So far, Eric Hurley is off to a very nice start to his Major League career. After going 6 quality innings in his first start in Kansas City, he followed up with 5 more last night against the Braves. Unfortunately for the Rangers, Atlanta’s Jo-jo Reyes pitched even better than Hurley did, and closer CJ Wilson’s struggles continued as Texas dropped this one 5-2.
Hurley’s night didn’t get off to an ideal start, as he gave up a home run in the top of the first inning to Chipper Jones. That at-bat, Hurley almost struck Chipper out looking with his 2-2 pitch, a fastball that appeared to catch the outside corner to some. Unfortunately, “some” didn’t include home plate ump Ed Montague, and the next pitch Hurley threw on 3-2 got jacked out to deep center, where it just barely cleared the wall to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.
While Hurley didn’t quite have the control he displayed in Kansas City (he had eight different 3-2 counts on the night, and threw a mediocre 62 strikes out of 106 total pitches) he did strike out 5, and improved his FB/GB ratio to 4-6 (as opposed to 3-12 last time out). He particularly seemed to struggle with his location in the third inning, in which the Braves tattooed several balls all over the outfield, including a double by Gregor Blanco, and an RBI single off the RF wall by Kelly Johnson. But Hurley escaped the inning allowing just one run, and seemed to get stronger though the 4th and 5th innings, coaxing a double play from Brain McCann in the 4th, and setting down the side in order in the 5th.
Meanwhile though, the Texas offense was busy being stymied by Jo-jo Reyes. They did get a run in the third, when German Duran was hit by a pitch, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored and Gerald Laird RBI single – but they couldn’t cash in on the big opportunities, like in the 4thwhen they loaded the bases with 2 out only to have Jarrod Saltalamacchia fly out to right.
Eric Hurley finally ran out of gas in the 6th, when he allowed a walk and a single to lead off the inning, and Frank Francisco had to come in and bail him out, which he did. Texas would then tie it in the bottom of the 6th on a Brandon Boggs RBI infield single, taking Hurley off the hook for his first loss, but they wasted their one chance to pull ahead in the 8th.
Ian Kinsler lead off the bottom of the 8th with a single, but instead of trying to run on Brian McCann (a poor-throwing catcher who had allowed 2 stolen bases in the game already) with the man who is 22-23 on the basepathsthis year, Ron Washington decided to bunt him to second with Gerald Laird (who by the way is 14 for his last 31, a .452 average). Stupid, stupid baseball to take the bat way from one of your hottest hitters and just give away an out like that – especially considering Michael Young, who is 1 for his last 28 was next. Young grounded out to second, which did put Kinsler on third with 2 out, but the Braves intentionally walked Josh Hamilton to face Marlon Byrd, who promptly swung at the first pitch of his AB and grounded out to the pitcher.
Can somebody please remind me why Ron Washington is a Major League manager again?
Of course, it may not have mattered if the Rangers had plated that run in the bottom of the 8th or not, because the struggles of everybody’s favorite blue gloved lefty CJ Wilson continued Tuesday night. CJ, who nearly blew a save in New York on Sunday (allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks that outing) this time made a fielding error to add to his woes, as his errant play on a Jeff Francoeur dribbler up the first base line sparked a 3-run rally in the top of the 9th for the Braves. On an 0-2 count Leading off the inning, Francouer reached out and basically tapped a swinging bunt over toward the first base line. Wilson, despite the calls of Gerald Laird, raced off the mound, picked it up, and lobbed it toward Chris Shelton – and down the RF line, as the low throw squirted past the unprepared first baseman, who it seemed never even knew where the throw was.
At the time, CJ threw his arms in the air as if it was Shelton’s fault the ball had zipped past him, but after the game, he was harder on himself than perhaps anyone else:
“I gave them the winning run on a platter,” Wilson said after allowing three runs in the top of the ninth. “I blew it.”
…
“[Laird] called me off, and I took it anyway. Apparently, if I would have hit him, he would have been out,” Wilson said. “If I would have made a good throw, he would have been out. If I would have let Gerald take it, he would have been out. I did pretty much everything wrong out there.”
With Francouer on second CJ did strike out Brandon Jones, but after that Omar Infante singled to give the Braves a 3-2 lead, and the Braves went triple-walk-fielders choice to score 2 more runs before Wilson, who threw 28 pitches, finally got out of the inning. Atlanta’s Mike Gonzalez set down the side in order the bottom of the 9th, and the Rangers went home frustrated yet again by the inability of a key bullpen member to get people out.
After this latest debacle I have to admit, I’m really questioning CJ’s ability to perform the closers duties, not just in the future but right now. As Joey Matschulat says in his latest piece over at Baseball Time in Arlington, CJ doesn’t really have the command, the stuff or the makeup of a true closer, and it’s been painfully obvious lately. The only thing is, the Rangers currently don’t really have a better option than Wilson on the roster for the 9th inning role – unless of course you want to send Eddie Guardado and his 86 MPH fastball out there for the 9th, anyway. But right now, the difference between CJ and Eddie is Gauardado’s getting the job done with his 86 MPH heater (that 3 run homer Tuesday night appears to just be a hiccough), while CJ really isn’t. Does that mean it’s time for Eddie to supplant CJ already? In my opinion, probably not quite yet (although immediately following last nights game I might have said otherwise), but it is time to seriously start thinking about it, and/or trying to acquire a relief pitcher at the trade deadline if CJ has another outing like this latest one.
Quick hits: Speaking of ineffective relief pitchers, Joaquin Benoit is still sidelined with shoulder inflammation, and won’t be available until Friday against the Nationals at the very earliest. If he’s not back this weekend it’ll be a pretty big deal that the Rangers have kept him on the active roster instead of putting him on the DL this past week… Milton Bradley was indeed out of the lineup yesterday thanks to his sore quad… Marlon Byrd is looking forward to playing against the Nationals… Chris Davis slugged two more homers last night for OKC, as he is now in the midst of a 14 game hitting streak, with an overall line of .356/.410/733 – a 1.143 OPS. I’m at the point where I’m ready to forget Hank Blalock, trade value and everything else – it’s Davis that needs to be taking over at first base next week, because if he’s not ready now he never will be. And finally, in a poetic joining of kindred souls, Sidney Ponson has been signed to a minor league deal by the New York Yankees. I guess the Yankees needed a worthy successor to Roger Clemens as the #1 douche of their pitching staff.
Today Scott Feldman takes the mound against Braves rookie Charlie Morton, who will be making only his second career start. Feldman has been sliding a bit lately, as he has a 5.35 ERA in his last 6 starts and has lost two straight. Last Friday against the Mets was the first time this year he failed to go 6 innings, so he could use a good bounce back start here. Maybe he can finally get some run support with Milton Bradley back in the lineup – Feldy’s 3.41 runs of support per game is the lowest of all regular Ranger starters this year.
