Astonishing 4 game loss / sweep by O's

WorsterMan

WorsterMan

10,000+ Posts
I am suprised there is no post about this... DejaVu all over again Zealots!

I hope I am dead wrong but the Rangers seson may have flashed before our eyes!

One of the best teams in MLB with a newly acquired pitching ACE Cliff Lee & getting friggin' swept by arguably the worst team in MLB?

Suprised Texanne didn't say it: WHAT IN THE WIDE WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS IS AH GOIN' ON HERE!?

Yesterday I was telling myself - oh no here we go again... Rangers play well up to the All Star break and then.... long deep breaths - this season is different, the wheels won't fall off. Cliff will settle in, the ptiching staff will pitch well, bullpen will settle down, Hamilton will stay hot and the rest of the Ranger bats will be alive with men on base the second half of the season.

Have you seen the schedule for the rest of July? Lot's of roadies: Boston, LAD, LAA, etc. No bottom feeders to feast on.

<Austin Powers voice> somebody throw me a bone here.... <Austin Powers voice>
 
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Woo-Woo, maybe the R's are pulling a fake on us. Lose sliding into the break and then get hot coming out. I watched every one of those Oriole games and was flat out astonished.

Excited to get Lee; lucky the Angels have been as bad as we have been lately.

Hook'em!!!
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Step away from the ledge, WorsterMan. The bullpen has been overworked and really needs the All-Star break. Cliff Lee will eat innings and Tanner will be here soon to help in the bullpen. It looks like Wash has set up the rotation to give Lee maximum appearances against the Angels - and their pitching is going through a pretty rough stretch, too. Let's see what happens after the break before we hit the panic button.

HHD
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Honestly, the only thing I can say is that they looked like a team that was really tired, both mentally and physically.

What i truly regret about those four losses is the loss a chance to go up by 7 or 8 games instead of 4 1/2..

No doubt, the schedule gets tougher very soon. That cushion would have been valuable.
 
Nobody has ever won a pennant in June. I'll get my hopes up if we're still in it Aug 15. Handing the O's their first road sweep in 15 years is not a good sign. And if I hear how the O's are better than their record one more time, I'll fly a plane into The Ticket's radio tower.
 
This team is too good, and the division is too bad, to think the Rangers won't be in the thick of it this fall.

No worries here.
 
The biggest benefit the Rangers had from the schedule is now over--interleague play, which was 18 games against teams with losing records. Rangers IL opponents are a combined -59 against all other competition.

By comparison, the Angels' IL opponents were +11 against other competition. Remove the identical opponents (Milwaukee and Chicago), and the Rangers benefitted from 12 games against Pittsburgh, Houston and Florida (-39), while the Angels had St. Louis, the Dodgers, and Colorado (+31).

Not too surprisingly, the Angels lost 3 games to the Rangers in IL play.

What's left for each? The top three teams in the AL are in the East (NY, TB, Bos). The next three are in the Central (Chi, Det, Min). The bottom four are Bal, Cle, Sea, KC. The rest are close enough to .500 as to not matter.

LA

vs. NY, TB, Bos 14
vs. Chi, Det, Min 9
vs. bottom four 24

Tex

vs. NY, TB, Bos 15
vs. Chi, Det, Min 12
vs. bottom four 16

The bottom four difference is further magnified by the fact the difference is in games remaining with Baltimore and Cleveland, the two worst teams in the AL, with the Angels having 12 remaining and the Rangers only 4.

Given the current lead at 4.5 games, the relative strength of schedules in the first half and the second half, the Rangers may wind up seriously regretting the last 4 games they played.
 
as a current MLB manager is prompt to say, "that's the way baseball go"
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>>>>The biggest benefit the Rangers had from the schedule is now over--interleague play, which was 18 games against teams with losing records. Rangers IL opponents are a combined -59 against all other competition.

By comparison, the Angels' IL opponents were +11 against other competition. Remove the identical opponents (Milwaukee and Chicago), and the Rangers benefitted from 12 games against Pittsburgh, Houston and Florida (-39), while the Angels had St. Louis, the Dodgers, and Colorado (+31).

Not too surprisingly, the Angels lost 3 games to the Rangers in IL play.
 
Good points H2R - the layups are over. Rangers must play good ball to mid August vs. some of the better teams in the AL to stay squarely in the hunt. I fear the sweep by Baltimore may come back to haunt them later.... we will see.
 
Woo,

Actually, the comment on top was mine (Ron Washington once said "that's the way baseball go", my post was simply stating "we're gonna be ok"). The comments below were Bierce's from a previous post above.

Even tho I am confident we'll turn it around, if we don't, we can always point back to the O's sweep...That would normally bury us in the past, right? But I just think this yr is different w/ Cliff on the staff. For the first time since 1977 I think we can win games in October with the group we have.

Then again, that might just be the Zealot in me. But I'm optimistic.
 
H2R - thanks for the clarification and I like your comparison to the '77 team. I hope your right that this sweep very possibly won't matter later on and that the THIS team is differrent... it has the talent to just git er done.

Go Rangers!!!
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Worster,

1977, Hunter's bunters...Fun team w/ good pitching and defense & some speed....and a sept collapse again, & the Royals darn near didn't lose a game after Labor Day (ugh)

we ran thru what, 4 managers that year? Eddie Stanky managed one game if i recall...That club was fun to watch & had the charachteristics of a good team in a 5 or 7 game series

It'll be interesting for the next 75 days or so.
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