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August 22, 2005

One and Twelve

Whenever something goes horribly wrong, my mental soundtrack queues up a twelve-sheets-to-the-wind Neil Young croaking “Well it wasn’t supposed to turn out that way" from Tonight's the Night's "Tired Eyes." I had that song playing in my head repeatedly while watching the Rangers over the past two weeks.

I think most dedicated Ranger fans held no illusions about the situation going into the road trip. Texas stood several games behind several teams for both the West Division and the wild card, and they traveled to face Boston, New York, Cleveland, and a suddenly tenacious Devil Ray club. I envisioned a hard-fought 5-8 or 6-7 swing. Early on, Texas set an MLB record by losing six consecutive games in which they scored at least five runs. By the end of the trip, even the Ranger offense had assimilated the morgue-like atmosphere of Tropicana Field.

A summary of the 1-12 road trip:

Runs Scored 54 (4.2 per game)
Runs Allowed 96 (7.4 per game)
Batting Line .255 / .310 / .412 (.722 OPS)
Team OPS+ 90
Double Plays by Offense 13
Pitchers Used 16
Innings Per Game Pitched By Starters 4.85
ERA by all pitchers / starters / relievers 7.14 / 7.29 / 6.95
ERA+ by all pitchers 60 (60!)
WHIP by all pitchers / starters / relievers 1.74 / 1.67 / 1.83

Incidentally, the key lyric from that song is “He tried to do his best, but he could not.”

Posted by Lucas at August 22, 2005 11:13 PM