A lonestar in california


Rangers avoid sweep behind Mathis, Duran
June 9, 2008, 6:37 am
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: , ,

Have you ever braced yourself for something horrible only to have the situation pleasantly surprise you? That’s an awfully nice feeling, a mix of surprise, satisfaction, and relief all rolled into one. I don’t know about my fellow Ranger fans, but that’s the way I’m most certainly feeling after watching the rag-tag squad of replacement-level players that the Rangers ran out there against the Rays on Sunday produce a nice 6-3 win.

Playing without the bats of Josh Hamilton and Michael Young in the lineup, and with the aggravating Doug Mathis out there on the mound, the odds certainly seemed stacked against the Rangers yesterday. But fortunately, a few of those “replacement-level players” I mentioned picked some good times to come up big, as the Rangers managed to avoid the sweep, and end their homestand with a 5-5 record.

Obviously, the biggest cog in all this was Mathis, who just turned 25 years old on Saturday. After getting lit up for 8 runs in 3.2 innings his last start, Mathis apparently made some alterations to his delivery, trying to keep the ball down more. And even though Mathis’ ground ball/fly ball ratio was an ugly 1-12, something apparently clicked, because he managed to go 5.1 effective innings, while giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks. The runs coming on a 2-run homer by BJ Upton in the 6th.

He did get a couple critical double plays though, that bailed him out of big jams. In the top of the first, the Rays put runners on first and third with 1 out after a single, Gerald Laird throwing error, and a walk. Mathis ran the count full to the next batter, Eric Hinske – which was when the Rays got a little overly aggressive, sending BJ Upton (the runner at first) on the 3-2 pitch to Hinske. Hinske took a called strike 3, and Laird redeemed his earlier errant throw with a laser beam to second to nail Upton and bail Mathis out of the inning. He would later get a lineout double play in the 5th to bail him out of a 2 on, 1 out jam.

For the Rangers, David Murphy (who was batting third in the absence of Hamilton and Young) nailed a solo homer off the Rays Matt Garza in the bottom of the first, giving Mathis an immediate lead to work with. German Duran, just up from OKC, nailed a 2-run homer (the second of his young career) off Garza in the fourth to make it 3-0 – after which Garza and his catcher, Dioner Navarro got into an altercation in the dugout between innings. These Tampa Bay Rays seem to be a team with a bit of a temper, don’t they?

Gerald Laird had an RBI single in the 5th to make it 4-0, but BJ Upton’s 2-run homer in the 6th made it 4-2 and chased Mathis. The Ranger bullpen came on, and finally displayed some solid mid-relief solid for once. Frankie Francisco pitched a scoreless 1.2 innings after taking over for Mathis, and Eddie Guardado worked a scoreless 8th – nobody knows for sure, but after yesterday, that sequence of Francisco/Guarado (or even Guardado/Francisco) for the 7th/8th innings could wind up being the new bullpen hierarchy for awhile. It certainly worked a helluva lot better than Wright/Benoit has been.

On the offensive side, the Rangers got some extra insurance in the 7th and 8th innings on a Marlon Byrd RBI single, and a Ramon Vazquez home run, respectively, to make it 6-2 heading into the 9th. That’s when CJWilson came on for some work, despite the fact that it wasn’t a save situation any longer, and as usual he made it a bit adventurous – thanks in part to a Ramon Vazquez error, that is. Vazquez saw the potential game-ending double play ball glance off his glove with one out, and the Rays wound up parlaying that misplay into a sac fly to make it 6-3. CJ then walked Akinori Iwamura to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Carl Crawford, but CJ struck him to end the contest, no worries.

Save for that 9th inning, it was a pretty good game – Doug Mathis was at least effective, although far from lights out. Only 52 of the 94 pitches Mathis threw where strikes, and there’s always the matter of that 1-12 GB/FB ratio – he also struck out just one, and has K’d just 9 in 20 innings so far this season. I hate to be Jonny raincloud here, but although he managed to get his outs yesterday, I remain convinced that Mathis doesn’t have the stuff to make it long-term in the rotaton. There’s a possible future for him in the bullpen, yes, but after seeing the results of four starts, two good and two bad, his stuff just doesn’t seem good enough to be run through the order more than once on a regular basis.

Speaking of the rotation, Kason Gabbard’s start for Oklahoma yesterday was of the unremarkable variety, as he gave up 3 runs (2 earned) on 8 hits and 2 walks, while lasting 5.2 innings. The Redhawks lost, 3-0, to New Orleans. Gabbard did strike out 5 though, and since his walks have decreased, and his control has seemingly improved since being sent down, I’m betting that start will be enough to get Gabbard the callup to take Sidney Ponson’s spot in the rotation this week. they have yet to announce a starter for this Friday’s game against the Mets, and Gabbard’s rest would perfectly coincide with that start.

It is worth noting though, that Eric Hurley’s rest would coincide with Thursday’s game against the Royals. Why is this notable? Well, because it might almost be smarter to call up Hurley, let him debut Thursday against the um, less than remarkable Royals offense, and therefore push Scott Feldman, a guy who has been among the more effective Ranger starters this year, back to Friday against the high-powered Mets lineup. There is room on the 40 man for Hurley, since Elizardo Ramirez was DFA’d to make room for German Duran on the 25 man roster yesterday, so it is something worth considering, at least.

Today is an off day for the Rangers, as Josh Hamilton and Michael Young will try and rest up and rejoin the lineup Tuesday. Young is out with a sore left groin, and Hamilton has been battling a viral infection, but they’re both tentatively expected back to face the Royals. Speaking of Tuesday night, it’s gonna be a matchup of #1 starters who would really be #2 or 3 starters on better teams: Kevin Millwood vs. Gil Meche.

In the meantime, enjoy the off-day folks – if you’re interested, a couple pretty good Rangers prospects go tonight for the Clinton Lumberkings and Bakersfield Blaze in Neftali Feliz and Kasey Kiker – if you’ve got an MiLB.com account, you should be able to listen to those games for free. Me, I’m gonna try to catch Feliz’s start - that kid is dynamite.

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Another game, another bullpen meltdown
June 8, 2008, 5:02 am
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

This is getting quite ridiculous. The Texas Ranger bullpen, that is.

In seven games so far in the month of June, the Rangers ‘pen has allowed 5 runs or more in 5 of those games. They currently rank dead last in the majors with a 5.44 ERA, and a .360 opponent OBP- this while throwing the most innings in the majors at 231.1. They also have 14 losses and 13 blows saves, the second most in the majors on both accounts. And they quite literally blew this latest contest at the Ballpark in Arlington, as Joaquin Benoit and Jamey Wright gave up 3 critical runs in the 8th and 9th innings that wound up sending the Rangers to a 5-4 loss.

This was actually a pretty good ballgame, throughout the first 7 innings. Feldman From Across the Hall was nothing less than brilliant for most of his 7 innings, save for the one mistake pitch he served up to Gabe Gross in the second that turned into a 2-run homer. Aside from that though, all Feldman did was allow a total of 5 hits through 7 innings along with 2 walks, and tie his season strikeout high at 5. In fact, aside from the home run, Feldman did not even allow a runner past second base.

For an effort like that, Feldman certainly deserved a win, but unfortunately, the Rangers offense couldn’t muster more than two runs itself against Tampa bay starter Andy Sonnastine. It’s not that they didn’t have their chances, though, as they left a runner on second base in each of the first four innings, as they would leave 9 overall. They only runs they did muster against Sonnastine came on an RBI double by Milton Bradley in the first, and an RBI single by Michael Young, who extended his hitting streak to 22 games, in the third.

And speaking of Milton Bradley, and speaking of streaks I should probably mention the insane streak he’s been on lately at the plate. In the last week, Milton is hitting .400 (10 for 25) with 2 doubles, 5 homers, 10 RBI and 6 walks. And that’s just over his last 7 games. Over his last 23 contests, Milton is 32 for 83 (.386) with 9 doubles, 9 homers, 25 RBI and 18 walks. That’s a 1.324 OPS for about the last month. And those stats (collected from Baseball Reference) don’t include last night’s performance. Which didn’t end with just the RBI double in the first, by the way.

Milton jacked a solo homer to left in the bottom of the 8th, his 6th homer of the month of June. That would have been the go-ahead homer too, if it weren’t for the fact that Joaquin Benoit had pre-spoiled it, along with Scott Feldman’s pretty outing, by giving up 2 runs in the top of the 8th.

Benoit, who had a 2.20 ERA for the month of May, has seemingly lost it again since the calendar has turned to June. His first outing this month against Cleveland saw him walk 3 and give up 4 runs. He actually pieced together a 1-2-3 inning on Thursday, but his deficient command showed up again last night, as he gave up 2 walks and a pair of doubles to allow the Rays to break a 2-2 tie coming into the 8th inning.

Benoit started things by walking the leadoff batter, and then got Carl Crawford to ground into a fielders choice. But then BJ Upton whacked a double to left, putting runners on second and third, with one out. Eric Hinske was then intentionally walked to load the bases. Benoit did manage to strike out Evan Longoria swinging somehow, on a pitch that some say probably would have been nailed by a more experienced hitter, but it was all for naught, as the next batter, Willy Aybar, hammered a 2 run double into the RF corner before Gabe Gross popped out to end the inning.

That inning, combined with what transpired in the top of the 9th spoiled a perfectly good chance to win for the Rangers. Jamey Wright’s inability to hold a baserunner in the 9th allowed Jason Bartlett to steal second and third, and then score on a wild pitch, and that turned out to be the difference in the ballgame. 

Texas didn’t go down easy at least, as there was some high drama in the bottom of the 9th - in fact they nearly pulled off the rally despite their bullpens shortcomings. The Rangers loaded the bases with one out for Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley. Hamilton hit into an RBI fielders choice to cut the Tampa Bay lead to one and leave runners on the corners for Bradley. And Milton almost came through – he hit a tapper back up the middle, but the Rays got lucky. Dan Wheeler deflected the ball with his glove, and it instead bounced straight to the second baseman. Game over.

Just another game the Rangers could have won if not for the bullpen. Which leads me to this point: I think it may be high time for the Rangers to rethink the back end of their bullpen right now. Benoit seems to have somehow lost his control and mechanics once again – I don’t think he should be pitching in the 8thinning again until he’s spent some time working with Mark Connor and Dom Chiti, and has shown he can get hitters out again like he was in May.

And the same thing goes for Jamey Wright, who has a 5.27 ERA over his last 13 appearances (not counting last night). His mechanics still seem out of whack as well, as he just did not make any efforts whatsoever to hold Jason Bartlett on either first or second base in the 9th inning last night while pitching from the stretch - and this is a pitcher who normally holds runners well. Say what you will about Saltalamacchia being a poor thrower, but between Robinson Tejeda on Friday, and Jamey Wright last night, the 4 stolen bases in the late innings the last two days have been on the pitching staff. Perhaps the entire bullpen could use a refresher course on holding runners.

Anyway, the point I’m getting at is, Wright and Benoit need to start being put into less-critical situations for a little while until they straighten their stuff out again. There’s just no way Eddie Guardado and Frankie Francisco could possibly do any worse in the 8th inning role right now, and I’m getting tired of seeing the Rangers get bombed every stinking time Wright or Benoit come in to try and protect a slim lead or a tie game these days. I understand these are two guys who are supposed to be late inning fixtures this year, but you shouldn’t be costing yourself ballgames like this by running them out there when they’re not effective. It’s counterproductive, both for him and the team – it can’t be good for your starting pitchers to see all their work get blown to pieces by the bullpen.

But enough ranting for now.

Other stuff: Michael Young is going to try to play through his fractured finger, but his cause didn’t get any help last night, as he injured his groin during a 7th inning at-bat. That forced Chris Shelton to play third base for an inning last night, before Gerald Laird pinch-hit for Frank Catalanotto and took over at third. Young won’t be in the lineup today thanks to this latest mini-injury, although he’ll get two days off to recover, as Monday is an off-day for the Rangers.

In the meantime The Rangers are “trying” to get German Duran back from AAA Oklahoma in time for today’s game, as Sunday is the first day he is eligible to be called back up after being sent down at the end of last month. Without him Laird would have to play third again, and that’s something I think we’ve seen quite enough of already.

Also, Josh Hamilton (who DH’d last night) has apparently been under the weather for the last few days, which probably explains his recent slump at the plate. He’ll be missing today’s game as well, as he said:

“Physically, I’ve got a viral infection,” Hamilton said. “I never need a day off, but I’ll probably take one. I think I’m going to try to take tomorrow.”

It’s gonna be a pretty weak lineup today with both Hamilton and Young out. I wonder who hits cleanup - David Murphy?

Now you knew we weren’t gonna get through this entry without some talk about who will replace Sidney Ponson in the rotation: TR Sullivan says Kason Gabbard is the favorite (just as I said last night) pending a start today against AAA New Orleans. according to TR, whether or not Gabbard struggles should indicate if he’ll be the one called up or not. He allowed 5 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks in his first AAA start after being sent down, which isn’t exactly great, but he did at least reach the 7th inning in that game. According to Mark Connor though, his command has improved since he was sent down:

“His command has been a little bit better lately and he’s using his changeup more effectively,” Connor said. “He needs to do that. It’s difficult to come up here and start with just two pitches unless your command is way above average.”

It’s worth noting though that Eric Hurley went a strong 6.2 innings last night for OKC, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks, K’ing 7. He has a 3.61 ERA in his last 5 outings, and appears to be what’s behind door #2 should Gabbard struggle today.

For the Rangers, Doug Mathis makes his fourth start today against Matt Garza for the Rays, who shut Texas down for 8 innings the last time he faced them in Tampa. I have to say, despite what I’ve said in the past about liking Doug Mathis, I am not at all confident with him out there today – in his three starts, he’s allowed an astonishing 37 baserunners in just 12 innings. Even in his one effective outing, he allowed 10 runners in 6 innings. You just cannot do that and be an effective starter in the majors – the more I see Mathis pitch, the more I’m convinced he’s destined for the bullpen. Who knows though, maybe he’ll show us something – but I’m not holding my breath. I’ve got a feeling the only way we’ll avoid the sweep is if we get Mathis some serious run support early and hang on. And with a lineup that’s missing Michael Young and Josh Hamilton… 

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Agony: Rangers bullpen melts down again, drops club below .500
June 3, 2008, 6:08 am
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: , ,

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.

 

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It just comes Natural: Hamilton’s slam leads Rangers offensive explosion in Tampa
May 28, 2008, 4:51 am
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: , ,

So, where you worried that the Rangers offense might be slowing down after scoring just 7 runs in their last 3 games? If so, Josh Hamilton has a message to help ease your mind: watch this.

Tuesday was yet another amazing day for Josh, as it was announced he will become the first Ranger since 1997 to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, an honor he immediately followed up by helping carry the Rangers to a 12-6 win over Tampa Bay with his second career grand slam.

Texas jumped all over Ray’s starter Andy Sonnastine early, scoring 2 runs in the first on back-to-back doubles by Michael Young and an RBI single by Brandon Boggs. They struck again the the second, taking advantage of an error by Rays third baseman Evan Longoriato score 5 runs with 2 out, staking Vicente Padilla to an early 7-0 lead.

The Rays would rally though, as Padilla, who struck out 10 in 6 innings, also surrendured a couple 2-run home runs that allowed the Rays to climb back within striking distance. The first was by Cliff Floyd in the bottom of the second, and Eric Hinskefollowed with another in the fourth. By the 6thinning, Padilla was in danger of coughing up the lead, as the Rays had runners on the corners with no outs after a walk and a single started the inning off. Hinske, who has homered in bothof the series first two games now, dug in witha chance to tie the game withone swing. But Padilla induced a grounder to short, which Michael Young dutifully turned into two outs, and Padilla escaped the frame with a 7-5 lead after he struck out Jason Bartlett.

Eddie Guardado took advantage of another double play to pitch a scoreless 7th for Texas, and then in the 8th the real fireworks went off. After Jarrod Saltalamacchialead off against Rays lefty JP Howell with his second double of the game, Ramon Vazquez bunted into a fielders choice that turned into runners on the corners when Howell failed to get the out at third base. Ian Kinsler singled in Salty, and Michael Young walked to load the bases. That brought up Hamilton, and one 88 MPH JP Howell fastball later, it was 12-5. Said Hamilton of his shot:

“That’s the most frustrated I’ve ever been hitting a grand slam in my life,” he said. “I was having trouble picking up the ball … I actually closed my eyes for a split-second because I thought it was going to [curve] in and maybe hit me. I heard it hit [the bat] and opened my eyes back up, and there it went.”

 Yes, that’s right folks: Josh Hamilton hits grand slams with his eyes closed.

Kameron Loefinished off the game for the Rangers, and had to work out of a spot after he loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 8th. But he escaped with a sac fly being the only damage, and proceeded to pitch a scoreless 9th to send the Rangers to their 27th win of the year, and put them back at the .500 mark.

Speaking of Kam Loe, that may turn out to be a very important outing for him, as the Rangers are currently debating whether it will be him or Doug Mathis that gets sent back to AAA Oklahoma when Kevin Millwood comes off the DL Friday. Mathis had three scoreless relief outings before his first major league start in Minnesota on May 20thproved to be a disaster. But the Rangers where impressed with the way he rebounded over the weekend in Cleveland, when he fired 6 innings of 1 run ball against the Indians. According to Ron Washington, much hinges on whether the club feels Mathis needs to be a starter or not.

“It’s a possibility, but we certainly are going to do what we feel is best to help us,” manager Ron Washington said. “If that means putting [Mathis] in the bullpen, that’s where we are going to put him. If the decision is made that [that a move to the bullpen would hurt him as a starter] then we won’t.”

If it where up to me, I’d rather see Mathis stick around for now, instead of having him bounced back to AAA already – not to knock Kam Loe, but I really like most of what I’ve seen from Mathis so far.

TR Sullivan has a look at how Josh Hamilton and some of the other Rangers players are faring on the all-star ballot so far this year - and from the looks of things, I think Ranger fans need to vote more. Josh, for all of his awesomeness (and the fact that he leads the league in RBI) is only 6th among AL outfielders, behind perennial favorite Manny Ramirez, Ichiro, an aging Vlad Guerrero, Magglio Ordonez, and Bobby Abreu. I know, I know: Bobby Abreu???

Another notable is Ian Kinsler, who is 5th in votes among AL second baseman – somehow, he’s behind Robinson Cano, who is having an absolutely craptastic season so far (.223/.276/.340). Michael Young is also third in the shortstop voting, behind Derek Jeter and Edgar Renteria.

So Ranger fans, we’ve got a job to do: click over to the Rangers site and vote. You can even get free tickets for it. 

There was some other stuff I wanted to get to tonight, but I’m afraid I’m not up for it – a sudden bout with a cold has me about to fall smack on my face asleep here at my keyboard. So instead of waking up later with a kink in my neck and drool all over my computer, I’ll just remind you that Kason Gabbard starts for the Rangers later this morning against the Rays Matt Garza, and go lie down. A win will put the Rangers over .500, a loss will snap the Rangers streak of 9 consecutive series they have won or split. Let’s hope it’s the former outcome.

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Mathis matches wits with Sabathia, Rangers take advantage of 10th-inning error to pull out a win
May 26, 2008, 5:41 am
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: , , , , , ,

“Doug Mathis goes today against CC Sabathia – I hate to be negative, but all I really have to say is, it will be a small miracle if we win this game.”

As you may recall, that was my prediction regarding yesterday’s pitching matchup of the rookie Doug Mathis (who gave up 9 runs in his first major league start just last Tuesday) against the 2007 Cy Young award winner CC Sabathia. I don’t know that I’ve been this happy to be wrong in awhile.

In a way, I guess you could say winning this game was a small miracle for the Rangers, as they took an advantage of a Ben Francisco error in the 10th inning to scratch out a 2-1 win. But what wasn’t a miracle was the pitching of Doug Mathis – his 6-inning line of 1 run allowed on 108 pitches, 7 hits and 3 walks was just a combination of gutsy perseverance and ground balls.

Of course, the timely ground balls (of which Mathis induced 11) and 3 double plays turned by the Ranger defense where what really saved Doug, who only struck out one batter. But on a certain level, you’ve also got to give it up for how the 24-year old Mathis conducted himself on the mound, keeping his cool, and making his pitches – a stark contrast to the horrible command that beleaguered him in his first start. As Mathis himself put it:

“I was a lot more under control today,” Mathis said. “Even early in those jams, I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I slowed myself down and made quality pitches rather than being too anxious and rushing the ball.”

Granted, the early innings where far from a cakewalk for Mathis, as the Indians scored a run in the first on a Victor Martinez RBI single to put themselves up 1-0. They then loaded the bases with one out in the second after a leadoff walk, a single, a sacrifice and an intentional walk to Grady Sizemore. That brought Ben Francisco (who had 5 RBI and 6 runs scored in the series), but Mathis got him to hit a nubber back toward the mound that he barehanded and tossed home for the force out – after which he got Travis Hafner to fly out and end the frame.

After that, Mathis settled down, allowing just 3 hits and one walk the rest of the way, with the three aforementioned double play balls he induced squelching any possible Indian rallys. That proved to be enough to match up with CC Sabathia, who held Texas scoreless on just four hits throughout the first 5 innings. But in the 6th, Ian Kinsler teed off on a 1-0 fastball for a leadoff home run to tie the game at 1 apeice.

Coincidentally, that would be the last hit Sabathia would surrender, and the Rangers would not have another till the 9th inning. But thanks to some effective bullpen work by Frank Francisco and Jamey Wright, the Indians where held in check over the 7th, 8th and 9th innings as well, and the game went into extras still tied at one.

Masa Kobayashi, who had pitched a scoreless 9th for Cleveland, went back out for the 10th inning, and he quickly struck out Chris Shelton and got Marlon Byrd to ground out to start the frame. That brought up Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who was 0-3 on the day. Salty, who crushed his first career grand slam on Friday, has only been hitting .216 since being called up and platooning with Gerald Laird, but he has shown tremendous patience at the plate despite his low average. His 14 walks in just 65 PA’s ties him for 9th among all major league catchers in that category, and have helped him maintain a healthy .385 OBP.

That patience and batting eye was about to come into play again, as Salty battled back from an 0-2 count to work a 10-pitch, 2-out walk from Kobayashi. After the game, Salty said he was trying to find a pitch to drive, and did not intend to get cheated up there:

“I was looking for a sinker that was up to drive because we needed somebody in scoring position,” Saltalamacchia said. “I fouled one off early, and then he kept going to sliders. I wasn’t going to strike out looking in that at-bat. If I was going to go down, it was going to be swinging. He either threw sliders that I fouled off or stuff that was out of the zone.”

With Saltalamacchia aboard, Ramon Vazquez, who had struck out as a pinch hitter in the 8th, came to the plate. Kobayashi fell behind in the count at 2-0, and then delivered a fastball which Ramon lined into RF. And then that happened. Indian’s RF Ben Francisco tried to go down on one knee as he played the ball on a hop, and it squirted between his legs and too the wall. Salty motored all the way home from first, giving the Rangers a 2-1 lead, and Vazquez wound up at third on the error.

Ian Kinsler grounded out to end the inning, but the damage was done for Cleveland. CJ Wilson came out of the bullpen, and executed a shutdown inning, working around a 2 out walk of pinch hitter Ryan Garko to record his 10th save of the season. CJ even struck out 2 batters, Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralata, which is extremely good to see for a guy who hasn’t missed many bats so far this season. He seems to have greatly improved in his last two outings, which is apparently due to spending some time with Mark Connor and Dom Chiti:

“I did have to make a mechanical adjustment,” Wilson said. “Like I was saying a couple of weeks ago, there was a solution and I was looking for it. The coaches helped me out, and it has worked out.”

There’s some good news if I’ve ever heard it – although I’m still not sure he’s going to be our long-term closer.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing in Cleveland yesterday though, at least not for Josh Hamilton, who got ejected from the game by an outright overreaction by home plate umpire Bill Hohn, who Joey Matschulat has some scathing words for over at Baseball Time in Arlington. Hohm tossed Hamilton when he made a slight wave of his hand toward the third base umpire Dale Scott after he was rung up on a check swing (which turned out to be bogus anyway, according to TV replays). Having the third base umpire ring you up on a bad call is bad enough, but getting tossed for waiving your hand in disgust is another matter entirely. After the extreme hometown bias Ranger pitcher had to deal with up in Minnesota this past week, I’m starting to wonder if perhaps there is an ongoing conspiracy among Major League umps to consistently put the screws to the Texas Rangers.

Of course, there’s a chance that could be taken care of if Ron Washington would be a little more vocal in his complaints, instead of rolling over like a pansy (which he did once again after Hamilton’s ejection, by the way). Like the old saying goes: the squeaky wheel gets the grease… I know I probably sound like a broken record when I say this, but perhaps Ron needs to squeak a little more.

From the “injury setbacks” files: Hank Blaock’s carpal tunnel syndrome is not getting any better. Apparently, the medication they’ve given him is not relieving the pain, and it has ruled out his activation during the Tampa Bay series:

“He’s still not any better,” manager Ron Washington said. “I don’t anticipate him being activated [against] Tampa Bay. He came in today, and there was not a whole lot of change. The medicine isn’t working as quickly as we expected.”

Sigh. I’m starting to wonder who will play more innings for the Rangers this year: Hank or Brandon McCarthy?

The Rangers now head for the most craptastic stadium in the Major Leagues (in my opinion, anyway), The Trop in St. Petersburgh, FLA, to take on the Rays. As a result, TR Sullivan has a nice piece out on Josh Hamilton’s first return to the place where it all started (it was Tampa Bay that origionally drafted him #1 overall back in 1999). 

“I’ll get to see a lot of people who were instrumental in getting me back into the game, and I’m grateful to them,” Hamilton said Sunday before the Rangers’ game with the Indians. “I’ll see a lot of players who I played with in the Minor Leagues. It will be good to see them, too. I’m glad I played with them. But now I play for a different team and we’re going in there with the attitude that we need to win.”

Today, it’s Sidney Ponson vs. Scott Kazmir – this will be the third left-handed starter in a row the Rangers face, and the second lefty in three days who sports a sub-2.00 ERA coming into the game. In all likelihood, it’ll be yet another battle for the Ranger offense which has scored just three total runs off Cliff Lee and Sabathia the last two days.

One last item, sort of Ranger related: former Ranger Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres blasted a walkoff homer off former Ranger Edinson Volquez (of the Reds, of course) in the bottom of the 18th inning last night in PETCO park. Volquez, who had just started on Friday, had been brought into the game as the Reds had where running out of pitchers. Insanity.

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Rough debut: Mathis, Rangers hammered by Twins
May 21, 2008, 5:20 am
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: , , , ,

Yeah, it’s official: that 3-week hot streak that got us momentarily back to .500 is over. Since the Rangers reached that precious mark on Saturday, they’ve lost three straight, and this time got their heads handed to them by the Minnesota Twins, 11-4.

Doug Mathis had a horrible debut as a starter in the Major Leagues, as he lasted just 2.1 innings, getting hit for 9 runs (6 earned), on 8 hits and 4 walks, with zero strikeouts. The first pitch he threw got whacked for a leadoff triple by Carlos Gomez, and of the 70 total pitches Mathis tossed, only 38 of them where strikes – a pretty telling factor if you’re looking to summarize his struggles on the hill.

Granted, he didn’t get much help from his defense – Michael Young airmailed the throw to first on a chopper from the second batter of the ballgame (but it would be ruled a single, not an error for some reason) and Jarrod Saltalamacchia made a throwing error on the very next play that allowed a run to score. Later on in the third (an inning in which the Twins scored 6 runs) Ian Kinsler bobbled a double play ball that lead to two more unearned runs.

Even though this was a horrible way for Mathis to debut as a starter, it seems that something good may have come from it, though – Mathis, who has always been noted for his poise, seemed willing to learn from his experience:

 ”I just kind of let it all snowball on me and get hold of me,” said Mathis, who had three scoreless relief innings before Tuesday. “I want to step back and look at this and learn from it. I want to see what adjustments I can make. I know I didn’t slow things down when I needed to. I never got comfortable, and it obviously affected what I was doing.”

 This is the difference between seeing a guy like Doug Mathis struggle, and a guy like, oh, say Sidney Ponson – at least you know something positive can come from it.

While Mathis was busy being schooled, Twins finesse lefty Glen Perkins was busy giving the Rangers fits, allowing just three hits through the first 6 innings. The Rangers did break through for three runs in the 7th, on RBI singles by Saltalamacchia (who has 6 RBI in his last 6 starts), German Duran and Ian Kinsler, and had the bases loaded for Michael Young and Josh Hamilton, giving Ranger fans momentary hope that Texas might put together a huge inning, but Twins reliever Brian bass struck Young out, and got Hamilton ground out, ending the inning. The Twins then tacked on two more against Josh Rupe in the bottom of the inning, crushing any possible ideas of a miraculous comeback for the Rangers.

Regarding this game, I think I’ll leave it to Marlon Byrd to sum things up:

“It wasn’t pretty,” center fielder Marlon Byrd said. “That’s a guy we have to beat. We have to help out Mathis a little. He was a little unlucky and it snowballed. A game like this, you have to pick up the next day, or this can start going backward.”

 The Rangers did get some good news Tuesday on injured starter Kevin Millwood, who threw 35 pitches in a bullpen session without any problems. Mark Connor said “everything looked good” but Millwood’s earliest return is still set at May 31st, so it appears that either Mathis or someone else will get another start or two in the meantime.

Luis Mendoza, on the other hand, who has been on the DL with shoulder pain since his disastrous April 23rd start against the Tigers, has been shut down with a blister on his middle finger that doesn’t seem to be healing. Hey, at least his shoulder appears to be okay.

According to TR Sullivan, the Rangers are still backing CJ Wilson as their closer, and say they think he can improve – but really, given the other options, there’s not much else they can say at this point. Evan Grant notes in his latest newsletter however, that the Rangers where upset with the way CJ obsessed over getting squeezed by home plate umpire Tim Tschida Monday night, both during the game when Mark Connor went out for a mound visit, and in his comments afterwards. Basically, Grant says CJ needs to have more of a ”one track mind” and stay focused on getting outs on the mound if he’s to be effective in the closers role – which in turn makes me wonder even more if closing is not going to be CJ’s best long-term role here in Texas.

Also of interest in Grant’s newsletter was this down in the Q & A section:

Q: I’m really worried about the long-term implications of moving Hank Blalock to first base. Chris Davis seems to be the long-term answer there as early as the end of this year. There is no one close to being major league ready that would be able to consistently produce at the hot corner. I am assuming Ramon Vazquez would get the majority of at-bats at third, with maybe Travis Metcalf or German Duran getting some time there as well. All I’m seeing is Blalock blocking our best positional prospect, with no long-term answer available at third base. What am I missing?

James Morgan, Allen

 

GRANT: James, I did a look at the winners/losers in the Blalock move on our blog and you can find it here.

Bottom line: Blalock is not blocking Chris Davis’ path to the big leagues long term. First, I really think this will end up being Blalock’s last year in Texas, if Davis proves he’s ready to play in the majors. Either the Rangers will not pick up Blalock’s contract option for 2009 or they will pick it up and trade him (if he’s not traded before the deadline). One other scenario: One of them moves back to third (remember: Davis played there last year) and the other stays at first.

Either way, Davis doesn’t have to be in the big leagues right now. With this team close to .500 and the season certainly not dead, the current club is best served having Blalock’s bat in the lineup and having a combination of Vazquez and probably Metcalf (after this week) defensively at third.

If Blalock is your 2009 opening day first baseman and Chris Davis is still in the minors, then either Blalock had a tremendous final four months of the season or Davis slumped badly.

I think this just goes to show how the Rangers painted themselves into a corner on many issues when they gave Michael Young his huge contract extension. They feel they can’t trade MY for the sentimental reasons (and because that stupid contract makes it difficult), so they know they’ll eventually have to move him. And Blalock, the player who probably has more mileage left on him, becomes the casualty.

As for how the Rangers will handle the third base duties in the stead of Blalock, Ron Washington says he’s going to platoon Ramon Vazquez and German Duran for now. According to Ron, Travis Metcalf will need about a month in AAA before he’s deemed ready to be called up – and until then, it’ll be Vazquez against the righties, Duran against the lefties.

Interesting note from the Star-Telegram regarding Milton Bradley: apparently, Ron Washington plans to start him in the outfield for at least 2 of the three upcoming games in Cleveland, while he tries to get Frank Catalanotto at-bats as DH. If Milton proves he’s ready to play the OF on a regular basis again, it could mean Brandon Boggs will go back to AAA when Hank Blalock is brought back up, as he is currently mired in a 3-35 slump. That’s not really something I want to see happen on either account – I want to see if Boggs has the mettle to fight his way out of his slump for one thing, and for another, I think that the Rangers are better off playing Bradley at DH full-time to make sure he stays healthy. I know you want to get Catalanotto some playing time too, but the Rangers screwed themselves out of that when they decided Blalock would move to first base. Keeping Milton Bradley in the lineup and off the DL is more important that AB’s for a declining 31-year old who should have never been signed to a long term contract in the first place, IMO. 

Sidney Ponson takes the hill today against Twins rookie Nick Blackburn. The Rangers could really use a win today, and Ponson could really use a good outing – he has 7.84 ERA in his last two starts, and it’s starting to appear as if the honeymoon period is over for him.

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Blown chances: Rangers drop a tough one in Minnesota
May 20, 2008, 5:36 am
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: , ,

It’s never fun to watch your team blow a ballgame like they did last night in Minnesota. It leaves you looking for someone to blame, and while there’s several scapegoats you could pick for this loss, the biggest culprit was CJ Wilson. The Rangers struggling blue glove lefty blew his second save of the season, and the Rangers could not take advantage of their scoring opportunites in extra innings, as they fell to the Twins 7-6 in 12 innings.

It was admittedly a tough game for the Rangers pitching staff the entire night, as home plate “umpire” Tim Tschida put the squeeze on Texas pitchers all night long with a minaturized strike zone that only seemed to be in effect in the bottom half of innings. That most certaintly contributed to Wilson’s blown save, and it also hampered Scott Feldman in the early going as well.

The Rangers lead 2-0 early on home runs by Josh Hamilton in the first inning, and Ian Kinsler in the top of the third, but the Twins got on the board in the bottom of the inning with an unearned run after Josh Hamilton made an errant throw from center field on a Brendan Harris single. Then in the fourth, Feldman gave up a three run homer to Alexi Casilla – the first major league home run for a guy who has just 7 homers his entire minor league career. Mike Lamb would hit a sac fly in the 6th to put the Twins up 5-2, but the Rangers would rally.

Aside from surrenduring the two early homers, Twins starter Boof Bonser was cruising along through the first 6 inning, allowing just one hit besides the home runs and walking nobody, while striking out 5. But he would break down in the 7th, as Milton Bradley started the inning with a single. David Murphy fouled out, but Brandon Boggs singled to left, and then Frank Catalanotto tapped one back to Bonser, who promptly committed a throwing error, loading the bases for Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who had hit a ball to the warning track in his first at bat and struck out previously. Salty knocked a 2 run single to left on the first pitch he saw from Bonser, to close the gap to 5-4. Delmon Young’s throw in from LF went awry, putting runners on second and third, but the Rangers could not capatalize, as Twins brought in Matt Guerrier to work out of the jam.

They got the job done in the 8th, though - Michael Young singled to start the inning, and after a Josh Hamilton strikeout, Milton Bradley would double him home on a hit-and-run to tie it up. The very next batter was David Murphy, and he singled home Bradley to give the Rangers a 6-5 advantage. After Joaquin Benoit worked a scoreless 8th, all the Rangers needed was three outs from the CJ Wilson for the victory. Lately, though, that hasn’t been quite as simple as it sounds.

After getting Mike Redmond on a groundout to third to start the inning, CJ walked pinch-hitter Craig Monroe. He got ahead of Brendan Harris 0-2, but couldn’t get a strike called on any of the next four pitches, two of which looked good enough to be strike three, but Tim Tschida wouldn’t ring him up. That at-bat pretty much broke the inning for CJ, although after the game, he wasn’t making any excuses: 

“Apparently I thought I missed on a couple of locations,” Wilson said. “I thought I threw some pretty good pitches. It was a tough zone all night, but we have to make a collective adjustment. This is the big leagues. You need to be able to throw it in a teacup if you need to throw it in a teacup. That’s the gist of it. I cost the team a win tonight.”

After Harris walked, CJ broke off a curveball in the dirt for a wild pitch to Joe Mauer, moving the runners up. Mauer then dropped one into center to tie it at 6, resulting in the blown save for CJ, who to his credit, did escape the inning on two fielders choice’s.

The Rangers had one big chance in extra innings, when they loaded the bases with one out in the 11th, but Twins rookie Bobby Korecky came on in relief of Jaun Rincon and struck out Ian Kinsler and Michael Young. Frank Francisco escaped a bases loaded situation on the bottom of the inning himself, but the Rangers went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 12th.

Then, in the bottom of the inning, Franklyn German came on, and things predicatbly fell apart, although it really wasn’t German’s fault this time. Carlos Gomez had a leadoff infield single, on what probably should have been a Michael Young error, and was moved to second on a hit-and-run groundout. After an intentional walk to Mike Lamb, utilityman Howie Clark sent one into CF, where Josh Hamilton, who was playing shallow to try and cut off the run on any singles, misjudged it, and allowed it to go over his head for a double – another play that probably should have been an error - a drepressing end to a ballgame the Rangers pretty much gave away.

Nobody really knows what’s up with CJ Wilson right now – he’s given up 7 runs now in his last 5 appearances, and has a 7.04 ERA for May. It’s hard to say that these struggles are recent, though – as I’ve mentioned in the past, CJ hasn’t been getting enough strikeouts the entire year (less than 10% of his pitches this season are being swung on and missed) compared to his walks. He does somehow have a pretty good .235 BABIP (batting average on balls in play) but he’s simply allowing too many baserunners (which was a bit of a problem for him last year as well) and he’s not missing enough bats to get outs when he needs them. Perplexing, to say the least – I don’t currently advocate his outright removal from the 9th inning role (for now at least, although I am starting to lean toward exploring other options), but it’s starting to appear more and more certain that closing is not going to be CJ’s long-term role for this club.

In other news, Michael Young says he does not want to move to third base, and he’s being pretty snooty about it, too:

“Absolutely not,” he said before the Rangers’ game with the Twins at the Metrodome on Monday night. “It hasn’t been brought up. It hasn’t been brought up to me, so it hasn’t been brought up.”

…

“There is no reason for me to move to third base,” Young said. “I can’t envision what’s going to happen down the road, but for right now and the near future, any position other than shortstop is not an option.”

…

“If something happens down the road and the team is better served by me moving, I’m sure there will be some discussions,” Young said. “But the time is not now, and I don’t see it in the near future.”

Quite a disappointing attitude from the guy that is supposedly our team leader and the “face of the franchise”. You’d think Michael would be big enough to say that he’ll do what’s best for the team (like Hank Blalock just did), but all he does is say there will be “discussions” and acts as if suggesting that he needs to move to third is an insult to him and his abilites. To me, that’s far from the attitude of the indispensable leader he’s supposed to be to this team - in fact, it reminds me of our egotistical old friend Alfonso Soriano, whose refusal to bend was the reason Young had to move to short in the first place.

Seriously, if MY’s gonna pitch a fit over moving from SS to 3B, I see absolutely no reason to keep him and force him into it. If he won’t make the move voluntarily, trade him. Eating a good chunk of his contract, and getting a prospect or two is better than paying him uber-money to begrudgingly provide sub-par offense, and likely sub-par defense at third base - I’m sure he’ll waive his no-trade clause if it means he gets to keep his precious status as a middle infielder.

TR Sullivan has a 2008 draft preview out – he says the Rangers may look to draft more college players if possible this year, rather than the younger high schoolers they have drafted in recent years, in an effort to find players who might be ready sooner. I don’t really care about that whole college vs. high school philosphy, myself – I’m not much into predicting which draft picks the Rangers will take, I just want them to take the best players available, and not try to cherry-pick positions. If they can do that, I’ll be happy – which, according to JD, is what he plans to do.

Doug Mathis will make his first Major League start tomorrow – and unlike what was previously thought, it might not be his only one - Kevin Millwood’s rehab is apparently progressing slowly, which could result in another 2-3 starts for Mathis. Anyway, best of luck to Doug as he faces off agaist Twins lefty Glen Perkins – I’m anxious to see how he does. 

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Rangers winning streak snapped in a wild one with the A’s
May 12, 2008, 5:26 am
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: , ,

The Texas Rangers have won 5 series in a row. But they have yet to sweep one this year, unless you count a two-game set up in Toronto on April 16-17. Case in point: they couldn’t finish off the A’s on Sunday in Arlington, instead getting beat by a final of 12-6.

It wasn’t quite as bad as the final score suggested, though – the Rangers did at least make it interesting, making a rally (albeit short-lived) after Sidney Ponson gave up 4 runs in the first inning.

Ponson had his first rough outing since being brought up from the minors April 27th. After allowing just one earned run in each of his first three outings, Sir Sidney hit the second batter of the game, and then gave up a double, single and 3-run homer to allow the A’s to jump out to a 4-0 lead. But Ponson would settle down, and the Rangers would make it a ballgame.

Milton Bradley hit and RBI double in the bottom of the first, and Ian Kinsler singled in a run in the second. Then with the bases loaded and 2 out in the third, Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a 2-run single to right to tie the game – but got thrown out trying to leg it into a double, ending the inning.

Josh Hamilton would gave the Rangers a short-lived lead by tripling home Frank Catalanotto in the 4th, but Ponson, who recovered to toss four scoreless innings after the debacle in the first, ran out of gas in the 6th. He walked three on the inning, including walking in the tying run before he was removed for Franklyn German, who gave up the go-ahead sac fly to Frank Thomas.

Michael Young would tie it again at 6 with an RBI single the next half inning, but in the top of 7th, things fell apart for good. With runners on the corners and no outs, Franklyn German had Mark Ellis picked off on a steal attempt. But German failed to take pay enough attention to the runner at third, Bobby Crosby, who would break for home while Ellis was in the rundown. Frank Catalanotto gunned the ball to the plate, but it was late, and Saltalamacchia couldn’t handle it, as Crosby scored and Ellis wound up on second anyway, in what would be scored as a double steal. From there, the A’s never looked back, tacking on another run that inning, and again in the 8th, before hammering Eddie Guardado for three in the 9th to officially make it a blowout.

While the winning streak ended, and the A’s racked up the runs late, there where some positives to take away from his one though: Jarrod Saltalamacchia finally had a decent day at the plate, going 1-2 withhis clutch hit in the third and two walks, perhaps a sign that he might break out of this 2-16 slump he’s been in since the start of the Seattle series. Josh Hamilton also went 2-5 with a double and a triple, and looks to be breaking out of the recent slump he’s been in as well.

Other important news: Kevin Millwood has indeed gone on the 15-day DL with his groin strain, and is now saying he felt a “stabbing pain” on his pitch to Jack Cust Saturday:

“I felt it on the 1-0 pitch to Cust,” Millwood said after the game. “I tried to throw another pitch and I felt the same thing. It was a bit of a stabbing pain, even though I hadn’t been stabbed.”

In his stead, the Rangers have added Doug Mathis to the 40-man roster, and purchased him from AAA Oklahoma. Mathis was Texas bullpen Sunday, and will start off doing long relief work, as the Rangers will skip Millwood’s spot in the rotation until May 20th. Once the time comes though, Mathis will probably be one of the favorites to make the 1 or 2 starts that will be required in Millwoods absence, assuming he’s not worn out from some long relief outing a couple days before. the 24 year-old Mathis had been 5-0 with a 3.55 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP at Okalahoma, so I’m interested to see how he’ll do – he doesn’t profile to be much more than a back-of-the-rotation guy, like Luis Mendoza and AJ Murray, but these days we can never have enough of those.

The club also slid Kazuo Fukumori though waivers to clear him off the 40-man roster. This wasn’t to get Doug Mathis onto the roster, as he is taking up Ben Broussard’s vacated spot, but rather the Rangers apparently want to keep their options open by keeping only 39 men on the roster - either that or they have impending plans for somebody in the minors who is not on the roster, such as Eric Hurley. Perhaps I’m reading too far into this, but it’s kind of surprising to me that the Rangers would seemingly give up on their high-profile Japanese signee after just 4 appearances in the big leagues. Of course, in those 4 appearances, Fukumori allowed 9 runs on 11 hits and 4 walks (in 4 innings) and looked absolutely terrible, but he currently has a 1.59 ERA and a 0.71 WHIP, along with 10 K’s in 11.1 innings for Oklahoma. Not that I’m a Fukumori believer, but this move still intrigues me.

I’m running late here again, so for the sake of time, I’ll have condense everything else to quick hits (not that there was anything else really worth discussing tonight anyway): Ron Washington says Brandon Boggs is a “spark plug”… for once, Ron and I agree… the pink bats used on Mothers Day every year are becoming quite a hit with the Rangers… and Marlon Byrd was 3-4 in his second rehab game in OKC, after going 0-4 with 4 K’s in his first.

Today it’s a rematch of Vicente Padilla vs. Erik Bedard. Last time, Padilla tossed 7 shutout innings to outduel Bedard, who only gave up 2 runs in the same amount of frames. This time, there’s some bad blood between the team, though – Richie Sexson is off serving his suspension (which he got knocked down to 5 days on appeal) so he won’t be in the lineup to bean, but with Padilla on the mound, you never know what might happen. Hopefully he’ll play it cool – the best revenge he can dish out would be another superb outing.

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