Did anyone else start today thinking they needed a vacation to recover from the holiday? I sure did. I love holidays, don’t get me wrong…but the day after holidays is always BRUTAL. The work day seems twice as long, the motivation is lacking, and the Rangers made me wait until tonight to watch them play when I was so used to the day games from this weekend.

Apparently the Rangers had the same jet lag feeling I did today. Second game at Kauffman Stadium against the Royals with Harrison on the mound trying to finally get his 16th win….Wouldn’t happen. They looked awful. Well, it started off just fine, but after Elvis’ homerun in the first and and RBI from Moreland in the second the Rangers went on a downhill slide.

In the third inning Kinsler got picked off third…

Mini Rant: Ian, let me start by saying I love you…you are my favorite player and have been since you started in the bigs. BUT I am getting really tired of trying to defend you to people. Please stop making stupid mistakes and go back to the basics of baseball. No more pops up or pickoffs please. Trust me you’ll thank me for the sound advice. It might save you from some Texas lynch mobs.

After the pickoff Kins decided he would start off the bottom of the third with an error putting Cain on first. A double later and the Royals were on the board. The Royals scored again on a soft sac fly to center, which Hamilton made a great throw on (Soto just couldn’t get the tag down in time)…lame.

Harrison didn’t look bad until the 5th inning. He couldn’t keep the ball down, it looked like he had no control and he paid for it. A two run bomb by Alex Gordon and a double later and Matt Harrison would take a seat on the bench. Poor guy is having a really hard time getting that 16th win.

The Royals got another homerun off Roy Oswalt in the 6th. Does anyone remember the ‘pitcher has a big butt chant’? I’m pretty sure they were talking about Oswalt (yes, I know he’s on my team…I just can’t help singing that chant everytime he comes out).

The Rangers threatened in the top of the ninth when they put runners on the corners with no outs. Young got a sac fly and the Rangers got a run out of it but unfortunately the Rangers couldn’t pull out of the holiday hangover to get the W tonight. Tomorrow we really need to get the win…I really don’t like how close the A’s are getting. Let’s do this boys!

FINAL: Rangers 3, Royals 6