Texas manager Ron Washington's job appears safe, even though the team is having another tough April.
"Ron's our manager," general manager Jon Daniels said Monday. "I read about a lot of stuff, but there's been zero discussions to the contrary."
The Rangers opened this season 3-0 for the first time since 1996, the year they won their first AL West title. But they have since lost seven of nine games, avoiding a series sweep at home against Kansas City when Michael Young hit a home run in the ninth inning Sunday.
At 5-7, the Rangers have the same record as a year ago. They lost nine of 11 games after that, creating intense speculation about Washington's future.
Sports Connection
Connecting you to your favorite North Texas sports teams as well as sports news around the globe.
"We haven't played as bad a baseball to this point this year as we did last year. We haven't," Washington, 159-177 in his third season, said after Sunday's game. "We just haven't caught any breaks. We'll show up and as we progress along, we'll get better."
After being 7-16 a year ago, the Rangers won six consecutive series. They peaked at six games over .500 in August before finishing 79-83 and in second place in the AL West, 21 games behind the Los Angeles Angels.
In Washington's first season as manager, Texas was10-15 at the end of April, then lost 20 games in May.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
