A lonestar in california

It’s hard to put into words exactly how bad the Rangers infield defense has been so far this season. Before the start of Saturday night’s game against the Blue Jays, the Rangers already lead the AL in errors and unearned runs, most of which sat on the shoulders of the infield (which has made 9 of the Rangers 13 total errors). And by the time the game came to a close, they’d added an E5 and 3 more unearned runs to their total, which turned out to be the difference in a 4-1 loss.

Luis Mendoza, making his first start of the season for the Rangers, started off a little shaky, walking the leadoff man and giving up an RBI double in the first inning to Aaron Hill (the first time this season an opponent has scored upon the Rangers in the first inning), but he managed to settle down and pitch as well as you can against Roy Halladay - save for the fact that the defense behind him fell apart with 2 out in the fourth.

With Matt Stairs at first, Greg Zaun hit a grounder over to third base that should have been the easy third out of the inning. Instead, Blalock froze, getting “caught between either a short hop, or catching it in the air.” The ball went right by Blalock into LF, and put runners on first and second, and things piled on from there. Joe Inglett then singled up the middle, to score Stairs from second, on a ball that arguably should have been knocked down by Michael Young, who seems to just continue losing range at shortstop every season. Next, Mendoza hit David Eckstein to load the bases, which braught up Aaron Hill, who had done the damage in the first. Hill hit a grounder deep in the hole, and Young was late in getting to the ball again, and it went off his glove for a 2-run single.

All those runs went as unearned, and it was all the Blue Jays would need, as Roy Halladay took a shutout into the 9th inning, which was only broken up by an RBI double by Marlon Byrd (who was 2-4 on the night, perhaps a sign he may finally be breaking out of his slump). All told, Halladay threw a 109-pitch, complete game 6-hitter, holding the Rangers, who continue to struggle with men on base, 0-8 with RISP on the day.

Even so, the Rangers pitching staff matched up with Halladay fairly well, as without those three unearned runs, it could have been a tie game after 9 – Luis Mendoza wasn’t all that efficent, giving up 8 hits and walking 3 on 92 pitches, getting pulled after 5 frames, but he kept the Blue Jays off the scoreboard for the most part. Josh Rupe followed with three brilliant innings of relief, holding the Jays in check while giving up 3 hits and a walk, strikeing out 2. That performance may have been on of the brighter highlights of the game for the Rangers – and it seems to have secured his spot in the bullpen for the time being (more on that later). Franklyn German also pitched a scoreless 9th, walking one.

It was still another dissapointing game however, which prompted Ron Washington to call a team meeting after the game to discuss the shoddy defense. A good idea to be sure, but some extra work with Blalock, and Kinsler (who have both committed 3 errors each) might be an even better one. As for Michael Young – there’s not much you can do about a guy who’s clearly just deteriorating range-wise (in a kind of Nomar Garciaparra-esque way). Hopefully the days of Elvis Andrus are not too far off for the Rangers – but if Young can’t seem to play the position, the Rangers could find themselves having to trade or move Young, and find a short-term fix at shortstop before the young phenom is ready.

In other news, Eddie Guardado was put on the 15-day DL to make room for Luis Mendoza Saturday. The move is retroactive to April 5th, but it will still leave the Rangers without a left-hander in the bullpen for the next week.

As for today’s roster move to bring up Scott Feldman for the start against AJ Burnett, the Rangers have now narrowed it down to either putting Jamey Wright on the DL (who has been having trouble with a strained oblique) or optioning Kazuo Fukumori to AAA. Apparently, with their brilliant outings in the last two games, Dustin Nippert and Josh Rupe seem to have played their way back into the Rangers good graces (for now at least) and since both of them have the capability to go multiple innings, I’m betting Wright will be sent to the DL.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia watch: Salty was 1-4 with a single Saturday for OKC. Not anything to write home about, but hey, how long did you think he was going to maintain the blistering pace of his last few games? Starter Elizardo Ramirez went 5 innings an earned the 5-4 win, as the Redhawks have now won 6 straight.

As I already mentioned, today it’s Feldman vs. Burnett – another pitching matchup that heavily favors the Blue Jays. The Jays have not swept a series in Arlington since 1985, but they are in just about the perfect position to do it this weekend. Hopefully Feldman will be a lot better than I think he’ll be, and the offense will wake up and start hitting with RISP – but I’m not exactly banking on it. Buckle up Ranger fans – it’s going to be quite the feat if we manage to avoid the broom here.