Texas Rangers baseball team loses wild one

In a game that probably displayed the Rangers' season in microcosm, they lost to the Boston Red Sox 19-17 last night. Nope, that ain't a typo. That is the score.

If you saw the game last night, you saw what us fans have gone through all season: nuclear offense (best in the majors) and nuclear meltdown pitching (worst in the majors). Our offense can score 17 runs in a game, and LOSE. Just like last night. We have a modern day Murderer's Row, and even that's not enough to overcome the pitching in way too many games. If we had decent pitching - no, even halfway decent pitching - then we'd at least be in the lead for the wildcard race. But nope, we have the worst pitching in baseball.

Last night was a perfect example of this. In the first inning, the BoSox scored 10 - 10! - runs. David Ortiz hit two - two! - 3 run homers in the first inning! It looked like it was going to be a long night for Rangers fans, but the offense really gave the BoSox a run for their money. They found out just how nuclear this offense is. They took the team on their backs, and damn near won the thing. Fortunately for the BoSox, our pitching bailed them out. In the 8th inning, we had a 16-15 lead, and our pitcher gives up one run to tie, and then another for a 3 run homer. It's like the pitching is not on our side - it gets so bad.

It used to be that the Texas summertime heat was blamed for why the pitching was so bad, but the local semi-pro team Fort Worth Cats have won 3 championships in a row and could win a fourth this season. They play in the same summer heat. And the local college baseball team, the TCU Horned Frogs, have managed to win their conference championships as well. Nope, this is all management's fault. They have an annoying habit of trading top pitching prospects for over-the-hill veterans for - their batting! On a team that has enough bats!

Yeesh. And you thought the Cubs have had it bad!