Grant: Rangers getting a playoff primer in homestand vs. Beasts of the East

Vladislow and getting slower…

The club has embraced the aggressive style preached by manager Ron Washington, but it has sometimes appeared careless, even cavalier on the bases. On Friday, Josh Hamilton tied the score with a mad dash home from second on a two-out grounder turned infield hit to the right side. Twice, however, on Saturday the Rangers hindered potential rallies with baserunning blunders.

Andres Blanco left too early on a hit-and-run in the third, was picked off and caught in a run down. More significantly, after reaching on an infield single that required a head-first slide, Vladimir Guerrero was caught at second for the second out of the ninth inning. It happened with Mitch Moreland, representing the tying run, at the plate.

Guerrero has spent most of the last decade playing for a Los Angeles Angels team that treated the basepaths the way the Rangers do. They were wild during the regular season, racking up playoff berth after playoff berth, but the Guerrero-led Angels never reached the World Series. The team was successful on 69 percent of its 26 steal attempts in the playoffs. Those eight outs made all the difference in the world.

Trying to take advantage of the fact the Red Sox weren’t holding him closely, Guerrero broke for second and was caught for the second out of the ninth Saturday. It’s the fourth time in the last five attempts in that he’s been caught. He had three steals in the first two weeks of the season and has one since. He has not stolen a base since early May.