Skipped this game, as I started a new job, and was super busy there for a bit. This is here as a placeholder for my schedule page.

Skipped this game, as I started a new job, and was super busy there for a bit. This is here as a placeholder for my schedule page.

Got a bit behind this week, taking a mulligan on this game.

Got a bit behind this week, taking a mulligan on this game.

Rich Harden came off the DL for this game, and by most accounts, was pitching for his job. The talk was that if he had a bad outing, he’d be banished forever. He seriously answered the bell. In probably his best outing as a Ranger. He went 6.2 innings, picking allowing no runs, yet walking five. He left the game in the seventh with a no hitter, actually. He came out with 111 pitches. Early on, he went to a three ball count on most everyone. That’s why he lost his chance to go deeper. Shame, as he was pitching well enough to carry on, but as he just came off the DL, he needed to be protected for later on in the season, which ultimately is more important.
Matt Harrison finished the inning, then Darren O’Day had his own no hitter of an inning. Then Neftali Feliz came in, and gave up the one hit, a single by Joe Mauer to break it up. Shame that didn’t happen, yes. But I’m more glad we got a win, and a convincing one against a real playoff team after the weak showing recently in that department.
The Rangers had a spread out offense. Of the starters, only one had no hits (that being Treanor). Everyone else had at least one, and it was enough, given the stellar pitching of the Rangers staff.
Great win.

Tommy Hunter took the mound on Sunday afternoon in the series finale and tried to shake a couple of rough outings, one including a vomiting session. He did pull it off. Had a great outing. Eight innings, five hits, three earned runs on one home run. Quite a good outing, indeed.
The other side of things were pretty much summed up quickly with this:
Josh Hamilton’s three run home run in the first off of Kevin Millwood gave us the lead we never gave up. Then a second three run home run by Vlad Guerrero in the fifth – again off of Millwood.
That was the extent of the scoring for the Rangers, but it was enough. Thanks to Hunter, who seems to have bounced back nicely.

Fell a bit behind this week, not going to write huge amounts of games this week.
I will say this. Cliff Lee had by far his worst outing as a Ranger. Just 5.2 innings, 10 hits, all eight runs were earned by him. Four home runs. It was a mess.
The best on the Rangers site was Josh Hamilton (what a shock), who went 3-5 with two runs scored, and three RBI’s. Michael Young also had three hits, but beyond that, not a ton of other stuff.
Blah.

On my 45th birthday, the Rangers gave me a quite nice baseball present. They broke their four game losing streak with a dominating performance by CJ Wilson.
I tend to use the phrase “dominating” on this website perhaps a little more than I realistically should, but man – it certainly applied tonight. CJ was masterful (uh-oh, another overused adjective) in this one, and was EXACTLY what we needed this night. Nolan Ryan himself in his prime couldn’t have done any better in stopping the skid. CJ went 8.2 innings, allowing just THREE hits and a walk, and struck out a dozen Orioles. At one point, he got 16 Orioles in a row out. I mean, WOW! 118 pitches when he came out of the game, he still had a realistic number of pitches left. I confess at the time wishing Washington would leave him in there, but you can’t argue with the result. Rangers win, Feliz got his first save of the month, and his 30th overall.
Thing is, the Orioles pitcher (Jake Arrieta) probably pitched well enough to win the game himself. He didn’t have quite the line as CJ, but you can’t argue with what he did as a good performance. 6.2 IP, 8 hits, three walks, two runs (one earned). Quality start for sure, and on any normal night, he probably would have won. But not against Wilson on this night – that’s for sure. The Orioles pen was good though – four guys combined for 2.1 innings of shutout ball. We couldn’t pad the lead at all against those guys, but we didn’t really need it.
Interesting bit late. Buck Showatler got tossed out of the game not long after Nick Markakis did (first time EVER for Nick). Showalter had a lot to say when he was out there. He did turn all kinds of red, which my wife even noticed. Now I point that out, because my wife needs glasses, and if she’s not wearing them, what she sees on the TV is a huge blur to her. She was laying on the sofa at the time (as the kids were both down now, and she was resting). She said “Wow – even without my glasses, Buck Showalter looks rather beet red”. He did seem to blow a few blood vessels. Not quite Earl Weaver levels of Orioles manager ejections, but it was a good show for sure.
Nice that we broke the streak, and as I write this on Friday night, the Angels have already lost, and the A’s are currently losing. Assuming that holds up, we’ll end the night eight games up on both of them. That’s quite amazing, considering how lackadaisical we’ve played over the last week or so. Not to have lost any significant ground during this time. Wow.

I wasn’t sure if I was right about the shutout statement in Game 119, but it didn’t matter. The Rangers were shut out in Game 120, 4-0 in Baltimore. If you count that horrible series right before the All-Star break, we’ve now lost five straight games to Baltimore. I really hope Baltimore doesn’t become our new Kansas City – a place where we should dominate totally, but can’t win worth a damn.
While he wasn’t there for the four game sweep back in July, Buck Showalter has certainly put a charge into Baltimore. I’ve always kind of liked Baltimore (except back in 83 when they beat my Phillies). Baltimore has had such a rough time over the last 13 years, only being beat out in futility by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Buck Showalter is probably the kind of manager they need there (the Pirates could use Bobby V, too I’d take it). But when Buck got the job, I thought it would be a good long term match, provided management doesn’t get tired of waiting for a honest to god turnaround.
But one thing I loved seeing from the Showalter press conference in Baltimore was the talk about Johnny Oates. My long time readers know I have a soft spot for Johnny Oates, and that Showalter continues to pay reverence to him is great. Buck apparently asked for and got Johnny Oates’ old uniform number of 26 to wear in Baltimore. From what I read, he consulted with several people, not the least of which was Johnny’s family to make sure they’d be OK with it. That showed some class. I still remember the winter that Buck took over in Texas him coming straight over to me and asking me about the red Rangers hat I was wearing. I’ll never forget that. The man has a reputation of being a heavy duty, almost too far level of detail to him, and the fact he’d talk to a fan (me) about cap colors with the Rangers, or talk to Johnny Oates’ widow about wearing his old uniform number just makes me like him more. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ron Washington, and enjoy him now, but I wish Buck Showalter had won it big here in Texas, I thought he deserved it. I hope he can have better success in Baltimore – but not until the Rangers win the World Series.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to write a ton about Buck Showalter here, but truth be told, there’s little else to say about this game. The story of the game is the Orioles’ starter Brian Matusz (the Z is silent – Mah-toos). He went eight innings, allowing no runs on five hits and a walk. Struck out six. Koji Uehara followed with a little rocky (two hits) inning, but he too put up the all important donut in the runs column.
That was about it. Vlad Guerrero seems to be coming around again – went 2-3 with a walk for a team that got just seven hits overall. We need his power back – especially now with Cruz down, and Kinsler still out.
Tip of the hat to Brian Matusz. He looked awesome. Hard to beat that kind of pitching, no matter what your offense is doing.

Shit.