Saturday a.m. Rangers things

Lefthanded starters with good changeups are Ranger offense kryptonite.  Watching Brett Cecil's success yesterday makes me wonder, once again, why teams throw fastballs to the Rangers.  They've shown, time and again, they'll chase offspeed stuff out of the zone.  Cecil took advantage of that yesterday.

Jeff Wilson's game story talks about missed chances costing the Rangers a winnable game yesterday.

Ron Washington points, in T.R. Sullivan's game story, to Mitch Moreland's failure to get Michael Young home from third with one out in the fourth, and Endy Chavez's inability to get a sacrifice bunt down, as key breakdowns yesterday.

Bryan Dolgin looks at the key points from the 3-2 loss.

Evan Grant has his thoughts on yesterday's game, and looks at Ian Kinsler and Moreland in particular.

Behind the paywall, Grant talks about the Rangers' latest failure against a lefty starter.

And with the offense already limping because of the loss of Adrian Beltre and Ian Kinsler in one of his periodic deep slumps, it is suffering another blow with Nelson Cruz likely being out for the rest of the series because of a tight quad, which the team doesn't want to risk making worse on the Toronto turf.

Wilson's notes include talk about potential trades for bullpen help, with the Rangers' management gathering at the team hotel in Toronto for the deadline.  Wilson says that the A's want Jurickson Profar in any deal for Andrew Bailey, which seems to make a Bailey deal a non-starter.

Sullivan writes about the efforts to acquire bullpen help, providing a roster of those in the front office who are in Toronto with Jon Daniels to provide input on potential acquisitions, and identifying Heath Bell, Leo Nunez, Andrew Bailey, and Grant Balfour as Ranger targets.

Richard Durrett has a piece on the Rangers' interest in Oriole reliever Koji Uehara.

Kevin Sherrington says the Rangers shouldn't be dealing for relievers.