There's a reason why it's called a twin killing

In Ron Washington's pre-game media session Wednesday, he answered a question about how the Rangers could avoid hitting into so many double play.
I discarded my notes, but following is a pretty accurate paraphrase:
"Stop hitting the pitcher's pitch. Wait for your pitch. He's going to want to keep the ball down so you'll hit it on the ground. Until you get two strikes, you have to lay off those pitches and hope you can get one up."
Those words came back to mind Saturday in Texas' game at Detroit. It wasn't a Rangers batter hitting a pitcher's pitch, but 38-year-old Tigers OF Torii Hunter making what could be considered a rookie mistake.
Detroit trailed 5-1 with two runners on base and two out in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Texas rookie RHP Nick Martinez fell behind Hunter 3-0, then threw a called strike. Just as the TV announcers were saying that with Miguel Cabrera on deck. Hunter should be looking for a fastball in to swing at and leave anything else alone, Martinez threw a down and away fastball. Hunter swung anyway, and hit a harmless ground ball to shortstop for an inning-ending force out.
So instead of coming up against a scuffling rookie pitcher as the potential tying run, Cabrera was the leadoff man in the bottom of the sixth. By that time, the Tigers trailed 8-1.
The final score was 12-2. I'm not saying that Hunter's mental mistake made a 10-run difference, but the game would have played out a lot differently if it had been 5-4 going to the sixth, with Detroit into the Rangers' bullpen already and probably not sending out their own rookie (RHP Corey Knebel) for his major league debut.
An interesting sidelight was watching Knebel battle a fellow rookie, Texas 2B Rougned Odor, to a 3-2 count. Odor won the battle with a bases-loaded triple on a day when he went 4 for 5 and drove in five runs.
I've been ridiculously absent from the blog for way too long. Let's chalk that up to a week or so of the flu, then trying to catch up from that, plus a busy schedule and more than a little bit to inertia/laziness/writer's block.
The plan is to bring you more short takes such as this one when the come up.
I'm also preparing some bigger articles, starting with my third-of-the-way-through recommendations of pitchers (and probably hitters) who have hidden value you can add to your fantasy rotation (and lineup).