The Rangers are 33-34

When the Rangers face Felix Hernandez, in Seattle, with someone other than Yu Darvish pitching, 9 times out of 10, you'd peg that as a loss.

Alas, that's why they play the game. Aside from the fact that Hernandez has lost more times to the Rangers (20) than any other team throughout his career, it's still King Felix, and you know that almost always, he's tough to hit. Say what you want about the meaningless statistic that is pitcher wins -- and conversely, losses -- but it's impressive nonetheless that the Rangers seem to find ways to keep winning games in which he Hernandez pitches.

In his own right, Nick Tepesch was solid on the evening, going 6.1 innings on only 73 pitches while only allowing 2 hits and 2 walks. Wash promptly pulled him at the first real sign of trouble in the 7th inning, but on the whole, it's the kind of outing you'd like to see a young pitcher build on.

On the downside, however, the awkward man to be leading off for Texas, Michael Choice, has exactly one hit and one walk since his 2-hit game against Cleveland on June 6. That's good enough for a .247 OPS during that span, and if not for that single hit being a home run, it's very likely that, with an OBP of .080, he could be looking much worse. I'm left to wonder how much longer Wash can stick with him in that top spot, as undoubtedly, the organization would like to see him get things going, but I'm just not sure that having him lead off is the way to go.

In any case, the Rangers will do it all over again tomorrow night, with Joe Saunders taking the ball for Texas. Go ahead and place me into the pool that figures tomorrow night is the game in which the wheels fall off for Joe. I just hope I'm wrong.