Cliff Lee got 9 runs of support in Kansas City last night.
The Rangers still lost.
The good news is that division rivals Oakland and California (I’m done trying to figure out what they call themselves every new week, from now on they’re the California Angels again) lost as well, so the Rangers still have a comfy 8.5 game lead in the AL West. But with Cliff Lee now clearly completely off his game, Texas has got some serious problems.
First of all, last night’s eruption notwithstanding, they haven’t been hitting. Much of that may be attributable to injury… Ian Kinsler is still out, Nelson Cruz had been out, I forget who else has missed games. Outside of Lee, the starting pitching has been solid enough, but the strain on the bullpen remains just as strong when no lead ever grows beyond two runs. Neftali Feliz can’t work every night.
So, question one: Can the Rangers hang on? It’s September 1, they are 8.5 games in front of the A’s, against whom they have four more games. They have seven more against the Angels, who are 10.5 back and therefore out of it according to my September 1 rule. The A’s and Angels have six more games left against each other, which may turn out to be the saving grace for Texas if things don’t turn around this month. But then what?
The fact is that if the playoffs started today, no sane manager would let Cliff Lee off the bench. Lee is a control pitcher in the mold of Greg Maddux, and when he is right, he can thread a needle with any pitch the catcher calls. But he hasn’t been right in a month, so pitches that used to paint the corners of the strike zone now either miss it entirely or glimpse it briefly before reversing direction on the way to the outfield bleachers. A month is plenty of time to turn it around, so it’s premature to panic. But we’ve also seen a month of dreadful work from the guy who was supposed to put the thing over the top, so it’s not premature to be very concerned.
The playoff rotation if I managed the Rangers: Wilson, Hunter, Lewis. Subbing an effective Cliff Lee for Colby Lewis could be the difference between another futile series with the Yankees and an early November parade around the strip shopping centers of Arlington. Lee’s pitching coach happens to be Greg Maddux’s brother, Mike. If Lee’s problems are mental and not physical, the hopes of the franchise may very well rest on that famous Maddux surname.
He’s doing this on purpose. They have such a huge lead it doesn’t matter if they get beat. The A’s are not catching up and the Angels are done! So Lee is doing this to trick the Yankees and Rays so when they see him in Game 1 of the ALDS he can put their batters down one by one. Is this possible? No of course not. He probably had a heat stroke it’s hot in the Rangers ballpark!