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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.

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. :)