Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: David Murphy, Joaquin Benoit, Matt Harrison, Milton Bradley, Vicente Padilla
Pretty nice bounceback this weekend for the Rangers against the Orioles. After getting blown out in the first game on the 4thof July, they came back and nabbed the next two for the series victory. Pretty sweet, and probably pretty important, considering they now must head back to Arlington for a 4 game set with the division leading Angels.
Saturday they came from behind to win 5-3, thanks in part to a 2-run homer by Ian Kinsler in the 6th inning that put them ahead just in time to get Scott Feldman his second consecutive win. Feldman did a pretty good job of battling his way to another quality start, despite dealing with a lack of command - he gave up 3 runs in the first, and walked 4 while striking out no one, but still kept the O’s off the scoreboard for the next 5 innings. The bullpen took it from there, with CJ Wilson striking out the side in the 9th for the save.
Yesterday’s game wasn’t quite the same cup of tea however – while the Rangers again came back from being down early, the Texas bullpen struggled to hold the lead late in the face of multiple Oriole rallies.
After taking a liner of his shin in his last start, Kevin Millwood wasn’t quite at the top of his game yesterday afternoon, allowing a run in each of the first 3 innings to give the O’s the early lead. But the Rangers battled back against Orioles starter Radhames Liz to tie the game at 3 in the 4th inning - whereupon with 2 out and a man on second came the turning point in the game.
The Orioles chose to walk Milton Bradley intentionally, and go after David Murphy instead – probably a wise strategic move, since Murphy came into the game hitting just .179 for his last 10 contests, and was 0-2 coming to the plate in the 4th. But what the Orioles didn’t know was that Murphy had als spent the weekend looking at tape of himself, trying to figure out what was wrong with his swing. And apparently he found it, because he was about to snap out of his slump with a bang. After talking a ball in the dirt, Murphy got a big juicy fastball out over the heart of the plate from Radhames Liz for the second pitch of the at bat, which quikcly wound up sailing over the high wall down the right field line for a 3-run homer. Murphy would proceed to collect two more hits, going 3-6 on the day and bumping his average up 5 points to .271 – looks like “The Murphinator” has finally returned.
The Orioles, however, just wouldn’t die yesterday. They scored 2 more in the 5th to make it a 6-5 game, and even after the Rangers seemingly blew it open with a 5-run 8th inning, mounted a comeback via longball. Nick Markakis blasted a 3-run homer off Josh Rupe in the 8th necessitating the use of Eddie Guardado to get out of the inning, and CJ Wilson to close it out in the bottom of the 9th. And even CJ, who had not allowed a hit his last 4 outings, got touched as Kevin Millar and Melvin Mora both jacked solo homers off of him, cutting the Ranger lead back down to one again. Fortunately, CJ struck out Brian Roberts to end it before things got any uglier, securing his 21st save of the season and sending the Rangers back to Arlington 3 games over .500.
While they may be 3 games above .500, the Rangers still aren’t coming home 100% intact, however. I think we’ve seen more minor injuries, strains and pains on this road trip than we have all season. In addition to the minor injuries Eddie Guardado, Kevin Millwood, Eric Hurley and Vicente Padilla all suffered last week, Milton Bradley came outof the game in the 6thinning yesterday with tendinitis in his left knee – which isn’t his surgically repaired one, fortunately, and the Rangers still expect him to be ok for tonight’s game against the Angels.
Also, both Michael Young and Jarrod Saltalamacchia both did not start yesterday as both are suffering from groin issues – Young was a precautionary late scratch on account of the Rangers not wanting him to play on a wet field, while Saltalamacchia was sitting one out after tweaking himself in the 6th inning on Saturday. Like Bradley, both are expected back tonight, but you get the feeling that the all-star break just can’t come soon enough for this team, which is looking increasingly battered every day right now.
Somebody who might not make his next stat however is Vicente Padilla – apparently, his neck still has him in question for his start on Wednesday against the Angels. He was supposed to throw a bullpen session Sunday, but that was pushed back – now he’ll throw today before the Rangers make their final decision, but if he can’t go, it’s been suggested that Matt Harrison will probably be the one called up to make his start, rather than giving it to someone like Dustin Nippert (who the Rangers did call up Saturday, but want to keep in the bullpen). Harrison’s schedule in Oklahoma would have him starting on Tuesday anyway, so he could either make Hurley’s start and give him an extra day off, or make Padilla’s start on an extra days rest – pretty much the perfect scenario, as he’s even on the 40 man roster already.
In other news, Joaquin Benoit was placed on the DL with shoulder inflammation Saturday to make room for Nippert on the 25 man roster. Benoit just has not looked right the entire season, as he sports a 5.60 ERA, a 1.726 WHIP, and has walked as many as he has struck out (28). He’s also allowed 5 home runs in just 35 innings, which is just one shy of the 6 he allowed in 82 innings last year.
“He couldn’t pitch [Friday] night and he’s pitched just one time in six days,” pitching coach Mark Connor said. “The shoulder is not responding, it’s just not coming around. We need to take the time, shut it down, get it right and salvage what we can for the second half.”
So Ranger fans: the Joaquin Benoit nightmare is over… hopefully for good, if they can get him right by the time he comes back.
Quick hits: The Rangers signed reliever Kiko Kalero to a minor league deal this weekend, and he has been assigned to AAA Oklahoma… AA Frisco starter Thomas Diamond was been placed on the DL with an ankle problem, and now TR Sullivan is reporting that he will be undergoing surgery to remove a bonespur from the ankle that will sideline him for 3 weeks… Michael Main, the second of the Rangers first round draft picks from 2007 has been promoted to low-A Clinton to take over Neftali Feliz’ vacated spot in the rotation.
The Rangers now headinto a 4 game series with the LAAAAA Angels, who have the beast road record in baseball this year at 27-15. If Padilla is unable to make his start, then the Rangers will likely have 4 rookie starters opposing the top 4 pitchers in a rotation that sports the best road ERA in baseball (3.16). First up it’s Luis Mendoza vs. ErvinSantana – Mendoza got lit up by the Yankees last time out, but only one run was earned due to a couple errors. Santana on the other hand, has a 8.10 career ERA at the Ballpark in Arlington, but he’s 903 this year, with a 3.28 ERA and 1.092 WHIP.
This is gonna be a tough series for the Rangers, as they’re gonna see some pitchers who are all either very good, or having very good seasons – this’ll be a big indicator of how good our offense really is. And hopefully it gives a pretty good account of itself - there’s nobody I hate losing to more than the Angels.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Hank Balock, Jamey Wright, Joaquin Benoit, Josh Hamilton, trade talk
Further proof that wins and losses are a relatively useless stat for pitchers: Eric Hurley took his first Major League loss Tuesday night by allowing 2 runs in 6 innings. So how did that happen? Well, in short, the Rangers offense was nowhere to be found for the first 8 innings, Joaquin Benoit continued to struggle, and a 11th-hour rally fell short as the Rangers lost 4-3.
The Rangers offense produced a quick run in the first inning, thanks to an Ian Kinsler leadoff double and a Michael Young RBI single. But they got shut down after that, as the 36-year old Brian Moehler proceeded to hold the Rangers to just one run on 5 hits and 2 walks in his 6.1 innings.
Of course Texas was once again missing Milton Bradley from the lineup, but this time their offense took an even bigger blow in the 5th inning, when Josh Hamilton was removed from the game with inflammation in his right knee. Apparently, Hamilton first aggravated the knee last week when he made a diving catch on a Chipper Jones fly ball in the first inning of Thursday’s game against the Braves. Since then, it’s been an on-and-off condition, and he started to feel it again in the first inning last night when he came up for his first AB. He tried to grit it out, but apparently couldn’t continue after missing a diving catch in a Ty Wigginton floater in the 4th. Brandon Boggs replaced him at the start of the 5th, and proceeded to go 1-for-2.
This is the same knee that Hamilton underwent two arthroscopic surgeries on in 2006, so there is some history here – the early determination is that there is no structural damage to the knee, but Josh will be reevaluated today, and is currently listed as day-to-day. We reeeally better hope this isn’t serious folks – all I can say is, if we lose Hamilton for an extended period of time, our already-slumping run production is going to take an even bigger nosedive.
Getting back to the game, the Astros took the lead by scoring two in the second inning off Eric Hurley, who otherwise had a very economical and efficient outing. Although he still gave up his usual amount of fly balls (4-12 GB/FB ratio), walked 3 and only struck out one, he was only at 88 pitches when he was pulled after 6 innings with the score 2-1.
In fact, Hurley probably could have gone another inning, but Ron Washington decided to go to the bullpen a little early instead. Frank Francisco came in and tossed a scoreless 7th, but the Rangers also wasted a big chance in the top of the inning when they loaded the bases with 2 out, only to have Brandon Boggs hit a long flyout to center field.
It was in the 8th when things melted down though – for some reason, Ron decided to bring on Joaquin Benoit, despite his well-documented struggles this season. Well, Benoit melted down again, issuing a walk to the first batter he faced, and then giving up a home run to Lance Berkman, making it 4-1 Houston. Carlos Lee followed with a double, and after a flyout by Hunter Pence, Benoit issued a second walk, prompting Washington to finally remove him and bring in Josh Rupe, who got out of the inning by inducing a lineout double play.
That homer really hurt though, because Ramon Vazquez blasted a 2-run shot of his own in the top of the 9th - a shot that would have put the Rangers ahead if not for the lack of ability on the part of Benoit, whose troubles, as Evan Grant noted, just seem to be compounding as the season rolls on.
After putting up a 2.20 ERA in May, the wheels have come off since the calendar turned to June for Benoit, as he’s given up 8 hits, 8 walks and 8 runs, including 3 homers in just 4.1 innings this month. According to Mark Connor, the main problem has been Benoit’s lack of control:
“It just looks like he’s pulling off of every fastball and trying to be a little too fine,” pitching coach Mark Connor said. “His stuff is good enough that even if it’s not 95 mph, he can get guys out at 92 or 93. He just needs to stay on line to the plate and trust it. His location has not been good. That’s it in a nutshell.”
What’s been causing the lack of command however, is still a mystery all unto itself - Benoit maintains his am is healthy enough to pitch, but it sure hasn’t seemed like it for awhile now. Who knows what it is that ails him, but one thing’s for certain: the Rangers screwed up when they didn’t take their chance to put him on the DL last week (in fact, in a interesting side-note, Robinson Tejeda, the guy who was DFA’d so Benoit could remain on the active roster was just claimed off waivers by the Royals yesterday). Benoit’s problem has gone beyond struggles, it’s bordering on outright ineffectiveness – he should be figuring things on a rehab assignment in the minors, not costing us games in the Majors.
Speaking of relief pitchers, congrats to Jamey Wright, whose wife gave birth to their second child on Monday. That does however have the Rangers playing a man short in the bullpen for at least one more day though, as Wright won’t return until Thursday – yet another reason why it’s not good to have a nearly handicapped reliever in your bullpen.
A quick update on Hank Blalock: Hank was again out of the lineup with his bruised hand yesterday in OKC, and could be out past Thursday. Since both OKC and AA Frisco are now off for their all-star breaks, Hank will join the team in Houston and go through some workouts, but the Rangers wanted him to play a 9 inning game at first base before they activated him.
“If he makes some remarkable improvement, things could change,” assistant general manager Thad Levine said. “But it was our desire for him to play [a full nine-inning game at first] when we sent him out, and it is still our desire.”
Oh well – more possible playing time for Max Ramirez, I guess…
And now, we interrupt this blog entry for a required reading alert: Joey Matschulat and Jason Parks have put together their top 25 Rangers prospect rankings over at Baseball Time in Arlington, and they have done a simply awesome job. I won’t spoil any of the list here, but let me just say that it’s stuff like this that illustrates the job Jon Daniels has done in rebuilding our farm system in this past year – we are going to have the makings of a very exciting young team in a season or two, provided everything goes right.
Evan Grant has another newsletter out, and says the Rangers might want to consider just holding onto their chips at the trade deadline this year. I’m sort of in agreeance with part of that, I suppose – we shouldn’t be trying to move our top trade chips like Vicente Padilla, Kevin Millwood and Milton Bradley, we should be letting the deals come to us - and if we don’t find a deal that suits our liking for any of those three, then yeah, you shouldn’t trade them just to be trading them.
However, there are some deals that need to be made – for example, the Rangers need to move Gerald Laird to make way for their young catchers in Saltalamacchia, MaxRam and Teagarden. They also need to move Hank Blalock out of the way of Chris Davis sooner rather than later, and if at all possible, Frank Catalanotto needs to be dumped on some National League team who needs a good pinch-hitter. Of course, there’s no guarantee that Laird will be back before the deadline, or that Blalock and Catalanotto actually have any value left on the trade market, but those are guys we need to be selling at the deadline just so we can clear some spots on the roster. Also, another thing to consider is the Rangers have some needs themselves – namely, a need for a quality, fairly young relief pitcher who still has some service time left and can shore up our beleagured bullpen. And that’s just the kind of return I think Balock or Laird might fetch – and if we play our cards right, I could even see Gerald getting us a decent young starting pitcher.
Quick hits: Max Ramirez is going to make his first Major League start at catcher tomorrow - it should be really interesting to actually get a firsthand look at his defense behind the plate… Brandon McCarthy has begun throwing off a mound again, but still won’t be back until April first at the soonest.
Today it’s Scott Feldman vs. Roy Oswalt – Feldman is coming off a start he should have won, but the Ranger bullpen blew it. Oswalt meanwhile, is just beginning to settle down this month after a very rough start to the season. This might be a pretty sorry offensive game for the Rangers though, considering they’ll be lacking both Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley – I dread to think what the lineup card is going to look like tomorrow.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Bad Managing, Chris Davis, Hank Blalock, Joaquin Benoit, Milton Bradley, Ron Washington
Every once in awhile, you just have a game where you really get your ass kicked. This isn’t the first time it has happened to the Rangers this year (far from it) but there really isn’t much more to say about Friday night’s 7-1 loss to the Mets.
Scott Feldman got lit up for the first time this season, allowing 7 runs over 5+ innings of work, and the Ranger offense just could not solve Oliver Perez, who held them to just 3 hits in 7 innings and striking out 8. Two of those hits where by Josh Hamilton, who went 2-3 with a home run in the first, and the other was by Feldman himself – the rest off the offense though, got utterly owned.
Despite this, the Rangers did manage to bunch together a couple hits and a walk in the 6th to give them a shot at turning the game in their favor, but they failed to get the job done. Feldmanlead the inning off with his first career hit, after which Ian Kinslerand Michael Young each flew out. But Josh Hamilton kept the inning alive with a single, and Milton Bradley drew a walk to load the bases. That brought up #5 hitter David Murphy, who struck out on 3 pitches to end the inning.
After the game, Lone Star Ball’s Adam J. Morris pointed out the folly of Murphy even being in that situation. Murphy has scuffled badly against left-handers this year, and is now hitting .233/.255/.344 after going 0-3 with 2 K’s last night before he was removed in a double switch in the 6th. Despite those numbers though, Ron Washington keeps running him out there against left-handed pitching – and batting him 5th, no less.
It made no sense last night with Oliver Perez, a lefty who had allowed just 8 hits all year against lefties coming into the game (a line of .123/.284/.231) on the mound, and it has not really made any sense at any point this year when you’ve got Brandon Boggs, a switch hitter who has put up a .995 OPS against left-handers this year (and has killed lefties in the minors), and Marlon Byrd who has a .282 career average against lefties on the bench. When you look at this situation, and when you remember how Ron Washington threw Ben Broussard, a career platoon player with a .225 career average against LHP’sout there against both lefties and righties earlier this season, it really makes you wonder: does Ron not know what split stats mean? Or does he just not care? Either way, the man seems quite ignorant when it comes how he utilizes the players his roster, and this is another fine example of it.
But enough about that crappy game, we’ve got better things to discuss.
Something I mentioned in my last entry, but didn’t get the chance to revisit yesterday was the Milton Bradley/Royals announcer story. Since the story first broke, Bradley has come out with his side of things, and video has surfaced with what the KC announcers really said.
Despite what was claimed initially, Ryan Lefebvre and his partner Frank White did indeed have themselves a Milton Bradley “rip session” – starting when White questioned if ”with all the things [Josh Hamilton] does right, does he balance the scale with Milton Bradley on the ballclub”. Lefebvre agreed, and went on to say Hamilton would make a good role model for Bradley “who clearly has no control over himself”. Lefebvre also said that Bradley had refused to allow himself to be liked by fans or rooted for by fans, and White piled on by calling Bradley an “unpredictable teammate” and suggesting he makes it hard for players and coaches to work with him. There probably would have been more, too, had a base hit up the middle not halted their joint rant.
Bradley, for his part, caught the comments while he was in the clubhouse going over video of an AB. He said he became concerned because he new his mother was watching the game, and he felt he had to set the record straight. So after the game, he headed up to the KC broadcasters booth, but it wasn’t to cause a problem.
“He never met me, so, when the game was over, I wanted to introduce myself to him,” Bradley said. “Because it’s amazing when you actually meet somebody how different they become.”
I have to admit, at first I myself doubted Milton’s intentions due to his reputation. But after actually seeing the comments the KC announcers made, I’d say Bradley was 100% justified in what he did - and that the KC announcers seriously need to learn to keep themselves in check when it comes to personally degrading players. They should know better than that, if not only for the sake of common sense, but because they’re the ones with they Jose Guillen, and his reputation for HGH use and ego problems on their team.
In other news, Hank Blalock now has a timetable for his return – he expects to be back in action by next Friday against the Nationals. The incision on his hand from his Carpal Tunnel syndrome surgery has healed and he is now taking batting practice again – once he gets back, Ron Washington has said he’ll slide him right back into the #5 hole in the lineup. Which, should he hit David Murphy 6th, won’t be the most ideal lineup – that’ll give the Rangers 3 left-handed batters in their 3-4-5-6 combo, meaning opposing teams with a left-hander in their bullpen would have the perfect spot to use their LOOGY’s in. So hopefully, Ron will grow a brain and bat Murphy 7th instead when Hank gets back… but I wouldn’t count on it.
Now if you want a reminder as to why it was stupid to move Blalock to first base, here you go: Chris Davis is tearing AAA apart, and at the rate he’s going should be ready for a callup long before September. In fact, MLB.com’s Shawn Shroyer even suggests in that peice that Davis’ play of late might have the Rangers “rethinking” the move of Blalock to first. Interesting.
With Kason Gabbard due to be activated for tonight’s start, the Rangers are going to have to make a roster move today – the two obvious options are to send down Josh Rupe or drop Robinson Tejeda. Both pitched last night, Rupe going an inning and Tejeda going two – Rupe allowed 2 inherited runners to score, while Tejeda didn’t give up a hit and struck out 2.
There could be another option for getting Gabbard on the roster though: putting Joaquin Benoit on the DL. Apparently Benoit has complained of shoulder pain of late, and said he was “not ready to pitch in a Major League game” before yesterday. Obviously, this would explain his recent ineffectiveness, but apparently this is also the same shoulder soreness that has plagued him since he came to spring training not having thrown in three months this year. Which is kinda concerning to me, at least – I mean this is June, I’d think his arm should be back in shape by now - hopefully we won’t be finding out there’s a deeper problem there anytime soon. Whether he goes on the DL or not, it’s been quite a fall from glory this year for the Rangers 2007 pitcher of the year – I guess he’s paying the price for not taking care of his arm this winter.
Kason Gabbard vs. Pedro Martinez tonight. Pedro’s coming off the DL (where he has spent most of his time since the Mets signed him) and Gabbard’s coming back up from AAA, so this game will likely either be very well pitched, or be a slugfest. According to Mark Connor, Gabbard was able to regain his fastball command in Oklahoma – I sure hope that’s true as he’s gonna need it tonight.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: David Murphy, Eddie Guardado, Eric Hurley, Joaquin Benoit, Milton Bradley
All of a sudden, the Texas Rangers are the comeback kids. Make it two nights in a row now that they’ve come back from a 5-1 deficit, and this time they did it in thunderous fashion, with a 7 run 7th inning, highlighted by David Murphy’s first career grand slam, stunning the Royals and sending the Rangers to an 11-5 victory.
Early on, it things almost looked the same as Tuesday night’s game: Kansas City pulled ahead early in the game, taking advantage of a somewhat erratic Vicente Padilla, who allowed 5 runs (4 earned) on 7 hits, 3 walks and two HBP’s in his 6 innings of work. For the second game in a row, KC”s starter, this time right-hander Kyle Davies, held the Rangers to just one run for the first 6 innings, although the Rangers helped him out a bit by hitting into 3 double plays in the first 5 innings.
Davies, who now has allowed just one run in all three of his starts this season for Kansas City, left at 109 pitches after 6 innings. That was when the Royals decided to bring in rookie Jeff Fulchino, for just his third big league appearance, and second this season. That was the beginning of their undoing.
Ramon Vazquez hammered a leadoff triple to greet Fulchino, and then Royals shortstop Mike Aviles made a throwing error on Ian Kinsler’s ground ball, throwing it in the dirt where it skipped by Mark Teahen and into the photo well. That scored Vazquez and sent Kinsler to second. Fulchino walked Michael Young to make it first and second before he was finally lifted for lefty Jimmy Gobble to pitch to Josh Hamilton. Unfortunately for the Royals, Gobble didn’t have it, either.
Hamilton, who went 3-6 to break out of his recent slump, knocked an RBI single up the middle to make it 5-3, and Gobble then walked Milton Bradley to load the bases with nobody out for David Murphy. Gobble missed with the first two pitches, and then tried to throw a get-me-over 89 MPH fastball to the Murph, who turned on it and jacked it to right for his first career grand salami. 7-5 Rangers. Later, Murphy would reveal exactly how bad a mistake Gobble’s pitch was:
“I was fortunate enough to get into a 2-0 count,” Murphy said, “and bases loaded 2-0, I’m pretty much looking dead-red fastball. That’s what I got right where I wanted it.”
The Rangers picked up another run off Gobble before Yasuhiko Yabuta was brought in to finally get three outs. Jamey Wright and Eddie Guaradado pitches scoreless 7th and 8th innings to keep the score at 8-5, and the Rangers tacked on 3 more in the top of the 9th off Brett Tomko, including a second home run by David Murphy that gave him a career-high 5 RBI. Frank Francisco pitched a sharp bottom of the 9th, throwing 14 of his 18 pitches for strikes to polish off the Royals, and the Rangers pulled back above .500 a 34-33.
About the only downside of this win was that Michael Young’s hitting streak was snapped at 23 games, as he went 0-5 with a walk – other than that, the Rangers pounded out 16 hits all total, and four guys (Kinsler, Hamilton, Murphy and Byrd) all registered 3 hit games in another excellent display of resiliency.
After the game though, where some some strange near fireworks involving Milton Bradley. Bradley apparently took exception to something he had heard Royals announcer Ryan Lefebvre say on the clubhouse TV during the game, and afterwards, decided to head up 4 flights of stairs to the broadcast booth to confront him. Ron Washington and Jon Daniels set off in pursuit, and escorted him back down to the clubhouse after a security guard stopped Milton from entering the booth.
It was an emotional Bradley that re-entered the clubhouse, as he nearly broke down, saying “all I want to do is play baseball, and make a better living for my kid. I love you guys. I’m strong, but I’m not that strong.” Afterwards, he stood at his locker with his head down, where an undetermined number of his teammates tried to console him – according to Richard Durrett of the DMN, it was “many” while Mark Dent’s of MLB.com story strangely differs, saying “most stayed away”.
What evidently had offended Bradley was some comments Lefebvre had made while contrasting Bradley and Josh Hamilton:
“From what I remember, we were complimenting Josh Hamilton and how he’s turned his life around and been accountable for his mistakes,” Lefebvre said. “Frank [White] and I were just having a conversation that it’s a shame it doesn’t appear Milton Bradley is doing the same in his life.”
….
“This wasn’t a Milton Bradley rip session,” Lefebvre said. “It was just based on the pictures we’ve seen of him in the series walking from the dugout all the way to right field. Dropping his bat. Making gestures to the fans in right field and above the dugout, taunting them. He’s the only person in baseball I know who does that kind of stuff.”
Lefebvre also insisted he had complimented Bradley as well, but suggested Milton had not heard that part in the clubhouse.
While nobody seems to know exactly what Lefebvre really said, whatever it was apparently made Bradley feel deeply insulted - of course, considering how emotional Milton can be, that’s usually not too hard to do. It does seem though that the KC announcers are not fans of the way Bradley has been carrying himself throughout the series so far, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they where indeed holding a miniature rag session on Milton, who can be a popular target (although the reason for that is because of incidents just such as this).
I don’t know what to personally make of this incident one way or another, but this is the risk you run by having Bradley on your team - it seems we’ve just had our first “Milton Bradley moment” of the season. Fortunately, this was stemmed before it had a chance to get out of hand, although we don’t know for sure that it would have - but even so, this won’t be something that will be forgotten by the media anytime soon.
In other news, Eddie Guardado has officially been promoted to the 8thinning role, with Joaquin Benoit moving back to the 6th-7th inning. According to Ron Washington, Benoit is “still catching up” after coming to spring training out of shape, and needs to work on his command, but believes he’ll return to form. Hopefully that’s the case, and we’ll see a whole different Joaquin in the second half this year - but I’ve wondered if perhaps maybe the 2007 Joaquin Benoit was a mirage, and we’re back to the old wildy inconsistent Benoit again. Such can be the tendencies of a relief pitcher from year-to-year.
Quick hits: Josh Hamilton says he’s found his swing after a 2-28 start to May, and said the problem was overthinking his swing mechanics: “I don’t know why I started doing that all of a sudden, but that’s the frustrating and challenging part of this game. You should think about your swing in practice, but not in a game”… Jarrod Saltalamacchia apparently did not start Wedensday’s game because of a sore wrist, but is scheduled to be back out there to catch Eric Hurley’s Major League debut today. The two have worked as a battery previously this season in AAA.
That’s right, today’s the big day - you can catch Eric Hurley’s Major League debut at 1:10 PM central time. Brian Bannister, who the Rangers have previously knocked around this year will oppose as Texas goes for the sweep. I’m half expecting Hurley to get knocked around, but we’ll see what happens.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: 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: 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.
