The Texas Rangers aren't going to sweep every series this year, that is not news to anyone. They won't win every series either — also not news. The Rangers won their weekend series in Seattle by taking the first two games of the series on Friday and Saturday, but all that good was erased on Sunday with a pretty deflating game.
Not only did the Rangers lose Sunday's game in 13 innings after taking the lead in the top of the 11th inning only to let the Mariners extend it in the bottom half of the 11th, but they used seven pitchers in the game and stressed an already stressed bullpen heading into a scheduled doubleheader on Monday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Neal Cotts is probably unavailable for the split twinbill on Monday after throwing 27 pitches on Sunday. Robbie Ross might be, as well. Joe Nathan should probably just have flown back to Texas and not even gone to Arizona after being used for three straight days.
With Martin Perez set to start the first game of the doubleheader in his 2013 debut, the Rangers are hoping to get a great outing from the 22-year-old but they really have no way of knowing what to expect. In fact, if Perez got chased after three or four innings, the results would be detrimental for the Rangers' bullpen arms, who are hoping Yu Darvish can be Yu Darvish in the night game on Monday and work at least seven innings.
