3 game losing streak, 2 games back of Oakland, and 8 games below .500...the folks rooting for a bad September to give the team a better draft pick can celebrate, but this is disappointing to me.
Particularly given that last night was the game in the Oakland series that the Rangers should have been best positioned to win, given the pitching matchups. Kevin Millwood said his stuff was good, he just didn't locate it well, and 6 runs in 4 2/3 IP bumps his ERA up to 5.51 on the year, which is not acceptable.
Evan Grant says the Rangers are going to look at David Murphy in centerfield for much of the rest of the way, including playing him against some lefties, with Marlon Byrd playing more in the COF slots. Byrd says the right things about the move in the Grant story, and I'm guessing that the Rangers want to get a read on Murphy's ability to handle centerfield defensively, since Byrd doesn't appear to be strong enough defensively to be a regular centerfielder.
Hank Blalock is going to test his arm today, and if it responds well, he'll probably play third base at some point soon. If not, it sounds like he'll stick to DH the rest of the way.
In other injury news, the Rangers website says Brandon McCarthy is supposed to start on Saturday and throw about 45 pitches, Scott Feldman has been diagnosed with a bone bruise and is expected to re-join the team when they return home on Monday, and Kam Loe still has inflammation and isn't expected to start again this season.