A lonestar in california

I said at the end of my last entry that Sidney Ponson could really use a good outing. Now, I don’t think Sidney reads LiCA, but he sure delivered in a big way. Ponson put up 9 innings of one run ball, and the Ranger offense turned the tables on the Twins and put up a big inning of their own, a 7-run 6th, as Texas snapped a 3-game losing slide with a 10-1 win.

After giving up 13 runs in his last two starts (9 earned), Ponson made a small adjustment to his mechanics in his last bullpen session, and it apparently made a world of difference. He allowed just a single run on 6 hits and 1 walk, and got 18 ground ball outs while striking out 5 as he pitched his first complete game since 2005.

The Ranger offense sputtered for awhile against Twins start Nick Blackburn, as Milton Bradley and Ron Washington both got ejected for arguing balls and strikes in between the top and bottom half of the second inning – this the pent-up frsuteration of what was starting out as a third consecutive day of shitty strike-zone judgement from the Minnesota umpiring staff.

I’ve gotta say, I’m extremely proud of Ron for finally showing some gumption, and protecting one of his players. This is the type of thing I’d like to see more of from Ron – after that, the ump seemed to settle down a bit, and it seemed to feed perfectly into the Rangers momentum – unfortunately, that’s only the second time in his entire tenure that I can remember Ron being tossed.

The Rangers finally broke a scoreless tie in the 6th, when Michael Young homered to left. Two batters later, Twins second basman Alexi Casilla bobbled a possible double play ball, and the Rangers capitalized bigtime. Gerald Laird had an RBI single, which Ramon Vazquez followed with a 2-run single, and Ian Kinsler put the big exclamation point on the inning by hammering a 3-run homer to left.

After that, Ponson andthe Rangers put it on cruise control, as they tacked on three more runs on a pair of David Murphy RBI doubles and a Gerald Laird homer to put things away. With that win, the Rangers snapped a 6 game losing streak at the Metrodome in Minnesota going back to last year, and can go for the split tomorrow.

In other news, the Rangers made a roster move yesterday, as they DFA’d Franklyn German and called up Kameron Loe from AAA Oklahoma. German had just tossed 3.2 scoreless innings in relief of Doug Mathis on Tuesday, and had a 2.08 ERA, but the Rangers where concerned about his K/BB rate (15/13 in 21.2 innings) and the fact that he has allowed 10 of 18 inherited baserunners to score this year. He’s also 28 years old, and his 6.75 walks per innings ranks 622nd out of 624 pitchers who have thrown at least 100 innings since 2002. In short, German is just another spare bullpen pitcher, who despite what his ERA says, has not been that good this year. I was surprised when he made the roster out of spring training, and I’m surprised the Rangers kept him on the roster this long. They now have 10 days to release or trade him if they want before they try and slide him through waivers.

In the meantime, Kam Loe is up to provide some added bullpen depth, and we’ll see how long he stays – after a disappointing sring, and a rough start to the season in OKC, Kam has 13 K’s and just one BB in his last 16.1 AAA innings – I don’t know how long he’ll stick around, since the Rangers still appear to like Doug Mathis (who is getting a second start on Saturday, BTW) but it would certainly help his cause if he can get into a game or two and show something in the next few days.

Anybody remember Thomas Diamond? The only remaining, and sometimes-forgotten third member of the old “DVD” trio (John Danks, Edinson Volqurez, and Diamond) from 2006? You may remember, he had Tommy John surgery last spring, and had been out of action since, but he made his return to the mound yesterday for AA Frisco. He lasted 4.2 innings, and gave up 6 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks - 2 runs in the first, and 4 in the 5th inning – while striking out 5. Between the first and the 5th though, he was very effective, retiring 8 in a row at one point. All things considered, it wasn’t really a bad return for a guy who hasn’t pitched in over a year.

TR Sullivan also has a nice piece out on the Rangers minor league pitchers, highlighting Diamond, Matt Harrison and Tommy Hunter, among others – apparently, the Rangers consider a September callup for Diamond a possibility if he has a strong summer. It’ll be interesting to see how fast the Rangers push him to try and make up for lost time - before his surgery, he was considered one of our elite starting prospects, but these days the popular opinion is he’ll wind up in the bullpen, and perhaps even might fit the role of future closer. Either way, for now he’ll be starting for Frisco as he continues to build up arm strength and get his feel back – I wonder though, exactly how long it will be before he’s 100% again. Just look how long it’s taken Frankie Francisco to get back to his old form.

TR also has some notes on Hank Blalock, who is apparently coming off the DL on Friday for certain now to play first base.

Adam J. Morris over at Lonestar Ball had a great post up yesterday on Nolan Ryan’s role in the organization, and his power over the development of the Rangers minor league pitchers – he discusses the recent changes in organizational philosophy since Nolan’s arrival, and also highlights his concern that the Rangers and their fanbase already seem too complacent in believing that whatever Nolan says is gospel. Great post, be sure to check it out.  

Today, it’s Vicente Padilla vs. Livan Hernandez, as the Rangers go for the split with the Twins. Before the road trip, I seem to recall hearing something about Josh Hamilton getting a day off during both the Minnesota and Tampa Bay series because of the artificial turf, so I’m wondering if Josh might not be out of the lineup for this one, we’ll see. He just turned 27 yesterday, by the way – so a belated happy birthday goes out to Josh.