A lonestar in california

So far, this series in Seattle has had a bit of everything for everybody. The first two games saw one club chase the opposing starter early, and effectively put the game away before the 5th inning. Last night’s contest, however, saw a classic low-scoring, nail-biting pitchers duel between Seattle’s ace lefty Erik Bedard, and the Rangers revitalized Vicente Padilla.

Bedard, who came into the game with a 4-1 career line, and a 2.42 ERA against the Rangers, pitched a pretty good game, but the story of the night was Vicente Padilla. Already the author of a complete game shutout this season (back on April 27th against the Twins) Padilla tossed another brilliant gem, putting goose eggs on the board for 7 innings, surrendering just two hits and two walks and striking out 8. At one point, he retired 12 Mariners in a row. To say he was brilliant might have been an understatement. Filthy is probably a better adjective.

The Rangers offense managed to get just two runs off Bedard, but the way Padilla was pitching, it turned out to be enough. Brandon Boggs ripped an RBI triple to plate Milton Bradley from first win 2 out in the 4th to break the scoreless tie. Bradley, who scored both the Ranger runs, later hammered a solo shot to left in the 6th, and that was all the Rangers needed.

Things did get a little hairy for Padilla in the 7th, when he walked Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre to lead off the inning. But thanks to some blazing upper 90’s fastballs, and some excellent framing by Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Padilla rebounded to strike out the side, getting Jeff Clement and Yuniesky Betancourt looking, and Wladmir Balentien swinging to end the threat.

That was Padilla’s most brilliant inning, but also his last, as he was pulled by Ron Washington in the 8th, despite only being at 91 pitches. Joaquin Benoit took over, and worked though a nailbiter inning, walking the first batter he saw, and later giving everyone a scare by giving Jose Lopez a pitch that was jacked all the way back to the corner in deep LF, but hauled in by Brandon Boggs for the third out. Even though he got out of the inning unscathed, Benoit can just count himself lucky that it was Jose Lopez he served up that last pitch to, and not someone like Adrian Beltre, or he would have been looking at a blown save. But it wasn’t, and CJ Wilson came on for the 9th, and worked around a walk of his own to pick up his 8th save of the season, slamming the door on the shutout, and the Rangers 15th win of the season.

There was some bad news coming along with this one though, as shortstop Michael Young tweaked a flexor muscle in his left hip during his at-bat in the top of the first inning. Right now he’s listed as day-to-day, and there hasn’t been anything said about how serious his problem is, but from what I gather, flexorinjuries can keep a guy out anywhere from a few games to over a month. Needless to say, if Young is out for an extended period, it will be very bad, because the Rangers don’t have many options to replace him. German Duran and Ramon Vazquez are already splitting time filling in for Hank Blalock, and there’s no other infielder on the 40-man roster besides Joaquin Arias (who has so far been limited to playing second base in OKC, as he rebuilds arm strength from a shoulder surgery last year) who is eligible to be called up to the majors. Even if Young is only out for a few days, and the Rangers wait for him to recover, they’ll still be in a dangerous predicament, as they’ll have no backup infielder on the roster.  

I’m afraid I have more discouraging news, too – John Patterson has suffered a setback in his recovery from his 2007 elbow surgery. He has been shut down after his second start in extended spring training, thanks to soreness in his right forearm.

“He was not happy with the way the ball was coming out of his hand, and he had some pain in his forearm again,” Rangers pitching coach Mark Connor said. “Everything was going well until that second start.”

I guess this means Sidney Ponson is now undoubtedly here to stay, be it for better or worse.

Luis Mendoza, who is on the DL with shoulder pain, is not close to returning to the rotation either. According to Mark Connor, he is making progress, but the Rangers still want to play it safe, and let him build up his endurance, as he’s scheduled to throw a simulated game Saturday, and then make 2 or 3 rehab starts in the minors.

For now, that leaves the Rangers with a rotation of Millwood, Padilla, Ponson, Kason Gabbard (who comes off the DL tommorrow) and Scott Feldman, with AJ Murray being the primary fallback option.

Another interesting note though, is that Doug Mathis has now “pushed ahead” of Eric Hurley, as far as consideration for a big league callup anytime soon goes. Mathis is 5-0 with a 3.55 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP for OKCso far, whereas Hurley is 1-2 with a 7.32 ERA and a 1.85 WHIP, and has given up 8 HR – disappointing to say the least for the Rangers top pitching prospect.

A couple last notes, and I’ve got to wrap this up: Ben Broussard is a dead man walking. The Rangers have decided to platoon Frank Catalanotto and Chris Shelton at first base, pretty much making it a logical certainty that Broussard will be dropped when Marlon Byrd comes off the DL. There’s more, too: Evan Grant goes so far as to suggest that because Ron Washington was the one who lobbied for, and effectively got Broussard signed this offseason he could wind up being fired at the same time Broussard is DFA’d. While I would dearly love to see that (the very thought of seeing my two least favorite people associated with the Texas Rangers fired at the same time floods my brain with pleasure endorphins) something tells me that if Ron Washington was going to be fired, it would have been done by now. JD seems reluctant to admit he whiffed when he hired Washington in the first place, and that denial, combined with the Rangers better play of late, I think is going to save Washington’s job until the All-Star break, if not October.

Finally, Jason Botts has cleared waivers, and been outrighted to OKC, something Jason can’t be too happy about, if you remember what he had to say about his designation:

“I think I’ve been here for a pretty long time and I deserve a fresh start somewhere else. It’s not the most negative thing to me right now that this has happened. I’m excited about it.”

Unfortunately for Jason, he now must endure another season of slogging through the minors with OKC, splitting time at first base and DH. I really feel sorry for Bottsy – he may not have ever performed enough in any of his brief stints with the club to convince anyone he should stay, but he didn’t really get a fair shake at a long term chance – he got screwed out of that when the Rangers signed Sammy Sosa in 2007, and his career never recovered.

Kason Gabbard, who will be fresh off the DL, will take on Felix Hernandez today as the Rangers try to take 3 of 4 from the Mariners. Gabbard was 1-0 with a 2.18 ERA before his DLtrip – hopefully he comes back dealing, and hopefully we find out something positive about Michael Young’s hip.