Rangerfans.com

A couple of home runs (Young, Byrd), a triple (Young), a double (Teagarden), and three singles weren’t enough. The Rangers lost in 10 innings.
I hate writing about those almost as much as I hate writing about Yankees losses. If we go into the Bronx this coming week and are bad, I’ll have an easy time with my updates. :)
One positive, Michael Young had another three hit game. That brings him to 159 hits with 39 games left. One hit per game gives him 198, I think he can pick that up easily enough and get to 200. :)

We’ve had decent luck against Tampa Bay starter Scott Kazmir – or at least my memory tells me that. So I was kind of surprised when I watched this game and he was the Scott Kazmir that “Scott Kazmir” says Scott Kazmir should be. Not that one who was just an average pitcher.
Against Texas on Friday, Scott pretty much shut down the Rangers, holding us scoreless through seven plus innings. That was finally stopped when Taylor Teagarden hit a home run off of him in the 8th to lead off. That was followed up by RBI’s from Marlon Byrd & Andruw Jones. Jones’ RBI I don’t understand – I missed it live, in that his box score shows no hits, and no sac fly. Not sure how he was credited with his.
There wasn’t a lot of Rangers offense. Six hits in all, and three of them from Michael Young (2 1B, 1 2B). Byrd & Andrus singled, and there was the Teagarden home run. But when Kazmir was pitching like that, there wasn’t much to go around.
Dustin Nippert took the mound and pitched like a lot of Rangers pitchers in late August – “meh”. Five innings, seven hits, five runs (four earned) two walks, and three strikeouts. The pen was pretty good (nothing allowed), but the runs against Nippert were all that the Rays needed for the win.

Well, Thursday was my 44th birthday, and I headed out to Arlington for my tradition of attending a game on my birthday. I’ve done that as long as I can remember. I’ve mentioned this here before, but if you didn’t know I go on my birthday. If they’re not in town, I go on the closest calendar day to August 20th. I have to confess when they signed Pudge, I didn’t want him starting on Wednesday night. I wanted him starting on Thursday for the first time, so it would be my birthday game. That didn’t happen. But I got to see him in the dugout! Wheeeee!
I did get to see Derek Holland in person, and he didn’t seem to be “on” this game. He struggled in places, and while he still got the win, and didn’t allow a ton of runs to score, it wasn’t the smoothest outing I would think. Overall, his line was 5.1 innings, 83 pitches, seven hits, no walks, 3 k’s, and just one run allowed. The reason it was just one run was in thanks to Netfali Feliz. In the sixth, Holland loaded the bases, and was pulled by Ron Washington. In came Feliz. This was something I also wanted to see, and while he didn’t hit 100, there were several 97’s and 98’s, and watching him warm up, it really looked like Walter Johnson. I thought Feliz’ movement in warming up really really looked like the old pitcher for the Washington Senators, Walter “Big Train” Johnson. Willie Eyre and Jason Jennings also tossed soreless innings onto this game, but the big moment was the second pitch that Feliz threw. With the bases loaded, he got Joe Crede to hit a squibber over to Michael Young, who stepped on third, and then threw to first for the inning ending double play. Just felt then like it killed the Twins. From that point onward, it was all smooth sailing for Rangers pitching.
The Rangers hitting was quite good, too. In all, we had seventeen hits. As I’ve said many times before, that many hits leads to a lot of things like “Every Ranger starter had at least one hit”. Which is what happened. They all had at least one. We had three guys with three hits (Borbon, Young, & Blalock). Borbon chipped in with his first career major league home run, a pull job down the right field line, just to the left of the wedgie. In all, there was a lot of extra base hits. We had three doubles (Andrus, Young, Borbon) and four home runs (Byrd twice, Borbon, & Cruz). That Borbon was even here to get the shot when Cruz came back from the DL is a testament to how hot Borbon has been since first coming up recently. I’m glad he’s sticking around.
Hank Blalock had three sharp hits, and he’s been batting worse than Chris Davis was when he was sent down. Makes you wonder what’s going on there.
The multiple home runs was a great, and we almost had six. Ian Kinsler upper cutted one that went WAY WAY up – over the foul pole high, but just to the left of the pole. The other one was a ball that Michael Young hit, that bounced off the top of the left field wall, and back in play. There was a video review of the ball, and man, it just missed being another home run by literally an inch or so. So we had four homers, but could have quite easily have had six. Nice to see the offense going.
The Rangers also turned three double plays, which I’m sure helped. :)
We head out on the road to Tampa, New York, & Minnesota to close out the Metrodome. That will be hard trip, and if we can do it without losing any more ground to Anaheim, we could be in good shape. New York will be the hardest, as they’re doing quite well at the moment.
One last thing about Borbon. I don’t think he should be wearing #29. That number should be a plaque hanging in left field with the numbers 26, 34, & 42.

The Minnesota Twins ruined the return of Pudge Rodriguez to the Rangers lineup. Oh, he was officially added to the roster the day before, but this was the first time (the real) #7 played in a game in about seven years or so. He got massive ovations, made some plays behind the plate, and was great with the bat, too. Pudge went 3-4 with a double, a run scored, and an RBI. It was a great return for #7. When we got him via a trade the other day, I theorized that he’s here for the remainder of 2009, and that’s it. If he plays like this, they could take a real look at him going forward as the backup, and trade one of the kids, but that’s wild speculation, and said in the rosy feeling of the return of Pudge. That’s a discussion for later.

Kevin Millwood took the mound, and with the departure of Pidente, he’s now got more career starts than the rest of the starting rotation does combined. Kevin Millwood has 368, and the other four (Feldman, Holland, Hunter, & Nippert) combine for 91 starts. So Kevin has FOUR TIMES the combined starts of the other four. He didn’t pitch like he was that far ahead of the others. 5.2 innings, 113 pitches, seven hits, four walks, and five earned runs. Bleh. He was done in by the recent problem the Rangers have – a meltdown inning. We gave up four in the sixth. I admit, when it started going south, I fast forwarded through it on TiVo. I didn’t feel like watching that.

Offensively, we had no home runs, but we did have some other power. Two doubles (Byrd, Pudge) and a triple (Byrd again). Elvis Andrus also stole a base, and we had a bunch of singles to account for our four runs.

But the story of the night, even with the loss, was the return of #7 to the catching duties for the Texas Rangers. As much as I can’t see it happening, it would be nice if he never left again. I’d really like that.

I’m taking a mulligan on this game, no time to write, about to head out the door for church, and have too much going on when I get back to write.
Although it was really REALLY nice to see Pudge take the lineup card out to home plate. Was a great moment after it was announced he was a Ranger again.

I’m taking a mulligan on this one. No time to write.