Ninety percent of pitching is mental. The other half is mechanics.
The mental half proved to be Brayan Villareal's undoing tonight. He came in to pitch the ninth, and to keep the score tied at one each, and walked the first two Rangers hitters on eight pitches, none of them close.
Yes, the first guy -- Nelson Cruz -- scored the winning run, singled in by rookie Mike Ott off Phil Coke, the night's second ineffective Pretenders reliever.
The P's had their chance, but -- yes, again -- filled the bases with one out in a ninth inning and failed to score.Mike Adams the Texas Ranger got a fielder's choice at home (Cabrera forced) and Peralta on a fly to center.
Wasted was an excellent effort by Justin Verlander (seven innings, seven hits, one run, eight whiffs, zero walks).
Not wasted was an equally find outing by Rangers starter Derek Holland (7.2, three hits, one run, nine whiffs), who matched JV pitch for pitch in baseball's most hitter-friendly yard.
Another winnable game thus goes into the loss column.
However -- the baseball blogger knew that, sooner or later this season, the P's and Hinge's paths would cross; and they did, 800 miles away in Chicago.
The most reviled ex-Tiger in recent memory singled in the go-ahead run in a 9-7 Athletics' win over the White Sox.
The Sox loss keeps the P's one game out, with the same number of wins (61) as the Sox, but two (53) more losses.
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