A lonestar in california

Josh Hamilton originally wasn’t even supposed to start yesterday’s game in Minnesota. But he talked manager Ron Washington into letting him play, and he wound up the hero yet again in a narrow 8-7 Ranger victory on Thursday.

The Rangers, who have outscored their opponents 44-20 in the first inning this season, got off to another quick start with 4 runs off Livan Hernandez in the top of the first inning, giving Vicenta Padilla a nice cushion to work with early. But Padilla wasn’t having his best of days, and he was having a particularly hard time with the Twins Carlos Gomez. Gomez, who went 4-5, had three of his 4 hits off of Padilla, including a 2-run single in the second to cut the Rangers lead to 4-2, and a solo homer in the 5th. All in all, Padilla threw 102 pitches in 5 innings, having given up 3 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 3. He left leading 4-3, and Chris Shelton tacked on 2 more runs with a 2-run double in the top of the 6th, but the Rangers bullpen was about to roll out another of it’s reoccurring themes from this year: an epic meltdown.

Jamey Wright took over in the bottom of the 6th, and quickly got a strikeout of Craig Monroe and a groundout by Mike Redmond. A single, a walk, and a HBP later though, Wright was walking Brendan Harris to force in a run, and end his outing. Frank Francisco took over, and promptly walked in a second run before getting Justin Morneau to pop up for the final out of the inning.

The Rangers got another run courtesy of a Matt Guerrier throwing error in the top of the 7th to make it a 2 run game again, and Francisco worked through a scoreless bottom of the frame to settle things down again. With Joaquin Benoit and CJ Wilson lined up to work the 8th and 9th, this was where the ballgame was supposed to be considered pretty well in the bag. Not with the way the Rangers bullpen has pitched lately, though.

Benoit was greeted in the 8th by an Alexi Casilla single. Then the obnoxious Carlos Gomez bunted his way aboard, and Brendan Harris bunted them over. Michael Cuddyer then walked to load the bases and bring up Justin Morneau. Benoit had the Minnesota slugger at 0-2, but he left a fastball up in the zone, and Morneau knocked it up the middle for a 2 run single to tie the game. It could have been much worse, too, if Delmon Young had not lined one straight to Michael Young, which Young flipped to second to double off Cuddyer.

Benoit did manage to pitch a scoreless bottom of the 9thafter the Rangers failed to score against Joe Nathan in the the top of the inning though, and would eventually wind up withthe win to go along with his third blow save of the season.

As mentioned above, Josh Hamilton wasn’t originally supposed to be in the lineup for this game, due to his struggles so far this season in day games. But with the Rangers playing in the Hubert H. Humphrey metrodome, Josh talked Ron Washington into letting him play RF, and it certainly was fortunate that he did. Hamilton had already hit a sac fly and two singles earlier in the game when he came to bat with 2 out in the top of the 10th against Twins reliever Brain Bass. Bass, who had come on in relief of Joe Nathan, had fanned Ian Kinsler and Michael Young to start the frame, but Hamilton had worked the count to 3-2. After Josh fouled one off, Bass served up his second 3-2 offering, an 84 MPH pitch on the outer half of the plate and BAM. 

Who needs the burgers in Minnesota when you can have an oppo taco?

CJ Wilson came on for the bottom of the 10th instead of the bottom of the 9th, and executed an excellent 1-2-3 inning, throwing 10 of his 12 pitches for strikes, and actually fanning the last batter as he picked up his 9th save of the season.

After the game, the Twins Justin Morneau had some praise for not only Hamilton, but the Rangers #4 and 5 hitters, Milton Bradley and David Murphy as well:

“It’s tough,” Morneau said. “You have one of the hottest hitters in baseball beat us, and you never want to let that guy beat you. But the guy hitting behind him is swinging a good bat too, so it’s kind of tough. Do you walk him and give the guy behind him a chance? It’s just one of those things.”

It’s worth pointing out that the Rangers 3-4-5 hitters went a combined 7-14 with 3 walks and 3 RBI yesterday – a monstrous day to be sure. And you would think that when Hank Blalock rejoins the team tomorrow, and slots back into the 5-hole that production will only get better.

Speaking of Blalock, TR Sullivan has another piece up on Hank’s transition from third to first, this time with some insight from Rangers bench coach Arte Howe on the finer points of playing first base. Basically Hank’s just going to have to adjust to somethings being opposite way now that he’s on the other side of the diamond, and still going to have some work to do as far as things such as the 3-6-3 double play, and handling cut off throws goes.

Yet more stuff concerning Blalock’s return: according to thisarticle from MLB.com’s Thor Nystrom (no, I can’t believe there’s a guy at MLB.com named Thor Nystrom either) it appears Chris Shelton is going to stay on the bench and in reserve. This makes sense, because Shelton has been starting to heat up, and the bench needs a right-handed bat. Logically though, this would mean that either Frank Catalanotto (who has a sore back, although he was available to pinch hit yesterday) goes on the disabled list, or Brandon Boggs(who is only 4 for his last 40) will be sent back to AAA. They can’t send German Duran down, because that would leave them with no backup infielder. I really don’t want to see Boggs sent back down to AAA, where the OF is quite crowded and he’ll have to compete for playing time, but I’m betting that’s likely the move the Rangers will make tomorrow.

Big series coming up next for the Rangers in Cleveland – they have to face the Indians two aces, Fausto Carmona and CC Sabathia, along with the red-hot Cliff Lee. Then on Monday, they have to take on Tampa Bay’s ace Scott Kazmir. It could be a tough next four days, but it’ll also be an indicator of what this offense can really do against some tough pitching. It’s a very good thing we split with the Twins though, because if we can just scratch out two wins in the next six games, we’ll be a decent 4-6 on this road trip, instead of 3-7 or something.

First up, Kason Gabbard takes on Fausto Carmona tonight in Cleveland – not a very promising matchup on paper (and it doesn’t get any better as the weekend rolls on). The Rangers might have a chance if they can be patient against Carmona though, who leads the American League in walks, so hopefully our free swingers like Hamilton and Kinsler can work the count a little bit tonight.