I’m taking a mulligan on this one. I didn’t see or hear anything of the game. I was dealing on Saturday afternoon with a computer that just wanted to shut itself down. I was in complete computer diagnostic and repair mode on Saturday afternoon. Blah.
Looks like CJ Wilson has come back to earth a bit. Still think he’s a great choice to be in the rotation now, but the “ERA under 1.5” version of CJ Wilson probably wasn’t going to happen over the entire season, anyway. :)

Guerrero perked up a bit in this game, going 2-4, but it was’t nearly enough, as the Rangers were shut down for the second game in a row by the opponent’s starting pitcher. This time it was Kevin Slowey of the Twins. He tossed 6.2 innings, giving up six hits and one earned run. Not totally dominating mind you, but well enough that the Rangers couldn’t get anything together.
We almost had another run, but Ian Kinsler had a home run overturned by instant replay. It was a good call, actually. Replays showed it was foul, but not by much, and it went into one of those weird places in the park where it (at normal speed) made it seem like the home run was fair. As much as I wanted the call, it’s probably good that it was “right”.
Colby Lewis was the hard luck loser, as he pitched a pretty decent game of his own. Just two runs allowed on five hits over this six innings of work.
The new Twins park looks nice. We’ll hear about the “no dome” thing as soon as they get into the playoffs, I’m sure. :)

As good as Guerrero has been this year, you always get the feeling, he can bust out at any second. Didn’t get that feeling with this game, and that’s pretty much due to Kansas City’s starting pitcher, Luke Hochevar. He shut down the Rangers for the most part through his eight innings of work. He allowed six hits in all, but they were scattered (mostly), which accounted for the fact that we had just two runs. Nelson Cruz had a double, Michael Young had a triple (and a single), but the remaining singles were by Andrus, Hamilton, & Smoak. That’s it. That we got two was actually pretty surprising.
Scott Feldman pitched better than he has so far in the 2010 season. Not like last year’s version, but better than the 2010 version (so far). However, he couldn’t match what Hochevar did.
That’s the big story here. Kansas City’s starting pitching won the game. Also, their closer (Joaquim Soria) got his 100th career save. That seems surprising to me that he’d have that many possibilities as bad as Kansas City has been over the last few years.

In a storyline that is not unfamiliar to the 2010 edition of the Texas Rangers, Vlad Guerrero led us offensively to the win. Vlad went 3-5 in all, with three hits, two runs scored, and FIVE RBI’s. This was driven by the two home runs Vlad got. Both were two run shots, and one of them got out in a hurry. The first one made me chuckle, as it hit the signage above the bullpen, and it made a very loud bang – it was obvious the signage was metal. This guy is amazing, and especially now that Kendry Morales is out for the Angels, I have to think they wish they’d kept Vlad now.
Anyway, outside of Vlad, every other Rangers player (save one, Borbon) had one hit. Michael Young’s was a double, but there was more power. Josh Hamilton & Nelson Cruz had home runs as well. Hamilton’s was a titanic shot way over all the walls in center field, going all the way to the base of that behemoth of a scoreboard they have out there. I mean it was monster. Don’t know why the center fielder even bothered running after it. Was stupid how far out of the field that went.
Pretty much home runs were the name of this game. They accounted for six of our eight runs. Old school Rangers baseball, that’s for sure.
Justin Smoak is still struggling. He’s 1-4, with a BA of .168. I bet Chris Davis is thinking “Well, I could be doing THAT!”
Pitching wise, it was another “meh” outing by Rich Harden. 5.1IP, 7H, 2BB, 5K, 6R (5ER). He’s had one good outing. The one one Oakland. That’s it. Wonder if Oakland would take him in a trade? :) Or perhaps he thinks about signing there next year, as I can’t imagine he gets picked up unless he starts pitching like Nolan Ryan from here on out.
No matter how, it’s good to get a win in KC, a place that we’ve oddly enough had problems winning in the last few years.

For the second day in a row, the Rangers lost to the Cubs by the score of 5-4. However, this time they completed the job in nine innings.
They got behind early, giving up a four spot to the Cubs in the top of the first. That was powered by a two run home run by Alfonso Soriano in the first. We never really recovered. The Cubs added one more run in the 6th, and that proved to be the difference maker.
CJ Wilson had a second bad outing in a row, but it wasn’t nearly as awful as the one before this. Not to say it was good – it wasn’t, but last time was just horrendous. This time he went 5.2 innings, giving up seven hits and three walks. Punched out five, but that’s the same number of runs he gave up.
Our pen pitched 3.1 innings of perfect ball, but we were unable to completely come back, and dropped the game and the series to Chicago.
Offensively, the biggest highlight was probably the two run home run by Michael Young – his fifth of the season. Young also doubled; he was the only Ranger with any extra base hits.
Meh.

The middle of the Rangers order had a good night tonight. Guerrero, Hamilton, & Cruz all had two hits. Cruz also walked. Sadly, outside of that, the Rangers only had three other hits. We’ve had less and won a game before, but despite having the same number of hits as the Cubs (9), these 10 inning losses seem to deflate the rest of the game for me. It’s always been a bug with me. 10 innings. If we lost in 11, 12, 18, or 33 innings, it wouldn’t feel the same. It’s just #10. For some reason, I hate the 10th inning more than any other. One of these days I should track it, but I’d wager more of our extra inning losses happen in the 10th than any other.
Anyway, Guerrero & Cruz continued their power stroke, each getting a solo home run. Guerrero is on an absolute tear, and I’d say unless he falls flat on his face, it’s pretty brain dead that we pick up his option for next year. Heck, I’d tear up the contract and give him another year. I’ve always liked him. Going back to his days in Montreal. Nice to see him come here and produce, unlike so many other imported players before him who have not done this kind of thing despite their track record (Ken Caminiti, Andres Galarraga, Richard Hidalgo, Andruw Jones, Ben Broussard, Brad Wilkerson, etc…)
Derek Holland pitched pretty well, probably deserved a win. Six innings pitched, four hits, no walks, 5 ks, and only two earned runs (one unearned). Only 103 pitches, which is a tad high for six, but not ridiculous. Most of the bullpen pitched well. Chris Ray, Darren Oliver, Frank Francisco, & Dustin Nippert all thre scoreless innings. Frankie & Dustin were perfect. However, Darren O’Day fell off the rails big time. He pitched to three batters in the 10 inning, and got nobody out. Three hits accounting for two earned runs. That’s what lost us the game there.
The Rangers did mount somewhat of a comeback, plating a run themselves in the bottom of the 10th on an RBI single by Ian Kinsler, but the full comeback wasn’t to be.
The 10th inning strikes again!

The Chicago Cubs came to town this weekend, bringing with them a few ex Rangers. Coming back for a visit are Marlon Byrd, Alfonso Soriano, & pitching coach Rudy Jaramillo. Of those, I probably missed Marlon Byrd the most. They did show one guy in the stands doing the Birdman dance, which I thought was a blast during his time here.
The Rangers put a pitcher out there who has his own “brought back” story with the Rangers this year, that being Colby Lewis. Colby’s done well this season, and he got the win here, too. But he wasn’t as dominating. He went six innings, and qualified for a “quality start”, but in the six innings, he gave up five hits and three walks. 109 pitches. Bit too laboring, but still was good enough to get the job done.
Our bullpen kept it under control, although Frankie made it a bit rocky with two hits in his inning of work. Still, none of the three relievers (O’Day, Francisco, Feliz) gave up any runs, which is essential in a game with a score like this.
The Rangers scored their only two runs on a series of plays in the fourth inning that looked a lot like kiddie baseball. Kinsler dribbled a ball up the third base line, and the ball was thrown away at first. Going to second, the ball was thrown into left field, and Ian got to third. It was momentarily bobbled and there was a moment where you thought Kinsler might try going all the way around, but he stopped at third. This was followed by some Rangers offense – the extra base hit. Vlad Guerrero doubled, and then Nelson Cruz doubled. That accounted for all of our offense. Josh Hamilton also had a double, but everything else was a single. Lou Piniella seemed to enjoy the carosuel of errors. hahaha. :)
Speaking of Josh, he laid down a bunt this game, which definitely was a bit of a surprise. :)
The 2-1 win was very nice to see.

Long time readers of my blog here know that I tend to call games with 20 runs and 35 hits “no pitching” games. If you look at the box score, that is backed up.
The Orioles used four pitchers. The Rangers used five. Of those nine pitchers, only two escaped with no runs scored on them. Those were Darren Oliver, who was the best all night, giving up no hits (although 2BB) and no runs in his 1 inning of work (5 batters). Neftali Feliz also was unscored upon, but he only went 0.1 innings, facing just a single batter. The rest of them? Definite “MEH”.
Feldman was better in this game than he has been, but despite him getting a “W”, he probably didn’t deserve it as such. He’s definitely not 2009 Feldman – I hope he discovers it again before too long. 12 hits and a walk in six innings of work is an awful lot. Not often a pitcher is in there long enough to give up that many hits, not unless he pitches into extra innings himself, which is never done anymore.
The Orioles starter (Brian Matusz) was worse, as he lasted just 2.1 innings, and gave up 7 earned runs on eight hits. Bleargh.
The only Rangers batter who had no hits was Joaquin Arias. Justin Smoak pinch hit for him, and got a hit. Arias was an interesting case, as he started at first base, something he had never done before. Josh & Tom made remarks like he looked out of place there, somewhat uncomfortable. But he didn’t commit any errors over there, so that’s a good thing.
But offensively we were led by Nelson Cruz, who went 4-5 with 3 runs scored and 4 RBI’s – powered by a first inning three run home run. Definitely a big night for him. David Murphy was 3-5, and everyone else had at least two hits except Smoak, who pinch hit, and Arias who took the lone ofer. “Offense all over the place” as I like to say.
It’s also the second time in a week I’ve gotten to use my sweep graphic, and both of them on two game sweeps. That still seems weird.

The Rangers won this game in a fun way. A walkoff. You know the kind where after the winning run scores, the players run around, jump on each other, jump up and down. Yeah, this mob scene was precipitated by the always exciting “Walk off sacrifice fly”. Oh yeah, that’s a lo.. wait a minute – walk off sac fly? That’s probably the least exciting way to win a ballgame I can think of. Besides perhaps the walk off hit by pitch, or the walkoff walk. :)
Still, a win is a win, and we’ll always take it. Thing is, we wouldn’t have needed the walkoff, had the umpires done what they should have done and reviewed Josh Hamilton’s (what was called a) double in the fourth. He had hit a ball over the scoreboard in left, it hit off one of the metal support beams and came back on the field, but it was ruled a double, and not the home run replays clearly showed it was. At the time it would have been Josh’s second home run of the game, and he was robbed. The other home run was a solo shot by Josh in the second. Been awhile since he’s had a multi home run game, and he got robbed of one this night.
Hamilton’s home runs aside, we were led offensively by Michael Young, who went 3-4 with a run scored, and is now batting .309. Hamilton’s two hits were the only other player with more than one. The remaining six hits were scattered amongst the rest of the lineup. Nelson Cruz & Michael Young doubled.
Smoak continues to have a low batting average (.174), which I think was actually lower than Chris Davis was when he was sent out. But Smoak walks a lot, and his hits seem more productive in general, which is probably why he’s still around. Plus he’s switch, but he is struggling with the off speed stuff. It’s all he’s seeing.
Pitching wise, Rich Harden started this game. I saw one of my friends on Facebook say during the game “I still don’t trust Rich Harden”, and I have to agree with that. While his line wasn’t awful (5.1IP, 2ER), the hits were too many (8). His walks were under control this time, just giving up one. However, way too many pitches (103). That’s way too many when your innings pitched is under 6.
Chris Ray got a blown save due to his giving up the 3-3 tying run in the 8th.
However, as was said before, the Nelson Cruz sac fly in the bottom of the ninth gave us the walkoff win. Always nice to see the pileup, even if the reason for it wasn’t the most exciting choice. :)

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.