A lonestar in california

Well, as said in closing on my last post, it would probably take a feat for the Rangers to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday. As turned out, Texas came a lot closer to a win than I admit I expected, but a lack of execution again with RISP, and some more questionable bullpen management by Ron Washington left Rangers fans pulling clumps of hair from their scalp yet again.

Spot starter Scott Feldman was actually much better than what I had expected him to be, although he wasn’t exactly great, either. Solid would be a more apt description, but for Scott Feldman, solid is a major, major stride from last season. Yes, thanks to that “new”, three-quarters arm slot developed late last season (as a contrast to his previous sidearm angle) the very same Scott Feldman who walked 32 batters in 39 innings and had a 5.77 ERA in 29 relief appearances in 2007 actually managed to hold his own against the Blue Jays yesterday. He went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits, walking two and striking out three on his way to a no-decision in his first-ever Major League start. Not Cy Young material by any stetch, but it appears the new arm slot has improved things greatly – Feldman may just find his way back into the Texas bullpen this year after all.

That may be the best thing Ranger fans will be able to take away from this game, however. In what turned out to be a maddening 3 hour, 38 minute afternoon affair that wound up going 10 innings, the Rangers swung the lead back and forth with the Jays for the majority of the afternoon, before coughing it up at the very end.

The Rangers lead 4-3 after 6 innings, thanks to a Frank Catalanotto RBI double in the bottom of the frame. Franklyn German came on in the 7th, to try and preserve that lead but coughed up the tying run after a single, a walk, a bunt, and a sac fly, a got charged with a blown save. But the afternoon was just starting to turn against the Rangers.

We fast-forward to the bottom of the 8th, when after some superb relief work from Joaquin Benoit in the top of the frame, the Rangers loaded the bases with 2 out. In a suprising turn, Ron Washington pinch-hit Jason Botts for Ben Broussard in that critical spot, but Botts was called out looking on a somewhat questionable call to end the inning. That was bad enough, but the top of the 9th was when the hair-pulling really started. The aforementioned Joaquin Benoit had just pitched a perfect 8th inning, needing just 10 pitches to blow through the Blue Jays, K’ing one. But for some inexplicable reason, Ron Washington decided to lift Benoit, who was also pitching on 3 days rest, for CJ Wilson. Wilson got through a somewhat shaky 9th inning unscathed, but he needed 21 pitches to do it, nixing the chance of him being used for a second frame. With Jamey Wright and Josh Rupe both unavialable (thanks to a strained oblique and 3 solid innings of work the previous night, respectively), the only pitcher left to pitch the 10th in the bullpen was now Dustin Nippert – who of course, isn’t exactly the most reliable guy in the Texas bullpen.

After the Rangers failed to do anything in the bottom of the 9th, Nippert trotted out there for the 10th, and the results where almost predictable. He walked Frank Thomas to open the frame, and then walked Lyle Overbay after failing to get the call on a close check 2-2 check swing. Greg Zaun dropped the sac bunt to get the runners over, and Joe Inglett hit the go-ahead sac fly for the Jays.

But it wasn’t over yet. Toronto closer BJ Ryan, making his first appearance in almost a year after Tommy John surgery, took over for the bottom of the 10th, and Marlon Byrd welcomed him back by hammering an 0-2 pitch into the gap in left-center, and then hustling all the way to third base with a head-first slide for a leadoff triple. With they tying run at third, and nobody out, you’d have thought the Rangers still had some life left in them, right?

WRONG.

David Murphy grounded out to short, Milton Bradley popped out to third, and the legendary offensive force, “One man, 5 tools” himself, Gerald Laird hit a sinking liner toward the right field line that gave a momentary flash of hope that it might bloop, but Alex Rios hustled over for the catch, and the final out of the game, bringing a  devistating end to yet another mismanaged game, that reeked from a lack of offensive execution.

Ron Washington tried to defend himself and his team, saying “We battled. Today we just got beat. We didn’t lose it, we just got beat.”

I don’t know what Ron calls not getting the tying run home from third with nobody out in the 10th inning, but I call that losing a ballgame. I also call taking out one of your best relievers prematurely losing a game. Or going 2-12 with RISP, and leaving 10 men on base – I call that losing, too.

I think David Murphy sums it up a little better – take it away, Murph:

“We had our chances,” Murphy said. “It was a tough series. Our pitching kept us in the games but our offense isn’t getting it done. We’re not getting the back-to-back hits. We’re frustrated right now.”

Take that nail and put it in the wall, Murph.

Not to state the obvious, but execution is everything in baseball – and save for a few isolated occasions, the Rangers have not executed anything so far this season – frankly, if it weren’t for the way the Rangers pitching staff has outperformed expecations so far, we would be in the same place we where in April last year. How do you improve execution? Well, if it was me, I might start by getting myself a manager who can actually lead, coach and inspire a baseball team, and actually knows a thing or two about bullpen management. That might be a good place to start.

But enough about that disasterous performance – lets move on to a few other nuggets of interest:

Contrary to my prediction last in my last post, the Rangers did actually send down Kazuo Fukumori to make room for Scott Feldman yesterday, rather than DL’ing Jamey Wright. I have to say, I’m a bit impressed – I didn’t really think the Rangers has the guts to send down their high-profile Japanse signing. But they did, and I think they made the right call. Personally, I don’t see what all the rage is about Fukumori, irregardless of how he’s performed this season – he’s got a bevy of offspeed pitches, but his command isn’t all that great, and he doesn’t seem to have enough deception on his his fastball to fool too many people with it for long. I’m not saying he can’t be effective in the Majors, but I don’t think he’s going to be the 7th/8th inning guy the Rangers envisioned him as when he was signed. Hopefully, he can pull it together with a stint in AAA though, and be contributor again soon.

 Now though, comes the question of who gets called up to replace Scott Feldman, who is headed back to AA after Sunday’s start. The Rangers will likely choose between Wes Littleton or Frank Francisco to replace Feldman, and take over what had been Fukumori’s spot in the bullpen. Francisco has been positively bullish in OKC, nailing down what is now 3 saves as of tonight, with 8 strikeouts in 6.0 IP, and an ERA of zip. But since Francisco pitched yesterday for the Redhawks, and Littleton hasn’t pitched since Friday, it’s likely the Rangers will just go with the fresh arm, and bring up Littleton. It is possible however, if they still decide to put Jamey Wright on the DL, that both could wind up coming back up.

Either way, it should mean a marked improvement to the bullpen, even if only one gets called up – both pitched effectively for the Rangers out of the ‘pen last year, although Francisco did have a bit of a rough second half (5.54 ERA vs. a 3.78 ERA in the first half) so they should provide Ron Washington with some reliable mid-late inning options – something the bullpen has been in a stark lack of so far.

Later today, the Los Angeles Angels roll into Arlington for a two-game matinee – Jason Jennings will be on the mound for Texas, pitching on ana extra day’s reast against Ervin Santana. Santana is notorious for his struggles on the road, and at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington – he has a 7.03 career road ERA, and he is 1-4 with an 8.92 ERA in 7 career starts at the RBiA – perhaps he’s the tonic our offense needs? Anti-jinx disclaimer, though: Of course, as soon I type those numbers, Santana will probably roll right through our stone-cold offense today, right? Let’s hope not. Getting swept by the Blue Jays is bad, but continuing our losing streak against the Angels would be worse, IMO.