Thoughts on an 8-3 Rangers loss

Angels 8, Rangers 3

• So, on the pitching side...Doug Fister was okay, not great. Made it through 5 innings, gave up 3 runs, and then got pulled, as the Rangers seem reluctant to have him go much more than 80-85 pitches right now (he was at 81 today).
• Alex Claudio faced five hitters, gave up three hits and two runs, and was pulled for Matt Bush. Bush threw a scoreless 1.1 IP, was replaced by Jake Diekman for the start of the 8th, and Diekman replaced none of the four hitters he faced, though one of those was due to a throwing error by Adrian Beltre. Kevin Jepsen then came in and allowed a couple of hits to allow runs in that went on Diekman’s ledger. Keone Kela threw four pitches with two outs in the ninth because he needed some work.
• Good stuff, huh?
• Fister, fort what it is worth, is now sporting a 3.95 ERA. The team choosing not to push him more than five innings has already generated some grousing among the media types, and we shall see if this continues. But the returns on Fister, who is making just $4 million in 2018, are pretty decent so far.
• Adrian Beltre had a strange night in the field, making multiple bad throws to first (though just one resulted in an error), and in a bizarre incident, choosing to throw home on a grounder with runners on first and third and two outs, rather than going to first. The runner on third ended up getting in a rundown and being tagged out, but it certainly appeared that Beltre lost track of the number of outs. Quite a weird game for him.
• Rougned Odor strained what was apparently already a sore hamstring while getting back to first base, and is going to likely be out for several weeks. Isiah Kiner-Falefa was pulled and apparently will be coming up to take a bench spot, with Jurickson Profar moving to the second base spot. Profar was 0 for 2 today with 2 walks.
• Joey Gallo and Nomar Mazara each had two hits, so that was a good thing, and Robinson Chirinos had a couple of hits. Elvis Andrus hit a 9th inning home run once the game was pretty much out of reach, but I’ll always take Elvis Andrus hitting home runs regardless of the circumstances.
• On the negative side, Drew Robinson and Ryan Rua combined to go 0 for 8 with 5 Ks. Robinson got off to a nice start but has struggled of late, and Rua has struggled all season, although he made a great sliding catch down the line in left field today, and also made a terrific throw home on a plate at the plate where Martin Maldonado was originally called out, though it was reversed on replay.
• A lot of runners stranded, a lot of opportunities missed, the two lefties in the pen had bad games, and Odor is out of commission for a while. Things will get better, but right now, its not real pleasant.