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I got way behind, and as such I’m offering minimal commentary for the eight games I let slide. :)
Despite outhitting the A’s 11-9, the Rangers lost 3-1. CJ Wilson pitched pretty decently, but was a hard luck loser, being let down by defense. He gave up all three runs, but only one was earned.
Our offense was all singles (11), and a few walks (3). Our offense looked like the A’s offense. That won’t win a ton of games for sure.

I got way behind, and as such I’m offering minimal commentary for the eight games I let slide. :)
Ogando looked decent again. Not awesome, but OK. He only gave up two runs in six innings, but got a no decision when Darren Oliver gave up three runs (although just one earned).
The Rangers offense was bunched. Seven hits in all, one double, six singles. Kinsler, Andrus, & Beltre had two each. The other was Moreland. Not a lot of offense, which seems to be a recurring theme lately. Not liking that.

I didn’t see much of this game, I was at Wednesday night church services, but I did get to see a little bit of the Gameday on my phone. I got to watch via my phone as the Rangers tied the game at 2, then went up 6-2 in the bottom of the third. By the time I got home, the game was 6-5 in the sixth. I watched Cody Eppley give up the tying run.
But Mitch Moreland saved it in the bottom if the seventh with a solo home run onto Greene’s hill – to the same kid who caught the ball on the fly for the second time in a week. :)
Holland was pretty bad today like Harrison was last night. Arthur Rhodes pitched a scoreless inning for the hold, and Darren Oliver got the save in the ninth.
Given I saw so little of this game, and I’m in a hurry today, I’m doing a short one. It wasn’t great to see another bad starter, but it was good to see the team come back and get the win, and hold it in the end.
Thu afternoon is the final game of the series, we need to take that to get a split.

This game did not start out good. Here’s what happened with the first six batters:
Single. Single. Walk. Single. Walk. Walk. At that point, we were down 3-0, with the bases loaded, and nobody out – IN THE TOP OF THE FIRST. Ugh. After a double play (which itself scored a run), there was another single, for yet another run scored. We’re down 5-0 in the first inning.
The Rangers picked up a few in the bottom of the second to make it 5-3, but that was as close as we got. All of the Ranger runs came in the second inning. Four hits in a row. Double, single, double, single. That was it. Our three runs.
Just to stamp the point into this game that we weren’t going to win it, the first batter in the top of the third was Adam “Krusher” Lind, who homered to lead off the inning. So much for changing momentum.
Actually, to be honest, after the top of the fourth inning, all the scoring was over – for both teams. The 5th through 9th were all zeroes. But the game was essentially over at that point anyway.
Matt Harrison had clearly his worst outing of the season, and I’d wager into last season, too. This was pretty awful. Three innings, eight hits, three walks, and SEVEN earned runs. While his ERA is still a respectable 3.69 after this outing, it was a lot less before it.
Bleargh. That won’t help several of my fantasy teams.

This game was looking pretty good through the first four innings. Colby Lewis was doing OK, decent pitch count, good if not dominant numbers. The same for Toronto starter Kyle Drabek, a kid who I used to know from his time in the Philly system.
Thought we were having a good time, until right towards the end of the fourth inning, I had a feeling something bad was going to happen. The Jays had two men on via a single and a walk. After a flyout to Murphy, Corey Patterson was caught stealing at third on a double steal attempt. Juan Rivera was at the plate, and we got what seemingly looked like a called third strike to end the inning, but he ended up walking. No immediate damage was caused because Molina grounded out to end the inning.
The fourth also started off not bad. Walk, then two flyouts to get to two outs. It was at this point that the wheels completely fell off the bus. Not only did they fall off of Lewis bus lines, but the bus ran over Colby a few times when the Jays batters were driving it back and forth over him. Three run home run by Corey Patterson. Solo home run back to back from Bautista. Walk to Adam Lind. Visit from Mike Maddux. Two run home run to Juan Rivera. BAM BAM BAM! Three home runs in the fifth inning was the game. We were down 6-0 that point, and it just felt bad.
Dave Bush followed Colby the next three innings and pitched quite well. He only allowed two hits and a walk on 34 pitches. Really nice outing by Dave there. Pedro Strop also followed with a perfect inning of his own, and he’s starting to look quite good out there. We just need more guys out there like that right now. :)
It wasn’t all bad. The Rangers started playing peck away. We got a solo home run from Torrealba in the fifth to cancel Drabek’s shutdown inning, and put us on the board. A couple of doubles from Ian Kinsler & Michael Young put two more on the board in the bottom of the sixth. Now down 6-3. Nelson Cruz found his long missing boomstick and hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to make it 6-4, but that was it. After the home run, the Rangers went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth.
We had a valiant comeback attempt, but couldn’t get the job done. Definitely were sunk by the three homers Colby Lewis allowed in the fifth. Much has been made this season about a big “Uh-oh” with him that his velocity is down so far this season. That alone isn’t a huge problem, I’m more worried about his lack of command. He doesn’t seem to dominate like he did last season, especially like he did in the playoffs. Joey M over at BBTIA wrote a far more verbose article on this subject than I probably could, so I’ll just send you over there to read it if you haven’t (Linkage here).
I’m not in panic mode about Colby Lewis, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was concerned. I am. Hopefully he gets it together here, and doesn’t go all Scott Feldman on us.