Those pesky A’s. They just won’t go away. Aided by a very weak schedule (although who thought the Red Sox would be this weak), their usual good pitching and suddenly off the hook hitting, we just can’t shake them. So while we took the game last night 5-3, the A’s were right there. Who knew they would be the ones neck and neck with us at the end. Thirty one games to go and we still have a handful of games left with these very A’s. That’s why it is important for us to stay on the Tribe as they try to snap out of a month-long funk.
Ryan Dempster was good again last night and now deserving of consideration for Game One starter status. Harrison and Darvish still lead him, but if he remains the consistent one, he has to be in the running. No dramatic stuff with the offense (outside of Adrian Beltre being RIDICULOUS right now), but just got the job done off of a pitcher who owned us in his previous match up with us.
Speaking of consistent, Scott Feldman has been anything but lately. After rattling off several very good starts, he has inspired a big “meh” from me. We’ll see tonight. I know he doesn’t want to be the one to allow the Indians to snap their current six game losing streak.
The biggest news were our Sept. 1 roster moves last night. It looks like our new utility man will be #1 prospect Jurickson Profar. While I am sure it has happened before (but I don’t remember it), Profar became a bench player the last week in Frisco to kind of get ready for being used sporadically. After a not so hot start, he hit .296 the rest of the way there and had a streak of fifty straight games getting on. That’s what he brings to the table. While he won’t dazzle you Mike Trout style, he gets on base so the rest of the guys can do their thing. He is now the youngest player in the Bigs. I do think, with a handful of at-bats and his good eye, he could surpass Elvis Andrus in homers for the season in the last month. It might put the finishing touch on Andrus time in Arlington.
The Rangers also added Martin Perez, Yoshi Tateyama, outfielder Leonys Martin and utility player Brandon Snyder from Round Rock. They’ve all been here. They join Mike Olt and show the rest of the majors how strong our organization is.
No Pepper 