ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It wasn't that the Rangers didn't have chances against Jered Weaver. They did. They just didn't take advantage of the opportunities they had in a 7-4 loss on Monday. And that was a big topic of conversation in the clubhouse after the game.
"He's good locating his off-speed pitches and he did that with runners in scoring position," David Murphy said. "We had some opportunities and he squandered them because he's a good pitcher."
Texas left 12 men on base and was just 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Meanwhile, the Angels managed to go 5-for-16 with runners in scoring position and got some big two-out hits.
"We didn't score when we had some chances, but we got guys out there," Michael Young said. "If we keep getting them out there, we'll get them in."
Other reaction:
* Derek Holland couldn't get out of the fourth inning when his off-speed stuff "went away." Holland felt the Angels hitters were able to sit on his fastball once they realized his other pitchers weren't getting over for strikes.
"The first and second inning, I felt good," Holland said. "After that, a couple of things got to me."
Holland escaped in the third inning after walking Torii Hunter and Mike Napoli to load the bases with two outs and then got Juan Rivera to fly out on a great catch by Julio Borbon (more coming on that).
Holland talked about trying to pitch well enough to get himself on the postseason roster and said he's going to forget about all of that and pitch.
"Maybe I put too much pressure on myself," Holland said.
* Borbon's catch was certainly memorable. He sprinted toward the wall and appeared to stop momentarily before gathering himself and leaping above the wall to rob Rivera of a grand slam. At the time, the catch kept the score at 1-0.
"I was in the right position and I knew I had a good bead on it when it left the bat," Borbon said. "I lost it for a second, but found it as it was coming down and was able to bring it back."
Borbon's defense and speed are two reasons he's going to be hard to take out of the field in the playoffs.
* Murphy tied his career high with five hits on Monday -- four singles and a double. It was the first time he's done that since the Rangers scored 30 runs against Baltimore in Game 1 of that doubleheader in 2007.
"It wasn't like I hit the ball great, I just found holes," Murphy said.
Murphy has now hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games and has hit .397 in that span.