Wednesday a.m. Rangers stuff

When I was 13, continuing until I was probably 15 or so, my mother dated this guy who had some interesting views on life, and a variety of interesting and colorful sayings, many of which I could not post on this blog, or repeat in polite company.

One of them that stuck in my mind, he would say whenever my brothers or I said some task he had set us on was difficult:

"Well, Adam, if it was easy they'd let little girls do it!"

Which I thought about last night, seeing the various comments during and after the game.  From the reactions, you'd have thought the Rangers were down 2-1 in the series, rather than up 2-1.  Given the pitching matchups going into the series, this was the game that I thought the Rangers were least likely to win.  You're on the road.  You're facing a pitcher who has been great this season,* and who is the type of finesse righthander that can give the Rangers fits.**  You've got Colbyashi on the mound, and while he's settled down and hasn't pitched poorly of late, he's also someone you don't figure is going to completely shut down the other team, even pitching in Comerica Park.

*  Doug Fister is 27 years old and has a career 5.52 K/9 ratio.  He had a terrific season, but pitched in two of the best pitchers' parks in the A.L., allowed a .272 BABIP, and had a 5.1 HR/FB percentage.  He was 67th among the 94 qualifying pitchers in K rate this season, at 6.07 K/9, trailing such well known strikeout artists as Tim Stauffer and Mike Leake.  While I don't think it is unreasonable to think he'll be a decent #3/#4 starter going forward, this season screams "fluke" to me, and I wouldn't start quaking in my boots at the thought of Fister and Justin Verlander being the next Spahn and Sain.

**  Without going and actually doing the research, my gut feeling is that righthanders with quality changeups are Josh Hamilton kryptonite.

So, yeah, the Rangers lost.  They still are up 2-1 and have home field advantage.  They are still the better team.  Expecting them to sweep the Tigers was unrealistic.  So everyone chill out.

Jeff Wilson's game story talks about Doug Fister outdueling Colby Lewis.

Behind the paywall, Evan Grant writes that Colby Lewis lost his playoff magic yesterday.

Richard Durrett has his thoughts on yesterday's game.  T.R. Sullivan also has a game story up at the Rangers website.

Jeff Caplan writes that Koji Uehara realizes he may not have the trust of his manager, after a rough two months in Texas and then a terrible playoffs so far.

Joey Matches says that Face has sucked this offseason and needs to stop sucking.

Richard Durrett points out that Michael Young has disappeared.

At the DMN blog, Jon Machota asks if it is time to drop Young out of the cleanup spot.

Jean-Jacques Taylor writes that the Rangers are still looking for their first quality start in the ALCS.

Jeff Caplan writes that today is a big test for Matt Harrison.

The S-T's notes talk about Nelson Cruz's wrist and the lineup shuffling for Game 3.

Nolan Ryan talked about C.J. Wilson's pending free agency, but didn't really say much, which is about what you'd expect under the circumstances.