:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/8983619/151969833.jpg)
19 games left in the regular season. 6 against the Angels, 6 against the M's, 7 against the A's. 10 at home, 9 on the road.
And Texas is still up 3 in the A.L. West, still has the best record in the A.L. by 3 games, despite yesterday's 5-4 loss to the Indians.
The focus in Jeff Wilson's game story is on the Joe Nathan 9th inning blow up, as Nathan faced four batters, gave up a pair of homers and three runs, and was lifted for Koji Uehara without retiring a single batter. There were some people questioning after the game why Ron Washington went to Nathan, given that he had pitched the previous two days, but let's be real...every manager in baseball brings Nathan in in that situation, rather than looking to Uehara or Alexi Ogando to close it out.
T.R. Sullivan's game story is also all about the Nathan blown save, with Sullivan noting that Nathan had converted a team record 31 straight save opportunities before blowing it last night.
Richard Durrett has his "Rapid Reaction" at the ESPN Dallas blog.
Behind the paywall, Gerry Fraley says that Nathan isn't concerned about a "dead arm."
Durrett has his "Stock Report" up this morning.
Tonight, Yu Darvish could become the sixth rookie since 1976 to strike out 200 batters in a season. I don't really consider Darvish a rookie, but still, it is an impressive accomplishment.
Gerry Fraley says that Darvish may need to pitch a complete game tonight, as the Rangers will be without Joe Nathan, Mike Adams, Koji Uehara, Roy Oswalt, Robbie Ross, and maybe Alexi Ogando in the bullpen tonight.
Randy Galloway has a column on the Rangers doing scoreboard watching and the A's performance this year, while still insisting that the Angels are the "most dangerous" team in baseball "on paper," which I don't really get, but hey...what do I know...
The S-T's notes have injury updates on Mike Napoli, Mike Olt, and Adrian Beltre, as well as talking about the Rangers drawing 3,000,000 fans for the first time in team history.
Sullivan's notes also cover all the injuries and the attendance record.