Lack of clutch hits causes offense to meet

July, 29, 2012
7/29/12
12:13
AM CT
ARLINGTON, Texas -- One by one, the Texas Rangers’ hitters marched out of a back room in the clubhouse and toward their lockers about 15 minutes after an abysmal performance in Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

The offensive players called the meeting. Manager Ron Washington and his staff weren’t in the room and didn’t need to tell anyone that a talk was necessary. The Rangers knew.

They are a dreadful .195 with runners in scoring position in July (30-for-154). Only the Houston Astros (.175) are worse in the month. Texas was 0-for-13 in those situations on Saturday. In fact, they are hitless with runners in scoring position in their last 19 chances. The club’s veteran offensive leaders felt that level of mediocrity needed a meeting.

“You saw it tonight,” Craig Gentry said. “As an offense, we need to dial it in a little more and relax. Tonight we had a guy on third less than two outs and few different times and couldn’t get the job done. We were talking about approaches and trying to go out and relax and hopefully everything else will take care of itself.”

Read more here.
Richard Durrett joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. He writes about colleges, the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers. Richard spent nine years at The Dallas Morning News covering the Rangers, Stars, colleges, motorsports and high schools.

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TEAM LEADERS

WINS LEADER
Yu Darvish
WINS ERA SO IP
7 2.97 86 60
OTHER LEADERS
BAI. Kinsler .302
HRN. Cruz 11
RBIN. Cruz 33
RE. Andrus 27
OPSM. Moreland .921
ERAD. Holland 2.93
SOY. Darvish 86

DALLAS CALENDAR