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Good morning.
Levi Weaver recaps the Rangers’ 2-1 loss as Texas failed to deliver the big hit which could have provided a sweep of Houston.
Jeff Wilson reacts to the loss but ponders if the Rangers can rally behind Adrian Beltre’s iron will to make a run at the Wild Card.
T.R. Sullivan writes that the Rangers were not satisfied with a mere series win as they need to start stringing together wins if they’re going to truly make a run at the Wild Card.
Wilson writes that winning the series against the Astros is a step in the right direction but the Rangers don’t have any wiggle room left for aw shucks losses.
Sullivan writes about how super human being Beltre bought his teammates gifts for helping him along the way to 3K which is nice but this paragraph caught my eye:
Beltre had three more hits on Saturday night, passing Wade Boggs and moving into 28th place all-time. He also passed Paul Waner for 13th place with 607 doubles and Lou Gehrig for 18th place with 5,062 total bases.
Every time Adrian Beltre steps onto a baseball field, he’s surpassing an all-time legend at something.
My favorite prospect Hans Crouse tossed two more innings for the Baby Rangers last night: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 Ks. Since Crouse debuted after Texas selected him at pick No. 66 in the draft: 15 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 4 BBs, 22 Ks, .120 AVG, 0.67 WHIP, 2.67 GB/FB.
Wilson writes that Jeff Banister was puzzled by his ejection on Sunday which came a night after bench coach Steve Buechele was kicked out apparently for words said from the dugout.
Banister claims he wasn’t arguing and it wasn’t even the umpire he was talking to that ejected him. This came after the umpires warned both teams after Marwin Gonzalez’s jersey was scrapped by a pitch and Astros manager A.J. Hinch had also come out to speak his mind without repercussion.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if this is some kind of tepid blowback coming to the Rangers via the most ornery group of people on the planet in protest of Joe West’s suspension.
A good way for the Rangers to show that they are actually still in the race for a playoff spot would be if Martin Perez can repeat what he did against the Mets last week. As Jordan Horrobin previews, Perez will get that chance tonight in the series opener against the Tigers.
And, lastly:
Have a nice day (everyone except for all umpires)!