It seems funny using the sweep graphic when the series is just two games. Still, it’s technically a sweep, so out it comes. :)
This game was a game won with power. Three home runs in all. One by Michael Young, one by Ian Kinsler, and one by Vlad Guerrero. Things in baseball are so sponsored, I thought momentarily about saying “They won with Jexa Energy Power”. Two of the home runs were two run shots, and one was a solo – totalling five of our eight runs.
Oddly enough as high a percentage of our runs having scored on home runs as there was, the actual winning run was a single by Michael Young in the bottom of the sixth that scored Elvis Andrus. Also, to nobody’s surprise the single was a shot to right field. :)
CJ Wilson started this game, and clearly had his worst outing of the season so far. He only lasted 4.1 innings, gave up seven hits, one walk, and all seven Anaheim runs – all earned. His ERA is now 2.55, which is still pretty darned respectable, but it was something like 1.5 before the game, so that was a hit, for sure. Hopefully he can bounce back next time, and this isn’t a trend, because if he does this two times in a row, we’re bound to see a bunch of comments like “See?” or “I knew he couldn’t do it”. I’ve turned into a Wilson believer, so I want him to do well.
Our bullpen followed up masterfully. Of the 4.2 innings that five guys threw, only Dustin Nippert let anyone on base. One hit and one walk for him, but nobody scored. Everyone else (O’Day, Ray, Francisco, & Feliz) all pitched perfect innings of relief. Was quite cool, actually. That’s the job of the bullpen. Keep ’em down, while we come back – and that’s exactly what happened.
Starting to get concerned about bullpen overuse. I think I read somewhere that our pen has the most innings pitched of any team so far. That’s not a good thing to see.

Guerrero in our ballpark batting against the Angels really did look weird.
The Rangers scored enough to win this game, but it was all at once. We put up a four spot on the Angels in the third inning, then held on for dear life for the rest of the game.
Michael Young had a sac fly scoring Borbon. Kinsler doubled in Elvis. Nelson Cruz then split the outfielders for another double scoring Kinsler & Guerrero. That was it for the Rangers scoring. Overall we had nine hits. Oddly enough all of them by the first five batters. Batting slots six through nine all took ofers. Three doubles and six singles. Most of that was outside the third anyway. But it was enough.
Derek Holland started, and went just enough to get the win. He pitched into the sixth, but came out, relieved by Dustin Nippert, who did walk one, but didn’t allow anyone to score. Holland came out with 97 pitches. Not a ton, but a bit more than you’d expect. Still, Darren Oliver & Neftali Feliz were perfect in their combined three innings of work. Our pen saved this game for us – bigtime. Hats off to them.
We’re now two games up over Oakland, and 3.5 over Anaheim. It’s only May 18th now, but man, it does feel good. :)
Tonight is CJ Wilson vs. Jered Weaver. This looks like a great pitching matchup. Should be good. If I wasn’t so tired, I’d drive out to the park and see it.

I missed this game completely, as my time was spent dealing with my other websites. Ronnie James Dio died on Sunday morning, and to that, my site relating to him (and some related sites) and his band were crushed by traffic. Missed this Rangers game completely.
I’ll say this, though. Colby Lewis was more like pre-Japan Colby Lewis today. Mostly he walked way too many. He only gave up three hits, but had four walks too – it led to five earned runs. Couple that with the fact that the Rangers were playing the team with the most home runs in the majors (what? TORONTO?), and it was a problem.
Ah well, we’re still in first place, and are over .500. If we catch fire, we can make a run at putting some distance behind us, this will be good.

There’s little to say about this game. Ricky Romero, the Toronto starter totally dominated the Rangers. We got only five hits, all singles, and nobody scored. In fact, I think we never got someone to third, either, but I’m not 100% sure about that.
Anyway, Romero looked awesome. Scott Feldman did not. Wasn’t the worst outing I’d ever seen, but it was more on the bad side of “meh” than the good side. Seven plus innings pitched, nine hits one walk, and five earned runs. He was mostly done in by Jose Bautista, who had two home runs, accounting for four of the six runs.
But this was about Romero – gotta tip your cap to him, that was an outstanding performance.

The less said about this mess, the better.

Ben Sheets started this game, and pitched every much like the old Ben Sheets from Milwaukee. While I haven’t followed his stats this season, I got the impression he’s been kind of middling. Not as far leaning on the crap scale as Rich Harden has been, but definitely not as advertised. But this was definitely not that. This was good old Ben Sheets. The one that shut the Rangers down for six innings. He allowed just three hits, one earned run, and struck out eight. It wasn’t the lengthiest outing, but while he was out there, there was no doubt – this was old school Sheets.
He was matched against CJ Wilson, the Rangers’ best starter of the season so far. CJ actually pitched better than Sheets, which was important to the win. CJ went seven, giving up four hits and one earned run. Didn’t strike out as many (five), but walked the same number (three). CJ lowered his season ERA to an amazing 1.48. Good stuff there.
The biggest story I suppose – to most fans is the way it ended, with Vlad Guerrero knocking in the winning run in the bottom of the 12th. From a “Chicks Dig the Longball” mentality, I can see why most people would pick that as the moment of the game.
But for me it was the Sheets/Wilson pitching performances that excited me the most about this game.
Still, it’s fun to watch the guys go nuts at the end of the game like that. :)

In game 34 of the season, the Rangers finally made their first roster move that affects the 25 man roster. Derek Holland was brought up (hello Hannah), and Matt Harrison was sent down. It’s a surprise that we haven’t made any pitching movies until May 12th – that’s positively glacier like for the Texas Rangers.
Holland’s first appearance of the season went pretty darned well. Six innings, just five hits, and one walk. Punched out seven in his six innings on the mound, but most importantly didn’t allow any runs at all. He came out at 103 pitches, which given it was his first start in the majors of the year, I was OK with. Would have liked seven, but there was no need to push it that hard, especially given we were up 7-0 at the time he came out of the game. Josh & Tom made it a point to talk about his changed delivery, which probably had most of what to do with his minor league numbers this year (4-1, ERA 0.93, 6GS, average of 8.6K per 9 innings). Hopefully he sticks up here the rest of the season, and does well.
It’s quite a weird feeling talking about all the good pitching wearing the Rangers uniform. I get ahead of myself, but I wonder if we can be like Tampa Bay in 2008. Would be interesting. Anyway…
Outside of Derek’s appearance, the other big story was home runs. The Rangers hit five of them. They were hit by Josh Hamilton, Vlad Guerrero, Max Ramirez, Michael Young, & Justin Smoak. Hamilton & Guerrero went back to back again, and in the middle of that b2b, the A’s had a pitching change, too. :) The home runs accounted for 7 of the 10 runs we had in all, so I’d say the longball dominated the offense tonight for sure.
Of the Ranger starters, only David Murphy (starting for Craig Gentry who was a last second scratch) took an ofer. Every other starter had at least one hit, with Josh Hamilton leading the way with three.
Was a good night to be a Rangers fan. What would make it more fun is if the owners’ meeting currently going on will result in Selig taking control of the Rangers to sell it to Greenberg/Ryan. Come on Bud..