Texas Rangers Massacre Pirates Maholm

The Texas Rangers,

the first place team in the AL West, played like a desperate team against the worst team in the National League.  The Rangers took nothing for granted after giving their slugger Josh Hamilton the night off.   By the time the scowling Pittsburgh Pirates left hander Paul Maholm walked off the mound, he had pitched one official inning.   It sure seemed like a lot more.  Probably felt like it too.

Maholm threw in the second inning against Texas, but it seemed more like batting practice to the Rangers as he failed to record an out.  He walked Julio Borbon, the leadoff batter, and then watched his secondbaseman, Neil Walker, fail to turn a double play ball on an Elvis Andrus liner up the middle.   Three Rangers singles later, Pirates pitching coach Joe Kerrigan came to the mound.

He gave Maholm a pep talk.

It didn’t work.

Maholm gave up two more singles and Pirates manager John Russell had seen enough.   Maholm faced 15 batters, threw 55 pitches, said the swear word shit an estimated 27 times, and recorded two groundball outs and one flyout.

Let’s stay away from the ‘tough loss’ comments, but if you want to check it out, they are here.  Let’s focus toward the future, again.   The Loss Tracker of Hopeful Sorrow.