Season Record: 62-63
Week Record: 2-4
Series Record: 18-20, 2 split
GAME 120: 7-6 Win vs Arizona Diamondbacks
GAME 122: 4-6 Loss vs Arizona Diamondbacks
GAME 123: 5-6 Loss at Toronto Blue Jays
GAME 121: 2-3 Loss vs Arizona Diamondbacks
GAME 124: 2-14 Loss vs Arizona Diamondbacks
GAME 125: 10-4 Win at Toronto Blue Jays
At the trade deadline, the Rangers seemingly improved the best pitching staff in baseball. But when the team can’t hit and score timely runs and that best pitching staff is constantly in high leverage situations, it’s hard to tell if anything is actually good.
I don’t love questioning Bruce Bochy, he got Texas their first World Series Championship and he’s a future Hall of Famer, however his consistent use of Robert Garcia is puzzling. As I side above, it is hard to really tell how good the pitching
is, especially the bullpen, when they are constantly coming in with a mess on the bases. But it feels like we are trying to turn Garcia into a Jose LeClerc but consistently throwing Garcia out there multiple days in a row and hoping he’ll figure it out.
The botched play he attempted to make during the Arizona day to flip a ball behind his back to first base was just icing on the really poorly made cake. Pitchers aren’t known for their fielding abilities so to try to pull off a shortstop-esque play after not doing his actual job very well was beyond frustrating.
Then the Rangers went to Toronto over the weekend. The second best home team in the majors behind the Milwaukee Brewers. Doesn’t bode well for a team on a terrible down turn.
In Saturday’s postgame, and during the game too, Dave Raymond mentioned that this has to be rock bottom after a 2-14 loss. And something has got to give. To paraphrase, the Rangers have enough time to go on a few winning streaks and end up in the wild card spot but they have got to stop saying this team can do better and turn it around and actually start doing it.
We all know the Rangers have been inconsistent all season, but the Saturday loss, at least to me and the TV broadcast, felt like breaking point. A closed door team meeting, a veteran stepping up to have a come to jesus talk, felt imminent.
I don’t know if thats what happened in order for them to come around and score 10 runs on Sunday but it sure felt like Saturday might have been a kick in the nads to motivate it.
But unlike other glimmers of hope this team has given us, I’m not holding my breath that this will be the turn around. I absolutely want it to be but I will not be surprised if Sunday’s win is followed by a dud on Monday. That’s just the way the Rangers have been this season.
