Collapsing Rangers threatening to join list of recent choke teams

Right now the Rangers look every bit the tight team. Last night they held a players-only meeting before the game, but once the game started Ian Kinsler made

Tom Verducci | Sep 17, 2013

Collapsing Rangers threatening to join list of recent choke teams /

Ian Kinsler and the Rangers have lost seven straight and been run down by the Rays for the wild-card lead. — Ian Kinsler and the Rangers have lost seven straight and been run down by the Rays for the wild-card lead :: Mark LoMoglio/Icon SMI

Right now the Rangers look every bit the tight team. Last night they held a players-only meeting before the game, but once the game started Ian Kinsler made two baserunning blunders, manager Ron Washington bunted his hottest hitter, Elvis Andrus, in the fourth inning, and the team's hitters continually chased pitches out of the strike zone. The Rangers lost to the Rays, 6-2. For a team that remains in playoff position, albeit by the thinnest of threads, Texas is fighting infamy as well as itself.

Published Sep 17, 2013

TOM VERDUCCI

Tom Verducci is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated who has covered Major League Baseball since 1981. He also serves as an analyst for FOX Sports and the MLB Network; is a New York Times best-selling author; and cohosts The Book of Joe podcast with Joe Maddon. A five-time Emmy Award winner across three categories (studio analyst, reporter, short form writing) and nominated in a fourth (game analyst), he is a three-time National Sportswriter of the Year winner, two-time National Magazine Award finalist, and a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient. Verducci is a member of the National Sports Media Hall of Fame, Baseball Writers Association of America (including past New York chapter chairman) and a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 1993. He also is the only writer to be a game analyst for World Series telecasts. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, with whom he has two children.