottom half of the lineup starts hitting more like they did in May. And Adolis needs to remember how to hit a fastball again.

Some here have already given up on this season, but I haven’t. All it would take would be a mini winning to streak to get that 3 game buffer on Houston and Seattle back. This team may not be as good as their performance in the first half showed, but they’re a hell of a lot better than this last week.

 

[saddles]

Tonight needs to be the night that the bottom half of the lineup starts hitting more like they did in May. And Adolis needs to remember how to hit a fastball again.

Some here have already given up on this season, but I haven’t. All it would take would be a mini winning to streak to get that 3 game buffer on Houston and Seattle back. This team may not be as good as their performance in the first half showed, but they’re a hell of a lot better than this last week.

The concern I have is that these bad streaks keep popping up too often. I can see this happening a little too often for us to make the postseason. Even if we get help by our opposition struggling just as bad, it is hard to see us making it very far in the postseason. You just never know when guys we have to have hit, are going to have their bats go to sleep again, later on. It is going to take another run like we saw in the first 60 games to navigate what we have in front of us.

I guess we are about to find out.

 

[Duane1952]

Might as well send JPM back down if they’re not going to play him.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Sorry to hear you had to have that done. Hopefully your recovery time is a lot quicker than Ohtani’s is going to be.

Some morphine would be nice. But that ain't happening. One time at hospital ER when I had a really bad kidney stone attack they put that in the IV and said from 1 to 10 what is your pain level. I said "what pain?"

 

[scotsman1948]

Charlie Pride

 

[WastinSomeTime]

The concern I have is that these bad streaks keep popping up too often. I can see this happening a little too often for us to make the postseason. Even if we get help by our opposition struggling just as bad, it is hard to see us making it very far in the postseason. You just never know when guys we have to have hit, are going to have their bats go to sleep again, later on. It is going to take another run like we saw in the first 60 games to navigate what we have in front of us.

I guess we are about to find out.

But we have also had some really nice winning streaks but I know what you are saying. Which team will show up? But the ability is there and that includes includes in all facets including the BP. A week or so ago they were shutting people down with the exception of Smith and Anderson.

 

[scotsman1948]

Boston 17 Houston 1

 

[WilltheThrill]

The concern I have is that these bad streaks keep popping up too often. I can see this happening a little too often for us to make the postseason. Even if we get help by our opposition struggling just as bad, it is hard to see us making it very far in the postseason. You just never know when guys we have to have hit, are going to have their bats go to sleep again, later on. It is going to take another run like we saw in the first 60 games to navigate what we have in front of us.

I guess we are about to find out.

I agree with all of that, and I definitely wasn’t referring to you when I said that some have given up.

I recognize that our streaks of bad play and losing have become more frequent since July, and it’s obviously concerning. It points to bigger issues. And the team does have too many holes to suggest a World Series run is probable.

My thing is that we’ve come this far, and all we need to do is get in the playoffs. From there, anything can happen. Baseball is weird, and often the hot team and not the best team wins it all. The 2011 Cardinals had no business beating us, much less even reaching the WS. They qualified for the playoffs on the last day of the season and got insanely hot at the right time. However improbable, that could happen to us, too.

 

[saddles]

Might as well send JPM back down if they’re not going to play him.

Yeah, with a young guy like that, Bochy doesn't allow them to play unless they are red hot. Let them have a couple of starts in a row with no hits and they go to the end of the bench.

 

[saddles]

Eovaldi news from Evan.


Three days after facing hitters for the first time, Nathan Eovaldi on Thursday threw the equivalent of a betweenstarts maintenance bullpen at Target Field.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy allowed that the club has laid out “scenarios” in which Eovaldi’s next appearance would be in a regular-season start.

We’re not ruling anything out,” said Bochy, who intends to huddle with pitching coach Mike Maddux and athletic trainer Matt Lucero on Friday provided Eovaldi has no soreness. “We’ve already put out some scenarios that he could go ahead and start – with short work – instead of letting him do a rehab. But we’ve got to do what’s right and I don’t think I can answer it [until Friday].”

Eovaldi on Monday threw the equivalent of two innings of a simulated game against hitters Brad Miller and Austin Hedges. He threw 36 pitches and experienced no soreness. He said at the time he thought he could get major league hitters out with his stuff.

 

[saddles]

Rangers are 5th

Odds 15:1

 

[saddles]

 

[TheLonestarDUCK]

Semien starts this game with a kong. Hopefully the day off woke up the bats

 

[TheLonestarDUCK]

2-1 all solos . Seager booom

 

[DT LUNA]

Seager gets #21

 

[WilltheThrill]

Run in the 1st, could have easily had a run in the 2nd, and a run in the 3rd. So far, looking better.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Not sure what to do about Heim. He is very clearly not himself and not at 100%… a lot of weakly-hit balls. Probably playing in a ton of pain. Gotta admire him for that. But do we continue to let him play despite how frequently he is getting out? Is an 80% Jonah Heim better than a 100% Grossman or Smith? I don’t know at all.

 

[DT LUNA]

Ski comes thru for 2RBI

 

[WilltheThrill]

Damn good at-bat Jank!!

 

[Duane1952]

I didn’t like the Heany signing when it happened. He hasn’t changed my mind.