A lonestar in california

As the Rangers and their fans try to put the Richie Sexson debacle behind them, Brandon Boggs is certainly doing his part to try help everyone forget. So is the Rangers pitching staff, namely Scott Feldman and the Rangers bullpen Friday night.

The game got off to a dubious start for Boggs he nearly injured himself going all-out after a foul ball in the top of the first inning, sliding into the concrete at the base of the LF wall knee-first. As Boggs put it after the game:

“That was probably one of the hardest crashes I’ve ever had,” Boggs said. “I’m not afraid of running into a wall. Luckily I wasn’t hurt. It’s a little sore, but I can run, and as long as I can run, I can play.”

I guess he could still play, because he proceeded to drive the Rangers offense, launching his second career home run in the second inning of lefty Greg Smith to put the Rangers up 2-0 (Josh Hamilton had previously plated Ian Kinsler with and RBI groundout in the bottom of the first to put the Rangers on the board). Later on, with 2 out in the 6th, he cracked a 2-run double to blow the game open at 4-0. Overall, he would finish the night 3-4 with 3 RBI, and come up a triple short of the cycle – and all this in front of his parents, who where in attendance.

Meanwhile, Scott Feldman turned in another gem, despite not having his best command early on in the game. He walked four batters in the first three innings, but he actually had a no-hitter going until Ryan Sweeny singled in the top of the 5th. Feldman wound up going six innings, giving up just two hits and 4 walks, while striking out one. He was pulled after that, despite having only thrown 87 pitches, and Jamey Wright took over for the 7th.

Wright set down the side in order, as did Joaquin Benoit in the 8th, but it was CJ Wilson who nearly blew the shutout in the 9th. He allowed back-to-back singles to Jack Cust and Frank Thomas to start the inning, but he got Emil Brown to ground into a double play, and struck out Bobby Crosby with Cust on third to close the book on the Rangers third consecutive shutout.

This gives the Rangers pitching staff a 31-inning streak of scoreless ball, and if you go back to Tuesday night, when the Rangers won 10-1, they have only allowed one run in their last 41 innings. The Rangers bullpen alone has a streak of 27 scoreless innings going. All this great pitching of late gives the Rangers a 1.71 team ERA so far in May - this after the team’s 5.60 ERA for April was dead last in the majors. as Jarrod Saltalamacchia put it:

“We’re good,” catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said after catching his second shutout in three nights. “We’ve got good pitching. Everyone is just in a groove right now.”

Indeed. The resurgence of the pitching staff makes the Rangers one fun team to watch right now – and it also has saved Ron Washington his job.

Speaking of Saltalamacchia, I guess I should probably mention something I’ve been putting off: Salty sucks lately. Really. As I’m sure all my readers know by now, I like him a lot - he’s one of my favorite players (up along with Josh Hamilton, and lately Brandon Boggs). But there is just no way to sugarcoat this stat line:

27 AB, 5 H, 1 R, 1 2B, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 5 BB, 10 K, .185/.313/.222

5 of those strikeouts have come in his last two games, and his lone XB hit came back on April 29th against KC, his second start after being called up. I know the thing that is probably hurting him is a lack of consistent, everyday playing time, but still… at this point, the only way to get that everyday playing time is to start hitting, and play your way into it. Unless Salty picks it up, and I mean seriously gets hot and shows he can be relied on as the everyday backstop, the Rangers are not going to trade Gerald Laird away. And until Gerald Laird is traded away, there will not be any everyday playing time for Salty.

I’m one of Salty’s biggest supporters, I think he’s got a lot of potential, and if it where up to me, I’d be allowing him to catch everyday right now and find his groove. But as the saying goes: hit or die. Salty just cannot afford to be in a slump like this while Gerald Laird is in the middle of a 10 game hitting streak. It may only be 27 AB’s, but the Texas Rangers are notorious for giving up on young players who don’t produce (see also: Botts, Jason), and Salty seems to be regressing right now. I don’t know whether he needs some quality time with Rudy Jaramillo or what, but he definitely needs to make some adjustments sooner rather than later. If he doesn’t, he may never escape this stupid platoon.

Since I’m running out of time for this entry, I’ll have to reduce the remaining items to some quick hits:

David Murphy has been named the AL rookie of the month for April – congrats to The Murphinator. Some might say Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox deserved it more, but that’s too bad. David Murphy rocks, so Ellsbury can just go get himself a taco or something. Kevin Mench has been traded to the Blue Jays for cash considerations… interestingly enough the Jay’s also signed former Ranger great Brad “whiffy” Wilkerson, and had both in the lineup against the Indians last night, along with former Ranger catcher Rod Barajas (and they lost 6-1, if anyone cares). Ladies and gentlemen: your 2008 Toronto Blue Jays, aka the class reunion of spares from the 2006 Texas Rangers. And finally, Kevin Millwood explains why he wants Gerald Laird to be his personal catcher.

Today, it’s Millwood vs. A’s lefty Dana Eveland. Millwood got shelled his last time out against the Mariners, lasting just 3 innings and giving up 7 runs – he needs a bounceback start here.