This Rangers team is still a work in progress. The bullpen was slapped together with remnants from the discount carpet store. It’s an offense built on a budget. 

So, while Friday’s opener of the three-game series was pretty flawless, yesterday’s Game 2 was a frustrating case of wasted opportunity.

It didn’t help that Ranger slayer George Kirby was on the mound. But Texas already had done the impossible by beating him last week. Doing the impossible twice is out of the question. That’s why they call it impossible. 

The Rangers squandered so many chances, though. They left bases loaded in the fourth, seventh and ninth; and left two on in the second, seventh, and eighth.

The only thing more frustrating that being stuck in a traffic jam is watching them in a baseball game. Cal Quantrill didn’t do himself any favors by allowing three runs in eighth. But he was a scrap heap pickup and Rangers manager Skip Schumaker is still seeing what he has.

The encouraging thing is, in order for the Rangers to leave so many runners on base, they had to have a lot of baserunners. Let’s hope that continues today. And they can figure out a way to bring them in.

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