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Adam isn't available today, and is totally not asking me to fill in for him while he launders illicit yet phat SBN dollars at the offices of Saul Goodman, Esq.
When Yu Darvish said after his last start that he "didn't feel right," a much-abused Ranger fanbase understandably flinched like a battered housewife. Was it the judgement of an angry god? Was it corneal hardening brought on by too many Green Tea flavored Kit-Kats? Oh, no, not again, it's an angry god, isn't it? No, you silly gooses, it was just a mechanical flaw that Yu Darvish has found and corrected because he's awesome.
Also, his finger is healed and, anyway, Darvish could keep his team in the game with only one pitch working in Japan and thinks he can do that now in the MLB, too.
T.R. Sullivan's notes column mentions the Rangers efforts to assist the victims of the tragedy in West, Texas, and includes an explanation from Elvis Andrus as to why there were no tarp-sliding hijinks during the rainout at Wrigley that will come as no surprise to those that saw him huddling forlornly over an infield hobo traschan fire between pitches.
Sullivan also tells us that A.J. Pierzynski is transitioning well to life as a Ranger.
Oh, there was a game yesterday, wasn't there?
Sahadev Sharma has his Rapid Reactions to the loss.
"This was the worst of all my outings," says Alexi Ogando in a keen observation of detail. Evan Grant notes that his crappy command is leading to shorter and shorter outings, as does Sahadev Sharma. Is it time to be worried? His velocity is down and he's throwing an even split of fastballs and sliders (whereas before he was throwing about twice as many fastballs) and he's finding the strikezone 10% less of the time. Is Colby Lewis going to come off the DL just in time for Ogando to go onto it?
The offense shares some of the blame, too, though Washington isn't worried. In regards to the offense, Washington says "it's just a matter of time," though whether that's an astute observation about good players regressing to their means, a cynical prediction of the "blind squirrels and nuts" variety, or a sinister suggestion that Mitch Moreland brush up on his Japanese I leave to the reader to decide.
Finally, the T.R. Sullivan piece about A.J. Pierzysnki includes a throwaway bit about a Latin sign at Wrigley. Here is a collection of Latin graffiti from Pompeii, if you needed reminding that the more things change the more they stay the same.