Maybe we should have brought Stratton in.

Watching AZ walk it off…..when's the last one for the Rangers? Only one I can remember is in the 1st series vs Philly.

What do we do at closer going forward? I know he gave up the big home run, but I'd rather run Chapman out there than ever see Will Smith try to close a game again.

PatriotAg02 said:

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Watching AZ walk it off…..when's the last one for the Rangers? Only one I can remember is in the 1st series vs Philly.

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We still don't have a come from behind win going in to the 9th…

Don't look at the Mariners schedule for the next ELEVEN games if you don't want to throw up.

Arlington kid here…

I understand your pain.

Montgomery looked pissed in the postgame.

PatriotAg02 said:

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Montgomery looked pissed in the postgame.

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I would be too if I had put in that kind of work only to not have offensive backup.

The Brazos Kid said:

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Arlington kid here…

I understand your pain.

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Yes, you know…to put in perspective, the losses in 2012-2016 in postseason just became expected and to be painful. When Bautista hit that HR in Toronto, I turned to my family and nodded, as I knew that would end painfully. It's just how it is. Some franchises are just not meant to feel the high of a title. For our Houston folks, the Oilers come to mind, as do the Bills, Lions, and Vikings. In the MLB, teams like the Mariners, Padres, Brewers, and the Rangers fit that criteria. It's just things you learn once you pass 40, I guess.

PatriotAg02 said:

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Montgomery looked pissed in the postgame.

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He damn well should be.

Dude was probably excited to be traded to the rangers. We were in first place all season with the most runs scored in mlb for 80% of the season.

He gets here and pitches like an ace ( look up his numbers) and the lineup got shut the **** down by a bunch of no name scrubs in Oakland. Not one single run. He gets a loss pinned on him despite going deep in the game and only giving up 1 or 2 runs.

He pitched 8 scoreless tonight and we pissed it away again. I knew we were screwed when Bochy intentionally walked Martel with 2 outs. Make the man beat you twice. If he homers off Chapman and smith in the same night then just tip your cap, but don't put the ****ing go ahead run on first base for free.

I've been a big fan of Bochy since he got here, but Bochy, the lineup, and the bullpen all **** the bed tonight in epic fashion and we wasted yet another fabulous pitching performance.

The starting pitching that we have wasted since the trade deadline has been downright criminal.

I've tried to be confident and optimistic, but I'll admit this is the first game that has really gotten to me.

We now face 2 aces in the next 5 games. All on the road. 4 against a first place team, 1 more game against a team throwing an ace and who's really hyped about 2 epic comebacks over a 3 inning span.

Meanwhile we have a 5 game losing streak. It feels like the team has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Seriously lol wtf is going on.

3 runs over our last 21 innings and counting of non extra innings ball. Most at-bats they just look clueless up there. I can't remember the last time I saw any team suddenly look this lost at the plate for this long. The strikeouts are beyond ridiculous at this point. We're now getting mowed down by the likes of McGough and Cecconi.

Guys who I haven't even heard of before we got to Arizona with very mediocre stats.

WestTexasAg said:

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What do we do at closer going forward? I know he gave up the big home run, but I'd rather run Chapman out there than ever see Will Smith try to close a game again.

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I would say it is obvious there is nothing to be done as there has been no consistently legit closer on this team this season. Just gonna have to sit back and watch what happens with zero expectation.

If you want Bochy's mindset regarding the 9th and hoping for some super analytical strategy you are going to be upset.

Here it is -- "Montgomery is at 90 pitches and so he may not be able to go the full inning and I won't bring Chapman in mid-inning. So it's Chapman.".

That's it.

He's not a bad coach by any stretch, but he's a 0.500 coach. He's historically been as good as his roster.

Right now he has a roster that consists of an unreliable bullpen and a offense that a lot of guys playing way over their heads have come back to earth. Toss in legitimate injuries to all-stars Eovaldi, Jung and Heim (who is "back", but is very obviously not back) and here we are. Taveras, Duran and Janikowski were not going to carry this team to the finish line.

The good news? This rotation is "good enough" and this lineup is "good enough" to get things done in the final 37 games. But it's going to take winning the games they need to (last night) and actually stealing a game or two. I still think we are 0-fer when trailing going to the 9th.

Went to bed after Montgomery left in the 8th. Wtf man.

That isn't gonna help their mental state at all. Need one of their blowout wins to hopefully get back on track.

It's unfortunate the situation that we've been caught in with Jung and Heim being out for extended periods, and in Heim's case still not looking back at all. Those two guys really changed and lengthened this lineup during the first half; then throw on top that Duran and Leody are playing more to who they are, and that Adolis and Lowe are beyond hot and cold right now, you get what we are going through, which is serios inconsistency. I think this team really, really needs someone who can put the bat on the ball more often. They don't have to lead to hits necessarily, but just strikeout less and put it in play. Our lineup is loaded with guys who swing and miss a ton currently, and that is a big part of the inconsistency as well

I don't even want to talk about the bullpen. They are who we thought they were, and we're just going to have to deal with it.

It becomes pretty clear that what a few of us said about how things were trending is true -- without the additions of Scherzer and Montgomery, this was a team that was not going to make the playoffs.

So the front office made some moves to give us a chance. They can't make the guys not be injured (and with the injuries the way they were, there wasn't really much "shoring up" they could have done with the lineup that wouldn't have been a marginal upgrade at the time).

So I think going into the home stretch we either need A) Scherzer and Montgomery to shove or B) The weak parts of this lineup to simply start being passable.

Taveras is batting 0.159 in August.
Garcia is batting 0.215 in August.
Lowe is batting 0.231 in August.
Heim is batting 0.125 in August.
Janikowski is batting 0.139 in August.


That comes out to something like a 0.175 combined batting average. And we're 3+ weeks into August.

If those guys collectively were simply batting at the Mendoza line we'd probably have a 3.5 game lead right now.

After the K and hustle throw to first Heim was wincing and seemed to be in a lot of pain

His swing isn't what it was before injury either

I agree. If he's going to be this poor the rest of the year, I'd just let Garver have the job and sit Heim. Garver also seems to hit better when he's catching, so let's try and get him going again at least.

Yeah, I'm somewhat concerned this could F Heim up. I'd be leaning toward ending the experiment, surgery, and having him healthy and ready for 2024 opening day

There's also some questions with Heim how much is injury and how much is simply the league figuring him out a bit more.

Not all good hitters come out of the gate hitting good, but he had 250+ AB's in 2021 and hit 0.196. 400+ AB's last year and hit 0.227.

He's always had pop, but not sure the version of Jonah Heim that was hitting 0.280 with pop was the "real Jonah Heim".

Like I said, every hitter has to start somewhere so it's certainly not crazy that he just matured/developed into a power and average guy as he showed flashes of it in the minors... Just not sure how much of his dropoff will be injury and how much is simply coming back to earth.

I bet a lot is the injury. He's not 100%. And he can't switch hit right now. Coming back fast from injury, he's limited. So injury and not the same gameflow as pre-injury.

DeangeloVickers said:

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After the K and hustle throw to first Heim was wincing and seemed to be in a lot of pain

His swing isn't what it was before injury either

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He seems to be really struggling. Obviously not 100 percent. Remember the good ole days of Jung and Heim raking in the 5 and 6 holes of our lineup? I miss that.

I am not worried about the starting pitching at all. I think we have the guys (plus Eovaldi if and when he's back) to get us where we want to go, but the lineup does make me nervous for some of the reasons Proposition Joe has pointed out. I never thought Heim was going to be and maintain being a .280+ hitter on pace for 100+ RBIs. He's probably a .250-260 hitter with some pop, but now we are getting basically a goose egg from him due to his injury. Leody and Jankowski are in the same boat Heim is in in terms of producing above what they are. At the end of the day Jung going down was a massive blow because I do believe he is good hitter who could maintain some level of what he had done all year. That coupled with the bottom 1/3rd of the lineup coming back to earth has resulted in almost 2/3rds of our lineup being in a really bad way right now.

Yeah, Jung is the guy that you have/had every reason to believe he can continue to produce (and get better).

I think we also tend to get caught up in what the broadcast team will continually say (which will be positive 99% of the time). They were still singing the praises of Janikowski last time he was in the starting lineup.

Guy is batting 0.114 since the 07/25 Astros series. As a singles hitter. That's hard to do.

Can't really blame Bochy as he's tried to make some adjustments with JP Martinez and the like. But at the end of the day Semien and Seager (and to a lesser extent Lowe and Garver) are the only guys in this lineup you can count on to give you actually + at-bats right now.

The rest of the lineup is either completely out of sync (Garcia) or regressing to the type of hitter that they likely are (Taveras, Duran).

AggieRob93 said:

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WestTexasAg said:

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What do we do at closer going forward? I know he gave up the big home run, but I'd rather run Chapman out there than ever see Will Smith try to close a game again.

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I would say it is obvious there is nothing to be done as there has been no consistently legit closer on this team this season. Just gonna have to sit back and watch what happens with zero expectation.

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Let's not fall off a cliff. Chapman has given up 2 home runs all season. 1 to McCormick that blew a 9-6 lead and last night, so both were doozies. Pressley has given up 6 bombs.

The days of having lights out closers is over. The hitters are too good towards the end of a game. Suffering through 2 blown saves in the same game is rough, but at times Chapman and Smith have been effective. Bautista has 6 blown saves, and just choked away a 4 run lead to Houston last week.

We aren't miles behind the other contenders in bullpen. It's just going to make post-season a white-knuckle ride.

And sooner or later our luck in close games has to change. I've never seen a team more snake bit in close games. It's always something.

I think the frustration with the bullpen is more with Bochy.

We've all come to basically accept the bullpen is what it is. A handful of guys that are more than capable of getting the job done but are far from reliable. You've got Smith who doesn't have swing and miss stuff. You've got Chapman who does but can't/won't come in mid-inning. Then you've got guys like Sborz and LeClerc who when they are on are great, but who knows if they are on.

But it seems like Bochy hasn't come to accept that yet and is still trying to put the pieces in place enough times that they'll stick. But it's late August and they haven't stuck.

So when Jordan Montgomery who has had 105+ pitch outings the last 3 years is at 90 pitches, maybe don't take the ball from him to give to one of those guys? Especially when the last batter he faced he K'd swinging on 4 pitches.

Don't lean into a weakness.

In fairness, he did put in our best guy.

I'm really ready for the team to get going again.