Thoughts on a 6-1 Rangers loss

Astros 6, Rangers 1

• Well, at least we don’t have to have heartburn over the decision of whether to buy or sell.
• Ariel Jurado gave up 5 runs in 5 innings of work today, on 8 hits. He’s now sporting a 4.92 ERA. Still has exceeded expectations this year but the return to earth we have feared might be coming appears to be happening right now.
• Phillips Valdez threw one inning and gave up a home run, though if you want to look on the bright side it didn’t go very far.
• Brett Martin pitched a scoreless inning, bringing his ERA down to 4.89. He has had some rough outings but I still think the Rangers have something with him.
• Kyle Bird faced three batters and only retired one of them before being pulled for Taylor Guerrieri. Bird made the team out of camp, was bad, went to Nashville, was great, is back up, and has been bad again. It’s a mystery.
• There’s basically nothing good to say about the offense today. Shin-Soo Choo homered, and Hunter Pence had an infield single, and no one else got on base. This, against a rookie pitcher who had an ERA of...I don’t know, 7+ I think, coming into the day. But the entire offense is slumping right now, it feels like.
• So things are slipping away, or have already slipped away, depending on your point of view. And there’s the possibility of avoiding a sweep tomorrow, which would be great and all. But it’s a reminder that, when things are going bad, it feels like your team will never win again.