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ARLINGTON, Texas - Yu Darvish gave the injury-riddled Texas Rangers a nice send-off on an important road trip that includes all three teams above them in the AL West standings. The Japanese aces first complete game in the major leagues — a shutout, no less — still cant hide a sobering reality. The Rangers are eight games behind Oakland and dangerously close to last-place Houston, a 100-loss team for three years running. Texas just made its 20th move on the disabled list. Four first basemen are on the DL. Left-handed starter Martin Perez wont be back until sometime during the 2015 season. Matt Harrison, another lefty that was supposed to be in the rotation, may be finished for good. Somehow the Rangers will try to find a way to gain ground starting Friday night in visits to Seattle, division-leading Oakland and the Los Angeles Angels. "At some point, weve got to start getting blessed by the baseball gods," manager Ron Washington said. "But we have to make that happen. Theyre not just going to come down and say, OK, you all have been through enough misery. Im going to take you out of it. No, youve got to pull yourself out of your misery." The Rangers have actually done it once already. They started a challenging 11-game trip last month on the biggest downer of the season: news that first baseman Prince Fielder needed neck surgery and was finished for the year. Texas took three of four from AL Central-leading Detroit and ended up winning seven games, capped by Darvishs eight shutout innings in a 2-0 win at Washington. Fielders replacement is the problem this time, with Mitch Moreland finally giving in to the need for surgery on an ailing left ankle. The first report was he would miss three months, but now theres a chance he could opt for a procedure that will reduce his absence to four weeks. Regardless, the Rangers had to give Brad Snyder a crash course on playing first at Triple-A Round Rock, and he started the final two games of the last homestand. Jim Adduci figured to follow Moreland, but he rebroke his left pinkie finger near the end of a rehab assignment and will probably miss another month. The Rangers have used 40 players, and 10 are rookies. They have a majors-leading 14 players on the DL. "I think for a little while, the training staff was like hesitant to deliver some of this news to Wash or myself," general manager Jon Daniels said. "But I think theyve gotten over that unfortunately." With the rotation crumbling around him and the Rangers carrying an AL-worst 4.53 ERA, Darvish is on the best run of his three seasons in the majors. In his last six starts, he is 5-1 with a 1.51 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 47 2-3 innings. "Of course I get comfort with Darvish out there," Washington said before the right-hander ended a four-game losing streak in a 6-0 win over Miami. 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Youd think crossing time zones would be really hard on players, except that the Whitecaps managed three wins and a draw from five eastern trips last year alone. Theyve actually exhibited more road futility in the West. Playing surfaces can be unique in makeup and dimension but not drastic. Penalty areas are the same size, as are the goals, and yet the visiting team always seems to start the game with a statistical disadvantage. Some Las Vegas oddsmakers give MLS home teams a half goal advantage which represents a 10% edge, higher than any other Major North American Sport. Coach Carl Robinson pointed out this week that teams who are great at home, usually get into tthe playoffs.dddddddddddd But teams that collect points away are usually comfortably in the playoffs by the time autumn rolls around. Nigel Reo Coker suggested that team spirit and camaraderie are the keys to success no matter where you play, and that this 2014 squad is capable of replicating its thrilling 4-1 win over New York away from BC Place. Whitecaps supporters, who are showing up to more and more away games, just want a team that looks and plays similarly no matter the venue; something Martin Rennie couldnt come to grips with over his 2 seasons. No venue has been a bigger obstacle for the Whitecaps than the one they visit on Sunday, when they play Chivas USA; co-tenants of the Stub Hub Centre with the LA Galaxy. In nine contests there, the Whitecaps have but one win, and two draws. Theyve scored just five times in Carson, while allowing 15 goals. With four games in SoCal this season (representing 11.7% of their entire schedule) taking more of those available 12 points might help reverse a trend that has seen the club win just seven out of 52 games away from Vancouver. ' ' '