Saturday morning Rangers things

Good morning, everyone.  That was a very frustrating game last night.  Texas is now a half-game up on Oakland in the West.

I'd have had this post up a little earlier, but my daughter insisted on playing a rousing game of duck-duck-goose this morning.  Who can say no to that?

Drew Davison's game story talks about the Rangers' anemic offense wasting a 7 inning, 0 run outing by Derek Holland.

Anthony Andro writes in his game story that the Mariners got the breaks yesterday.

T.R. Sullivan's game story laments the Ranger bullpen failing to finish out Derek Holland's outstanding outing.

Evan Grant writes that the outcome of yesterday's game was the result of an unusual series of occurrences involving the pitching staff.

Todd Wills has his Rapid Reaction at the ESPN Dallas blog.

Davison has a story on instant replay, which Ron Washington and Jon Daniels both are in favor of, although Joe Nathan isn't so sure:

"I’d like for them to get the calls right, but I also like the fact of human error involved in this game," Nathan said. "It’s always been a part of it. And if replay lengthens our games, I don’t want it.

"Depending on how they implement this, right now we’re already playing games until 11 p.m. that start at 7 p.m., so we’ll see."

It is worth noting that Joe Nathan is, like, 80 years old, so that helps explain his views.

Chad Dotson has a story looking at the top pitchers in the American League this season, and Yu Darvish is one of those focused upon.

Martin Perez is facing his idol, Felix Hernandez, today at RBiA.

The S-T's notes talk about Alexi Ogando's status from his next start (it is up in the air), Lance Berkman's status (it is up in the air), Perez facing Hernandez, and Neftali Feliz having a good bullpen session.

Sullivan's notes address Berkman, Ogando, and instant replay.