Dead Last; Papi Does it Again

David Ortiz did it again tonight for the Red Sox. There is no better hitter to watch bat right now with the game on the line, and Ortiz won another won for the Red Sox tonight with a 3 run walkoff to give the Red Sox a 9-8 win over Cleveland .

Ortiz hit a bomb off closer Carmona to dead center field and it seemed like every one in the stadium was waiting for Ortiz to hit one out. And he did...





The same day the Rangers make two more trades ( acquiring Kip Wells from Pittsburgh and Matt Stairs from KC for some spare minor league parts) in an effort to make an legitimate try to try and win the West, the team goes out and loses 15-2 in Minnesota . Texas now stands last place in the AL West at 52-54, 4 games back of first place Oakland. Just an awful, awful performance starting with John Rheinecker going 1.2 innings and givng up 8 Earned runs. Granted some of the damage was done by some shoddy fielding by newly acquired Carlos Lee, but this was Rheinecker's last start as a Ranger at least this season anyways.

Let's be honest as all rangers fans have painfully figured, this team is going as far as its pitching. Overall Team ERAs in the AL West:

Angels - 4.09 ERA (#2 in AL)
Oakland - 4.24 ERA (#3 in AL)
Seattle - 4.39 ERA (#5 in AL)
Texas - 4.63 ERA (#9 in AL)


The revamped rotation looks as follows:

Millwood -- Been just awful at home (6.28 ERA) but very effective on the road (2.96 ERA). We at least have a chance with Millwood starting and is as close to an ace as the RAngers are going to have for the next few years.

Vicente Padilla -- 10 game winner and a free agent in the offseason, the Rangers need to go after him hard to sign him up long term. Challenges hitters with his fasttball and seemingly can win games at Ameriquest (4.50 ERA at home).

Adam Eaton -- Let's not even discuss his first start. Supposedly has decent talent at #2 stuff, but he seems to be too much of a health risk for the Rangers to go after in the offseason. Thank god for Akinori Ostuka working out as closer because Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez are performing well in San Diego.

Kip Wells -- Dunn's favorite starting pitcher comes over from Pittsburgh and will be an innings eater. This is a good thing becuase he will probably come in and be our #4 starter because the #5 situation is even more murky.

John Koronka/John Wasdin (should go down)/Edison Volquez -- This team needs a spark and maybe Volquez is it.

No matter how pitiful the offense looks at times this team isn't even going to sniff the AL West without better pitching. The Angels and A's both rank top 4 AL in pitching so the Rangers better start playing soon or it's over.

I think it may already be over. Let's hope not...