Inconceivable!...Rangers Lose Second Straight to D-Rays
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by user ASwaff
One of my all-time favorite movies is "The Princess Bride." It's one of those great movies of the '80s that I grew up on. One of the characters, Vizzini, always uses the word "inconceivable" to describe anything he considers unlikely. Although he overuses the word that is used to describe events that seem to be completely out of the realm of possibility, I find recent events completely warrant use of this word.
I found myself using it repeatedly tonight as I went to the t.v. at work to see the Houston Astros getting annihilated by the Cincinnati Reds in what would eventually be a 14-0 win. Inconceivable.
Equally inconceivable, and of much more interest to you Texas Rangers fans and anyone interested in the post-season race, is the 5-3 loss the Rangers took at the hands of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays tonight. For the second night in a row, Texas' offense failed to ignite under the suffocation of Tampa's bullpen.
For the second night in a row, Texas looked very much like a team that doesn't want, or deserve, to be in the playoffs.
The Rangers jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the third. But, that was all the scoring they would muster. Rangers batters failed to score again, as they recorded 13 strikeouts. That's not a typo. Tampa Bay pitchers got the Rangers to whiff 13 times. Scott Kazmir recorded 10 of those in the six innings he pitched. Inconceivable.
For the second night in a row, a Rangers pitcher was fortunate to only be tagged for the amount of runs he was tagged for. Vicente Padilla gave up four runs (three earned) in 6.2 innings, despite allowing 10 hits.
Not that it's really news anymore, but Padilla once again flirted with trouble by hitting two batters.
For the second night in a row, the Rangers got tattooed by Greg Norton. He'd be an MVP candidate if he could play Texas every week. Tonight he went 2-3 with two runs, one RBI and a homerun. He's the one that got the scoring started for the Rays with a solo homer in the fourth inning.
The Rangers still led 3-2 going into the bottom of the 7th, but once again, the failure to produce runs caught up to them. Tampa Bay started off the inning with a single by Damon Hollins and a double by Tomas Perez (remember them from last night?). Two sac flies later, the Rangers found themselves losing 4-3 for the second night in a row.
It's not like they didn't have their chances in the late innings, either. Yes, the Devil Rays held them scoreless in the final three frames, but they were pitching with their backs to the wall in the last two innings. The Rangers just failed to make anything of it. Gary Matthews and Michael Young started off the eighth inning with back-to-back singles, but Carlos Lee and Mark Teixeira followed with back-to-back strikeouts. Dan Miceli worked out of the jam for good with a pop out to second base by Mark DeRosa.
DeRosa gets the offensive dud of the night award for the second night in a row, by the way. Tonight he went 0-4 with three strikeouts and five runners left on base to bring his two game total to 0-8 with five Ks.
Texas had another big chance in the ninth inning. Seth McClung found himself in a tight jam with the bases loaded and one out, but the Rangers again failed to get just a single hit. Good teammates that they are, Matthews and Young wouldn't allow Lee and Tex the chance to blow another golden opportunity. They shouldered the burden themselves, as Matthews struck out and Young flew out to right field to end the game. The Rangers went 0-6 with runners in scoring position in the last two innings alone, and the only extra base hit of the night was a double by Teixeira in the three-run third.
Incon-freaking-ceivable.
The best news of the night was that the Oakland Athletics lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, preventing Texas from falling further in the hole. But, the LAA Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, who suddenly can't buy a win, to extend their lead to 2.5 games ahead of the Rangers.
It's good that the Rangers didn't fall further behind the A's, but they haven't been making up any ground, and that always feels like falling behind. Just as a muscle that isn't exercised gets weaker, a team can't expect to make the playoffs just by sitting in place, not falling futher behind the teams ahead of them.
- FOR MORE RANGERS NEWS AND OPINIONS, VISIT BASEBALL TIME IN ARLINGTON
Date
Tue 08/22/06, 11:04 pm EST
