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Taking a pass on the Astros series. Got too far behind.

Taking a pass on the Astros series. Got too far behind.

This was the only game in the series we really had to work for. In fact, up until the bottom of the ninth when we won it in walkoff fashion, we hadn’t had a lead at all up to then.
Since so many people are making Spinal Tap jokes right now, I’ll avoid that, but I will say it was very cool to say we’ve won 11 in a row. As I write this, the Angels game from tonight is still going on, so we’re temporarily 4 games up on them in first place. They’re losing, and if it stays that way, we’ll be up 4.5 games. Wow. I know it’s not like 17 games up, but it’s still a great feeling.
The Rangers got beind the eight ball very early as Scott Feldman stunk up the joint and gave up a four spot in the top of the first. From there it was time to employ “The John Blake Peck-away Theory”. The Rangers picked up a run in the bottom of the second on a groundout by Justin Smoak. After the Pirates got their fifth run in the top of the fourth, we answered with a two spot, both coming on sac flies. And both to the 407 sign in right center, which on a night with wind would have been home runs both. We tied the game in the bottom of the seventh on a Michael Young triple that I initially thought was a foul ball, but replays showed it was fair. But NOT by much. That scored Andrus. Kinsler later singled, scoring Young to tie the game.
That took it to the bottom of the ninth against one of the few Pirates pitchers that’s pretty darned good. We beat him. :) Elvis walked and Michael Young singled. Andrus hustled to third on a move that I thought was perhaps questionable, I didn’t think he had enough speed to do that. But he got there. He scored a few minutes later when Vlad Guerrero singled to win the game. Guerrero smiles a lot anyway, but wow – it was like he was an ad for a dentist or something out there.
The team really picked up Scott Feldman, who continues to be “meh” this season. Shame, as I had penciled him in for 20 wins easy in spring training. :)
Again, this makes three consecutive series sweeps (Marlins, Astros, Pirates). The Astros come into town this weekend, and man – if we can sweep them again, we’d tie the overall franchise record at 14. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re at 11, and Nigel Tufnel be damned, I want to tune it a little past that.

You know, for scores like this I usually bring out that graphic about “Time to open a can of big ol American WHOOP-ASS”. The only problem is that the opponent is the Pirates. Does it count as whoopass when you just beat the Pirates? I mean come on. We’re supposed to destroy them. Perhaps if we got to 20.
Yeah, the offense got rolling early. The Rangers put a two spot on the board in the bottom of the first pretty quickly. Elvis Andrus walked and Michael Young homered. Bam – up 2-0 after two batters. That set the tone for the whole night right there. I felt a little bad after the Pirates scored one in the top of the second (no shutdown inning there), but then the ass whooping (OK, I gotta use it a little) got underway in the bottom of the second. The Rangers plated five in that inning. It wasn’t a power based attack either, as the first four of the five runs that inning scored on singles. The last one was a sac fly. No huge blasts there.
As if that wasn’t cool enough, the Rangers did one better in the bottom of the fourth, plating SIX batters. That one wasn’t all singles there, there were a few doubles mixed in there. Usually when the Rangers score that much, there’s some home runs in the mix, but other than that two run shot in the bottom of the first, there wasn’t. Just a bunch of singles. At one point I believe there were four consecutive ones with the bases loaded or something along those lines. Was quite entertaining.
In all, seventeen hits. Just one home run and two doubles. Plus a pile of singles (fourteen of them). Not a lot of power, but a lot of offense just the same.
Pitching wise, we had three pitchers pitch three innings each. Dustin Nippert made another start, and was severely lacking in the “length” department. Only went three, which we need more from – even an emergency spot starter type. Alexi Ogando came in next, and was spectacular again. Three innings of perfect ball. Two strikeouts. Looked awesome. Matt Harrison pitched the final three innings, and got a save, actually. That’s obviously some weird use of the save rule.
But Ogando.. He’s made three major league appearances so far. His ERA is 0.00, and he’s 3-0. In three relief appearances! Yeesh!

I was at this game, thanks to some tickets left for me, and wow were they awesome. About 6 or 7 rows behind the Pirates dugout.
This game, like a lot of Rangers games were powered by the longball, although the biggest one by a player not known for that. But before we get there, I needed to talk a little about the Pirates. Their starter was Ross Ohlendorf, and much like a pitcher from another league you don’t have the most info on, he befuddled the Rangers through the first three innings. Ross O had a no hitter going through the first three innings. Went into the fourth when Andrus didn’t get a hit. But Michael Young adjusted, and jacked a solo home run into the Rangers bullpen for what was then a score of 2-1 Buccos. In the next inning, though, Josh Hamilton doubled to lead off the inning. Nelson Cruz, fresh back from the DL, grounded out, moving Hamilton to third. Smoak popped out and Matt Treanor walked. Up came Julio Borbon who jacked a three run home run into the right field bleachers. That gave us a 4-2 lead at the time, and we didn’t look back.
Josh Hamilton added a home run in the bottom of the sixth to go with the other two home runs. Nelson Cruz added a sac fly in the bottom of the 8th and we won the game 6-3.
Ross Ohlendorf fell to 0-6, which isn’t as bad of a record as Kevin Millwood has at the moment (1-8). Tommy Hunter started for the Rangers, and got the win behind a technical quality start. Didn’t walk anyone, but did give up nine hits in his six innings. He gave up three runs, but one was unearned (Smoak threw a ball away going home with it).
While I don’t seem to be writing a lot about this game, I did have a good time going. Was great going with a friend who I don’t have to “dumb down” talking about baseball with, so that was nice. Thanks Jeff!
This is the Rangers ninth win in a row. w00t!

The Rangers had 15 hits total. Two players had 9 of them – That’s 3/5 of the total hits from two guys. One you’d expect – that was Josh Hamilton. Josh went 5-6 in the game, but the other was Julio Borbon who went 4-5 with a walk.
The Rangers had no home runs, but four doubles. Just a pile of singles. Our five runs were scatted all over the box score. One in the second, third, sixth, ninth, & 10th. The most important ones I suppose were both by Josh Hamilton. One was the single in the 9th by Josh, which tied the game up sending it to extra innings. The other being the one in the 10th as the Rangers took the lead, and the win. AND THE SWEEP!
That’s two sweeps in a row, and a winning streak of eight wins in a row!
I’d be neglect in mentioning the performance of CJ Wilson, who didn’t get the win, but should have. Seven innings, two earned runs (four overall). Six hits, three walks. He looked decent, if not dominating. The error by Vlad Guerrero didn’t help, that’s for sure.
Still, he did a decent enough job, and the Rangers got the win overall, which is the whole point. Back home to take on the Buccos – dare we think of three consecutive series sweeps?

Colby Lewis continues to do it all. He threw a complete game victory, giving up just two hits and one run. Walked nobody and struck out nine. It doesn’t get a whole lot more impressive than that unless you start talking shutout/nohitter/perfecto. He didn’t do anything at the plate, but that doesn’t matter, really. His pitching has been outstanding, and this is miles better than anything he did his first time around with the Rangers. He also pitched the complete game with just 101 pitches, which is very nice for a complete game. Most pitchers reach that in the fifth inning.
Justin Smoak led the way offensively in this game. His two run home run in the top of the second was all the offense we needed. We did pick up three runs later on in the game, led by a Michael Young home run, but the shot by Smoak in the second was all we needed. That wasn’t all Smoak did, he was 3-4 with a run scored and THREE RBI’s, so one of the others was his, too. Everything else besides the two home runs was a single.
Colby now improves to 7-4, and if he stays healthy, and keeps going at this pace, he’s got an outside shot to reach 20 wins, would be really impressive.

The Rangers came into this series just having swept the Marlins, a team that’s not upper echelon, but still a decent team. We travel to Houston here to play a team that’s not too far removed from the Pittsburgh Pirates (our opponent after Houston, but nevermind). If there’s one thing the Rangers have had trouble with in the last few years, it’s taking care of teams they should take care of.
With that in mind, we get to Houston to take on an Astros team that is, and let’s be nice, not very good. The Astros threw out Wandy Rodriguez against the Rangers, and well, he stunk. He only lasted three innings, giving up the big ol crooked number the Rangers got in the top of the third. Four hits, four walks, and six earned runs in three innings. Not very good.
On the flip side of that, the Rangers sent out Scott Feldman, who has been better the last few starts than the “meh” he’s been up until now. This time, he got the win (his fifth), while walking just one, but allowing nine hits. He went seven, so it wasn’t as bad as all that. All thee runs the Astros got were on singles in the bottom of the sixth. Scott came out for a scoreless seventh, so I don’t think it really was “out of gas” there.
Scott even got in on the offense, pitching in with a double, that he later scored on. :)
Once again, Josh Hamilton tore it up. 3-5 with two runs scored and two RBI’s. The man is on fire for sure. A couple of singles and a triple for him. Smoak & Treanor were both 2-5, and Borbon was 2-4 with a walk. The Rangers had twelve hits in all, so it was some nice offense. Justin Smoak jacked a second deck home run in the fifth, good for a two spot.
Overall, a nice way to come into Houston and take the first game of the series.

For their fifth win in a row, the Rangers swept out the Florida Marlins with a 6-4 victory in Miami.
It started off with a moment that a lot of Ranger fans was wondering when it would happen. Rich Harden missed a start. Yeah, he’s officially on the DL, but given the way he was pitching, I suspect it wasn’t as “truly DL” as some real injuries are. In his place was Dustin Nippert, who has made some starts in the past, but for tonight was still a reliever, so he wasn’t expected to give the team a lot. And he didn’t. Nippert only went three innings, and allowed three earned runs on seven hits. He also had no real command, throwing 74 pitches in those three innings, an average of TWENTY FIVE PER! Too much.
Following him was Alexi Ogando again. Alexi went not as long as Nippert, but had way better results. On 40 pitches, Ogando went 2.1 innings, allowing three walks and striking out four. But as I’ve said before – the bottom line is runs, and he gave up none. Good thing that.
Chris Ray, Frank Francisco, & Neftali Feliz finished out, and only Frankie allowed any hits (two) and any runs (one). All the other relievers (Ogando, Ray, Feliz) no hit the Marlins. So the pen was good.
Four of the Rangers 11 hits were extra base jobs. A few doubles (Kinsler with 2 and Murphy with 1) were nice, but there was this titanic home run by Vlad Guerrero to left – went way past where balls usually go in this stadium (I don’t know what to call the place, it’s had the most name changes in the last 5-6 years than any other place I know). I mean this home run was not only a no doubter immediately, it was a “everyone stands and watches it” kind of shot. Jose Canseco in the Skydome kind of home run.
Matt Treanor had another good game. While not as dramatic as the GW triple the other night, he did go 2-4, which is a good showing. Kinsler also had two hits, the better of them being a double in the fifth, which plated Elvis Andrus & Alexi Ogando.
Ogando again? Yeah, he got a hit in that inning, which itself was a surprise. A good clean, crisp swing too – no cheap shot.
Was a great series in Florida. We then move on to Houston, where we SHOULD do well, as the Astros are pretty awful nowadays.