See, the bat did get off Josh Hamilton's shoulders! The Texas Rangers lost in New Yankee Stadium 12-4 last night, providing Alexi Ogando his first loss of the season. He lasted 1.1 innings.
This is due largely in part to the Yankees. In our baseball lifetimes, we've never seen a team absolutely work a pitcher to death.
Foul ball after foul ball. They'll take any pitch in any count. They're patient and they absolutely force your hand and make you throw a pitch that they can hit. It's been happening for 15 years and it might happen for another 15 more. Assholes.
They whipped Ogando good. Six runs and not making it out of the second inning. The dude threw pitch after pitch. They held off the bad ones and fouled away the others and smashed a few more into the outfield.
What killed me was "pitching around" Nick Swisher in the second inning. Runners at second and third, one out and Swisher at bat, Eduardo Nunez (the poor man's Derek Jeter) on deck. The Rangers effectively intentionally walk Swisher, although they do get two strikes on him. Sets up bases loaded and Nunez comes through.
I would venture a guess that Swisher is better than Nunez. No doubt. However, Swisher's hitting .227 this season and .176 against righties. With runners in scoring position, he's hitting .180 and .286 with the bases loaded.
There was an excellent chance that Swisher would have been an out. Not that pitching to Nunez is a bad idea. I just would have wanted to consider him out No. 3, not two.
Nunez singles. The Yankees add five more, then six more until the end of the game.
Ogando was awful. Yoshi Tateyama and Mike Kirkman were bad. Still, it might not overshadow the real issue: Hitting.
Until Nelson Cruz walked late in the game, the Rangers had gone 30+ innings without a walk having struck out 19 times. It sounds like Rudy Jaramillo hitting. No patience. Swinging at bad pitches and doing the complete opposite of the Yankees.
Hitters are easy outs if they aren't patient and choosy. The Rangers are neither right now.
It's an epidemic. Cruz looks horrid. Ian Kinsler is AWFUL. Josh Hamilton's slumping. In fact, the best hitter right now is Yorvit Torrealba (13 hits in last seven ... seven-game hit streak), and that is embarassing. Nothing against Torrealba, but it's nearly 70 games in and there are some definite trends in play.
I think it starts with Kinsler. Someone on Twitter called him a "designated out" last night. I don't know how you fix it, but it's gone beyond just "struggling" or "working through things." He's bad.
Maybe some Ivan Nova will fix things.
