Rangers lose series to Blue Jays

To say that the Texas Rangers fielding against Toronto this weekend left much to be desired, is an understatement. The Rangers had three errors in Friday’s game, a 8-4 loss. In the game, starting pitcher Vicente Padilla gave up five runs in the six innings he pitched to contribute to the loss. Ranger relief pitcher Kazuo Fukumori gave up three runs in his one-half inning of work to help the Jays get the weekend off to a good start.Saturday night, as much as Rangers fans were hoping things would get better, they didn’t. The Blue Jays beat the Rangers 4-1 Saturday night, in large part because of Ranger third baseman Hank Blalock’s error in the fourth inning when Blalock should have cleanly fielded Gregg Zaun’s soft line drive, but instead went off Blalock’s glove for a hit that would lead to three Blue Jay runs. Joe Inglett would single up the middle for a 2-0 Toronto lead. Aaron Hill’s single scored two more runs for the Blue Jays, to give them a 4-0 lead. In the first 12 games of the season, the Rangers have recorded 13 errors and have given up 11 unearned runs. That’s a disturbing sign, especially considering that the defense this year was supposed to be better than past years. During spring training, the Rangers defense was better, but now when it counts the most, the Rangers have got to do a better job of fielding and playing defense or else this season will be over before it gets started.Sunday’s game was one that the Rangers had every opportunity to win and should have won, but didn’t. On Sunday, the problem was not the fielding like it had been, but was the lack of timely hitting. A leadoff triple in the bottom of the tenth inning by Marlon Byrd left the Rangers in great shape to tie the game at 5-5. But the next three Rangers all made outs and Byrd was stranded at third in a 5-4 Ranger loss that was absolutely sickening to say the least.The Rangers were 3-of-28 with runners in scoring position in the series against the Blue Jays. This is another reason, along with the starting pitching slowly crumbling and the defense not playing as well as it should, that spells losing instead of winning for the team. Manager Ron Washington called a team meeting after Saturday’s game to discuss the team’s defensive struggles and that seemed to help as the Rangers made no errors in Sunday’s game. Now if the team can just hit better with runners in scoring position, then they can get out of this mini-slump where they have lost three consecutive games. After winning the series with the Rangers, the Blue Jays find themselves tied with Baltimore for first place in the AL East Division, each with 7-5 records. The Rangers on the other hand now find themselves all alone in last place in the AL West with a 5-7 record. Oakland leads the AL West with a 8-5 record.