18-12 - Rangers bungle late innings, drop finale to Arizona

The Texas Rangers scored seven runs while the Arizona Diamondbacks scored twelve runs.

Hate to make you recall the dreaded series in Cincinnati but remember those botched late innings that cost the Rangers a few games? That same sequence of events happened again today as Bruce Bochy continues to try to cram some square pegs in some round holes with a clearly volatile bullpen.

You could honestly just splice the footage from one of those Queen City disasters onto today’s game because it all looked familiar. A questionable decision to leave in an unpredictable arm like Josh Sborz for a second inning. Trying desperately to turn Jose Leclerc into a high leverage fireman with runners on base. Going to an aged Ian Kennedy to try to stop the bleeding. It was all there and again, none of it worked.

With another example of either not having enough quality in the bullpen, or not having enough feel for how the arms they do have should be used, the Rangers coughed up a five-run 7th inning to dampen an otherwise positive homestand ahead of a long road trip against their AL West rivals.

But, I mean, whatever, the Astros also lost.

Player of the Game: The American League Rookie of the Month Josh Jung went 3-for-5 and hit two home runs today with his second dong briefly giving the Rangers a lead that the bullpen couldn’t hang on to.

Up Next: The Rangers have Thursday off before embarking on a long west coast road trip that begins with their first look at the Anaheim Angels beginning on Friday night. Neither team has elected to announce a probable pitcher as of yet.