A lonestar in california

They did it again. The Rangers have managed to to mess with my head, and severely disappoint me- again. I know, I should be relatively immune to the disasters, errors, and gaffes of Texas Rangers “baseball” by now, but after Friday nights emotional win, I made the mistake of actually actually considering the possibility that maybe this team had turned over a new leaf, and getting emotionally involved. And when they staged an immediate comeback again in the third inning to take a 4-2 lead after falling behind early, I made another, far more gave mistake by becoming fairly certain they had turned over that new leaf, and feeling good about my team again.

But then I got splashed in the face with the baseball equivalent of a bucket of cold water, and I woke up from my short-lived fantasy.

Despite what I expected pre-game, Sidney Ponson was actually quite solid in his first start of the season. Working extremly quickly, he retired the first 6 batters he faced, before giving up back-to-back singles to start the third inning. Craig Monroe then hammered one to left-fielder Frank Catalanotto, who gave it his best effort, but saw the ball go off the tip of his glove for an RBI double to make it 1-0 Twins. The scoring on the play was a little fuzzy at first though, as it was scored as a double, then changed to an error, and finally changed back to a double – which according to Eric and Victor on KLRD, was the right call. after things finally got sorted out, Mike Lamb scored on a Jarrod Saltalamacchia passed ball to make it 2-0 Twins, but Ponson worked out of the inning with a strikeout and a lineout.

But the Rangers bounced back the very next half inning, as the third frame seems to have held some magic for the Rangers offense the last couple games. Ben Broussard lead off with a single, and then Ramon Vazquez perfectly executed on a hit-and-run to put runners on the corners. Next Ian Kinsler blooped a single to CF, but Broussard didn’t seem to be awake at third base, as he went back to tag up, and wound uo not scoring at all on the play. I don’t know what Matt Walbeck was telling him over at third, but Ben’s head has seemed in the clouds more often than not this season with his outright defensive blunders, and lousy at-bats - so who knows exactly what went on at third base on that play. Fortunately, it wouldn’t really matter in the long run.

Michael Young struck out next, but Josh Hamilton followed that with a 2-run double. Milton Bradley then struck out looking, but David Murphy, whose superhuman clutch abilites have been one of the highlights so far this weekend, cracked one back up the middle to score Kinsler and Hamilton, and give the Rangers the lead. Murphy would later drive in a run with a fielders choice in the 5th, to give Texas a 5-2 advantage – a 3 RBI night for the “Murphinator”.

But not long after that, in the top of the 6th, was when the balloon popped for Texas fans. Maybe “popped” isn’t a very good analogy. Imploded right in the collective faces of Ranger fans would be more like it. Yeah, I think that’s a little better.

The inning started with a Brendan Harris “double” that popped in and out of David Murphy’s glove in RF, a ball Murphy later said he should have had: ”[It was] very catchable. I’m not saying it’s an easy play, but I definitely should have had that.” Then Joe Mauer hit a comebacker to Sidney Ponson. Ponson lobbed the ball to third, right past poor Ramon Vazquez, who twisted his ankle trying to flag it down. This allowed Harris to score, and Mauer to wind up at second. Vazquez was left in the game, and he did play all 9 innings (props for the that, I suppose) but the immediate discomfort of the ankle may have contributed to him bobbling a Michael Cuddyer grounder, the innings second error, to put runners on the corners with one out.

Jason Kubel then grounded a ball to the right side, just beyond the grasp of Ian Kinsler to score Mauer, and that prompted a strange decision by Ron Washington. He came out and took the ball from Sidney Ponson, who was still getting the groundballs, and was still at a manageable 93 pitches. Jamey Wright was brought in from the bullpen, and proved to be an immediate downgrade. He walked Delmon Young (which is not an easy task) to load the bases, and then gave up the tying sac-fly to Mike Lamb, earning himself a blown save. He did escape the inning after that, but would give up a leadoff single to Brendan Harris in the 7th, which got him pulled, and evetually saddled him with the loss.

Eddie Guardado came on to face the lefties Mauer and Justin Morneau, but Mauer reached on the perfect bunt down the 3B line, and Morneau hit a broken-bat grounder back to the mound, which produced the same result as a sac bunt. Michael Cuddyer was then walked intentionally to set up the double play, and Guardado got Jason Kubel to pop up for out #2. Then Ron Washington made another bullpen mistake. He brought in the ever-unreliable Frankyln German to try and get Delmon Young, and right-handed batter. Which was fine, if not smart, from the percentage standpoint - but Franklyn German is the last guy you want in that spot, I don’t care if he can throw a 200 MPH fastball with his toes while standing on his head eating cheetos. He can’t hit the strike zone with it, both historically and recently.

German fell behind 2-0 on Delmon Young, and then served up a meaty get-me-over strike, which Young slammed into LF for a 2-run single. Mike Lamb tacked on another run for the Twins with an RBI single, as German allowed all three of the inherited baserunners to score before he finally did what he was called in to do: get one out.

The Rangers never recovered, as the Twins thumped Scott Feldman version 2.0 in the 7th for 4 runs, three coming via Michael Cuddyer longball, which made it 12-5, and offically buried the Rangers for the night. The Rangers did load the bases with nobody out against Twins rookie Bobby Korecky, who was making his Major League debut, but Ben Broussard swiftly killed any possible dreams of an impossible comeback by grounding into a double play, and Ramon Vazquez put the fans that where still in the ballpark out of their misery with a groundout to first, to end the disaster – er, I mean game, that is.

Perhaps the most laughable thing about this game was the fact that they actually had a fireworks display afterwords. Nothing like a good fireworks show to get you pumped after getting your ass kicked 12-6, right?

I know the Rangers put this stupid article up on their website during the game, I just don’t see how they can keep Ron Washington on as manager much longer. If they do, fans are liable to storm the dugout and haul Wash off to the ancient Mayan pyramids in South America to offer him as a sacrifice to the baseball gods. Please, Nolan, JD, Tom – just as a fan, I’m begging you guys – do something. Shake things up, make a change. Hey, it’s not like firing Wash could possibly make matters worse!!!

While I’m piling on the Rangers right now, I might as well add this: Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Gerald Laird are supposed to split time evenly behind the dish now. Excuse my french, but that’s bullshit. Another note to the Rangers: you called Salty up, you need to play him. He’s the future of this organization at catcher, Gerry Laird is the past. Capiche? As The Beast says in the Del Taco commercials: NO splitting NO sharing (and yes, I’m aware that’s a horrible analogy, but the point still applies). Salty needs to play full time, not catch two days, and then take two days off, as the Ron and the Rangers currently have it planned.

I really like what Gerald Laird had to say about his cut in playing time, though:

“Basically, I told them I’m an everyday player and I can be an impact player in this league,” Laird said. “I want to play every day, but I can’t control that. I just have to play hard and keep getting better.”

Ahhh, Gerry. No matter how bad things have gotten, at least we’ve still got our “Superstar” to entertain us. “Impact player”… good one buddy!

Other news: Kaz Fukumori was the one axed from the roster to make room for Sidney Ponson Saturday. I forgot to note this in a previous entry, but he’s the one who broke Adam Melhuse’s hand the other day in Detroit – on a warm-up toss. Ummm… can you say “control issues”?

There’s also news on Hank Blalock, whom the Rangers are holding off on putting on the DL for now. They’re hoping that if they hold him out this weekend, with the off-day on Monday he might be able to play on Tuesday. I really hope that will be the case… but at the same time I sort of doubt it. In any case, heal fast Hank, heal fast – we need ya man.

Welp, that’s about all I can think of for tonight. I apologize if this entry is a bit over the top, but I’m afraid I’m really ticked off right now at the way this team is being managed – and that’s not just a shot at Ron, I mean JD and Nolan, too. They need to wake up, and set a few things right. It’s already too late to salvage our season - not that we really expected to contend anyway. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – it’s time to clean house in Arlington. Hopefully, all that will take place on the off-day Monday – even if it is the day before Wash’s birthday. It does appear though, that Tom Hicks was almost as disgusted as me last night, so maybe, just maybe, I’ll get my wish.

Today, it’s Vicente Padilla vs. Livan Hernandez – I sure hope Vinny can bounce back from what the Tigers did to him the other day. Laird is supposed to start behind the plate unfortunately - I already told you how I feel about that. Hoepfully, his ”impact” upon the bottom of the order won’t be too negative, eh?