Wasted Opportunities

While the Rangers' April play this year was better than last, no one should be celebrating a 10-11 start, especially the way the team played today.

In the fifth inning the Rangers had runners on second and third with no one out with Young, Jones, Blalock, and Cruz coming up. You have to expect in that situation that the Rangers score at least one, and probably two runs. Yet, Michael Young popped out. Andruw Jones drew an intentional walk. Hank Blalock popped out and Nelson Cruz struck out. Instead of taking a 2-0 lead to the sixth the A's had the momentum.

In the ninth, with already long odds, Michael Young made a huge baserunning error. While getting thrown out at third base when trailing by three in the ninth might not have cost the game, it certainly cost an out. Who knows how the game turns out otherwise.

And I still don't know what to think about Vicente Padilla. In his last start his fastball regularly reached the mid-90s. Today, it barely hit the upper 80s. Fortunately, the A's lack of offense allowed Padilla to still get a quality start. But the Rangers need him to pitch even better.

10-11 is not horrible. But it is not good enough either. For the Rangers this first month was full of wasted opportunities.