Friday, October 29, 2010
And That Happened
Posted by Craig CalcaterraGiants 9, Rangers 0: Aaron has the gory details of the bottom of the eighth inning here, and covers just about everything important about this game. I'll simply add that watching Ron Washington manage the Rangers' bullpen in the postseason has been like watching Richie Tennebaum against Gandhi at the U.S. Nationals tournament. All I can think is that Washington's adopted sister married Raleigh St. Clair yesterday, throwing him off his game, leading to all of these unforced errors.
On the bright side: Nelson Cruz got to two or three balls in right field in the early innings that Vladimir Guerrero wouldn't have. If not for that substitution, it probably would have been 4-0 Giants heading into that eighth inning. Though, no, I don't presume that makes Rangers fans feel any better.
I suppose the smart money has the Rangers being written off now. I can't say I'd bet against it. But there's hope. Hope in the form of the Giants throwing out two lefties in the next two games in Jonathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner. Hope in that the Rangers have a lot of righthanded firepower and shouldn't be as feeble in Games 3 and 4 as they were last night. Hope in that, should Colby Lewis falter, Neftali Feliz on seven days rest should be able to go five innings or more.
Oh, wait. That just brings us back to Washington. Who will still be managing that pen. Yeah, maybe we should just write Texas off now.
Craig writes the HardballTalk blog for NBC Sports.com