What's the cliche? Baseball being a game of inches?
Evan Grant's game story highlights that point...he talks about Melky Cabrera's game-winning homer being just barely too far for David Murphy to snag (and a ball that likely is a flyout anyway in most parks), and compares the Michael Young-started double play that got Scott Feldman out of a bases loaded jam on Wednesday to the almost-identical ball that Mark Teixeira hit yesterday that went for a three run double and tied up the game.
It seems like after every game like yesterday's, there are posts whining about how that's a game playoff teams win, or figure out a way to win, as if Boston or New York or the Dodgers never lose a game in that sort of fashion. Part of what makes baseball so fascinating is that its best teams win only 60% of the time -- compare that to, say, the NFL, where the team with the best record usually wins 80-85% of the time, or the NBA, where the 60 win mark means a 73% winning percentage.
Even good teams lose games like yesterday's game. It happens.
Jeff Wilson writes that Brandon McCarthy says he made some bad pitches in the 5th, but the changeup that he threw to Teixeira that went for the double may have been his best pitch of the inning. Michael Young thought he was going to make a play on the ball, but it took a weird hop.
Wilson also has some notes up, with Vicente Padilla saying he wants to stay with the Rangers (despite being on waivers), Josh Hamilton claiming he hopes to be back in five weeks, Ben Sheets still not throwing, and Ron Washington saying that Brandon Boggs would have started yesterday if C.C. Sabathia was on the mound. Washington says Boggs will likely get his playing time against lefties which are a "tough matchup" for David Murphy...presumably, that's just about all of them, given Murphy's track record, but we'll see.
Randy Galloway has a column up about Padilla...he likes Padilla, thinks the Rangers put him on waivers to send him a message, and erroneously claims that this is the first season the Rangers have had a chance to win the division, and it is because they finally have good pitching.
Derek Holland says he's got to do a better job locating his pitches to avoid the gopher balls he's been allowing of late.
And Jeff Wilson says the veteran experience that Andruw Jones and Omar Vizquel bring could be key to a playoff run this year.