There is nobody Bruce Bochy can rely on in his bullpen. Like an old horror movie where the call is coming from inside the house, every time he picks up the bullpen phone, fear follows. Runs do too. Josh Sborz, twelve earned runs in his last five appearances, spanning four […]
There’s a pulse. It’s barely beating, but it’s beating. The body is breathing. It’s shallow, but there is the presence of oxygen. The Texas Rangers won a game yesterday that they usually lose. Up 3-0. Then tied 3-3. Up 4-3, then immediately tied 4-4. Up 5-4, then immediately tied 5-5. […]
The Rangers have twenty-seven games left. All they need to do is win seven of those to finish over .500. After six years of futility, where they languished under .500 and lived in oblivion and irrelevance, 2023 has a chance to be the year when they finally finish above .500. […]
“We felt he had done his job.” That was Bruce Bochy’s casual, breezy explanation for why he removed Max Scherzer after only 88 pitches, after only six innings. He had done his job. As if it was a spring training tuneup getting ready for the regular season. As if it […]
Some days you’re the boxer. Some days you’re the heavy bag. For the first few months of the season, the Rangers were the boxer. Jabs, right, lefts, pokes, slashes, combinations. They were attacking, their punches were landing with precision, hitting above the belt, below the belt, bobbing and weaving, landing […]
Down 3-1 in the sixth, the Rangers loaded the bases on a single and two walks, wrapped around an out. A base hit would blow the game open. They couldn’t do it. They relied on bad Mets pitching to walk a runner in. Then the next two Rangers struck out. […]
Imagine a prize fight with both contestants in their 90s. And blind. And slightly incontinent. That’s what watching a Rangers-Mets game is like. In one corner, the Rangers, a team that is performing so much better than expected but is stuck in a deep offensive rut. In the other corner, […]
Finally, after fifty-seven tries, the Rangers succeeded. Going into last night’s game, Texas was 0-57 when trailing after seven innings. Like the most obedient dog, if they were down, they stayed down. They didn’t bite. The offense couldn’t win late and the bullpen couldn’t hold a lead late, having blown […]
A team without a bullpen is like a plane without landing gear. It’s like having enough provisions to get to the top of the mountain but once you get there, you have no way to get back down. It’s like getting presents on Christmas morning, opening them, then having them […]
Yes, it took the Twins bearing gifts to get that W that had eluded this team for more than a week. But the Rangers have giving away win themselves, so getting one they didn’t really earn is fair. What do you give a team that cannot figure out how to […]
