A lonestar in california

Welp, it took long enough – 14 innings, and 4 hours and 53 minutes to be exact. But the Texas Rangers finally snapped their 5 game losing streak up in Toronto Wednesday night.

The Rangers lead 5-2 after 7 1/2 innings, thanks in part to 6 strong innings from starter Kason Gabbard, who allowed 2 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 2, and the batwork of Jason Botts. Making a rare start at first base, Botts went 2-4 with a towering home run to right that broke a 1-1 tie in the 4th, and a 2 run double that broke a 2-2 tie in the 6th – the kind of performance that makes one wonder if Bottsy has finally earned a little respect in the eyes of Ron Washington.

But Botts was lifted in the 7th inning for Ben Broussard, a “defensive replacement”. As it turned out, that didn’t work out so well. In the bottom of the 8th inning, setup man Joaquin Benoit melted down, loading the bases on two walks and a single. He wound up walking in a run, making it 5-3, before Ron Washington finally decided to come and get him, bringing Wes Littleton jogging out from the bullpen. Littleton came in, and induced a grounder to first base for Broussard. Trying to turn a 3-6-1 double play, Broussard fired toward second… and threw the ball into left field. That scored two runs to tie the game at 5-5, and things would stay that way for another 6 innings, as Littleton got the next hitter, David Eckstein to roll one to second, which Ian Kinsler fired home to cut down the run, and then got Aaron Hill to ground into another force out to end the frame.

Both teams had excellent opportinites to end the game before the 14th, but both managed to squander those chances, one after the other. Like in the bottom of the 10th, when the Blue Jays put runners on first and third, with one out. The game appeared one sac fly away from being over, but Wes Littleton, still on the mound since the 8th, got Joe Inglett to ground one to Ian Kinsler, who turned the double play to keep the Rangers alive.

The Rangers, for their part, loaded the bases twice during the extra frames, first in the 11th with nobody out, but Jesse Carlson, a rookie left-hander in the Jays bullpen, struck out Adam Melhuse, Marlon Byrd and David Murphy to end the threat. Texas did it again with 2 out in the 13th, but could not score that inning, either, as David Murphy (who left 11 men on base in the game) grounded out to first. Overall, the Rangers managed to leave 19 men on-base in the contest, becoming the first team since the New York Yankees on April 19th, 2001 (who, coincidentally, beat the Blue Jays in 17 innings in that game) to win a ballgame on the road and leave 19 men.

The top of the 14th was when the Rangers finally broke the tie. With the Toronto bullpen exhausted, starter AJ Burnett had to come in and make a relief appearance. Gerald Laird lead off the inning with a single to left. After Ian Kinsler struck out, Frank Catalanotto, who had an excellent game in a return to Toronto, where he had the glory days of his career, doubled into the RF corner, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd for Michael Young. Young hit a hot smash to short, and Gerald Laird committed a baserunning blunder trying to score on the play, but got caught in a rundown between third and home. Catalanotto did make it to third, and that brought up Josh Hamilton with runners on the corners. It was then that Burnett broke off a breaking ball in the dirt, that skipped right between the legs of catcher Greg Zaun and to the backstop. Catalanotto scored easily, putting the Rangers back on top again. The inning wasn’t over, though, as Josh Hamilton jacked an RBI double into the left-center gap to plate Young and make it a 2-run ballgame for closer CJ Wilson.

Wilson came on, and needed just 9 pitches to get Frank Thomas to pop up, Gerg Zaun to line soflty to third, and Lyle overbay to ground out to second to pick up his 4th save of the season, and end the marathon contest.

It’s certainly a huge relief for the Rangers to snap their losing steak here at 5 games, even if they did almost give away the game – but the fact remains that the game still featured the defensive debacles, lack of clutch hitting, and sub-par managing that has been so prevalent lately in Rangers baseball. They got lucky this time, and pulled one out – but if Texas wants to avoid starting another losing streak on what is going to be a tough road trip, they are still going to have to play better than what they did on Wednesday night. I hate to rain on the parade, and don’t get me wrong, I’m as pumped as the next guy – but one win is not going to erase all this team’s problems.

There was some bad news though, as a result of this game: Hank Blalock was pulled from the game in the 10th due to some “tightness” in his lower back, which he felt after making a throw in the 9th inning. At this point, the Rangers aren’t saying much, other than that they’ll evaluate him tomorrow, but back problems are never good – and with the problems Hank has previously had this year, you have to wonder if this might turn out to be serious – let’s hope not.

If the Rangers where to lose Blalock, they’d lack a #5 hitter – there’s really nobody on the big-league roster who has the type of bat to replace Hank in the lineup. In fact, probably the only way they’d be able to even come close to replacing Hank’s bat in the lineup would be to call up Jarrod Saltalamacchia – and he’s a a catcher of course, not a third baseman.

On a brighter note, Kevin Millwood seems to be okay after taking a ball off his shin Tuesday, that eventually necessitated his removal from the game. Millwood says “it’s still a bit bruised and sore” but he expects to make his next start Sunday in Boston.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia watch: Salty was 1-3 with a single and a walk as Oklahoma lost a close one to Round Rock, 3-2. Robinson Tejeda made his second appearance for OKC, and went 1.1 scoreless innings, allowing no hits and striking out 2.

Today, Vicente Padilla takes on Roy Halladay in game 2 of this 2-game set – both teams bullpens are pretty well burnt out after last night, so it could get ugly if either starter falters early. Halladay of course, tossed a complete game win his last start, which was against the Rangers, so the Blue Jays can at least take comfort in that. Maybe the Rangers can do a little better against Halladay than last time, since they’re seeing him so soon, but it’s gonna be another tough game – after which, we’ll head to Boston for 4 games with the Red Sox. So buckle up – the losing streak is over, but it’s still gonna be a tough next 5 days.