You know how I know the season is really over? Losses like last night's game, they don't really bother me.
I mean, they do...blowing a 3 run lead in the 8th inning sucks, and I want the team to end up with a good record. But I wasn't even watching, once McCarthy left the game. I went to bed. And at one point after I quit watching, I briefly flipped over, saw Bill White was pitching and that the Rangers were down, shrugged, and flipped the TV back to Mr. Show.
In May, this would have been a gut-punch loss, something I would have been sick about this morning. Now? Meh.
Evan Grant says that Jamey Wright is wearing down under the workload he's had this season, with his ERA since June 1 6.28. Josh Rupe and Wright are 1-2 in innings out of the pen this season, and both are struggling right now.
That is something to keep in mind when it is the 4th inning, the starter is getting slapped around, and you people are posting "PULL HIM WASH YOU MORON!!!" in the game day threads. Part of the reason you don't yank your pitchers -- particularly your starters -- every time they are struggling is that you end up with a tore up bullpen.
Of course, another theory is that Jamey Wright isn't that good, and Wright's body of work throughout his career would support that theory.
Wright isn't all that relevant to the future, though, while Brandon McCarthy is. Last night was okay, I guess, for McCarthy...he seemed to give up a lot of hard hit balls, but he threw strikes and got out of problems, and at the end of the day, he did okay.
Jeff Wilson has another "Nolan wants the pitchers to be in shape" story up. Meh.
T.R. Sullivan has some bloggy notes up, including the latest instance of the Rangers pitchers using a football for conditioning purposes.