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Watched Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler totally half-ass and boot a grounder Sunday afternoon in Oakland. On Monday Elvis Andrus made his seventh error of the season. Thought to myself, This team is getting lazy.
Suddenly the laziness is compounded by the losing.
Last night the beleaguered bullpen — this time it was Pedro Strop, with an assist from Darren Oliver — blew two more leads in another loss, this time 4-3 to the Mariners in Seattle.
Since a 9-1 start the Rangers are 7-13.
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And Nelson Cruz — whose record four homers in Texas’ first four games seems like years ago — is not hitting (.219) and left last night’s game with a tight quad.
Help, however, is on the way: The Rangers’ best hitter and best pitcher are closer than we think to returning from injuries.
If all goes well in tonight’s rehab stint in Frisco, All-Star closer Neftali Feliz will be back in Arlington when the Yankees come to town Friday.
And, whaddya know, Josh Hamilton’s recovery from his broken arm is at least a week ahead of schedule. Hamilton, expected to miss 6-8 weeks, wasn’t supposed to swing a bat for a month. But today — just three weeks in — he’s scheduled to swing and hit off a tee in Arlington.
The last thing the Rangers need to do is rush Josh back, have him re-injure the shoulder and miss an even longer period of time.
But at this point, we’ll take any good news we can get.
