ARLINGTON – The latest craze for metric-minded general managers is to try to determine what makes a good fielding team and what makes a bad one.

Put away those slide rules, boys.

AP

Toronto's Gregg Zaun is tagged out trying for a double by Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler.

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The Rangers have spent the first two weeks of the season demonstrating what the baseline definition of bad is on the scale. On a night with no margin for error, the Rangers made a crucial one, anyway. It led to three unearned runs in a 4-1 loss to Toronto.

It also led to manager Ron Washington's first postgame meeting of the season. He addressed the club briefly about the team's 13 errors and 11 unearned runs in the first 11 games of the season but declined to reveal what was said. After Washington spoke to the team, the infield trio of Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and Hank Blalock met on their own for another 10 minutes.

"Everything was positive," said Blalock, who was charged with a crucial two-out error in the fourth on Gregg Zaun's sinking soft line drive. "We just need to tighten up our fielding. We take a lot of pride in being good fielders. We need to be more consistent."

After Luis Mendoza, making his first start of the season, fought back from a 3-and-0 count against Zaun, the left-handed hitter squibbed a soft liner toward third. It momentarily froze Blalock, and when he bent down to field it, it curved toward the foul line, off his glove and into left field.

Just-recalled Joe Inglett followed with a single up the middle on a full-count pitch to drive in Toronto's first run of the inning. The ball hopped over the glove of shortstop Michael Young, who seemed to be in position to make a play. Aaron Hill's single through the left side skipped past Young also and drove home two runs for a 4-0 lead.

"It was bad," Washington said of the Rangers' fourth-inning fielding. "Those guys [Toronto] just opened the game up. They are a pretty good hitting team. When you've got a chance to put them away, you've got to get them."

The Rangers needed to make the plays to have any chance against Toronto's Roy Halladay. As it was, they wasted their few early offensive chances. The leadoff man reached in each of the first three innings, but the Rangers went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position in those innings and 0-for-8 against Halladay, who pitched a complete game. Texas is hitting .187 with runners in scoring position this year.

There is no real shame, however, in getting shut down by a perennial Cy Young candidate like Halladay.

The fielding? Another story.

"Our pitching, overall, has been pretty good," Washington said. "Our hitting is going to be what it's going to be, and it's going to be better than it is right now. We've just got to tighten things down."

Or else risk becoming a statistical formula for the ages.