I'm ready for this road trip to be over, and for Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton to come back...
The one piece of good news is that Anaheim and Oakland both lost last night, so Texas is still in first place.
Jeff Wilson's game story talks about the Rangers offense struggling not only because of the absence of Hamilton and Cruz, but also because of the slumps that Ian Kinsler, Mike Napoli, and David Murphy are currently in. While the struggles of Kinsler and Napoli have been talked about a great deal, I think this is the first mention we've had of Murphy's season-long slump...with a .234/.307/.321 line, Murphy is actually hitting worse than Julio Borbon did last season.
At the Rangers website, the game story talks about the offense struggling once again to put runs on the board.
Calvin Watkins has his post-game reactions at ESPN Dallas.
Evan Grant says Rangers fans shouldn't panic.
Wilson's notes talk about the imminent return of Cruz and Hamilton, and how that will impact the lineup. The Rangers are going to have to drop a couple of players from the 25 man roster to make room for them, and at this point, my preference would be for Chris Davis and Taylor Teagarden to be sent down. Hamilton is supposedly going to be primarily DHing for a while, which means that Michael Young is going to be the every day first baseman. With those two slots filled, there's going to be no playing time for Davis, and Mike Napoli will be getting very little time at either first base or DH, which alleviates the need for a third catcher.