A lonestar in california

The first time the Rangers climbed above the .500 mark this season (back on April 10th when they swept a doubleheader against Baltimore), they proceeded to go 2-12 over the next two weeks. Since they climbed back over .500 against on May 31st, they have once again imploded to give up 26 runs in two days, and drop themselves a game below .500 again with a 13-9 loss to the Indians Monday night.

Doug Mathis had a horrible night on the mound, reverting to the horrible form he showed in his first start in Minnesota. Only 58 of his 100 pitches went for strikes, while he gave up an astonishing 12 hits (2 home runs) and 3 walks in a paltry 3.2 innings that lead to 8 runs. Perhaps the amazing part of all that was, one single player drove in 7 of the runs charged to Mathis: Casey Blake. Blake, a mere .225/.311/.369 season hitter coming into the game, belted two 2-run homers, and a 3-run double in three AB’s against the unfortunate Doug. Think maybe Blake has a new favorite pitcher?

Mathis would not wind up the loser in this one though, as Robinson Tejeda (one the unfortunate victims of Ron Washington’s Sunday bullpen management) came in to bail Mathis out of a jam in the 4th, and proceeded to toss 2.1 scoreless innings of relief, setting up a Ranger rally in the 5th.

Texas already had 3 runs, thanks to an RBI single by Jarrod Saltalamacchia in the second, and a 2 run bomb from Josh Hamilton in the third, but going into the 5th inning, they hadn’t put anything big together against Cleveland starter Aarron Laffey yet. That changed, as after an Ian Kinsler leadoff double and a Michael Young RBI single, The Rangers loaded the bases in front of Marlon Byrd, who took Laffey deep to RF for a grand slam to tie the game at 8.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, their bullpen once again could not back up their offensive comeback. Joaquin Benoit gave up a 2-run homer to Ben Francisco, after Eddie Guardadohad been removed from the game with 2 out and a runner on first so Benoit could face him. After the Rangers left men on first and third in the bottom of the 7th, Benoit proceeded to fall apart in the 8th, walking four and giving up 3 more runs, virtually killing any chance of a Texas comeback.

It’s almost just as Scott Lucas joked in one of his recent minor league reports: the Texas Rangers will explode if they get above .500. Agonizingly truthful, isn’t it?

Moving on to the news of the day, Vicente Padilla is still down in Nicaragua with his family issue, and will not be making his rescheduled start tonight. He has been placed on the bereavement list, and AJ Murray will be called up tonight to make his start. If Padilla gets back Wednesday, he’ll be able to throw a bullpen, and start on Friday, but if he’s not, his next start will have to be pushed back till next week.

To make things even worse, Kevin Millwood now has to attend to a personal issue on Wednesday, and Sidney Ponson will go on 3 days rest instead (something he has never done before in his career) with Millwood starting Thursday.

Compounded with the recent struggles of the Texas bullpen, this puts the Rangers on pretty thin ice for the next two days: you’ve got a spot starter and an inconsistent Sidney Ponson on 3 days rest. Should either one of those two melt down like Doug Mathis last night, the Rangers could find themselves in a bad spot regarding a need for bullpen reinforcements. As such, I’ve got a feeling that Doug Mathis’ time on the Major League roster may be limited – first of all, with Mathis’ latest sorry excuse for a start, I think that as long as he pitches well, AJ Murray will probably be the one staying in the rotation when Padilla comes off the bereavement list, and second, should the need for a fresh reliever arise, Mathis seems like the most likely candidate to be sent down.

On a brighter note, the latest update on the All-Star voting is in, and we’ve got some encouraging news: Josh Hamilton has vaulted past Ichiro, Vlad, and Bobby Abreu all the way up to second in the OF voting, which is of course, a little more like it. Additionally, Ian Kinsler is up to 4th in the second base voting – keep up the voting, folks.

Speaking of Hamilton, guess who the AL player of the month for May is? Josh has become the first AL player ever to win the award for both April and May. Josh has only spent two months here in Texas, and he’s already only the 5th Ranger ever to win the award multiple times. He hit .322 with 8 HR, 29 RBI, 22 runs scored and 71 total bases in May to garner the award once again.

Also, Richard Durrett of the DMN notes that Josh has switched agents, apparently due to a desire to be represented by someone who can be more personally involved in his situation. The Rangers are currently working on laying the groundwork for a long-term deal with Josh, something he says he’s “definitely interested” in, although he’s still trying to figure out how he wants to do things.

And finally, Joey Matschulat has his BTiA players of the month awards out for May.

The Indians haven’t announced who they will oppose AJ Murray with tonight yet, but the preview on the Rangers site suggests one Brian Slocum as one possible option.

Later today, I hope to have something out on the 2008 MLB draft, which I’m sure you probably know is 2 days away already, although I really haven’t mentioned much about it here yet. So look for that maybe sometime this afternoon, hopefully before the game starts.