The Texas Rangers lost to the Kansas City Royals tonight because Wash is an incompetent manager, right? He doesn’t know how to manage a big league club, and he especially doesn’t know how to manage a bull pen, am I right? If I posed those questions on Twitter I would have hundreds of people tell me that is correct. But not so fast tweeps.
I don’t believe that Ron Washington is the reason the Rangers are having such a bad September. Wash was not responsible for Nelson Cruz getting suspended in the middle of an important season for both him and a struggling Rangers offense. Wash was not responsible for the fact that the Ranger have scored a combined nine runs in their last six losses. And, by the way, The Rangers pitchers have held their opponents to an average of 2.25 runs per game in the last four games, and the Rangers have gone 2-2 over that stretch. Ron Washington is not to blame for the fact that this offense cannot produce runs when they most need to.
I am getting tired of the manager always being the scape goat. Lets put blame where blame is due. The Rangers cannot hit with runners in scoring position with any consistency at all. They had the bases loaded tonight and couldn’t push a run across, and that included a wild pitch, even though that happened to bounce right back to the catcher. The Rangers don’t have that guy with the killer instinct at the plate, you know, like a Mike Napoli or a Josh Hamilton from last season or a Nelson Cruz. Did Ron Washington let Napoli walk? Did Ron Washington push performance enhancing drugs on Cruz?
I am a little emotional tonight because I am tired of watching my Rangers lose these close games 2-1, or 3-1, or 5-1 (see a common theme there?). The Rangers need to learn to score consistently, or even if they make the wild card, it will be a short exit from the post season. The Rangers still have a chance to win the series if they can get an elusive win behind Matt Garza tomorrow and a win behind Alexi Ogando on Sunday. My hope is starting to waver a bit, but I still think the Rangers can win the Wild card. they need to prove me right for once instead of wrong again.
