Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Jason Jennings, Sidney Ponson, Elvis Andrus, Max Ramirez
I guess keeping Sidney Ponson on regular rest turned out to be a good idea after all. After giving up 12 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings his last start, the maddeningly inconsistent Ponson rebounded once again, pitching 7 strong innings to help the Rangers finally break the .500 mark again with an 8-4 win.
The Rangers didn’t waste any time getting on the board in this one – Michael Young had a bloop triple in the bottom of the first (to extend his current hitting streak to 16 games) and Josh Hamilton plated him with an RBI groundout off Joe Blanton, who just couldn’t keep his pitches down over the first couple frames- something Brandon Boggs (who now has 7 RBI in his last 15 AB’s) and Ian Kinsler took advantage of with RBI singles in the second to make it 3-0.
Meanwhile, Ponson was busy cutting though the Oakland lineup at breakneck speed – through the first 4 innings, he had faced the minimum 16 batters. He would wind up going 7 innings while giving up 4 runs on 9 hits and walking nobody. 70 of his 101 pitches went for strikes, something that Joey Matschulat correlates to being a key to his effectiveness last night. Apparently, in the 5 starts like this one, when Ponson has thrown at least 65% of his pitches for strikes, he has a 2.50 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. In his other three starts when he has not thrown 65% of his pitches for strikes, he has a whopping 6.89 ERA/2.23 WHIP – quite the dramatic split. And seeing as how Sidney still gave up 9 hits last night, pinpoint control was clearly the wizard behind the curtain regarding his effectiveness.
5 of those 9 hits Ponson give up came in the 5th inning, which was by far his worst. The A’s touched him for four consecutive singles to open the frame and cut the lead to 3-2, and Jack Hannahan would tie it with a sac fly before Ponson finally struck out Bobby Crosby to stop the bleeding. Fortunately for Sidney, the red-hot top of the order was due up next for Texas.
Ian Kinsler lead things off in the bottom of the 5th witha double to left, and Michael Young quickly knocked him in with a single to right. That brought up Josh Hamilton, who promptly sent a Blanton fastball back behind the Rangers bullpen to make the A’s 3-run gain disappear even faster than Oakland had managed to put it together, and the Rangers would lead from there on out.
Ponson did give up an RBI double to Hannahan in the top of the 7th, but that was the last run the A’s would put on the board all night, and the Rangers broke it open in the 8th. Frank Catalanotto RBI hit an double and Ian Kinsler added his second RBI single of the night to make it 8-4, leaving it to Jamey Wright to come in and retire the A’s in order in the 9th to cap off the win, and put the Rangers above .500 again for the first time since April 10th when they swept that doubleheader against the Orioles.
Some impressive numbers to throw at you from this game, too – Michael Young and Ian Kinsler, who’s 16 and 15 game hitting streaks are currently the longest active ones in the AL, combined to go 6-9 with 3 RBI and a double and a triple last night. The Rangers also did not have a single batter strike out in the game – which is slightly astonishing, considering they lead the AL in strikeouts at 406. Pitching wise, the Rangers did not issue a walk for the second consecutive game (while playing the team that leads the AL in BB’s with 217, no less), and 90 of the 126 pitches thrown by the quintet of Ponson/Guardado/Benoit/Wright in the game went for strikes. Impressive stuff.
As far as the month of May goes, the Rangers set a franchise record for wins in May with 19 victories – that’s also the first time since June 1983 that the Rangers have won 19 games in a month. They are also 22 for the 34 since they ended their 7-game losing streak back in April, and sit just a half-game back of Oakland for second place – a sweep today will propel them past the A’s.
The other big news yesterday was the announcement that Jason Jennings has undergone another surgery on his right elbow ligament – apparently, the ligament was not completely healed from last season’s ligament surgery after all, and had started to deteriorate again. Of course, this leaves him done for the season – in 20/20 hindsight, I guess he wasn’t that great a signing after all. Of course, considering how well JD’s other offseason signings, such as Milton Bradley, Eddie Guardado, and yes, even Ponson have done, I think I can live with Jennings turning out ot be a bust – that, and considering it only cost us 4 million bucks.
Actually, looking at things the way they currently stand, I’m rather relieved that Jason Jennings won’t be rejoining the rotation this year - I didn’t want to see both him and Sidney Ponson clogging up the rotation in the second half, not with the way Scott Feldman has pitched, and not when we’ve got younger guys like Eric Hurley and Matt Harrison to showcase later this year. And unlike Ponson, Jennings wasn’t effective at all this season.
If you’re bummed out over Jennings though, here’s something to cheer you up again: MLB.com’s Shawn Shroyer has a nice article up on the Rangers site about catching prospect Max Ramirez, who is terrorizing the AA Texas League to an otherworldly tune of .377/.455/.683, with 13 HR’s and 40 RBI - that’s a 1.138 OPS. Since his bat obviously isn’t in question, the article focuses mainly on Max’s defensive questions. His defense behind the plate has always been sub-par (he’s a converted 3rd baseman) horrible, and AA Frisco Manager Scot Little says that Max needs more work on “receiving, throwing, blocking and game-calling” – basically meaning that he’s not going to break into the majors as a full-time catcher. His bat however, should have him in Arlington later this season – I wouldn’t be surprised to see him skip AAA altogether if a spot opens up for him on the roster, myself. His future is probably going to be as a DH, but if you’re the Rangers you have to be careful not to pidgeonhole him into that role too soon, as they did with Jason Botts.
In other minor league news, shortstop prodigy Elvis Andrus is going to be out for three weeks with a broken right finger. Apparently, he’s already resumed taking ground balls, but it’s going to be awhile before he can swing the bat again… he had been hitting .268/.322/.316 for Frisco. I always hate to see a prospect like Elvis get injured – it makes me nervous (see also: Joaquin Arias). This probably nixes any dreams people might have of Andrus being ready to play SS on opening day ‘09, although that wasn’t really feasible anyway.
And finally… the Rangers say that Travis Metcalf will likely get a lotof playing time in the coming days, because the Rangers are about to face a gauntlet of left-handed starters again, 4 in the next 5 days. The first one will be Greg Smith tomorrow – Scott Feldman will oppose. If you’re having deja-vu looking at that pitching matchup, it’s because this is going to be the third time already this season that Feldman and Smith will have faced off – the rubber match, if you will, because Smith beat Feldman the first time, and Feldman won the second.
Ahhh, yes… the sweet smell of the air above .500… lets keep it that way, shall we guys?
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: AJ Murray, Brandon Boggs, First Major League homer, Jason Jennings, Joaquin Benoit
Welp, for the second consecutive night, the Rangers allowed 9 runs to the Kansas City Royals. That’s the bad news. The good news was, thanks to 5 home runs, Texas managed to pummel the KC pitching staff for a total of 11 runs, and hang on for their 10th victory of the season.
Milton Bradley got it started with 2 out in the first, when he got one up in the air to left field, and thanks to a 29 MPH wind blowing from right to left, managed to get it over the scoreboard for a 2-run homer – and the struggles of Royals starter Brian Bannister where just getting started.
The second inning was the big one for the Rangers, as Brandon Boggs continued checking “firsts” off his list. Making his first career major league start (in LF), he mashed his first career homer in only his third big-league AB, a solo shot out into the right field seats. Again, congrats to Brandon Boggs - it would seem by the early indications that we’ve got a player on our hands.
But that wasn’t the half of it. After Gerald Laird struck out, German Duran, getting the start at third base, and Ian Kinsler put together back-to-back singles, which Michael Young followed with a walk to load the bases for Josh Hamilton. So, can you gess what happened next? Yep, that’s right, Josh launched a shot up into the jetstream heading out to LF, and dropped a “Ham Salami” into the visitors bullpen. That capped the 5 run inning, and David Murphy would later poke a 2-run shot to RF in the 5th to make it 9-1.
Kevin Millwood, meanwhile, managed to pitch a strong ballgame through 6 innings, despite not having his best stuff or control – all he allowed was a single run in the third. But in the 7th, his pitch count caught up to him, as he allowed 4 runs, including a David DeJesus homer, and allowed the Royals to jump back into the ballgame. Frank Francisco, who came on to bail the Rangers out of the inning, just made things worse, giving up a run on two hits and a walk, recording just one out before Jamey Wright had to come on and finish the inning. That 5-run frame made it 9-6.
Fortunately, Gerald Laird, who had been 0-3 with 2 K’s coming to the plate, picked a great time to cork a 2-run homer to RF in the bottom of the 7th to make it 11-6 Texas – and that would turn out to be one important homer, as the Rangers weren’t done trying to give this game away yet.
The top of the 8th, which was pitched by Jamey Wright, featured not one, but two throwing errors by German Duran, that helped lead to a KC run (which was earned, however) as the Royals continued to chip away at the lead. Then in the 9th, CJ Wilson gave a leadoff double, and then a 2-run homer to John Buck, to pull the Royals within 2 runs before he finally recorded the final two outs of the ballgame.
That, of course, was some completely unecessary drama, but at least the Rangers managed to hang on – it doesn’t say a whole lot for our bullpen that we can’t securely lock down a game that we lead 11-6 after 7 innings, though. Not much you can say about it however, except that Kevin Millwood should have probably been pulled sooner than he was – I know Nolan Ryan has come out recently against watching pitch counts, but still, you have to know the difference between letting a guy who is pitching well go deep into a pitch count, and removing a guy who doesn’t have his best stuff before he tires and gets hammered, which is what happened with Millwood last night.
Other important news around the Rangers hemisphere last night: Jason Jennings has indeed gone on the 15-day DL, as Jennings injury has been revised from an irritated ulnar nerve to “forearm muscle soreness”. So since there appears to be no new injury to Jennings nerves or ligaments in his elbow, the Rangers say Jennings should be back in fairly short order, according to Jon Daniels, who is terming the recent injuries to Kason Gabbard, Luis Mendoza and now Jennings as “short term”. Gabbard, by the way, will make a rehab start on Saturday for Frisco, so he at least appears to be on the road back.
In the meantime, left-hander AJ “Pirate” Murray will now be called up to make the start on Saturday against the Oakland A’s, and Scott Feldman will make the start against them on Sunday. Also, it puts even more importance on Sidney Ponson, as he is indeed going become a mainstay in the rotation, at least for now. I have to say, a rotation filled out by Sidney Ponson and Scott Feldman really does not do very much to make me confident in the least, but as I mentioned yesterday, it’s not like Jennings was doing any better. Or Luis Mendoza, for that matter. I am interested to see what the Pirate can do, though – this may be the best shot Arlington John Murray is ever going to get at establishing himself as a Major-League starter.
In another interesting admission by the organization, Ken Daley’s recent piece on Joaquin Benoit reveals that the Rangers 8th inning man is still dealing with shoulder soreness that is likely a result of his 4-month period of inactivity in the offseason that resulted in him coming to spring training behind the curve physically, and struggling to get his velocity up to its needed level before the start of the year. Benoit’s velocity seems to finally be back to where it needs to be, but apparently, the shoulder soreness has forced Benoit to change his delivery to compensate, which has in turn, thown off his command.
“I’m trying to figure it out,” he said after being scored upon for the fourth time in his last six appearances. “I just need to keep pitching and go through my bad games. I didn’t pitch much in Spring Training, but I’ve got most of my strength back. But arm strength isn’t my problem; it’s where I’m throwing the ball.”
Command, of course, has been the main problem for Joaquin so far this season, as he has walked 12 in 10.1 innings. Hopefully Benoit will figure things out fairly quickly, but this appears to be the price the 2007 Rangers pitcher of the year is going to pay for not taking care of himself in the offseason – it also goes to show that perhaps Major League teams need to keep tabs on the workout programs of their star players in the offseason. Because problems like this are just frankly unaceptable.
Also worth noting is the hiring of former baseball Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey to take over the newly-created position of “executive vice president of marketing and community development” – or, in other words, PR guy. I admit, I’m not really sure exactly how much of an impact this will make on the organization and their PR campaign, since I don’t live in the Dallas/FW area, but Joey Matschulat, over at BTiA doesn’t seem to like it too much - and I can see why. Petroskey doesn’t seem to really seem to have any real knowledge of the Rangers fanbase or organization, and based on his recent resignation from the HOF due to “exercise proper fiduciary responsibility” he doesn’t exactly have a sterling job record. That makes him seem like a somewhat odd choice for the job of Rangers PR guy – although one might think that due to his political ties, he may be able to assist with the problems the Rangers have had trying to get pitching prospects Omar Beltre and Alexi Ogando into the country. Not sure if that has anything to do with his hiring, but it is a possibility.
Today, Sidney Ponson takes on Zack Greinke in a day game to finish out this 3-game set with the Royals. As I mentioned yesterday, Greinke has been lights out to start the season for KC – he was 3-0 wiith a 1.25 ERA and a 1.111 WHIP for April. I can only hope that Ponson can be as effective as he was in his first start tomorrow.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Bad Managing, Chris Shelton, First Major League hit, Jason Botts, Jason Jennings, Ron Washington
After Tuesday night, the Rangers are 0-6 in games Jason Jennings has started this season. And Jennings himself is now 0-5. He only lasted 2 innings and 53 pitches, and he managed to give up 5 runs on 8 hits and a walk in those two frames – reminiscent ofso many starts before, when he buried the Rangers by allowing runs early. But this time, he wasn’t pulled because of his performance, or lack thereof – this time, he at least had a valid excuse for leaving early. He was in the midst of sparing us all to death with the same flat, slow “sinking fastball” that has gotten him tattooed so many time this season, when he “felt a twinge” in his elbow after allowing a leadoff single to Ross Gload in the third. It appears Jennngs has aggravated his ulnar nerve, and is now “uncertain” as to when he’ll pitch again.
Really, considering the way he has been pitching, it’s hard to get too upset about this development – Jennings is only here on a 1-year, $4 million dollar contract, and means absolutely nothing in the Rangers long term plans. It’s always unnerving to lose a starter, but Jennings has been more of a liability than anything for the rotation so far – this probably means that Sidney Ponsonis now a new mainstay in the rotation, but other than that, I’m actually having a hard time coming up with a downside to this injury. I hesitate to say I’m happy about losing one of our own players, but still…
As for the rest of the game, Jennings craptasticperformance before he hurt himself, along with some crappy first-inning umpring pretty much buried the Rangers for the entire night. Home Plate asshole – er, umpire, that is, Bill Welke was on a roll when the game got started, and that roll went against the Rangers in a big way.
In the top of the first, Welke absolutely blew a call at home plate, when Jose Guillen groundedinto a fielders choice with one out and runners on the corners. Ian Kinsler fired Guillen’s grounder to the plate, and as replays would later show, Jarrod Saltalamacchia applied the tag to runner Mark Grudzielanek in time - but Welke called him safe, and the Royals scored twice more in the inning to take a 3-0 lead. This would have been a fine time for Ron Washington to get himself tossed, and perhaps make a point to Welke (not to mention motivate the team, perhaps) but he didn’t – and things where about to get worse.
In the bottom of the first, Welke called leadoff man Ian Kinsler out on a 3-2 pitch that appeared to be outside, again, according to replays. Kinslertook issue with the call (small wonder) and wound up getting tossed by Welke, who made a huge show out of the entire affair.
This was where Ron Washington needed to step in and get in Welke’s face. You’ve got to protect your players, and taking the previous half-inning into consideration, a statement clearly needed to be made by somebody. Of course, we’ll never know whether it would have done any good or not, because Ron chickened out again, and trotted back to the dugout with the defeated Kinsler.
It never ceases to sicken me, how much Ron lets his players get trampled on – he was only ejected once in 2007, and he hasn’t been ejected yet this year, either, despite having ample chances like last night. Now I’m not necessarily saying we need a Lou Pinella-type managing this team, but as a major league manager, you just cannot let your players get shit on like that. In my opinion, doing so is inexcusable for a guy who’s supposed to be leading a baseball team.
The rest of the game wasn’t really much to write home about – Josh Hamilton picked up his AL-leading 28th RBI, and the Rangers did manage to rally back to within two, but Saltalamacchia pulled a Gerry Laird move when he fouled out to the catcher with two men on in the bottom of the 7th, and Joaquin Benoit allowed the Royals to put the game away when he gave up a 2-run triple to Mark Teahen in the top of the 8th – the Royals would win by a final of 9-5. Perhaps the real highlight of the game was Brandon Boggs, who made his Major League debut pinch hitting for Frank Catalanotto in the bottom of the 5th, and collected his first two big-league hits, in his first two big-league AB’s. Congrats, Brandon – always encouraging to see something like that.
More important where the roster moves the Rangers made before the game. The aforementioned Boggs was called up to take over Hank Blalock’s roster spot, as expected, but in a suprise move, Jason Botts was DFA’d for Chris Shelton. Bottshad only been hitting .158 with 18 K’s in 38 AB’s so far this season, but this was the guy that the Rangers wanted to give once last chance at a real shot at the big leagues, because of his stellar minor league record - a guy who even got an endorsement from Jon Daniels in spring training.
Now, I completely agree with bringing Chris Shelton up – he was hitting a stellar .354 with 3 HR and 18 RBI in OKC, and his ability to act as a third catcher if needed adds much-needed versatility to the bench, and will allow the Rangers to get Jarrod Saltalamacchia much-needed AB’s at DH on days Gerald Laird catches. But the guy DFA’d should have been Ben Broussard, who has been almost totally worthless this season, as he is hitting .173 with a .244 OBP in 75 AB’s – that’s a .537 OPS. Not to say that Botts was really doing any better, but at least he had even that slight chance to factor into the Rangers long-term plans – something that can’t be said for the 31- year old Broussard.
Another case of the Rangers not finishing what they started – they put Botts on the roster with the intent of finding out if he could hit, once and for all, and yet they only gave him 38 at-bats before deciding to chuck him. Not a very good sample size – this just illustrates the Rangers propensity to overvalue their spares with “major league experience” and trod on the players who are supposed to be getting a chance to prove themselves. Not encouraging, regarding the Rangers player management skills, although it admittedly was probably too late for Jason Botts, whose career was mismanaged by the Rangers right from the start – he should have gotten a real chance a couple years ago, before it came down to a lack of options and roster space.
With all the players that have cleared waivers lately (Shelton, Robinson Tejeda, Nelson Cruz) I imagine it’s very possible that Botts makes it through, if he’s not traded first, but if he does, he’s not gonna see the Majors again anytime soon – and, it might be a little awkward, considering the potshot at the organization he took when he got the news:
“I think I’ve been here for a pretty long time and I deserve a fresh start somewhere else. It’s not the most negative thing to me right now that this has happened. I’m excited about it.”
Asked if he thinks he’ll get back to the majors?
“I don’t know. I think there’s plenty of examples of people leaving the Texas Rangers and going on to really great things. There could be something huge in my future. Kind of an exciting moment.”
I feel for ya, Jason – at this point, I just hope you wind up with an organization that will have a place for you.
Anyway, I’m running out of time for this entry already (I’ve got to start writing these things a little earlier), so I’ll just do a few quick hits here: Ron Washington is makingthe team take infield practice before games… it’s also noted in there that Scott Feldman is still likely to start on Saturday against the A’s, despite throwing 68 pitches last night… Ron also finally had his meeting with JD about the state of the team – it appears Ron’s not gonna be axed for a little while yet, which bums me out, of course… and Michael Young wants to start the all star game this year. Good luck with that, Mr. No-range-at-shortstop-whatsoever.
Tomorrow it’s Kevin Millwood vs. Brian Bannister – Bannister has a 2.48 ERA and a .195 opponent average – but he has given up 7 runs and 13 hits in his last 11.2 innings. If the Rangers are gonna win a game in this series, I’ve got a feeling they’d best do it now – Zack Greinke, who starts for the Royals on thursday is 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA so far this season.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Bad Managing, Frank Catalanotto, Jason Jennings, Left on Base, Ron Washington channels Joe Morgan, Salty watch
Welp, make that 7 straight losses. Boy, we all knew this would be a tough road trip, but I don’t think even the most pessimistic of Ranger fans would have predicted that we’d lose 7 straight to the Red Sox an Tigers, and wind up with the franchise’s worst start since 1982.
After sitting through the heartless slaughter that was Wednesday nights game, I wasn’t able to get too upset about today’s loss, however. Probably because I fully expected the Rangers to get beat anyway. I think the real shock would have been if we had somehow managed to avoid the sweep with Jason Jennings (or Scott Feldman, for that matter) on the mound.
Jennings wound up making his scheduled start, despite the fact that the Rangers had previously reported that Scott Feldman would make a spot start, and allow Jennings to get two extra days rest before starting again. Instead, they held Feldman out to be used in long relief if needed, and sent down Wes Littleton, who had thrown 82 pitches appearing in 3 of the last 4 games for the Rangers, and called up Kazuo Fukumori (as I predicted yesterday – check it out, I finally nailed a prediction! Wheee!!!). They have yet to place Luis Mendoza on the DL yet though, and are still keeping their options open on whether to start Feldman against the Twins Saturday, or call up AJ Murray or Sidney Ponson.
Anyway, Jennings (or Jenny, as I think I’m going to start calling him) was his typical self Thursday, lobbing meatballs up to the plate when he did hit the zone, and only actually hitting the zone about 50 percent of the time, as only 44 of his 81 pitches through 5 innings where strikes. He gave up three home runs, one to Curtis Granderson, and two to Magglio Ordonez, which accounted for all 5 of the runs that he surrendered, and walked 5 on the day before he was lifted for Kaz Fukumori, who promptly gave up back-to-back jacks in his first inning of work to Brandon Inge and Ryan Raburn.
Raburn’s homer, which was to RF, was a bit of a controversial one, as it hit the yellow line atop the wall, and bounced back onto the field of play. I couldn’t tell you if it was a homer or not from the replays I’ve seen, but the umpires did call it a big fly however, after a quick huddle to discuss it – something that only brought marginal protest from Ron Washington. This is one of my biggest problems with Wash: that’s a call that most major league managers would, and probably should get ejected over. Especially when your team is on a 6 game (now 7) losing streak. Not that it would have probably made eny difference in the outcome of game, but Ron had the perfect opportunity to show some fire, and send the message to his players that he actually cares about this team, and is willing to fight for it, but no, Ron just strolled out, briefly conversed with the ump, and strolled back to the dugout as if he’d just gone out to get the address of the nearest fried chicken joint.
Small wonder why players like Frank Catalanotto have been complaining lately about the stagnant atmosphere in the clubhouse:
“It’s getting a little monotonous, every single day seeing the same thing. “You come out, you play lethargically and nothing changes. I wish I had the words to say what it is. We need to pitch better. We need to hit better in the clutch. It seems like right now everything’s going wrong for us.”
I think the above-chronicled events are a perfect example as to why that feeling is so prevalent in the Rangers clubhouse.
Getting back to the game for a moment, the Rangers offense continues to disappoint: they left another 11 men on-base, stuck out 19 times, and failed to take advantage of the fact that Detroit starter Jeremy Bonderman walked 7 and threw only 56 strikes of 110 pitches during his 4.2 innings of work. The only two Ranger runs of the game came on Michael Young’s solo home run in the first, and a bases loaded walk of David Murphy by Bonderman in the 5th, as the Rangers mustered just 4 hits to go along with the 8 overall walks they took on the day. They are now hitting .194 with RISP – that is one ugly stat.
Other notable news: both Ian Kinsler and Milton Bradley had the day off with sore hamstrings. According to the Rangers, it’s nothing to be alarmed about – Kinsler asked for the day off to take a breather, and Ron Washington held Bradley out as a precaution, despite originally planning to play him. Hopefully, this won’t affect Milton’s play, but Ron’s statement about whether or not this is part of his knee problems is kind of cryptic, though:
“His hamstrings have been sore for the last week or so,” Washington said. “But as a designated hitter, he can manage it. His [right] knee is fine. There is no problem with his knee. But this could be a part of that. I don’t want him pushing it.”
Just for fun, I’m going to tag this entry with “Ron Washington channels Joe Morgan” again.
Salty watch: Hopefully, this will be the last Salty watch I do this year. There’s not anything official that I can find on Salty’s callup as of 1 AM PT here tonight, so the official word won’t come down until the morning, but based on everything I’ve heard, this is it. I can only hope his stay will be permanent, and that he will immediately take over the full-time catching duties from 5 tools Laird – it really doesn’t make sense to call him up and just send him back down, so I’m hoping that will be exactly the case.
In my realistic estimation however, he’ll probably get only 4-5 days behind the plate though, as the Rangers continue to try and “inflate” Laird’s trade value – hopefully, Milton Bradley’s legs are OK, and he can play the field a little more so Jarrod can DH when he’s not catching. The last thing we need to have happen is Salty being run out there at first base again. Hopefully the Rangers will have figured out that’s not a good idea by now.
Tomorrow (or today, depending upon how you look at it), it’s Kevin Millwood vs. Twins rookie right-hander Nick Blackburn. Hopefully the Rangers can get something going against him, although he has pitched well to start his freshman season in the bigs. Interesting stat: Kevin Millwood has never beaten the Twins in his career, and has a 5.64 ERA against them.
Hopefully, Salty will make his 2008 debut tomorrow, and maybe provide the offense with some spark – we sure could use it.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Eddie Guardado, First Major League hit, Gerald "Superstar" Laird, German Duran, Jason Jennings, Joaquin Benoit, Left on Base, Salty vs. Laird, Why I hate knuckleballers
You had to know it was going to be a tough series for the Rangers in Boston, taking on the defending World Series champs. But it’s always exceedingly frustrating to see your team blow a late lead, even if it is against the Red Sox.
That’s exactly what happened on Saturday night, as setup man Joaquin Benoit had his second consecutive rough outing to blow a 3-2 Ranger lead in the 8th inning.
Jason Jennings, who got rocked in his first three starts of the season, managed to battle to his first quality start of the season, despite possessing sub-par control against the loaded Boston lineup. Jennings threw 100 pitches over 6 innings of work, but only 57 went for strikes, and he was 9-9 in groundball/fly ball outs, but he managed to shut the Sox out for 5 innings after giving up 2 runs in the first.
According to TR Sullivan’s post game write up, Jennings relied on a cut fastball to keep the Sox from pulling the ball over to the green monster.
“It was good I finally gave us a quality start and give us an opportunity to win the game,” Jennings said. “From that aspect, I was pleased. But coming away with a loss is a little frustrating.
“I felt like I was able to get the ball down in the zone and hit my spots more consistently. But I have to build on it. One game is not going to get it. I have to repeat it.”
Even so, Jennings seemed to go deep into the count on almost every batter, and sure didn’t pitch with the efficiency of someone who was having his best start of the season so far. But perhaps last night, that worked to his advantage, as there’s no denying the results.
The Rangers lead 3-2 after scoring a single run in each of the first three frames. Josh Hamilton launched his fourth homer of the season, a green monster shot of lefty Jon Lester in the top of the first to get the scoring started. After the Red Sox answered in the bottom of the first, Adam Melhuse tied it up with an RBI single to plate David Murphy. German Duran, making his first ever start in LF, bagged his first career hit, a single to right center that put runners on the corners for Ian Kinsler, but Kinsler flew out to CF. That was the first of three consecutive innings the Rangers would leave a man standing on third base.
Jason Botts doubled in Josh Hamilton to give Texas the lead with one out in the top of the 3rd, but the Rangers would leave Hank Blalock stranded at third base when David Murphy and an Gerald Laird struck out to end the frame. They did it again in the 4th, when Michael Young’s 2 out single got Ian Kinsler to third, but Josh Hamilton grounded out to end that scoring chance for the Rangers as well. The inability to come through in those situations would later come back to haunt the Rangers, as their slim one-run lead would not hold up in the 8th inning.
After Jamey Wright got through a scoreless 7th, Joaquin Benoit came in for the 8th inning. Benoit, who struggled his last outing in Toronto, getting charged with three runs on a hit and three walks, started the inning by getting Jacoby Ellsbury to pop out. But then Dustin Pedroia doubled off the monster, and the rally was on for the Red Sox. David Ortiz was up next, prompting the Rangers to swing the infield around to the right, the standard defensive book against Big Papi. Ortiz smashed a ball right into the shift, to the right of Ian Kinsler, who was playing on the RF grass. Kinsler dove, and managed to get his glove on it, but could not stop the hot smash. It skipped into right field, and Pedroia motored home with the tying run. With Ortiz on first, Manny Ramirez was next, and the result was almost predictable. On an 0-1 count, Benoit threw a fastball at the knees, but Ramirez crushed it over the moster for the go-ahead 2-run homer, making it 5-3 Sox. Benoit retired the next two in order, but it was too little, too late.
After that, Jonathan Papelbon came on in the 9th to close the game out with a few 96 mph heaters, and the Sox comeback win was complete. To add to the deflating feeling at the end of this one, Milton Bradley even saw his 13 game hitting streak snapped, as he flew out to deep center in a lone at-bat as a pinch hitter for Gerald Laird, making the final out of the ballgame. Pretty lousy way to see a hitting streak like that come to an end.
There’s not too much you can say when your best setup guy gets clobbered by one of the best offenses in the game, but the real dissapointment of the night was the lack of offensive support. Including the aforementioned three consecutive innings in which the Rangers left a man at third, the Rangers left 13 men on base overall. Josh Hamilton and David Murphy left four men apeice, and Michael Young and Ian Kinsler three. But the biggest dissapointment of the night offensively was Gerald Laird.
In perhaps the joke of the season, Laird started the game at DH (for the first time in his career), and proceeded to go 0-4 with three strikeuts and 6 LOB, lowering his season average to .218. Never mind what horrible decision it is for a manager to have his offensively-challenged catcher DHing, but this, people, is why this offense needs Jarrod Saltalamacchia in it. Aside from striking out with a runner on second and one out in the 2nd inning, Gerald’s other three outs where all inning-enders, in the 3rd, the 5th, and perhaps most critically in the 8th, when he blew the Rangers last chance to score before Benoits meltdown, and struck out with runners on first and second. There’s no denying that this game might have been a lot different if you had had Salty up at the plate instead of Laird, but it’s not about just this one game. This is just a fine example of how bad Laird has been at the plate so far this year.
How bad has Laird been? Well, in 55 AB’s this year, he has 12 hits, which as I mentioned above, is a .218 average. That’s bad enough. But if you take out his mirage performance on April 6th against the Angels, when he went 4-5 with 2 HR and 6 RBI, he has 8 hits in 50 AB’s, which is a .160 average, and only 2 RBI. In fact, out of all AL starting catchers, only Kenji Johjima of Seattle has a worse average (.212).
With numbers that bad, it really makes you wonder exactly how much longer the Rangers can let Saltalamacchia sit in AAA. Laird’s throwing may be an asset, but his overall defensive game, such as his wandering glove, and average range at the catchers position, is really nothing that can make up for an almost total lack of offensive value. According to Jon Daniels preseason plan, Laird was supposed to be building up his trade value by playing full-time, while Salty honed his defensive skills, at OKC. Well, thanks to his crappy play, Laird’s trade value is going in the wrong direction right now, as he’s picked up right where he left off offensively last season. And Salty is tearing it up in AAA, impressing those who actually watch him play every day.
So how long is it gonna be before Daniels wakes up, and realizes this little love affair with Gerald Laird is getting the Rangers nowhere? When you’re rebuilding, the idea is supposed to be remaining ready to play your young, promising players when they are ready - and Salty looks to be Major-League ready, both offensively, and now defensively. I don’t think it can be denied much longer: Gerald Laird’s time as the Rangers starting catcher is coming to a close. The only question before the Rangers is whether to drag it out, and subject us to more craptastic displays of offensive inability, or get started with the future. What’s it gonna be, JD?
In other Ranger notes, Eddie Guardado is not coming off the DL on Sunday, as I reported yesterday, after all. Guardado says his sore shoulder is still “weak” and he doesn’t want to rush himself back into action. He” throw a bullpen session on Monday, and the Rangers will go from there. Hopefully, it won’t be too much longer till Guadardo is back - right now, with the way Joaquin Benoit has performed his last two times out, it certainly would be nice to have that extra late-inning option in the bullpen.
Tomorrow, Kevin Millwood goes for the Rangers against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. I’m dreading this game, because I really hate it whenever I have to watch/listen to a game in which Wakefield is on the mound – wild pitches, passed balls, 3-2 counts – watching him pitch always seems to be a real drag. He makes a 2 1/2 hour game seem like a 4 1/2 hour game even more efficently than anyone else in baseball. Hopefully the Rangers can square up a few of those knuckleballs, and at least provide us with some moonshot home runs for entertainment, eh? We’ll see.
I was concerned I was missing something when I had to work through the Texas Rangers home opener in Arlington yesterday. As it turns out… not so much. An 8-1 loss isn’t much of a way to kick off the season at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. After the grandeur of the pregame cerimonies, lineup introduction, and the first pitch from 30-year Ranger broadcasting veteran Eric Nadel got the 48,808 fans in attendance revved up, what followed can only be termed as a cruel gutpunch of dissapointement.
Offseason free-agent signing Jason Jennings, making his second start of the season, didn’t look very sharp at all, giving up two home runs for the second straight game, and lasting just 4.2 innings.
Home plate ump Brian Gorman wasn’t helping matters, as the Jennings had to deal with a miniaturized strike zone from the start of the game – he walked the bases loaded in the first inning before escaping by getting Ramon Hernandez to ground out. But that didn’t change the fact that Jennings didn’t have his best stuff, or his best velocity, as 2 of the 7 Oriole hits off of him where doubles to go along with the homers surrendured to Scott Moore and Luke Scott. Jennings wound up charged with 4 of the 8 Baltimore runs, while walking four, and striking out just one.
Things didn’t exactly improve on the mound for Texas after Jennings exited in the 5th, as Jamey Wright gave up 2 unearned runs in an 1.1 of work (thanks to an Ian Kinsler error in the 6th) and Josh Rupe gave up 2 runs in 2 innings of work, while walking a batter. Frankyln German did pitch a scoreless frame in his first outing since being pulled from his last appearance with back soreness, however.
Meanwhile, the Rangers offense continued to showcase their all-or-nothing tendencies to hit with runners in scoring position, going 1-9 in RBI chances on the day, leaving 9 men on base overall. They are now hitting .214 overall with RISP.
Ian Kinsler may have had the only RBI of the game for Texas in the 7th, but he also grounded into two double plays on the day, perhaps a big factor as to why the Rangers failed to peice anything together against Oriole 5th starter Brian Burres. It’s also worth noting that even David Murphy was just 1-4 with 5 LOB in the game, and Marlon Byrd was 0-2 before being pinch hit for, and is still looking for his first hit of the season. On the bright side, however, Milton Bradley had 2 hits, and now has a 4-game hitting streak.
To sum it up though, it was just a pretty miserable game for the entire team yesterday, in one of the biggest games of the year for the Rangers – heck, even Tom Hicks managed to pry himself away from his precious Liverpool soccer team to come take in the game. But it’s only a single contest, one that will hopefully be swiftly forgotten as the season rolls on. After all, there’s certainly no reason to remember this one.
In other, more encouraging news, 5th starter Luis Mendoza dazzled in a rehab start for AAA Oklahoma on Monday night, pitching 7.1 innings, giving up 7 hits, and one run, but walking no one and striking out two. Currently on the DL for a blister problem, Mendoza is scheduled to be activated Saturday to take on Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay, so it’s certainly good to see him looking sharp.
The Redhawks also won last night, 7-5 against Nashville, with Eric Hurley getting roughed up for 7 hits and 4 runs in just 4.1 IP, but some guys that could wind up in the Texas bullpen later this year, Elizardo Ramirez and Frank Francisco, had good nights – Ramirez tossed 2.2 scorelesss innings in releif, and Francisco notched the save. Jarrod Saltalamacchia wasn’t in the lineup for the second time in three days in OKC, held out tonight after going 0-3 with a walk on Monday night – hopefully all is well with him.
Tonight, the Rangers have Kason Gabbard on the mound vs. Steve Trachsel – Gabbard turned 26 yesterday, so another outing like he had against the Angels last week would sure make a nice belated birthday present. Hopefully he can at least slow down the O’s, who have now won 6 straight – and hopefully, he can get a little offensive support, something which has been far too sporadic so far this April for the Rangers.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Clutch hitting, Jason Jennings, Left on Base
The Rangers continued their offensive cold streak tonight in the rubber match of their season-opening series in Seattle.
Some of the credit had to go to Carlos Silva, of course, as he held the Rangers to just three hits over 7 innings, while walking 3 and striking out 5 – a brilliant performance any way you slice it, perhaps the best of the three Mariner starters in the series.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the Rangers where a miserable 3-for-23 with runners in scoring position for the series, and 0-6 last night. And hitting like that just doesn’t win ballgames. It’s more than a little disturbing that this seemingly mirrors the way things started off last year when the Rangers where 2-19 with runners in scoring position in the season opening series against the Angels. And that April turned into one of the worst starts in franchise history.
It may be a little soon to start getting too concerned, only three games into the season, but it’s obvious, the Rangers need to start coming up with those clutch base hits. Hopefully they will start to do so a little sooner than they did last year.
The starting pitching this April has at least been much better than last year. Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla both turned in quality starts the first two games, and Jason Jennings was fairly solid last night, depsite exhibiting signs of what I like to call ”Kameron Loe-itis”.
Jennings was solid for most of the game, even brilliant, at one point retiring ten Mariners in a row. But he got beat by two mistake pitches, one that Jose Vidro got ahold of for a solo shot in the second inning, but the real gut punch came with two out in the in the 5th. After a shattered bat single by Yuniesky Betancourt, and a base hit by Ichiro, Jose Lopez, who had hit all of 11 home runs in 2007, stepped to the plate. Jennings quickly had him 1-2 in the count, but then missed getting at least one borderline call on the corner with his fastball. With the count 3-2, Jennings lobbed a meaty fastball down the middle, which Lopez muscled out to left field to put the Mariners up, 4-0.
Classic Kameron Loe-itis: a strong outing ruined by a couple bad mistakes. Let’s hope Jennings doesn’t make leaving pitches like that out over the plate a habit, or he is going to get killed at the Ballpark in Arlington.
In other news, as we head into an off-day tomorrow, TR Sullivan says that the Rangers infielders are over the nasty flu bug that had affected Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Hank Blalock, and apparently Ben Broussard as well the first two games of the series. Apparently it’s true, because after making 4 errors in two games, everything went smoothely last night. Good news there – I have to say, my hat’s off to all of those guys, playing through the effects of that bug, even if they didn’t play particularly well.
TR also notes that 5th starter Luis Mendoza is on track to make his scheduled April 12th start against the Toronto Blue Jays after going on the disabled list with a blister on his right middle finger at the end of spring training.
After tomorrow’s off-day, the Rangers fly down from Seattle for a weekend series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, right here in my backyard. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go to any of the games, but I might actually get to watch them on TV – which is always a treat, even if I do have to put up with the insipid commentary of Rex Hudler.
