Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Joaquin Benoit, Vicente Padilla, Milton Bradley, David Murphy, Matt Harrison
Pretty nice bounceback this weekend for the Rangers against the Orioles. After getting blown out in the first game on the 4thof July, they came back and nabbed the next two for the series victory. Pretty sweet, and probably pretty important, considering they now must head back to Arlington for a 4 game set with the division leading Angels.
Saturday they came from behind to win 5-3, thanks in part to a 2-run homer by Ian Kinsler in the 6th inning that put them ahead just in time to get Scott Feldman his second consecutive win. Feldman did a pretty good job of battling his way to another quality start, despite dealing with a lack of command - he gave up 3 runs in the first, and walked 4 while striking out no one, but still kept the O’s off the scoreboard for the next 5 innings. The bullpen took it from there, with CJ Wilson striking out the side in the 9th for the save.
Yesterday’s game wasn’t quite the same cup of tea however – while the Rangers again came back from being down early, the Texas bullpen struggled to hold the lead late in the face of multiple Oriole rallies.
After taking a liner of his shin in his last start, Kevin Millwood wasn’t quite at the top of his game yesterday afternoon, allowing a run in each of the first 3 innings to give the O’s the early lead. But the Rangers battled back against Orioles starter Radhames Liz to tie the game at 3 in the 4th inning - whereupon with 2 out and a man on second came the turning point in the game.
The Orioles chose to walk Milton Bradley intentionally, and go after David Murphy instead – probably a wise strategic move, since Murphy came into the game hitting just .179 for his last 10 contests, and was 0-2 coming to the plate in the 4th. But what the Orioles didn’t know was that Murphy had als spent the weekend looking at tape of himself, trying to figure out what was wrong with his swing. And apparently he found it, because he was about to snap out of his slump with a bang. After talking a ball in the dirt, Murphy got a big juicy fastball out over the heart of the plate from Radhames Liz for the second pitch of the at bat, which quikcly wound up sailing over the high wall down the right field line for a 3-run homer. Murphy would proceed to collect two more hits, going 3-6 on the day and bumping his average up 5 points to .271 – looks like “The Murphinator” has finally returned.
The Orioles, however, just wouldn’t die yesterday. They scored 2 more in the 5th to make it a 6-5 game, and even after the Rangers seemingly blew it open with a 5-run 8th inning, mounted a comeback via longball. Nick Markakis blasted a 3-run homer off Josh Rupe in the 8th necessitating the use of Eddie Guardado to get out of the inning, and CJ Wilson to close it out in the bottom of the 9th. And even CJ, who had not allowed a hit his last 4 outings, got touched as Kevin Millar and Melvin Mora both jacked solo homers off of him, cutting the Ranger lead back down to one again. Fortunately, CJ struck out Brian Roberts to end it before things got any uglier, securing his 21st save of the season and sending the Rangers back to Arlington 3 games over .500.
While they may be 3 games above .500, the Rangers still aren’t coming home 100% intact, however. I think we’ve seen more minor injuries, strains and pains on this road trip than we have all season. In addition to the minor injuries Eddie Guardado, Kevin Millwood, Eric Hurley and Vicente Padilla all suffered last week, Milton Bradley came outof the game in the 6thinning yesterday with tendinitis in his left knee – which isn’t his surgically repaired one, fortunately, and the Rangers still expect him to be ok for tonight’s game against the Angels.
Also, both Michael Young and Jarrod Saltalamacchia both did not start yesterday as both are suffering from groin issues – Young was a precautionary late scratch on account of the Rangers not wanting him to play on a wet field, while Saltalamacchia was sitting one out after tweaking himself in the 6th inning on Saturday. Like Bradley, both are expected back tonight, but you get the feeling that the all-star break just can’t come soon enough for this team, which is looking increasingly battered every day right now.
Somebody who might not make his next stat however is Vicente Padilla – apparently, his neck still has him in question for his start on Wednesday against the Angels. He was supposed to throw a bullpen session Sunday, but that was pushed back – now he’ll throw today before the Rangers make their final decision, but if he can’t go, it’s been suggested that Matt Harrison will probably be the one called up to make his start, rather than giving it to someone like Dustin Nippert (who the Rangers did call up Saturday, but want to keep in the bullpen). Harrison’s schedule in Oklahoma would have him starting on Tuesday anyway, so he could either make Hurley’s start and give him an extra day off, or make Padilla’s start on an extra days rest – pretty much the perfect scenario, as he’s even on the 40 man roster already.
In other news, Joaquin Benoit was placed on the DL with shoulder inflammation Saturday to make room for Nippert on the 25 man roster. Benoit just has not looked right the entire season, as he sports a 5.60 ERA, a 1.726 WHIP, and has walked as many as he has struck out (28). He’s also allowed 5 home runs in just 35 innings, which is just one shy of the 6 he allowed in 82 innings last year.
“He couldn’t pitch [Friday] night and he’s pitched just one time in six days,” pitching coach Mark Connor said. “The shoulder is not responding, it’s just not coming around. We need to take the time, shut it down, get it right and salvage what we can for the second half.”
So Ranger fans: the Joaquin Benoit nightmare is over… hopefully for good, if they can get him right by the time he comes back.
Quick hits: The Rangers signed reliever Kiko Kalero to a minor league deal this weekend, and he has been assigned to AAA Oklahoma… AA Frisco starter Thomas Diamond was been placed on the DL with an ankle problem, and now TR Sullivan is reporting that he will be undergoing surgery to remove a bonespur from the ankle that will sideline him for 3 weeks… Michael Main, the second of the Rangers first round draft picks from 2007 has been promoted to low-A Clinton to take over Neftali Feliz’ vacated spot in the rotation.
The Rangers now headinto a 4 game series with the LAAAAA Angels, who have the beast road record in baseball this year at 27-15. If Padilla is unable to make his start, then the Rangers will likely have 4 rookie starters opposing the top 4 pitchers in a rotation that sports the best road ERA in baseball (3.16). First up it’s Luis Mendoza vs. ErvinSantana – Mendoza got lit up by the Yankees last time out, but only one run was earned due to a couple errors. Santana on the other hand, has a 8.10 career ERA at the Ballpark in Arlington, but he’s 903 this year, with a 3.28 ERA and 1.092 WHIP.
This is gonna be a tough series for the Rangers, as they’re gonna see some pitchers who are all either very good, or having very good seasons – this’ll be a big indicator of how good our offense really is. And hopefully it gives a pretty good account of itself - there’s nobody I hate losing to more than the Angels.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: David Murphy, Michael Young, Bad Managing, Ron Washington, Warner Madrigal
Well, at least they didn’t lose to Sidney Ponson. That’s the bright spot I’m taking from the Rangers blowout loss to the New York Yankees on Wednesday. What they did suffer however, was a bullpen implosion the likes of which is rarely ever seen, as Ron Washington’s ill-timed choice of debuting Warner Madrigal against the heart of the Yankees order turned a 7-6 comeback into an 18-7 embarrassment.
Looking for their first sweep of the season, the Rangers found themselves leading 7-6 in the 7th inning, thanks in part to the awesomeness of Chris Davis, who had made a diving stop at first base that saved 3 runs in the 5th, and then hammered a 2-run jack to dead center in the 6th to cap a 4 run rally.
The only problem was that the Rangers bullpen, which had been so brilliant in the first two games of the series, was suffering from overwork and an injury - Frankie Francisco, Josh Rupe and Eddie Guardado where all unavailable, leaving the struggling Joaquin Benoit, the rookie Warner Madrigal, and the AL leader in appearances, Jamey Wright as the only middle-relievers available. And with Joaquin Benoit spent after throwing 31 pitches (and only 14 strikes) over 1.1 innings, the choices for the bottom of the 7th inning where narrowed down to Wright and Madrigal.
With the heart of the Yankees order coming up in the 7th (Abreu, A-Rod and Giambi) you would have thought Washington would have gone to Jamey Wright, and either tried to get him through both the 7th and the 8th innings, or at least let Madrigal face the bottom of the Yankee order in the 8th. Nope. That would have made sense, and making sense is not something Ron Washington does. Instead, he brought in the rookie to make his Major League debut in a one run game in Yankee Stadium, against Abreu, A-Rod and Giambi. You had to feel sorry for Madrigal – he just wasn’t ready for the situation he was thrown into.
The inning started with Abreu blooping a double into left field that Brandon Boggs slid for, but came up short. Madrigal, who quite obviously could not find the location on his breaking ball last night, then walked A-Rod and went 3-2 on Giambi, who smashed a 2 run double to give the Yankees the lead back. From there, the 24 year-old just clearly lost whatever confidence and control he had left, and would wind up being charged with 6 runs as the Yankees went on to score 9 times in the inning. Jamey Wright, who came in to play mopup also got hit for 6 runs between the 7th and the 8th, as the Rangers endured their worst pitching meltdown since April 23rd against Detroit.
Just a really frustrating game - I realize Ron Washington was pinched regarding his bullpen last night, but that can’t possibly excuse him sending a rookie out against the heart of one of baseballs best orders in a one run game like that. You might as well have tossed him out of a plane without a parachute – I didn’t have a problem with the idea of bringing him into that game, but that was just the wrong spot to do it. When is Wash going to learn how to manage a bullpen?
In other news, Michael Young left last nights game after 3 innings with a mildy strained left groin muscle. Young seems to have had quite a few different strains and pains this year, and it looks like this is just another one of them at this point – no word yet on whether he’ll start today or not though.
Ron Washington decided to sit David Murphy yesterday, as he’s only hitting .143/.194/.232 in his last 17 games. It appears Ron might be coming around to the fact that Murphy is just no good against left-handed pitching (.222/.243/.343 against LHP this year):
“He might be a little fatigued right now, but he’ll catch his second wind,” Washington said. “He’ll still get some lefties, but if I think our best lineup is all right-handed hitters, then I’m going to go with right-handed hitters.”
That sounds like an important realization by Wash (although the sad part is, it’s taken him this long to arrive at this conclusion) because it should help boost both Murphy’s overall numbers, as well as the rest of the offense quite a bit if he’s not in there creating a vacume against those lefties. Don’t get me wrong, I like Murphy a lot, but his future kind of looks more like a platoon player/4th OF again now that his early-season hot streak is over.
Quick hits: Chris Davis and Nelson Cruz have been named co-minor league players of the month for June, Derek Holland won minor league pitcher of the month… Ian Kinsler and Josh Rupewhere the Rangers player/pitcher of the month, respectively… Chris Shelton has cleared waivers and been assigned to AAA Oklahoma – he has 3 days to accept the assignment or opt for free agency… according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox sports.com, the Rangers are getting inquiries on Vicente Padilla from the “Mets, Yankees and Brewers, among other clubs”. Sounds like trade talk here in Texas could be starting to pick up.
The Rangers have Thursday off before the head into Baltimore for a 3 game set – Vicente Padilla will take on Jeremy Guthrie in a July 4th matchup – the perfect time for Padilla to do a little trade value pumping.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Joaquin Benoit, Milton Bradley, David Murphy, Eddie Guardado, Eric Hurley
All of a sudden, the Texas Rangers are the comeback kids. Make it two nights in a row now that they’ve come back from a 5-1 deficit, and this time they did it in thunderous fashion, with a 7 run 7th inning, highlighted by David Murphy’s first career grand slam, stunning the Royals and sending the Rangers to an 11-5 victory.
Early on, it things almost looked the same as Tuesday night’s game: Kansas City pulled ahead early in the game, taking advantage of a somewhat erratic Vicente Padilla, who allowed 5 runs (4 earned) on 7 hits, 3 walks and two HBP’s in his 6 innings of work. For the second game in a row, KC”s starter, this time right-hander Kyle Davies, held the Rangers to just one run for the first 6 innings, although the Rangers helped him out a bit by hitting into 3 double plays in the first 5 innings.
Davies, who now has allowed just one run in all three of his starts this season for Kansas City, left at 109 pitches after 6 innings. That was when the Royals decided to bring in rookie Jeff Fulchino, for just his third big league appearance, and second this season. That was the beginning of their undoing.
Ramon Vazquez hammered a leadoff triple to greet Fulchino, and then Royals shortstop Mike Aviles made a throwing error on Ian Kinsler’s ground ball, throwing it in the dirt where it skipped by Mark Teahen and into the photo well. That scored Vazquez and sent Kinsler to second. Fulchino walked Michael Young to make it first and second before he was finally lifted for lefty Jimmy Gobble to pitch to Josh Hamilton. Unfortunately for the Royals, Gobble didn’t have it, either.
Hamilton, who went 3-6 to break out of his recent slump, knocked an RBI single up the middle to make it 5-3, and Gobble then walked Milton Bradley to load the bases with nobody out for David Murphy. Gobble missed with the first two pitches, and then tried to throw a get-me-over 89 MPH fastball to the Murph, who turned on it and jacked it to right for his first career grand salami. 7-5 Rangers. Later, Murphy would reveal exactly how bad a mistake Gobble’s pitch was:
“I was fortunate enough to get into a 2-0 count,” Murphy said, “and bases loaded 2-0, I’m pretty much looking dead-red fastball. That’s what I got right where I wanted it.”
The Rangers picked up another run off Gobble before Yasuhiko Yabuta was brought in to finally get three outs. Jamey Wright and Eddie Guaradado pitches scoreless 7th and 8th innings to keep the score at 8-5, and the Rangers tacked on 3 more in the top of the 9th off Brett Tomko, including a second home run by David Murphy that gave him a career-high 5 RBI. Frank Francisco pitched a sharp bottom of the 9th, throwing 14 of his 18 pitches for strikes to polish off the Royals, and the Rangers pulled back above .500 a 34-33.
About the only downside of this win was that Michael Young’s hitting streak was snapped at 23 games, as he went 0-5 with a walk – other than that, the Rangers pounded out 16 hits all total, and four guys (Kinsler, Hamilton, Murphy and Byrd) all registered 3 hit games in another excellent display of resiliency.
After the game though, where some some strange near fireworks involving Milton Bradley. Bradley apparently took exception to something he had heard Royals announcer Ryan Lefebvre say on the clubhouse TV during the game, and afterwards, decided to head up 4 flights of stairs to the broadcast booth to confront him. Ron Washington and Jon Daniels set off in pursuit, and escorted him back down to the clubhouse after a security guard stopped Milton from entering the booth.
It was an emotional Bradley that re-entered the clubhouse, as he nearly broke down, saying “all I want to do is play baseball, and make a better living for my kid. I love you guys. I’m strong, but I’m not that strong.” Afterwards, he stood at his locker with his head down, where an undetermined number of his teammates tried to console him – according to Richard Durrett of the DMN, it was “many” while Mark Dent’s of MLB.com story strangely differs, saying “most stayed away”.
What evidently had offended Bradley was some comments Lefebvre had made while contrasting Bradley and Josh Hamilton:
“From what I remember, we were complimenting Josh Hamilton and how he’s turned his life around and been accountable for his mistakes,” Lefebvre said. “Frank [White] and I were just having a conversation that it’s a shame it doesn’t appear Milton Bradley is doing the same in his life.”
….
“This wasn’t a Milton Bradley rip session,” Lefebvre said. “It was just based on the pictures we’ve seen of him in the series walking from the dugout all the way to right field. Dropping his bat. Making gestures to the fans in right field and above the dugout, taunting them. He’s the only person in baseball I know who does that kind of stuff.”
Lefebvre also insisted he had complimented Bradley as well, but suggested Milton had not heard that part in the clubhouse.
While nobody seems to know exactly what Lefebvre really said, whatever it was apparently made Bradley feel deeply insulted - of course, considering how emotional Milton can be, that’s usually not too hard to do. It does seem though that the KC announcers are not fans of the way Bradley has been carrying himself throughout the series so far, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they where indeed holding a miniature rag session on Milton, who can be a popular target (although the reason for that is because of incidents just such as this).
I don’t know what to personally make of this incident one way or another, but this is the risk you run by having Bradley on your team - it seems we’ve just had our first “Milton Bradley moment” of the season. Fortunately, this was stemmed before it had a chance to get out of hand, although we don’t know for sure that it would have - but even so, this won’t be something that will be forgotten by the media anytime soon.
In other news, Eddie Guardado has officially been promoted to the 8thinning role, with Joaquin Benoit moving back to the 6th-7th inning. According to Ron Washington, Benoit is “still catching up” after coming to spring training out of shape, and needs to work on his command, but believes he’ll return to form. Hopefully that’s the case, and we’ll see a whole different Joaquin in the second half this year - but I’ve wondered if perhaps maybe the 2007 Joaquin Benoit was a mirage, and we’re back to the old wildy inconsistent Benoit again. Such can be the tendencies of a relief pitcher from year-to-year.
Quick hits: Josh Hamilton says he’s found his swing after a 2-28 start to May, and said the problem was overthinking his swing mechanics: “I don’t know why I started doing that all of a sudden, but that’s the frustrating and challenging part of this game. You should think about your swing in practice, but not in a game”… Jarrod Saltalamacchia apparently did not start Wedensday’s game because of a sore wrist, but is scheduled to be back out there to catch Eric Hurley’s Major League debut today. The two have worked as a battery previously this season in AAA.
That’s right, today’s the big day - you can catch Eric Hurley’s Major League debut at 1:10 PM central time. Brian Bannister, who the Rangers have previously knocked around this year will oppose as Texas goes for the sweep. I’m half expecting Hurley to get knocked around, but we’ll see what happens.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Milton Bradley, Marlon Byrd, David Murphy, Jamey Wright, Frank Francisco, Ramon Vazquez, Walkoff win
Wow. That’s really about all my brain can register regarding last night’s series opener against the Mariners. Just… wow. They fell behind. They came back. They coughed up the lead. Took it back. Gave it up again. And then… Ramon Vazquez. And a 13-12 win.
There where no delusions about what this game was going to be from the very start. Vicente Padilla gave up 5 runs in an ugly first inning, that featured 2 errors and a balk, as well as a jet-stream assisted home run by Raul Ibanez. Before the Rangers even came to bat, the game appeared to be in the control of the Mariners and Erik Bedard.
But Bedard didn’t have his A-game last night anymore than Padilla did, as it would turn out. The Rangers started immediately chipping away, with Michael Young doubling in Ian Kinsler to make it 5-1. German Duran hit a sac fly in the second, and then in the bottom of the third, Texas exploded. Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley started the inning with back-to-back jacks, Hamilton’s being a a 447-foot monster shot to right center. After a walk by Brandon Boggs, and a double by Gerald Laird, Chris Shelton (who would have a breakout day at the plate, going 2-3 with 2 walks and a sacrifice) brought both home with a single to give Texas the lead. That was it for Bedard, but things where just getting started at the Ballpark in Arlington.
Vicente Padilla, who just like Sindey Ponson on Sunday, rebounded from a tough first inning to toss four shutout frames, got into trouble in the 6th when he allowed a leadoff double to Jeff Clement. That prompted his removal in favor of Frank Francisco, who allowed an infield single before giving up a game-tying double to Yuniesky Betancourt.
The game stayed tied at 6 until the bottom of the 7th, when Seattle reliever Ryan Rowland-Smith set up the rally for Texas. Gerald Laird reached on a bunt single to start the inning, and in a strange decision, was bunted over by Chris Shelton. Rowland-Smith then walked German Duran, and threw a wild pitch, but did strike out Ramon Vazquez for the second out of the inning. That was when Seattle Manager John Mclaren decided to bring in Mark Lowe, and not long after that move, all hell was loosed on the Mariners.
Lowe walked Ian Kinsler to load the bases, and that brought up Michael Young. Young swung at the first pitch, and grounded it to second – but Jose Lopez bobbled it, the go-ahead run scored, and the inning continued. The next batter was Josh Hamilton, and he whacked an 0-2 pitch past the shortstop Betancourt for a 2-run single, and Frank Catalanotto followed with an RBI single of his own. That made it 10-6 after 7.
In the top of the 8th, Joaquin Benoit gave up a 2-run homer to Wladimir Balentien, but the Rangers would tack on a couple more with bases-loaded walks in the bottom of the frame. Heading to the top of the 9th, Texas lead 12-8, with CJ Wilson coming on. That’s when disaster struck.
Wilson, who has really struggled of late to throw strikes and get consistent outs, proceeded to squander the entire 4-run lead, surrendering an RBI double to Ibanez, and then a 3-run homer to Kenji Johjima. Jamey Wright had to come in and finish the inning, and after the Rangers stuck out in order against Brandon Morrow in the bottom of the 9th, the game headed into extras.
Doug Mathis, just up from AAA was called upon to make his Major League debut in a helluva pressure spot, the top of the 10th inning, and he delivered. He got Yuniesky Betancourt to ground to second, retired Ichiro on a liner to second, and then got Jose Vidro to fly out – the first 1-2-3 inning for Ranger pitching since the top of the 7th, when Frank Francisco set down the side in order.
Then it was time for the bottom of the 10th. David Murphy struck out to start the frame, the fourth consecutive K for Brandon Morrow but then… on a 1-0 count… Ramon Vazquez got ahold of a 94 MPH Morrow fastball, and blasted it into the right field seats. Game. Over.
As Ramon would later explain, he was simply up there sitting dead red, and Morrow didn’t disappoint:
“He was coming right at people,” Vazquez said. “I got a good pitch to hit, the pitch I was looking for. I was looking for a fastball down. I was just hoping to lay off the breaking ball. He’s a guy you don’t want to hit his breaking ball. I wanted to get a fastball and get the head off the bat on it.”
…
“That’s a great feeling,” Vazquez said. “That’s all the power I had.”
Doug Mathis would wind up a winner after his very first inning in The Show, calling it ”the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced”, and the Rangers now lead this three game vendetta series against Seattle 1-0. It may not have been a pretty win, but the momentum from this latest rollercoaster ride was much needed after the A’s let a little air out of the Rangers balloon on Sunday.
There was one small chink in the celebration of this one, though: Milton Bradley apparently hurt himself taking a practice swing in the 7th (which is why Frank Catalanotto hit for him instead). He is currently listed as day-to-day, and will not be in the lineup tomorrow. Sigh. MB = china doll.
Elsewhere, TR Sullivan has a piece up on Jamey Wright, and how important he has been to the bullpen this season – very true, you gotta love the job “The Electrician” has done in 2008. But more interesting to me is this line at the end on Frankie Francisco from Ron Washington:
“Frankie is starting to turn the corner as far as his fastball and he’s starting to get his secondary pitches over,” Washington said. “If he can continue to do that, you never know what will happen. He used to be a stud. His confidence is starting to go up.”
I still hesitate to say that the Frankie of old is back just yet, but he’s been back up to 96-97 on the gun on a regular basis lately, and has flashed some wicked stuff – if he keeps it up, I would say it won’t be long before Francisco starts to get some consideration to perhaps pitch a few times in the 8th, maybe even 9th innings, considering the recent struggles of Joaquin Benoit and CJ Wilson.
TR also has some notes on David Murphy’s recent slump, and Marlon Byrd’s status - Murphy, who got the night off Monday, was hitting just .167 in his last 13 games. Much of that slump can be attributed to his being only 1 for his last 20 against left-handed pitchers, a rash of which the Rangers have faced lately. With Marlon Byrd about ready to come back, the Rangers may soon be able to suppress that issue, but it’s also mentioned there that Byrd still might be left down in OKC for a couple more games. However, with Milton Bradley hurting himself last night, I’m betting Byrd is going to be up tomorrow – and I’m also betting that sooner or later, Byrd is going to platoon with Murphy against LHP, whether Washington calls it an official platoon or not.
Today it’s Kason Gabbard making his first start since being attacked by Sexson- he will reprise his matchup with Felix Hernandez once again. This time Richie Sexson isn’t in the lineup to try and kill Gabbard, so hopefully we can get him though at least the the 6th inning. The less innings the bullpen has to pitch right now, the better.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: David Murphy, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Scott Feldman, Brandon Boggs
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.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Bad Managing, David Murphy, Hank Blalock, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Ron Washington
Boy, it’s been awhile since Rangers fans have seen the above words up on the jumbotron. But on Friday night, the Rangers laid to rest a 7 game losing streak with a hard-fought victory over the Minnesota Twins, a 10-inning affair that came down to a dramatic walkoff single.
Things started off bleak, though, as Kevin Millwood had his struggles through the first few innings. Justin Morneau drove in Carlos Gomez with a single in the first, and then struck a big blow in the top of the third, when he smoked a grand slam to right field, to make it 5-0 Twins. It looked like the night was setting up for the Rangers 8th consecutive loss at that point (as I noted in my previous entry) but in the bottom of the third, something wonderful happened: a rally.
Rallys have been far a few between for the Rangers lately, but tonight, they managed to put together a whopper. Gerald Laird and Ben Broussard, who are usually automatic outs at the bottom of the order, singled to put runners on the corners with nobody out for the top of the order. Then it was delivery time. Ian Kinsler singled up the middle to plate Laird, which Michael Young followed him with an RBI single of his own to plate Broussard. Kinsler and Young advanced to second and third on the play when Delmon Young bobbled the ball in LF, and that set it up for Josh Hamilton, who struck the innings biggest blow with a 2-run single, reaching second on a throw home. Hank Blalock followed with the game-tying double, and then things got wierd.
Jason Botts hammered a ball into RF, over the head of Michael Cuddyer and off the wall. Hank Blalock came chugging around third, but was called out at the plate on the relay throw home by umpire Alfonso Marquez (despite the fact that he looked safe to me). That was bad enough, but as Blalock was being called out, Jason Botts, who apparently forgot to pay his brain bill before the game, suddenly jumped up after his slide into second base, and decided to try and go to third. Needless to say, he was out by a country mile on Joe Mauers toss to third, and the electricity of the huge inning was gone. Frank Catalanotto struck out looking to end the frame, but that didn’t take away the significance of what had transpired before the Botts/Blalock double play: an actual, bona-fide rally to tie the game at 5 apeice. Even with the way it was suddenly cut short, I think it’s safe to argue that that the bottom of the third Friday was the most important half-inning of baseball played by the Rangers so far this season.
The game stayed 5-5 for what seemed like an eternity, as both Kevin Millwood and Twins rookie Nick Blackburn gritted out another three innings of scoreless ball, and the respective bullpens took over after that, as Eddie Guardado, Jamey Wright and CJ Wilson each pitch a scoreless inning for Texas from the 7th to the 9th.
The Rangers offense didn’t exactly dazzle with RISP the rest of the game, though. They got David Murphy to third base with 2 out in both the 4th and 6th innings, but left him both times, and they couldn’t do anything with Josh Hamilton’s 2 out double in the 7th, either. Perhaps the biggest dissapointment of the night though, was when Ron Washington decided to let Gerald Laird and Ben Broussard lead of the bottom of the 9th when he had both Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Milton Bradley on his bench. Laird hit a lazy fly to CF, and Broussard popped out to LF, in almost predictable fashion. Yet another nonsensical decision by Wash – why would you let your 8 an 9 hitters start a critical inning like the bottom of the 9th? It especially made little sense to let Laird hit to lead the inning off, as he has a .626 career OPS against RHP, and the Twins pitcher at the time, righty Pat Neshek, has held right-handed batters to a .523 OPS for his career. And both Saltalamacchia and Bradley are switch hitters, not vunerable to any LOOGY moves that could have been made by the Twins…
Fortunately, that display of idiocy didn’t come back to haunt the Rangers. Joaquin Benoit pitched a scoreless top of the 10th, and the 10th inning was when the Rangers finally got it done. “It” didn’t come without a cost, however.
After Josh Hamilton started the inning with a comebacker to the new Twins pitcher, Jaun Rincon, Hank Blalock doubled into the alley in left-center. But Blalock came up lame as he rounded first base, and headed to second – he apparently strained his right hamstring, an injury which is likely going to land him on the DL. Fortunately, it’s not torn, or he could be out of the lineup for an extended period, but it’s not really nescessary to say he’ll be missed – German Duran, who should take over for him in the meantime, won’t come anywhere close to equaling his offensive output.
Credit goes to Hank though, for skipping into second base with his bum leg, and setting up what would be the winning run - there’s probably more than a few “superstars” who would have just stopped right there, or headed back to first base. After German Duran replaced Blalock as a pinch-runner, Jason Botts worked a walk from Rincon to put runners on first and second. Frank Catalanotto then struck out looking for the second time on the night, making it 2 out for David Murphy. And after being stranded at third twice in the game, Murphy would be the one to deliver. He hammered the second pitch he saw from Rincon to deep LF, over the head of Delmon Young and off the wall. German Duran motored home from second to score the first run of his big-league career, the game winner, and Murphy was mobbed between first and second base. Which was kind of unfortunate in one way, because had Murphy touched second, he would have been credited with a double – but instead it went as a long single, and I’m sure David and his teammates could probably care less.
So ends the fairytale story of Friday night. After the game though, it was time for the serious discussion to continue again - the subject of that discussion being about the future of Ron Washington, who still seems to be nearing the end of his tenure in Texas.
Nolan Ryan, Jon Daniels, and Tom Hicks all met for lunch Friday afternoon to discuss the Rangers current plight. After which, Evan Grant had these notes up, and stated what stood out to him was “any affirmation that Washington’s job is NOT in jeopardy”. Later, after the win, he put up another entry, saying that after this win, he didn’t think there would be a decision on Wash until Monday, which as he notes, is an off day, and would “[make] for a more natural transition if there is one to be made”, despite the fact that Tuesday in Ron’s birthday.
MLB.com’s Ken Daley also chipped in on the subject, with some more quotes from Jon Daniels in his postgame writeup:
“Tom [Hicks] has been an owner for a long time now” — since June 1998 — “and he has been through a lot of ups and downs with different sports,” Daniels said. “I think he understands the ebbs and flows of a season. That’s not to say we’re going to sit back and say, ‘Ho Hum, we’re in a bad stretch.’ No, we’ve got to address it and we’ve got to get better. And I think that’s something that everyone wearing a ‘T’ on their chest needs to cope with right now.”
But not inviting the manager to Friday’s meeting indicates more than the team’s future is up in the air. When a reporter pointed out that Daniels has not denied Washington’s job is in jeopardy, he said, “I haven’t said it is, either.”
“I don’t get a nightly call from Tom saying, ‘Here’s the status of your job situation.’ That’s not how it works,” Daniels said. “I think that’s a question that’s going to be asked of anybody in a leadership position when the team is struggling.
“He is our manager. I think everybody in our organization can do something to help us pull out of this — he included, me included. He understands he’s going to have to answer those questions, just like I’ve answered them myself.”
When asked what, specifically, Washington can do to reverse the team’s sagging fortunes, Daniels said, “That’s a tough question to answer. I think everybody has got different ways of motivating guys. He’s been trying. But [a start like this] gets old, because it happened last year.
“Some things you have to have patience with, and some things you have to address. I’m sure that Ron will continue to address things that are within his power. When a team struggles, I think, typically we look to the leadership of the team — on and off the field — to turn this thing around. That’s on me; that’s on Ron; that’s on the leadership of the team on the field and in the clubhouse. It’s on all of us.”
That, right there, sounds pretty damning for Ron Washington to me. It sounds like while the Rangers are willing to wait a couple more games to see what happens, they may have already come to the conclusion that Ron Washington is not the manager for them anymore.
And as such, I don’t see the reason to wait any longer to make a move. We may have scratched out a win, but the game still featured the trademark errors, gaffes, and a bonehead managing move (the lack of pinch-hitters in the bottom of the 9th). If the Rangers execx have reached the conclusion that they are 90% sure that they are going to part ways with Washington, they should have done it tonight. Even after such an emotional win, I think it still would have played well for the organization to show some fortitude and make a decision about their future. It would have been a fine time to say “this game is the first game of the rest of 2008″ and make the changes that need to be made. In my opinion, that’s better than dragging the indecision out over the weekend, and setting Washington up for a kick in the balls by firing him the day before his birthday. Ron doesn’t deserve to be jerked around like that, and neither do the players in the clubhouse, or the fans - just release the poor guy, so we can move on with out season, and he can move on with his baseball career, whatever that may entail.
Moving on to some more notes on Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s callup now, it appears the Rangers have the right idea about what to do with Salty once they do start playing him: they’ve stated he’s not going to be playing any first base, an encouraging sign, and it appears he will take over most of the full-time catching duties, as JD says ”he’s not going to come up here and sit like a veteran backup would” although they haven’t figured out exactly how they’ll divide the playing time between Salty and Laird.
You’d think it should be at least 75/25% Salty, and I think it should be even more than that, but the Rangers probably will still want to get Laird AB’s, as he has admittedly been hitting better of late (average up to .260 – props to Gerry for this little hot streak, BTW). They still failed to provide a valid excuse for not having Salty starting on Friday night though:
Laird was in the starting lineup Friday, perhaps only because Daniels and Rangers manager Ron Washington had yet to meet with the two catchers to explain the team’s plans. They planned to speak shortly before Friday’s series opener with the Twins.
That’s still not an excuse for not playing Salty tonight, IMO – he needed to be playing, as he’s now sat for 4 straight days. If Salty starts his latest trip to the Majors off on a massive slump, I think we’ll know why.
Adam Melhuse, whose broken hand opened up this opportunity for Salty, has been outright released, per his request. He’s going to be out 2-5 weeks, and the Rangers informed him there would be no roster spot awaiting him when he returned. Best wishes to Adam, wherever he winds up – which will most likely be as a backup on someones minor league squad, once he recovers.
Looking at the clock in my bedroom right now, I need to wrap this up now, so I’ll reduce the rest of the entry to a couple quick hits: Brandon McCarthy’s “setback” is going to keep him from even throwing again for another 6 weeks… like I said in the previous entry, if he needs surgery, he might as well do it now… Sidney Ponson is going to indeed debut tomorrow… and finally, make sure you check out Jamey Newberg’s latest peice over at the Newberg Report – I think right now, as fans, every single one of us could take a lession from that.
Ponson/Scott Baker tomorrow. Hopefully, this team got something started with this win – I’ve had it with this lethargic spirit. GO RANGERS!
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: David Murphy, Gerald "Superstar" Laird, Vicente Padilla
One of the great things about baseball is how fast things change. Case in point: I spent my last post complaining about how innefective the Ranger offense was in game 2 of the Angels series, and in this one, I’m going to get to praise the offense for it’s Sunday performance.
After having to listen to the first two games of the series on MLB gameday audio thanks to the fact that Friday and Saturdays games where on FSN (no, I don’t have cable – which sucks, I know) I finally got to watch Sunday’s game on TV. The Angels actually got on the scoreboard first, when Vicente Padilla gave up a solo bomb to Garret Anderson in the second inning. But that didn’t last long. The bottom of the oder, which wound up going 6-13 on the day, ignited things in the top of the third against Angel starter John Garland. After Gerald Laird singled, Ramon Vazquez blasted a triple off the center field fence to tie the game, and Ian Kinsler followed with a sac fly to give Texas a 2-1 lead. But things where just getting started for the Rangers.
It would be catcher Gerald Laird who wound up the unlikely star of the game. Gerald of course, is from Garden Grove, CA, and he sure put on a show for his hometown crowd – though I doubt the majority of them enjoyed it too much. He came in with a .091 batting average through his first four games, but would wind up going 4-5 on the day with two home runs and a career-high 6 RBI. He blasted a three-run homer of Garland in the fourth, and would later have an RBI single in the 7th, and a 2-run homer in the 9th.
Certainly a stunning performance by a guy who is normally an offensive vacume in the lineup – hopefully, Gerald can build on today’s performance, and prove me and the statistics very, very wrong in my past statements that he’s offensively worthless. That way, we might actually be able to get a starting catchers value out of him come the trade deadline in July.
Other offensive highlights included Ben Broussard, who blasted a 2-run homer, his second of the series, in the 5th, and Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and the red-hot David Murphy (who I’ll touch on a little more later) all registered multi-hit games, to contribute to the Rangers 14-hit attack.
An offensive miss of the game, however, was suprisingly Josh Hamilton, who was 1-5 and left 5 on base, his only hit being a infield single in the first inning. Now, I’m not Rudy Jaramillo or anything, but I’m going to excercise some sports fans perrogative here, and give Josh some advice from afar: stop swinging at stuff up and out of the strike zone. He popped up three times to the left side of the diamond in the game on pitches up and away - twice on the first pitch. I know he likes to go the other way, and can go the other way with a lot of power, but he failed to make any adjustmentments as the game went on, and wound up with some wasted at-bats by swinging at what I thought where some bad pitches.
Pitching wise, the Rangers got yet another quality start from Vicente Padilla. Padilla netted his first win of the season by going 7 innings and giving up 4 runs (3 earned). He did have his struggles in the middle innings, giving up 9 hits overall, but he did en excellent job of working out of trouble, and settled down by the 6th and 7th. The way he handled Vlad Guerrero was also impressive – instead of buzzing Vlad, as he has done a few times in the past, Padilla kept his cool the entire game, and held Vlad 0-3, including getting him to ground into a double play with runners on the corners and no one out in the 5th. Vlad, who of course has a reputation as a Ranger-killer, didn’t get a ball out of the infield the entire game, and whiffed against Joaquin Benoit (who struck out the Angels 3-4-5 hitters in order in the 8th with some filthy stuff) in his final at-bat to wind up an uninspiring 0-4 on the day.
Despite a score of 10-4, closer CJ Wilson pitched the 9th inning to get some work in, and set down the side in order, sending Texas to it’s 7th win in it’s last 9 games against the Angels, who all of a sudden don’t seem to be mowing down the Rangers like they have in years past. Now, if only we can get a handle on the New York Yankees this season…
Some random stuff: TR Sullivan has a nice peice up on David Murphy on the Rangers site, talking about how Murph’s early season streak here (which is a carry-over from a red-hot spring training) has made him more than just a fourth outfielder for the Rangers. Of course, it’s still early in the season, but going back to last year, I don’t think there’s much doubt about it anymore: David Murphy can hit Major League pitching, despite the fact that his minor league numbers from when he was with the Red Sox organization aren’t exactly elite. Of course, one of Murphy’s best attributes is also his versatility, which makes him a perfect 4th OF, but when your competition is Marlon Byrd and Frank Catalanotto, you’re going to get plenty of AB’s in that role – something Murphy seems to be taking full advantage of, as he continues for force his way into the lineup on a daily basis.
It is noted, though, that Ron Washington will start Marlon Byrd in LF in Tuesday’s home opener in Arlington, while Murphy will DH. It tells you what the Rangers think of Murphy’s bat, but it also shows Ron hasn’t given up on his favorite from last season, Byrd (who, by the way, has yet to register his first hit of the season, after an ice-cold spring training):
“Marlon will figure it out,” Washington said. “He’s strong mentally. We trust him. I have five outfielders, and I’m going to do my best to get him at-bats. I haven’t given up on him. I’m going to get him out there as much as I can.”
I sure hope he figures it out if you’re going to keep running him out there like that, Ron.
Speaking of Tuesday, it’s going to be Jason Jennings, who was hit with the loss in his first start in Seattle, against Brian Burres of the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles, however, have started the season on a hot streak (they’re 4-1) so it should make for a pretty good game. Hopefully Jennings can keep the ball in the park, and we can bag a win for the home crowd. I’d hate to see the O’s do to us what we did to the Angels.
But first, of course, we have to get through Monday.
