Tonight’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays was huge! In a pennant race a team cannot afford to let close games slip away, and tonight we saw a revisit of what has troubled this team all season long. First is the failure to get a timely hit to score an insurance run, while stranding five base-runners in the final couple of innings. Then the bullpen failed as closer Sean Tolleson had his second blown save of the year. At home this is a huge morale buster for team that has won 15 of the last 22 games.
One player the Rangers could use is Josh Hamilton, but he is on the DL once again. One thing those of us that have followed his career have always known is that he is fragile, and just breaks easily. John Daniels expected this and acquired Will Venable to give the team another viable outfield option.
As discussed many times this year the cavalry has officially arrived!
With the addition of Derek (Dutch Oven) Holland the team now has a complete rotation of starting pitching. Holland was adequate tonight in battling Mark Buerhle through 6-innings, he needs to be better, but the Blue Jays are the hottest team in the American League, and Holland left the game with a lead. Gaining Cole Hamels restores an ace to the staff, and while his first couple of starts have not been electric, his last start was very nice and certainly gives hope of better things to come. The other starters, Lewis, Gallardo, Perez, and now Holland truly gives this team a chance to do something.
Through some type of miracle the team finds itself still in the playoff hunt despite all the turmoil, horrible play, and issues this team has had. The comments made by major market commentators is that the American League is just week with too much parity between the teams. They also say that all the teams have glaring holes in their lineup.
There is no doubt that John Daniels has done everything reasonable to find the missing right hand bat, and shore up what was a horrible bullpen. That includes trading for Mike Napoli, but the bottom line is that just about everyone has some gaps.
The very fact that this team at least has the opportunity to be in the hunt is almost shocking. While the injury bug, or various curses continue to loom over the organization, somehow they have clawed back from that.
At this point it is all about execution, and each game becomes more important than the last one as pressure mounts. Wasted opportunities truly are noticed in every game from this point forward. They are still within striking distance of the Astros, who blew up the Evil Empire of the New York Yankees tonight. That Yankee team may be on the verge of folding due to age and injuries.
Interestingly if the season ended tonight the Rangers would be a wild card team, but the way that works is that would lead to a single game playoff. That didn’t work out very well for the team the last time that happened. However, it is a shot which is better than nothing. It worked well for San Francisco last year.
There are 38 games left, the magic number for elimination is 33 which is only behind the Yankees at 37 games. August is nearly over and September is all about inter-division games, meaning A’s (6-games), Mariners (7 games), Angels (7 games), and Astros (7 games) are all in the final month.
The other big factor for the team is beginning the last day of August the team goes on the road for a 10-game road trip over 11-days. That trip could make or break the team. Every day matters, every pitch, every play, every detail is amplified. The bottom line is that somehow the team must match the last 22 games record. That means the team to win the division can afford no more than 12 losses the rest of the way. That means a record of 26-12 the rest of the way. By the way that equals 90 wins, which is what it normally takes to be in contention at year-end. That would also mean the Astros would need to only win 20 games for them to reach 90, but anything can happen, it is baseball.
The bottom line is for Ranger fans, the team has a shot, but let’s not have another loss like tonight, and let’s not waste any more great pitching performances.
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