Goodbye Rangers, Hope To Never See The Best Team In The American League Again This Season

I've seen all I need to see from the Texas Rangers this season. I don't care that the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have better records. For my money in October (hope the bookies aren't reading), I'd put my house (assuming I owned one) on the defending AL champions.

They concluded their 2011 season series with the Red Sox (84-55) this afternoon, leaving Fenway Park with an 11-4 win. Texas (80-61) beat Boston six out of the ten times they met this year and if the playoffs started today, they'd meet in Arlington in the ALDS (Rangers AL West champs; Red Sox AL Wild Card).

After their offense woke up yesterday, Boston's bats were mostly silent today as Matt Harrison (11-9) stifled them for seven innings. He allowed two earned runs on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts.

I don't like the Red Sox chances in a five-game series when they would likely face C.J. Wilson twice, Harrison and Derek Holland (who helped blank Boston on Friday night).

To make things even more depressing, the Yankees beat the Blue Jays earlier today so they now lead by 1.5 games. Boston will go Toronto with four games North of the border set to begin tomorrow afternoon.

No lopsided loss for the home team would be complete without another embarrassing performance by the one and only John Lackey (12-11). Usually the beneficiary of outrageous run support, Lackey fell flat on his face today when he actually had to outduel a fellow Major Leaguer. In five innings, he gave up six earned runs on eight hits with three walks and one strikeout.

Almost a mirror image of Boston's totals from the middle game yesterday, the Rangers had 15 hits, 11 RBIs and seven walks this afternoon.

Ian Kinsler led Texas with three hits, three RBIs and a run while Mike Napoli (2 runs, 2 hits, 2 RBIs, 2 walks), David Murphy (2 runs, 2 hits), Mitch Moreland (2 hits, run, RBI) and Endy Chavez (2 hits, run) all had multiple hits.

David Ortiz (2 hits, RBI, walk) and Kevin Youkilis (2 hits, run) were the only Boston players with multiple hits. The Red Sox were held under 10 hits as a team (nine).

Napoli had an RBI single in the second and Kinsler had an RBI triple in the third before Texas put up seven more runs in the sixth. Murphy and Moreland had RBI singles, Esteban German walked with the bases loaded, Kinsler had a sacrifice fly and Josh Hamilton emptied the bases with a three-run triple.

Felix Doubront was a disaster as the first reliever out of the bullpen for Boston. He only got one out and allowed three earned runs on two hits and two walks. Desperately searching for a lefty out of the bullpen for the playoffs, the youngster does not look anywhere near capable of shouldering that type of workload or pressure. Franklin Morales it is (ducks).

The Red Sox had enough pride not to get shut out for the second time in three days. Marco Scutaro had a two-run single in the seventh while Ortiz had an RBI single in the eighth and Darnell McDonald drove in the last run with a sacrifice fly.

Napoli and Kinsler hit bombs off Michael Bowden in the ninth, one last donkey punch before the weekend was over.

Josh Beckett faces rookie Henderson Alvarez tomorrow at 1:07 p.m. in a game that the Red Sox really need to win.

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Might as well end the season now

A good test of someone's sanity and how much of a prisoner of the moment they are is to gauge their viewpoint after a baseball team has been swept in April.

If you freak out and start talking like the season is over, like the Boston Globe's over-the-hill Dan Saughnessy, you have completely lost touch with reality and it's best for everyone if you retire this second.

The Boston Red Sox started their 2011 season in about the worst possible fashion: getting swept in Texas by the Rangers.

Last season's AL champs, the Rangers (3-0) wrapped up the laughable beating with a 5-1 win yesterday afternoon at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Red Sox (0-3) starter Clay Buchholz (6.1 innings, 5 hits, 4 earned runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts) was no match for a Texas lineup that churned out 11 home runs in the three lopsided victories.

Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz became the first teammates to start a season with homers in three consecutive games.

The reason I'm not panicking one iota is that the baseball season is so ridiculously long. Sorry Dan, a three-game sample in April tells us nothing about how this team will play in the summer or fall. You also have to give Texas credit, this wasn't the Kansas City Royals that were looking like world-beaters.

Rangers starter Matt Harrison pitched what I would venture to guess was probably his best game in the majors: 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks and eight strikeouts.

Carl Crawford was about the only bright spot for Boston. He was temporarily dropped from third to seventh in the lineup (ahhhh!) but responded with the first two hits of his Red Sox career, including an RBI single in the seventh.

Texas got solo homers in the second, third, fifth and seventh inning from David Murphy, Kinsler, Mike Napoli and Cruz respectively.

Michael Young added an RBI double in the eighth off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. Pap hadn't gotten a chance to pitch all weekend so he was thrown into a 4-1 deficit and promptly gave up two hits and a walk before striking out the side with the bases loaded. Makes sense. Get used to a lot of white-knuckle work by Papelbon, who no longer has great stuff.

Boston mercifully gets today off before beginning a three-game series in Cleveland tomorrow. Josh Beckett takes the mound tomorrow night and will try to get the Red Sox in the win column for 2011. If the terrible Indians roll over the Red Sox, then we'll really have something to talk about.