ARLINGTON, Texas - Texas Rangers slugger Adrian Beltre was at a loss to explain the collective funk the offense is in.
"I can't describe it," Beltre said.
There are actually a lot of ways to describe the offense right now. Bad. Slumping. Ineffective. Inconsistent.
Describing the offense isn't the issue for the Rangers, who dropped a 4-2 decision to Toronto Saturday night for their fourth-consecutive loss. Fixing what's wrong is the problem and the Rangers need to do it quickly as they dropped a season high three games under .500.
The good news, bad news is that the Rangers have experience with slumps like this in the last couple of seasons. They've been able to dig themselves out of holes in the past. Of course there are no guarantees this team can do the same.
Saturday night at least the Rangers scored, managing two runs on eight singles. But a bullpen that had to bail out Robbie Ross after another short outing (4 1/3 innings) allowed single runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
Instead of bailing out the bullpen though, the Texas offense went silent late as Toronto pitchers needed just 23 pitches to record the final seven outs.
"Obviously we don't want to go through a stretch like this but it's happening," said Adrian Beltre, who went 0 for 4 to drop his average to .250. "We hope that the hitters can fix it earlier because our pitching staff needs support. They've been pitching really well the last couple of games and there's nothing to show for it."
Ross didn't pitch particularly well Saturday but he was able to limit damage. He allowed just a first-inning homer to Jose Bautista but that was the only run the Jays touched him for. Unfortunately for Ross, it took 91 pitches for him to record 13 outs which put the bulk of the pitching workload on the bullpen.
The Rangers scored their first run of the series on a Michael Choice RBI single in the third inning to tie the game. After the Jays broke the tie with a run in the top of the seventh, Luis Sardinas tied the game with his first RBI in the bottom of the frame.
Texas, which had no runners in scoring position Friday, missed out on chance to break the 2-2 tie when Michael Choice popped out to end the seventh with a runner on second.
The Jays then countered with a bloop double from Jose Reyes off Neal Cotts in the eighth and added a not necessary insurance run in the ninth thanks to a Mitch Moreland error.
Throw in the herniated disk in neck issue for Prince Fielder and an early exit for Alexi Ogando after taking a liner off the palm of his right hand and it was just another day at the ballpark for the scuffling and beat up Rangers.
At least the always optimistic Ron Washington knows his team has a chance to get things right starting Sunday. His answer to what's wrong is a simple one.
"By playing their way out of it," Washington said when asked what it's going to take. "Taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves and good things begin to happen. We took advantage of a couple but we had many more and didn't get it done. You just keep playing and when those opportunities someone has to deliver."
