Falling Down On The Job

Scott Feldman (above) and the rest of the Rangers' pitching staff has been the culprit for recent mediocre play. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Chris Young)

In the last 12 games, the Texas Rangers pitching staff has seen it's team ERA drop from third in the American League (4.03) to seventh (4.13). Over this period, the Rangers have allowed an average of nearly six runs (5.83) per game. Texas' record has reflected this as it has gone 6-6 in the past 12 games and seen it's four game lead over the Oakland Athletics drop to two over the past week.

Both the starters and the bullpen have played poorly during this time, so it's hard to point to a particular area as Texas pitching seems to be struggling as a whole. Ron Washington continues to downplay the pitching struggles, as game-in-game-out the Rangers' manager seems to be calling on the offense to offset the issues on the mound.

"We just didn't put up enough runs," Washington said after Wednesday afternoon's game against the Toronto Blue Jays, in which the Rangers allowed five runs for the game.

But, if your asking your offense to score six runs a game just to have chance at winning - your not going to win many games. The highest scoring team in baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays, average 5.2 runs per game. So even the best offensive-scoring team in the Majors at the moment couldn't win with this pitching staff.

Something has to change.

The lack of a true 'ace' pitcher on the staff and an overworked bullpen look to be the culprit for the Rangers' recent reversion to their mid-2000's pitching form. Texas has explored avenues of bringing in an elite level pitcher, as recent reports from ESPN.com have the Rangers inquiring about the availability of Astros' ace Roy Oswalt. But the impending sale of the Rangers must be sorted out before they will be able to take on any kind of money through trades or signings.

Whether Texas makes a trade or not, top of the rotation starters Scott Feldman and Rich Harden need to figure this thing out as Colby Lewis and C.J. Wilson (and possibly Derek Holland in limited action) have been the only guys in the starting rotation who have pitched consistently all year long.

The projected 1-2 starters in the Rangers' rotation's play between now and the trade-deadline will go a long way in deciding whether or not Texas will be wheeling and dealing come July 31.

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)