Thoughts on a 4-2 Rangers loss

Giants 4, Rangers 2

• That was a getaway-mid-week-day-game-in-Oakland-ass loss. I kept expecting to see Trevor Cahill out there on the mound. Maybe the bad Oakland getaway game vibes have crept across the Bay.
• I came home early so I could watch the game while I worked. And what did I get? Jordan Lyles pulling a Martin Perez, putting the Rangers in an early hole, then pitching well enough to stick around for a while, even though the team never was able to come back. Which is also very mid-week getaway day in Oakland esque.
• I swear, I think half of the getaway day games in Oakland from 2016-18 featured Martin Perez getting down 3-0 in the first couple of innings, loading the bases with one out, having someone warming up quickly in the pen, then getting a GIDP and not giving up another run before being pulled with two outs in the sixth in what eventually became a 4-2 loss.
• Anyway, I know this is San Francisco, not Oakland, but still.
• This series was irritating. Who the hell goes on the road to the West Coast for a two game series after having been at home, to a National League park of all places where you have to watch pitchers hit and have crimes against nature like Khris Davis playing left field (yes, he made the diving catch yesterday, shut up), and then have a Wednesday off say where you fly all the way back to Texas to play the Astros. What kind of happy horseshit is that?
• Interleague play is bullshit anyway. It’s a gimmick that quit being quirky and unique a couple of decades ago, but which continues because we have to have Yankees versus Mets series and White Sox versus Cubs series. No one cares about any other interleague series. It reminds me of Denis Leary saying that the reason the French hate Americans is because they invented the croissant, a light and delicate breaded delight, and we turned it into a croissandwich. That’s what interleague play is now...a croissandwich.
• Interleague play means shoehorning two game series into the schedule regularly and highlighting the stupidity of the two different leagues not even playing by the same goddam set of rules. What the hell, National League? You think you’re so special you don’t need to use a DH like every other league on earth? You think people like seeing those ugly ass box scores with all the pinch hitters and changing positions and the like mucking things up? You bunch of assholes. It’s the 21st century. We’ve got self-driving cars and magic screens that can show you any movie you want in seconds. We’ve got pitches throwing 100 mph constantly and using space age technology to figure out how to maximize the effective spin on a pitch and WiFi in ballparks. Quit subjecting us to pitchers hitting, you collection of stale farts. It’s not cute or novel and it just makes everyone hate you and hate your mothers for birthing you.
• At least it’s not as bad as it was back when I first started watching baseball and home plate umpires in the National League had to wear different chest protectors than umpires in the American League. N.L. umpires had to wear inside chest protectors while the A.L. umpires had to wear the giant outside balloon chest protectors. I have no idea why that was necessary unless they felt there was a crisis where people were watching games but didn’t know if it was an N.L. or an A.L. game and so they wanted people to be able to look at the home plate umpire’s chest protector and tell.
• Anyway, the Rangers lost today. Jordan Lyles was awful initially — by the fourth batter he had turned a 1-0 Ranger lead into a 2-1 Ranger deficit — and the announcers were talking in concerned voices about how Chris Woodward was like, yeah, Jordan has been pitching like ass and he hasn’t to straighten things out quick, using the kind of sad voice they use when they feel like they are watching someone pitch themselves onto the waiver wire.
• And the Lyles didn’t give up any hits the rest of his outing. He walked some guys, and only made it through five innings at 83 pitches, though I guess he’s not a tandem starter anymore since Josh Sborz came in in relief and he’s a regular relief pitcher. But 5 innings of 5 walk, 6 K, 2 hit ball at this point from Jordan Lyles seems like a miracle. Though we shall see how much of a reprieve he gets.
• Sborz gave up two unearned runs when an inning ending should have been throw to first by Charlie Culberson was bad, and Nate Lowe didn’t do a good job scooping it, allowing all the Ronald Guzman fans who wanted Lowe to start the season to AAA to break out SpongeBob memes about how they thought first base defense wasn’t important.
• Brett de Geus and Joely Rodriguez each also pitched an inning. I don’t think either of them gave up a run, given the Giants scored four runs and Lyles and Sborz gave up two runs apiece, but I can’t swear to that.
• I’m also not sure I have an actual recollection of any Brett de Geus outing this season.
• The Rangers runs came from Joey Gallo beating out a potential inning ending double play ball after a replay review in the first, and David Dahl hitting a solo home run at some point after I stopped paying attention to what the actual inning was. The Rangers had four hits — two by Dahl, one by Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and one by Nate Lowe. If I had to come up with three offensive highlights of the game, Khris Davis drawing a two out pinch hit walk would probably make the cut, if that tells you anything.
• Josh Sborz hit 98.2 mph on his fastball today, and the fact that we see that and are like, ho-hum, Josh Sborz throws 98, who cares, is an indicator about how pitching has evolved. Brett de Geus hit 95.8 mph on his sinker today, and we can just repeat the second part of that last sentence. 94.5 mph was Joely Rodriguez’s max velocity, and Jordan Lyles hit 94.3 mph.
• Joey Gallo had balls in play with exit velocities of 105.4 mph and 101.9 mph and neither went for a hit. David Dahl’s home run was 104.2 mph. Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s single was 100.5 mph.
• Bah.