"The Rangers' choice in San Francisco: Play the cleanup hitter and sacrifice defense or sit Vladimir Guerrero and hope others would be able to step into more pressure-packed offensive roles.

The Rangers tried things both way. Neither worked.

Just in case the Rangers happen to keep this World Series alive into next week and make a trip back to San Francisco for Games 6 and 7, they are open for suggestions.

On Thursday, the Rangers saw why taking Guerrero out of the lineup was such a difficult decision for manager Ron Washington, despite the poor defense he played Wednesday. Without Guerrero, the Rangers went back to what they were in 2009, a donut of a team. They had a great big hole in the middle. It ended up resulting in nearly a dozen donuts on the scoreboard in a 9-0 loss in Game 2.

Sure, no balls bounced around in the outfield and no errors were made, but the Rangers offense offered up only the sound of silence.

"We had some opportunities to put some runs on the board and we had the right people up there, and [Giants starter Matt Cain] made his pitches," Washington said. "That's what he does well. We just couldn't get it done."

That's why it was so hard to take Guerrero out of the lineup.

For all the fury in Josh Hamilton's bat and all the thunder and lightning supplied by Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler in the bottom half of the order, the lineup works because Guerrero gives it real girth. They specifically went after him during the off-season for one reason and one reason only: to give the team a legitimate cleanup hitter.

With Guerrero out of the lineup, Cruz moved from fifth to fourth and Ian Kinsler moved from sixth to fifth. It's amazing how much difference a single spot in the order can make, but in Cruz's case, it seems to make a lot.

Cruz was hitless in four at-bats Thursday and failed to get the ball out of the infield. His foul pop to first was the critical second out in a sixth inning during what was then a one-run game. The Rangers had Josh Hamilton at second and Michael Young at third at the time. "