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The American League has gone exactly according to plan. The A's are at least a Wild Card team. The Orioles are at least a Wild Card team. The Rays have had exceptional starting pitching and won't play the Rangers in the playoffs while the Angels seem like a legitimately fantastic team in every aspect of the game, except in the bullpen, but the city of Anaheim--along with all of their too many good players--won't be enjoy any postseason baseball even though Bud Selig is letting in like a dozen teams now. Just how they drew it up.
T.R. Sullivan's game recap focuses on the Rangers missing an opportunity to wrap up the American League West. However, the Rangers have Matt Harrison going tonight and can still win the West with a win either tonight or tomorrow
Richard Durrett has the Rapid Reaction to the Rangers 4-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics.
Jeff Wilson recaps the game and also runs down some playoff scenarios. Right now the Rangers could finish as high as the No. 1 seed in the American League or they could end up as low as the No. 5 seed depending on how these remaining two games go.
Evan Grant writes behind the DMN paywall about the Rangers having a better team than Oakland but Oakland playing better baseball lately.
Durrett has a piece on Martin Perez bouncing back from a tough first inning to keep the Rangers in the game and not decimate the bullpen in the first game of the series. Going into this series, with the matchup being Perez vs. Jarrod Parker, last night's game looked like the most difficult in the series for the Rangers by far. So, the fact that they were able to keep it close--while frustrating that they couldn't plate a couple more runs and end this thing--is encouraging especially with Perez giving the Rangers more than it looked like he had in him during that first inning.
Wilson has an update on the Derek Holland Tweetgate. The tweet from Holland's account, which included a homophobic slur, is now being investigated by Major League Baseball and now Holland has responded by saying he absolutely did not send the tweet himself.
Sullivan's Notebook covers the Rangers exploring postseason roster options now that they've clinched at least a Wild Card spot, and update on Adrian Beltre's shoulder, more on Tweetgate, and other items.
Lastly, Wilson has notes on Beltre and Michael Young's injuries, Mike Olt's availability, Nelson Cruz's recent hot streak, and a couple of other notes.