The Texas Rangers did not lose to the Houston Astros because of a roof, or an umpire

When you look at the reasons why the Texas Rangers are now tied with the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, “the roof was open,” and “Doug Eddings” are not allowed on the list.

The reason is but one. It rhymes with pitching.

Anything else is noise, and a distraction from the problem.

On Thursday night, the Rangers trotted out six pitchers in Game 4 of the ALCS. Even in this relief-pitcher era of baseball, six pitchers in one game is extreme. Extremely embarrassing.

The Houston Astros thumped nearly all of the pitchers as they popped the Rangers 10-3 to tie this series at two. The Rangers have been prone to streaks all season long, and after running out to a 7-0 postseason record they have now dropped consecutive games.

Since this series moved up Interstate 45 to Arlington, the Astros have scored 18 runs in two games.

Game 5 is 4:07 p.m. Friday at Globe Life Mall.

This series will return to Houston for Game 6 on Sunday night, and potentially Game 7 on Monday. As much as this will irritate a Rangers fan, a Houston-Texas ALCS should go all the way.

We don’t get these types of series often in this lifetime, so when all of these moons, stars, and horrible traffic align it’s best we get seven.

What has thus far transpired in Arlington is the opposite of what went down in Houston. Whereas the Rangers pitching was so good in Games 1 and 2 at Enron Field, it’s been terrible in Games 3 and 4 at Globe Life Mall.

(Yeah, I know it’s Minute Maid Park and it’s not Globe Life Mall. Leave me alone.)

After giving up eight runs on Wednesday night, the decision was made that the roof at GLM would be open for Game 4. The two teams had agreed before the series to keep the roofs at their respective stadiums closed for the duration.

The Rangers insist this is at the discretion of MLB, and the roof was magically opened for Game 4. The last time before Thursday night the roof was open for a game was May 21 against Colorado.

On Thursday night, the weather was bliss; 78 degrees at first pitch, and every window and roof should be wide open for such temperatures. We routinely suffer through 178 degrees just for night’s like this.

The Astros thought the Rangers did this for an advantage, which they themselves shot to hell in the first inning by chasing starting pitcher Andrew Heaney out of the game after only two outs. By the time Heaney left, he had allowed three runs on 22 pitches.

Heaney was a curious (bad?) decision to start over reliever Dane Dunning, who came in with two outs in the first inning.

“I didn’t do my job. I put us in a terrible position,” Heaney said after the game. “I didn’t give us a chance to win.”

Think that about sums it up, thank you.

Turns out manager Bruce Bochy’s choices to start for Game 4 were “Bad” and “Not Great, Bob.”

The Rangers did rally to tie the score at three in the third inning, but their bullpen was not up to this homework assignment.

Dunning gave up three runs in 2 2/3 innings. Cody Bradford gave up a run in 2/3 of an inning. Will Smith gave up two runs in 1 1/3 innings of work. Martin Perez allowed one run in two innings.

The only Rangers pitcher not allow a run was apparent Cy Young candidate, Chris Stratton. He allowed 0 runs in 1 2/3 innings.

“They capitalized on our mistakes, plain and simple,” Dunning said. “That’s the Astros to a tee.”

The roof was open for Astros pitchers, and they seemed just fine with the excessive “heat” and “humidity.”

It’s not the roof. It’s never the stadium. It’s always the team that plays inside the stadium.

Nor is it the fault of the home plate umpire.

As the game progressed, angry/depressed Rangers fans took aim at Game 4 home plate umpire Doug Eddings.

Like nearly every other umpire in Major League Baseball, Eddings’ strike zone is under constant scrutiny every time he misses a borderline pitch. When that sin does occur, fans call for the umpires to be replaced by Artificial Intelligence.

We hate AI when it threatens our job, but it’s OK when it could do the same to another profession.

Eddings missed a few in Game 4, but he’s not the reason the Rangers pitchers stunk up the place.

Nor is the fault of the batting glove of second baseman Marcus Semien. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Rangers put the first two batters on base with Corey Seager batting.

Seager launched a line drive, which was caught by the first baseman and converted into a double play when he narrowly tagged Semien’s batting glove in his pocket. Replays showed it was the right call.

“I’ve been keeping my batting glove in my back pocket my whole life,” Semien said. “First time this happens it’s in the ALCS.”

It’s hard enough to beat a Houston Astros lineup that treats GLM like a beer league batting cage, and is more comfortable playing away from Houston. The Astros are now 21-11 at GLM since it opened, and 8-1 here this season.

The Astros have owned the Rangers in their own park, pretty much for one reason, and it rhymes with pitching.