The Toronto Blue Jays are coming home with a 2-0 series lead in their ALDS after defeating the Texas Rangers 5-3 on Friday afternoon, and things are obviously not looking good for the Rangers as the AL West champions are now on the brink of elimination.
The tone from Rangers writers is simple: Texas wasted its opportunities and is now in dire straits heading into Toronto.
Here is what Rangers columnists had to say after Game 2.
Dallas Morning News — An exercise in futility: Rangers’ silent bats, offensive woes have put them on the offseason’s doorstep
The Rangers have done nothing offensively in the first two games of the Division Series and have fallen to the precipice of elimination. On Friday, they managed to grind 13 hits and 16 base runners into a pile of pulp in losing 5-3 to Toronto. They did, however, set a club postseason record. For futility. They left 13 runners stranded, eclipsing the mark they set in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series. And, that didn’t work out all that well either.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram — There’s Rangers blood in the water after Jays bludgeon Darvish
For two games in Texas this week, manager Jeff Banister watched his two best starting pitchers fail to do the job. He had to listen to his hitters snore while runners waited on base.
He saw the Blue Jays bludgeon the Rangers’ starters and seize the first two games of this American League Division Series.
Game 3 is scheduled for Sunday, and for Blue Jays fans, there’s blood in the water.
And all of Canada, it seems, has been waiting for this.
Lone Star Ball — Thoughts on a 5-3 ALDS Game 2 Rangers loss
Today was a winnable game. Yu Darvish was on the mound, and pitched pretty well. Only, you know, except for those home runs. All those home runs. Four in all, including a bomb from Kevin Pillar on a fastball so high that it was something of a miracle he even got the bat on the ball. And yet, despite giving up four home runs, Darvish didn’t seem to be awful.
Then the bullpen came in and did work, keeping the Jays off the board. And the Rangers got hits, and got base runners, and had chances.
So many chances.
So many chances, that weren’t capitalized on.
