Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Brandon Boggs, German Duran, Hank Blalock, Michael Young, Ramon Vazquez, Travis Metcalf
Apparently, the Rangers will indeed not have Hank Blalock in the lineup on Tuesday when they face the Kansas City Royals. That much I expected.
However, it appears Hank is now going to be out for 3-4 weeks as an MRI has revealed that Hank’s injured hamstring does indeed have a “small tear” in it, despite the initial diagnosis that it was only strained.
Hank had been hitting .299 with 2 HR and 7 RBI, but Ramon Vazquez and German Duran will have to now fill in for the next month or so. Travis Metcalf, who subbed along with Vazquez for Balock when he had Thoratic outlet surgery last season, is still rehabbing from spring surgery to repair a torn hamstring muscle of his own, and isn’t an option to fill in for Hank, at least not yet – so it appears that the power output from third base is about to drop to zero for the Rangers.
Brandon Boggs is tabbed as the likely get the call from AAA to take Blalock’s place on the 25-man roster for now, as he’s the only position player on the 40-man roster at this point eligible for a callup (Joaquin Arias, the only other possible option on the 40, is still recovering from arm surgery last year, and is not yet 100%).
Even though the Rangers probably won’t do this, in my opinion, now would be a fine time to let Michael Young try out third base – with his ever-decreasing range at shortstop, a move to third could be in his future (a position change of some sort most certainly is), so it might be interesting to try him there on a temporary basis now, and see how he handles it. It’s not like you can get any worse defensively at short with Vazquez or Duran, after all.
Tomorrow Jenny Jennings will take on Brett Tomko of Kansas City. I sure hope the Rangers can break out the bats again - if there was ever a game with the potential to be a slugfest, it’s tomorrows.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Gerald "Superstar" Laird, Hank Blalock, Ron Washington, Sidney Ponson, Vicente Padilla
If there was a tonic for the implosion on Saturday night, (which, if you read my previous entry, you already know really got under my skin) I think the Texas Rangers found it on Sunday. Vicente Padilla pitched arguably his best ballgame in over a year, tossing 9 scoreless innings for the first complete game shutout by a Rangers pitcher since Kenny Rogers on May 14th, ‘05 against – yep, the Minnesota Twins. Meanwhile the Rangers offense took some frustration out on the Twins pitching staff, namely Livan Hernandez, scoring 10 runs an launching three homers over the course of the game.
Milton Bradley got things started in the bottom of the first, as he teed up a Hernandez curveballfor a three-run bomb to right. RBI singles by Ian Kinsler and Michael Young, along with a sac fly by Josh Hamilton made it 6-0 in the second, and Jason Botts would swat a home run of his own in the third before Hernandez finally left the game. Overall, the Rangers tagged Livan for 7 runs on 9 hits (2 homers) and a walk in just 2.2 innings – nice to see the opposing pitcher the one getting abused for a change.
David Murphy ripped an RBI triple in the 4th off Minnesota reliever Brian Bass, and Gerald Laird knocked him in with a single, to make it 9-0, and Josh Hamilton would launch a homer off Twins closer Joe Nathan later in the 8th to put Texas in double digits – a very satisfying day for the offense without a doubt, as they collected a total of 15 hits and 5 walks on the day.
Meanwhile Vicente Padilla was busy mystifying the Twins, as he induced three double play balls, while holding the Twins to 7 hits and 2 walks over 9 frames. He only struck out two, and got 10 ground balls to 15 fly balls, but it didn’t seem to matter – Padilla was just having one of those days when you’re bulletproof. Even when he was well-past the 100 pitch mark in the 9th inning, Vinny was hitting a good 95-94 on the radar gun with his fastball, as he got the final out on a comebacker when he jammed Delmon Young, sealing the deal on his third career complete-game shutout.
So how does a win like that feel as a fan, after I was so distraught Saturday night? It feels GREAT.
What does this mean for the Rangers? Well, it was a well-played game, with no errors or blunders, no micromanagment of the offense in the early innings, and Ron Washington didn’t have a chance to implement any lousy bullpen management – it was almost like a different team took the field today than the one that melted down on Saturday night.
But the question still remains: will the team that showed up Sunday keep showing up on a consistent basis now? And, of course, what does this mean for Ron Washington’s job security?
As for the first question, I think if I learned one thing about this team this weekend it’s to not get your hopes up too high after one good game.
As for Ron Washington, based on my perusing the official Ranger blogs and postgame writeups tonight, all seems quiet tonight on that front - which, of course, could mean any number of things. For now, I think it means the Rangers will continue to sit on their hands - we’ll see, but my pessimistic side outweighs my hopeful side on this issue: the Rangers haven’t done it yet (fire Ron), so what makes you think they’ll do it now?
Other Ranger news quick hits:
Sidney Ponson is staying in the rotation for “a while,” according to TR Sullivan. Which, for now, is expected, considering his effectiveness on Saturday, but hopefully he won’t be someone the Rangers fall in love with long term. Don’t think that’s likely? Well, Ron Washington seems to like him already:
“Right now, he’s still here,” manager Ron Washington said before Sunday’s game with the Twins. “He was good last night. He proved he could pitch. He worked fast and got ground balls. And he’s pitched in the big leagues before. He’s got experience.”
He’s got “experience”, and “he’s pitched in the big leagues before”. Am I the only one going ”oh brother” right now? I know I advocated bringing Ponson up a while back, so Salty would get his callup, but I honestly thought Ponson would stink, and be gone as soon as Gabbard or Mendoza come off the DL… one good debut though, and Ponson already appears to have made Ron Washington’s list of “Chosen Ones”. Yikes.
Hank Blalock is still in doubt for Tuesday’s game against the Royals – no surprise, really, although Hank does say he’s “optimistic” that he won’t have to go on the DL. It appears Ramon Vazquez would play third base again if Hank can’t go – so much for seeing more of German Duran, I guess. Remind me why we called him up again, if all he’s gonna do is warm the bench?
Double link-back for ya here: Joey Matschulat notes in his “quote of the week” post that Adam J. Morris over at LSB observes that the New York Yankees Jorge Posada has been put on the DL with a torn rotator cuff, which could keep him out for an extended period - and as such, the Yankees might find Gerald Laird enticing. Joey provides Yankees prospects Dellin Betances and Jesus Montero as possible targets for a return in such a trade – interesting thoughts indeed.
And finally, if you like reading worthless articles that rehash a guys entire career while celebrating relatively meaningless milestones, Eddie Guardado has reached 800 career relief appearances. Yawn.
Off-day tomorrow… fortunately, both the Redhawks and the Frisco Roughriders will be in action, or I might not have anything to do tomorrow evening. Monday night network TV still sucks, even though FOX has moved “House” to Mondays.
