Setting in the West: Texas Rangers lose, 8-7
The Dallas Morning News
Sep. 11--SEATTLE -- The Texas Rangers have been out of the AL West race for weeks, but official elimination came Wednesday afternoon.
It came in the kind of game that summed up why the Rangers found themselves in such a dire spot in the first place.
While Los Angeles disposed of the fading New York Yankees, the Rangers suffered through a sloppy 8-7 loss to Seattle. The combination of those events left Texas 17 1/2 games out in the West with 16 to play. While wild-card hopes died weeks ago as well, official elimination in that race could come as early as today.
"It's definitely tough," said shortstop Michael Young, who has never experienced a season above third place in the AL West in his eight-year career with the Rangers. "We'd have loved to take this thing deep into September and see how it played out. The Angels did a great job and got on a roll. The only thing we can do now is try to get better and then carry that into spring training."
Project I: Tightening up the fielding. Doing so could eliminate lots of gift runs for the opposition, thereby staving off elimination in seasons to come. Like so many of the Rangers' 75 losses this season, the margin of defeat Wednesday was created by gift runs.
The Rangers allowed two unearned runs, giving them 102 for the season. No team in either league is within 30 of them.
The unearned runs total is five shy of the franchise record set in 1973, when the club lost 105 games. It's almost certain the club will finish with at least 110 unearned runs, something only nine AL clubs have done since the end of World War II.
The game started with Ichiro Suzuki slapping a ball to third base. Chris Davis, who has been playing the position in the majors for a little more than two weeks, stopped it, but threw a bouncer to first base. Hank Blalock, playing first base for as long as Davis has played third, couldn't come up with the ball. Ichiro had an infield single.
Ichiro then stole second and went to third when Taylor Teagarden's throw went into the outfield. Ichiro scored the game's first run on a groundout. The Mariners gradually expanded the lead to 4-0.
The Rangers rallied with a pair of two-run home runs, but as soon as they did, the fielding deficiencies hurt them again. Raul Ibanez led off the fifth with a bad-hop double that Blalock could not stop. After a groundout by Jose Lopez, Jeremy Reed bounced a ball through Blalock's legs.
"We had a couple of plays that should have been made in the first few innings, and if we made those, it might have been a different story," manager Ron Washington said.
With 16 games remaining, the Rangers have meager goals for which to play. A winning record, which would be only their second since 1999, is still a possibility. Even if they don't finish with a winning record, they could finish second, and they haven't finished that high in the West since winning it in 1999.
