Thoughts on an 8-4 Rangers loss

Mets 8, Rangers 4

• Well, that was an ugly road trip.  1-6, including a 4 game sweep in Baltimore.
• One of the things that the Rangers have to figure out over the final three months is whether they can count on Nick Tepesch as one of their five starters in 2015.  Tepesch had an awful first inning, giving up 5 runs while the Mets batted around, and it looked like his outing was going to be extremely short.  He got things back on track after the first, though, giving up just one run through his final five innings.  Tepesch didn't have a good outing, but it was at least encouraging to see him keep the wheels from coming off completely after the disaster first, saving the bullpen and at least keeping the game from turning into a blowout early.
• Tepesch's final line:  6 IP, 5 hits (including 2 home runs), 4 walks, 4 Ks, 6 runs.  He now has a 4.29 ERA on the year.
• Jason Frasor continued to struggle, allowing a run on a walk and a double in his inning of work.  Aaron Poreda allowed the eighth Mets run, walking the only batter he faced.  That hitter, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, promptly stole second on Neftali Feliz, advanced to third on a fly ball to Leonys Martin, then scored on a two out single.
• Feliz's fastball velocity wasn't there today.  He was around 90-91 mph with his fastball from what I saw.  That's troubling.
• The offense made some noise, with three doubles and three homers, but couldn't string hits together to put up enough runs to overcome the early deficit.  Every starter other than Elvis Andrus had a hit, with Leonys, Alex Rios and Robinson Chirinos all going deep.
• Rios's home run was his first homer since mid-May.  Yay?
• Chirinos's home run tied him for second on the club in homers.  Yay?
• The Rangers come home to face Houston tomorrow.  If a home series against the Astros won't snap this team out of their funk, I don't know what will.