At a loss.

The Tigers have to scratch their scheduled starter hours before gametime, with a bullpen whose tensile strength was already being put to the test asked to go nine innings on the road in a nearly sold-out game against the other team's number one starter. Each of the Rangers' three AL West division-mates had already lost. That's a game you've got to win. Texas backs its ace with four runs on seven hits and two walks through the first inning and two-thirds. The remaining seven and a third against the Detroit pen: Zero runs on four hits and a walk. Meanwhile, Scott Feldman (still fighting the effects of the stomach flu, maybe? hopefully?) gives up eight straight runs after being staked to that 4-0 lead, surrendering eight hits and four walks and a costly wild pitch in 3.2 innings. Feldman didn't have a start in 2009 as bad as either of these last two until his 18th start of the season – at home against Detroit. That's a bad loss. Three times in the last five games, Texas has squandered a four-run lead. Five times in the last seven games, the Rangers starter has failed to go five innings. Doug Mathis, bravo. No better a ball-to-strike efficiency tonight than Feldman, but he battled. He might find himself back on the shuttle, necessarily, but that was a solid effort. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram proposes that one way to address the lack of a second lefthander in the bullpen would be to option Mathis and call Derek Holland up, not to replace Rich Harden, but Matt Harrison, who would slide into relief. If that's in consideration, it would make more sense to get a reliever up here in Mathis's place until Holland could go on Wednesday. Harrison probably can't pitch tomorrow even though he threw only 75 pitches on Wednesday, because he likely threw a side yesterday or today. Regardless, maybe Pedro Strop (seven straight scoreless outings, but he did pitch last night and tonight) or Guillermo Moscoso or Omar Beltre (four scoreless outings out of five) or Alexi Ogando or Zach Phillips, all of whom are on the roster (though all right-handed other than Phillips), or southpaw Clay Rapada, who isn't, could come up here in Mathis's place to hold things down in long relief until Holland's spot came up Wednesday. If Wilson is onto something. Through 17 games in 2009, Texas issued 73 walks and fanned 99, holding opponents to a .282 batting average and throwing 17.8 pitches per inning. Through 17 games this year, Texas has issued 72 walks and fanned 123, holding opponents to a .251 batting average and throwing 17.8 pitches per inning. Yet the Rangers were 8-9 through 17 last year, 7-10 right now. Why? The offense through the first 17 in 2009: .274/.331/.513, 105 runs, 35 home runs. This year: .240/.315/.366, 71 runs, 12 home runs. How does Vladimir Guerrero factor into all that? Big Bad Vlad had a lifetime line of .394/.471/.705 in 193 at-bats as an opponent in Rangers Ballpark. Nobody expected him to be that ridiculous in a Rangers uniform, but you know what? In 31 home at-bats this year, he sits at .548/.576/.839. Then again, he's at .194/.257/.226 in the same number of road at-bats. Three bad moments for Taylor Teagarden defensively tonight. Seems pretty certain that once Jarrod Saltalamacchia proves on his Oklahoma City rehab assignment that he's ready, he and Teagarden will switch uniforms. Saltalamacchia caught all nine innings and singled, walked, and hit an RBI sac fly in four trips for the RedHawks tonight. Also in that game was Chris Davis's first 2010 home run, a three-run blast to right field that extended Oklahoma City's eighth-inning lead to 8-3 (in a game the RedHawks eventually won, 8-7). Ian Kinsler will rehab with Frisco Monday through Wednesday and could join the Rangers in Seattle on Friday. Tommy Hunter threw 19 pitches (13 strikes) in an extended spring training game today in Surprise. Crummy loss tonight. Sometimes when I write about a game like this, it's therapeutic, cathartic, but tonight I'm stuck with the feeling you get when you lose a routine fly ball in the lights or the dusk or whatever it was. =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com Twitter @newbergreport