MVN - Most Valuable Network

Mariners Edge Rangers In 12-Inning Series Finale, 4-3

A large percentage of the time in baseball (and perhaps life in general), the difference between success and failure is as much about what you didn’t do as it is about what you did do.

Such was the case for the Texas Rangers during Wednesday afternoon’s overcast, but precipitation-free series finale at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, the site of a difficult to swallow 12-inning loss to the Seattle Mariners that the hometown heroes had multiple opportunities to put away for good, but, for a litany of reasons, didn’t.

I now submit to you a series of eleven highly specific “What if?” questions pertaining to that especially frustrating defeat:

● What if third baseman Ramon Vazquez, with nobody out and the Rangers clinging to a narrow 2-1 lead in the top of the seventh inning, hadn’t momentarily bobbled a deftly snared grounder to his left off the bat of Jose Lopez, forcing him to overcompensate for lost time and wildly fire a high throw over first baseman Chris Shelton’s head that landed in the camera well, permitting Lopez to reach second base?

● What if center fielder Josh Hamilton hadn’t horribly misjudged a Jeff Clement liner to straightaway center field that soared over his head all the way to the wall, allowing Lopez to easily score the tying run and Clement to reach third base standing up?

● What if starter Scott Feldman, after inducing a harmless Kenji Johjima ground out to a drawn-in Ian Kinsler at second base and fanning the heavily strikeout-prone Wladimir Balentien on six pitches, hadn’t tossed a hanging 77 MPH curve to Yuniesky Betancourt that he swiftly blasted off the 14-foot-high wall in left field, plating the go-ahead run from third base?

● What if Brandon Boggs, with David Murphy on second base and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh inning, hadn’t taken a miserable hack at a 2-0 pitch from Carlos Silva (his 88th and final pitch of the day) that resulted in a weak pop fly to center fielder Ichiro Suzuki, thereby failing to advance the runner to third base with less than two outs?

● What if manager Ron Washington, following back-to-back walks from flamethrower Brandon Morrow to load the bases with still just one out in the seventh inning, hadn’t chosen to pinch-hit the freshly activated Marlon Byrd (who was hitting .129/.250/.258 in 31 AB before landing on the 15-day disabled list four weeks ago) in place of the scorching hot Ramon Vazquez (.422/.481/.622 in 46 AB from April 26th onward, .344/.419/.516 for the season)?

● What if home plate umpire Tim Timmons hadn’t granted southpaw Arthur Rhodes an extremely generous outside strike call on a 3-0 count to prevent a bases-loaded RBI walk to Byrd?

● What if Byrd, exactly one pitch later, hadn’t weakly grounded into a groan-inducing 6-4-3 inning-ending double play?

● What if right fielder Wladimir Balentien, with the game tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning and runners on first and second base with two out, hadn’t made a sensational diving catch on a sinking line drive to rob Brandon Boggs of a potential game-winning RBI base hit?

● What if Chris Shelton hadn’t bunted into a rally-killing 3-6-4 double play with the potential winning run on first base and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth inning?

● What if Michael Young had smashed that 10th-inning laser to the right-center field gap just 15 feet further?

● And finally, what if right-hander Franklyn German - owner of the second-lowest ERA on the Rangers’ pitching staff (1.62 going into the game, now 2.04) but the fifth-worst WXRL (-0.164 going into the game) - wasn’t so perpetually maddening?

Yes, this same silly game can be played on the side of the Seattle Mariners, as well as with every other team and likely every other contest in the history of professional baseball. But I find it innately fascinating how many things simply didn’t break right for the Rangers on Wednesday afternoon, particularly through those final six tense innings, and how even the most seemingly innocuous details can come back to affect the game’s dynamics in such dramatic fashion.

And for all the considerable ire he draws from the discontented, yet exceedingly vocal segment of the Rangers fanbase at times (some of which is admittedly justified), nobody appears to grasp that concept more thoroughly than Ron Washington:

“We were in that game all day. In the seventh, eighth, ninth, 11th and 12th we had an opportunity to put it away. Today we just didn’t get a hit when we needed one.”

Alas, .500 will have to wait for another day.

Quick Hits: Right-hander Luis Mendoza (sore shoulder) was forced to depart his Wednesday rehab start with Double-A Frisco after just 1.1 innings and 34 pitches due to a developing blister on his pitching hand… Ron Washington clarified before Wednesday’s game that C.J. Wilson was still the club’s primary closer, with Eddie Guardado and Joaquin Benoit being second and third in line for save opportunities…third baseman Hank Blalock (partially torn left hamstring) will begin a brief rehab assignment with Frisco on Thursday.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 1:25 am and is filed under The Season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.