Another not-too-good outing from Jamey Wright, but one where he didn't allow many runs. This one was on the offense, which, for the second game in a row, has wasted a pretty decent outing from a starting pitcher.
Evan Grant's game story focuses on two key moments of the game...Papelbon's strikeout of Michael Young in the 9th and Ramon Vazquez's decision to tag David Ortiz instead of throw to first, which resulted in Kevin Youkilis's run scoring.
And Jan Hubbard mentions an earlier opportunity lost:
Hubbard acts surprises that that would happen with the Rangers RBI leader at the plate. Of course, given that he has a .219/.257/.418 line against righthanders, and has struck out in almost 1/3rd of his ABs against righthanders, this would have appeared to be the most likely result.
(And before I start getting flamed with references to Sosa's batting average with RISP, please note that his line in close and late situations is .206 /.282/.265...while I think neither number is terribly relevant in predicting future performance, if you do think he's particularly good with RISP, you'd have to admit that the clutch-and-late failures pretty much balances that out).
Anyway, the Rangers had some baserunners, but Kenny Lofton and Marlon Byrd combined for 6 hits, while the rest of the lineup had just 2. But with Kinsler, Blalock and Teixeira all out, this isn't a very good offense, and games like this are going to happen with increasing frequency...
Kinsler isn't expected back until Monday, at the earliest, and if he isn't ready by then, the Rangers will have to look at putting him on the disabled list. They don't have any infielders on the 40 man roster in the minors, though, which makes figuring out who they'd call up a little harder...they could go with Vazquez as the only backup infielder, and call up another pitcher, or they could bring Freddy Guzman up to take over JHJ's role as backup outfielder. Or they could purchase the contract of, say, Drew Meyer, which would necessitate taking someone off the 40 man roster.
Hubbard says it would likely be Tug Hulett or Desi Relaford replacing Kinsler...and while there were some calls from fans for Kinsler to be demoted and Hulett called up earlier this season, Hulett isn't hitting in AAA, so he'd probably end up seeing little playing time if he was promoted.
Also per Grant, Robinson Tejeda's struggles the past two months are a result of inconsistent mechanics, which has robbed him of his command. Ron Washington says if he repeats his mechanics, the results will be there...
And since I've already complained about Sosa, let me turn to the other D/FW sports figure people get so upset at me for complaining about...
Mark Cuban is clownshoes. And the ongoing litigation with Don Nelson is an embarrassment to the franchise, and to Mavs fans:
The latest skirmish in this feud was set off by Mr. Cuban, who last week informed Mr. Nelson that he was filing a counterclaim in arbitration alleging that Mr. Nelson, now coach of the Golden State Warriors, used inside information to beat the Mavericks in the first round of the NBA playoffs and three times without a loss in the regular season.
Over at the S-T, Randy Galloway also weighs in, discussing the ridiculousness of this.
I hope Cuban plans on keeping Avery Johnson and Donnie Nelson in place for a long, long time.
Because if he ever needs to replace them, this sort of thing is going to make it a lot more difficult to get someone good to replace them.
But hey, that's okay, because Cuban spends whatever it takes to win...that's why he didn't re-sign Steve Nash, and waived Michael Finley, and gave Marquis Daniels away in a salary dump, right?