Usually, when you look down the box score of a game, you don’t expect to see the pitcher leading in offensive categories for the game. But that’s what Colby Lewis did this game. Not pitching, but in batting, he was 2-4 with a run scored and two RBI’s. The only person who did better than Colby was Josh Hamilton this game. The best moment was the two run double in the sixth scoring Hamilton & Guerrero.
However, his pitching was better than that. Eight innings, giving up just three hits and two earned runs. Struck out 10! Both of the earned runs came on solo home runs (both by Prince Fielder). Take those out, and it was just one hit. I mean, there was other stuff that happened in this game, yeah, but Colby was the best thing in it.

This was an interesting game of good and bad.
The good is from a place that’s been not so good (if not totally bad) this year. That’s Scott Feldman. Scott, having a disappointing season (but not nearly as bad as former Ranger Kevin Millwood) so far tuned it up on this day in Wisconsin. He went six innings, throwing just four hits, and no runs allowed. Which is odd, as he also allowed three walks. But he managed to keep the runs column on the scoreboard a big ol’ donut. Shame he didn’t get to pitch more, as he did also throw 105 pitches, which is about what you’d throw in seven. Still, it’s one of his better outings of the year, and it was good he got the win (his fourth).
The bullpen however is the bad part, as the usual back end of Francisco & Feliz let it go. Frankie not so bad, as he allowed one run in his inning of work, but Feliz had a bit of a meltdown. He faced five betters, and only got one of them out. Two hits and two walks led to two runs, which made it uncomfortably close at the end. Chris Ray came in and put out that fire, earning his first save as a Ranger.
Offensively, we got started early with a two run double by Justin Smoak, who I’m hearing his name more in the highlights, but he still has an issue with batting average. Josh Hamilton also homered in the sixth for run #3. The fourth and final run was an RBI single by David Murphy.
Kinsler was the only Ranger with more than one hit (2).

All I have to say about this one is..
Stupid Rich Harden. On twitter I wondered if we shouldn’t just DFA him.

Two whoop-ass games in a row. That’s pretty darned cool. Two games in a row where we scored 12 runs against the Mariners. Two games in a row with home runs by Michael Young and Josh Hamilton (although Hamilton’s HR game streak is longer than that). Overall the series was a pretty darned good one. In four games, we outscored the Mariners 33-10, and that includes in there a game where the Rangers scored just two runs! Big old can of American Whoop-Ass indeed!
The Rangers got out to an early lead. After the previous game, this had the effect of making it seem like more of the previous nights’ game. The Rangers were up in the first 3-0 behind mostly a two run home run by Josh Hamilton. Probably would have been more had the Mariners not turned a double play in the inning.
The scoring in this game wasn’t nearly as “spread out” as in the previous game. We had three big run innings. A three run first, a four run third, and a five run sixth. The third inning started off with a Michael Young home run, and then there was some fun. Kinsler singled, Guerrero walked., Josh flied out, then Smoak reached on an error. David Murphy grounded out, and Matt Treanor singled. Nothing terribly sexy there, but it did result in a four spot on the board. The five spot in the sixth was a rather similar deal. There was a double in the middle, but it was a pile of singles and some other plays besides actual hits (like a groundout).
Tommy Hunter started this game, and while he wasn’t as totally dominant as he was his last start, he was pretty good on the mound. Six innings, five hits, three walks (bit too many for 6 innings), but just two earned runs (one unearned). Looking like he’ll be a mainstay going forward. Makes me wonder if Rich Harden will stay. :)
Anyway, totally nice drubbing of the Mariners here, and overall, despite the first game performance by Cliff Lee, it felt like a complete domination in the entire series. We go into interleague play 1.5 games up in first place in the AL West. Let’s see if we can widen it a bit the rest of this month!

Last night’s game felt like a great win, and it was (7-1 win), but this game felt like a whole different animal. It’s been awhile since we’ve had one of those “run away and coast to the finish line” wins. At least that’s my recollection (I saw that w/o actually looking at the past schedule results).
We actually were losing early on, down 2-0 going into the bottom of the first inning. We came back quickly in the bottom of the first with a home run by Michael Young, then a double by Vlad scoring Ian Kinsler. That tied the game.
Then the floodgates opened. We put up a very nice looking six spot in the bottom of the second. Not counting the outs, we had five singles, a wild pitch, and a home run. The home run was again by Josh Hamilton, his second game in a row with one, I believe. With all the singles, it had a very nice feeling, a good, sustained offensive burst. Not that three run home runs aren’t fun – they are. But a longer sustained attack with less power is also a blast to watch, too.
We used the same tactic again in the fourth inning when we scored two more. We actually quickly got out to two outs, and then Kinsler was hit by a pitch. We then had three straight singles in a row after that (Guerrero, Hamilton, Murphy) to score the two runs. At this point, we were up 10-2.
We tacked on single runs in the fifth and seventh. The one in the fifth was mostly because of a triple by Julio Borbon, who ran so fast, the ball hit to Ichiro Suzuki didn’t garner one of his patented nuclear grade throws to third base from right field. The other run was a sac fly by Borbon. All told, we had 15 hits. Of them, two were doubles (Guerrero, Murphy), one triple (Borbon), and two home runs (Young, Hamilton). Bunch of singles, which led to some nice rallies that weren’t over too fast.
Lost in all this was a pretty decent pitching performance by CJ Wilson. After a few blah starts, CJ pitched pretty darned well. While he got a boatload of support, he didn’t really need it. CJ went seven innings on 116 pitches (a bit much, but it worked). Four hits, and two earned runs. Still not liking the recent vintage amount of walks (three), but it wasn’t a huge deal as he did just give up two runs.
Dustin Nippert & Neftali Feliz combined to shut out the Mariners for the final two innings of work, and the Rangers sealed a really nice blowout win.

Whenever most of the league sees Felix Hernandez, they get frightened. He is an awesome pitcher, and if he were on a great team, he’d probably have a seriously better record than he does lifetime. However, for some reason when he pitches in Arlington, the Rangers always seem to get to him. Not every time, mind you as I’ve seen him shut us down in the past, but we seem to get to him more often than he gets to us.
It got in early in this one, as Josh Hamilton (who is surprisingly hot as of late), jacked a double in the first inning, scoring two runs, and we never looked back. The Rangers were led by Elvis Andrus this game. He was the only Ranger with more than one hit (he had three). One was a double, and he drove in two runs himself – scored one. Good game for Elvis, who now has his batting average at .311 in the leadoff slot with an OBP of .385. Nice numbers for a leadoff guy.
But the biggest deal for me was a home run by Vlad Guerrero in the sixth inning. It was an absolute titanic home run – one you don’t even need to see or hear. Not only was it over the fence, but it was over all the seats, and banged off the windows of the restaurant out in left. Very few home runs have gone further than that. Total cannon shot. There’s a video clip on mlb.com showing it. What’s interesting about the clip is a friend of mine was at this game, and was sitting in the first row above the “Nolan Ryan” retired number sign. The Guerrero home run ball didn’t come far from him, and if you look closely, you can see him reaching for (and not getting) the home run ball. He posted on Facebook after he got home about the home run ball. Here’s what he said:

Huge homerun from Vlad! That’s me in the first row in the blue shirt with my arms out, with my wife and kids next to me. It was about 5 feet too low, but sure was fun to watch come right at us! After it hit, the people below didn’t know where it was. It broke off a cup-holder from a seat and stayed inside! … A guy picked up the cup-holder and there was the ball… what a souvenir!

That must have been cool to watch for sure!
Lest we forget, the home run wasn’t the only thing that happened this game. Colby Lewis was pretty dominant over the Mariners. Was a really great game. He didn’t strike out as many as usual (only 5), but he went seven innings, giving up just four hits and the one run. Walked three, which is a ton for 2010 Colby Lewis. But still, you can’t argue with the total line, and he most definitely deserved the win he got.
Was a nice win, and I’m glad our bats are starting to wake up, as we are barely hanging on to the position in the standings we have, and I’d like to open up some room – can’t do it without the offense going.

The Rangers took to the field in a series against the slumping Mariners on Monday night. Even as a Rangers fan, I have to say coming into this season, I thought the Mariners would be not so much the team to beat, but at least be a good team this year. Much improved, and possibly if all the cards fell right be able to make a run at the division title. However, the cards did not fall right for Seattle this season. Although you couldn’t tell that to Cliff Lee.
Lee pitched like his “name” would imply he’d pitch. He was the Cliff Lee I remember watching Phillies games last year. He was NOT the Cliff Lee the Rangers murdered on opening day last season. While the final score was 4-2, it was’t nearly as close as that. The only two runs the Rangers got were in the bottom of the ninth. On top of that, the Rangers had seven hits total, and three of them came in the bottom of the ninth. Given the way Lee pitched the rest of the game, I’d say he was running out of gas. But still. Two runs on seven hits for a complete game? Yeah, I don’t know any team that wouldn’t take that. If you take the ninth out of it, he gave up no runs and just four hits. He was dominant.
The Rangers starter was Scott Feldman, who likely would have won this game had it been any other opponent besides Cliff Lee. Feldman went 5.2, and gave up nine hits (bit too many), but just four runs (one unearned). Not a great line, but not godawful, and under most circumstances, probably would have been enough to win the game.
All seven Rangers hits were singles, and we didn’t walk once. No Ranger had more than a single hit, so nobody was really able to zero in on Lee, either.
Gotta give it to Cliff Lee. If only Seattle had another three of him to go with Felix Hernandez… :)

I think most Rangers fans (myself included) were looking forward to being able to say they swept the best team in baseball. It might go a long way to shutting up a lot of people who say the Rangers aren’t really a good team because we can’t beat good teams. 3-0 against the Rays at this time in the season would have been a huge deal. We have to settle for saying we took the series 2-1 against them, which isn’t bad by any stretch, but it’s not a sweep.
I missed this game due to other family commitments, but when I saw the score on ESPN, I wondered who was pitching, then I saw why we lost. Rich Harden started. In all fairness, most of the line wasn’t his fault. He only allowed three earned runs (4 total) in his work, but his work stopped at 5 innings. 111 pitches. Good Lord, Rich. That’s way too much. Even Rangers Captain would have a better pitches per inning ratio. Heck, Mark Clark was pretty bad when he was here, but even he isn’t that horrendous with pitches thrown.
Sigh. Nice to see Joaquin Benoit make an appearance. I still wish we would have hung onto him. I think Benoit & Oliver in the bullpen would have been a nice “old timers club” for the Rangers. Oh well. :)