Jeff Wilson writes that Frankie Francisco had the worst outing of his career last night.
Frankie had allowed 7 runs all season before last night. He allowed 6 last night.
Marlon Byrd says, in the Wilson piece, that it is do or die time after a loss like that:
"It’s a game that can either kill a team, or we don’t even worry about it," Byrd said. "Around this time last year, we came back from 10 runs down against this team. They came back, ended up beating us, and it was a heartbreaker. It went downhill from there."
It’s a different Rangers team this season, one that has shown resiliency when given the chance to fold at various times this season. The loss Friday, though, is made tougher by the fact that the Rangers were a strike away from a 4-3 win.
Given Frankie's struggles in the second game when he makes back-to-back appearances recently, I wonder if the Rangers don't need to consider simply not using him on back-to-back nights.
Jeff (the writer) Miller says it was a playoff atmosphere out at TBIA last night.
Ian Kinsler was activated yesterday, and Nelson Cruz went to the disabled list.
And Evan Grant writes that Jarrod Saltalamacchia will likely be joining Cruz there, as he's dealing with arm strength issues and numbness, and invokes Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. If Salty has TOS, we're going to need some sort of investigation into what is in the water in the Ranger clubhouse.
The problem with Salty going to the d.l. is that the only catcher on the 40 man roster the Rangers have in the minors is Max Ramirez, who is only now getting back into action after being on the disabled list. The Rangers could try to make a move for a catcher who has cleared waivers, or they could bring up Kevin Richardson to be Taylor Teagarden's backup until Max is ready to come up.
Jim Reeves says the Rangers are in a pennant race, and has gone all optimistic on us, strangely enough, predicting at the end of his column that the Rangers will rebound from this loss and take the next two games from Boston.
Luis Mendoza threw a no hitter last night for Oklahoma. More importantly, Chris Davis went 2 for 3 with two doubles and a walk, and Justin Smoak went 3 for 3 with two doubles and a walk.
Up to this point, I've not advocated bringing Davis back up yet. But with Davis putting up a .328/.418/.560 line, Hank Blalock continuing to not get on base, and Nelson Cruz going to the d.l., it might be time for Davis to come back and see if he can give the Ranger offense a shot in the arm. It would be hard for him to do much worse than Blalock, who is hitting .255/.271/.445 since Davis was sent down on July 6.
Matt Purke is in town to get a physical, but also went out to TCU and got his locker and jersey, as negotiations go down to Monday night's deadline. I suspect he'll sign, although Jon Daniels says there is still a "gap."