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I don’t even know how to begin to explain the sorrow I would feel about tonight’s game if it were not for the fact that Adrian Beltre exists.
Yu Darvish pitched tonight in what might very well be his final game as a Texas Ranger. It was his worst start as a professional baseball pitcher. Yu Darvish might never throw a baseball at The Ballpark as a Ranger ever again and the final time he left the mound, he had allowed nine runs in just 3 2⁄3 innings.
To make matters worse, Jeremy Jeffress came in and promptly gave up a two run home run to add another run to Yu’s ledger, a career worst ten runs allowed.
Jeffress and Darvish were throwing to Jonathan Lucroy tonight if the score itself didn’t put you into a frame of mind for infinite sadness. I bring up the battery because in Washington, just to rub salt, hot sauce, and ebola into our wound, Sweet Lew Brinson hit his first career home run as a Milwaukee Brewer.
To me, this pretty much defines the 2017 Texas Rangers:
How fucked up is this season? Texas has been outscored 18-5 in the games Beltre is a combined 7-for-7 and won the game he went hitless 10-4.
— Christopher Fittz (@apoplecticfittz) July 27, 2017
After I wrote this, the Marlins scored an additional eight runs to make it 26-10 (Texas also scored five more times) in the games Adrian Beltre went 7-for-7 with a home run, two doubles, and a walk. In the game the Rangers won in this series 10-4, Beltre was hitless in five plate appearances.
If, in the end, we saw the last of Yu Darvish, this one hurts. It’s unfair and my heart aches. If we saw the end of the 2017 Texas Rangers, it sucks. If we saw the best years in franchise history come to an end tonight, well...at least we have Adrian Beltre, unless...
Player of the Game:
After three extra base hits tonight, Adrian Beltre is now just four hits away from #3,000. Were it not for Adrian Beltre, tonight would feel like a low point in this franchise’s history.
Of course, that was all BEFORE sentient anthropomorphized bag of crap Gerry Davis ejected Adrian Beltre to pretty much cement this game as the worst one that has ever been played.
Up Next:
The Rangers have the day off tomorrow before beginning a series against the Baltimore Orioles this weekend.
By the end of that series, Pudge Rodriguez will be a Hall of Famer, Adrian Beltre will more than likely have joined the 3K club, and the roster will could look very different.