It finally happened. For the first time in 2013, the Texas Rangers have a losing streak longer than two games.

The speed bump was bound to happen. This is baseball, after all. It doesn’t help that it comes at a time when the Oakland A’s have gone on a hot streak of their own. Within days, the Rangers lead has gone from an impressive 6 games to a miniscule 2 1/2 games. The good news? Even with a recent 8-game winning streak, the Angels still find themselves nine games back of Texas at this writing.

What hurts about this losing streak is, save for two pitches, it didn’t have to happen. On Sunday, Texas was enjoying a 2-0 lead on the Mariners and appeared on their way to a sweep when suddenly, Kendrys Morales turned on the first pitch he saw from Nick Tepesch, easily clearing the fences and plating two runs to tie things up. I could say the same thing about Raul Ibanez‘ 9th inning shot off Joe Nathan that tied the game again, but Nathan was pitching for the third game in a row, so frankly it didn’t surprise me. Still, those two shots led to the Rangers burning through just about everybody in the bullpen before dropping the game in 13 innings.

This led to a problem Monday, as Texas had a doubleheader with the Arizona Diamondbacks. To his credit, Martin Perez, in his first game of the year, recovered fairly well from a rocky start to give Texas 5 1/3 decent innings. Ross Wolf went another inning and 2/3 and the Rangers, while losing 5-3, got through the first game using only two bullpen pitchers. That became the second consecutive loss. Things were looking bright for the nightcap with Yu Darvish taking the mound for Texas.

Darvish was as advertised. As usual, Yu had a bad first inning, when Arizona touched him for two runs (he has a 9.00 ERA in the first inning of games this year). Then, as usual, Darvish settled down. By the time it got to the 8th inning, Texas had a 4-2 lead and Rangers fans were envisioning the first complete game in Yu’s MLB career. Darvish entered the 8th with 13 K’s on the day and no walks. The D-Backs found themselves in the same hole so many teams before them have encountered: Once Yu settles down, good luck.

Darvish gave up a single to start the 8th, but struck out Cody Ross for K #14. Once again, though, one bad pitch changed everything. Didi Gregorius got a hold of this one, tying the game at 4. As soon as it happened, Rangers fans could be heard all the way to Phoenix heaving a collective sigh, knowing the beleaguered bullpen was going to have to come through again and pretty much resigning themselves to the fact that they wouldn’t.

Sure enough, Arizona got a walk-off win in the 9th and Texas has their first 3-game skid of the season.

Now, following an off day, the Rangers and Arizona go back at it again the next two nights, this time in Texas. The question for today for Rangers fans is now, “Is this a sign all is not well with Texas?”

To that I respond, all is NOT well, but all is NOT lost. Two key components were supposed to return from the DL in the next week in Ian Kinsler and Alexi Ogando. Ogando will help settle the starting pitching staff somewhat, which has seen starts in the last week and a half from non-household names Josh Lindblom, Ross Wolf and Martin Perez. While we’ve all enjoyed seeing a more prolonged look at top prospect Jurickson Profar the past week or so, and while Profar has played well offensively, the offense is badly in need of Kinsler’s presence at the top of the line-up. Now that will be longer than anticipated. Shortly after posting this article, the Rangers announced Kinsler will miss at least two more weeks with a stress injury to his ribs. This week or three weeks from now, the following remains true: Profar is good and could eventually be a great major leaguer. Kinsler is a plus major leaguer already and makes the line-up that much more dangerous. Get Ogando and Kinsler back, things will improve again while we wait for more reinforcements to arrive in the coming months.

While on the subject of Profar, many have wondered why he hasn’t started every game for the Rangers while Kinsler’s been disabled. It’s because, as the utility infielder, Leury Garcia will be with the Rangers all year. In that role, he’s expected to play and come through when he gets an opportunity. The only way to get those results is to keep him playing while Kinsler is out. This keeps Leury involved instead of just pining away on the bench. This becomes doubly important if Profar becomes part of a blockbuster trade at the July deadline to bring in someone like David Price or Giancarlo Stanton.

I get that. The playing time he gets today could have an effect in August, when the Rangers won’t have Profar around. It is Garcia who will contribute more to the Rangers post-season chances than Profar. In a sense, that’s a shame. When Kinsler is activated, Profar will go back down to Round Rock so he can play every day. Then, if by some chance he ISN’T part of a blockbuster trade, the Rangers will bring him up on the last possible day he can qualify for a post-season roster spot. In other words, thanks for all you’ve done to get us to the playoffs, Leury. Sorry you won’t be with the team when they happen. Tough luck, dude.

That’s looking too far into the future, though. Maybe we’d better worry about breaking the losing streak tonight first.

Related articles

• Rangers put Kinsler on DL, recall Profar (mysanantonio.com)
• D-backs get DH sweep despite Darvish’s 14 K’s (scores.espn.go.com)