Morning After
BummerThere are some tremors around Ranger Nation regarding last night's game. "What's up with the Rangers?" "Should be trade C.J.?" "They blew it!" ect, ect...
Look, in a major league season you are not going to win every game. You have to remember that the other team gets paid a lot of money and tries real hard too. Felix Hernandez was great as expected and it was one of those games where the Rangers were fortunate just to have a chance to win it. C. J. Wilson has been outstanding all season, so one bad fastball is excusable because it happens. We should only be alarmed if those bad pitches surface game after game, but even Mariano Rivera has blown a game or two in his career. Despite the loss, there are some positives to take away from last night:
Tommy Hunter - Outstanding again for the second straight start. 6 IP, 0 runs, 4 hits. He kept the Mariners hitters off balance by mixing his breaking pitches well with his fastball. With the Rangers having so many injuries in the rotation this year, Tommy Hunter is a VERY welcome surprise heading into the second half.
Hank Blalock - Stayed hot with two more hits. I heard Hank say in an interview that he has been susceptible to chasing pitches outside of the zone. Well obviously the Hammer has taken his own critism and adjusted because he has only been swinging at strikes and hitting them hard.
Ian Kinsler - I know he didn't get any hits, but I love the fact he drove a couple balls hard to right field. It showes he's not trying to pull everything and hitting the ball where it is pitched. As long as Ian has a good approach at the plate, the hits will fall. He also drew a walk, stole third, and scored on a wild pitch. So even without getting a hit, he made things happen and that is what good players do. Ian will be just fine.
And now some things from around the media world.....
Wash is in a tough spot when it comes to the outfield...Nelson Cruz is not happy, but can you blame him? You can't really blame Wash either.....
Richard Durret of the DMN interviews a blogger on the Mariner's side of the house....interesting look on the enemy
Ian Kinsler talks about missing out on the All Star game
Rangers look to rebound tonight....I'll have a pre game post later this afternoon. Also tonight, keep an eye on the Yankees/Angels game. The Angels made up some serious ground on Texas during interleague play, but have been very very ordinary against the American League.....let's see how the handle the Yankees down here in the OC.
posted by Jacob Sailors at
9:28 AM
4 Comments:
last night was unfortunate but in all honesty the game was lost because of bad coaching. They should have pulled C.J right after he walked Griffey. Bring in a right hander and close it in the 9th. But it's a long season and i'm sorry but we can't win them all. There is still a lot of baseball left to play.
2 questions for you: 1) Would you still be saying the same thing if Wilson doesn't throw a belt high fastball over the middle of the plate to Gutierrez? And 2) Who would you have brought in? I think you could make a good argument that C. J. has been our best reliever this year (as well as Darren O'Day, but he had already been used)
Yea I get where you're coming from but the fact is that he did throw it and we did lose. Why did we even take out O'day in the first place. It's like they have no confidence in him and he pitches good. I just thought it would have made a better matchup having a right hander in there to close it out. We can't always rely on C.J to get us out of a jam because he wont always be there. I'll bet money Washington won't let that happen again.
I think hindsight is 20/20 and that is was a perfectly logical decision to stick with C. J., it just didn't work out this time. The Rangers on several occasions have used O'Day in the 7th, C. J. in the 8th, and Frankie in the 9th...and this is the first time I've heard any second guessing on that strategy. Think about this "what if": what if Wash did take out C. J. and bring in Jason Jennings or Frankie and THEN Gutierrez hit the homerun? You can't tell me everyone wouldn't be calling for Wash's head for taking out our best reliever.
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