Monthly Archives: April 2015

Gallardo Helps the Rangers Ground Out A Victory

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The Rangers won the first game of this 3 city, 8 game road-trip by beating preseason AL West favorite Seattle Mariners 3-1.  The Rangers improved their record to 5-6. It was a good win that will help them the rest of this trip. The aim is to go 5-3 on the trip to have a winning trip and they are one win closer to that. They primarily won on the arm of Yovanni Gallardo, who is getting better start by start. They also were able to scratch together two runs and benefit off of a home run by Robinson Chirinos, his second of the season. The defense was also outstanding as they turned 3 more double plays to add to their league-leading total. It was an all around good team win. One that they needed especially with Felix Hernandez pitching tonight. Before we talk about the game tonight, lets recap what happened in the game last night.

Yovanni Gallardo was making his third start for the Rangers and J.A. Happ was making the start for the Mariners. Prior to this game the Rangers had struggled against the other left-handers that they had faced. Scott Kazmir shut them out in Oakland, Dallas Keuchel was able to keep them scoreless the first 6 innings on Sunday, and Hector Santiago only allowed 1 run in his 7 innings of work on Wednesday. They were really struggling.  They did marginally better last night though. They were able to get out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first as Leonys Martin, back in the leadoff role, was able to work a walk and then Prince Fielder hit a shot of the end of his bat down the left field line that Martin was able to score from first off of. The offense didn’t really do much after that till Robinson Chirinos hit a deep home run to center to make the score 2-0 and that would be all the Rangers would need.

Yovanni Gallardo was great last night, he showed the type of veteran poise the Rangers were hoping to get when they traded for him. Every time the Mariners got men on base in the first 6 innings he was able to get out of it. The 3rd inning is a great example of his poise. The bases were loaded due to 2 singles and a walk, but he just buckled down and was able to get hot-hitting Seth Smith to ground into a double play to end the inning. That was one of 3 double-plays he induced and one of 14 groundball outs he was able to get. He also had 3 strikeouts in his 6+ innings of work. Right now him and Colby Lewis are helping to carry this staff and help them survive this stretch they have without Derek Holland.

Gallardo was taken out in the 7th inning and the bullpen took over and helped carry them to victory. Tolleson was able to get out of a runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs jam in the 7th. He did this by getting Logan Morrison to ground out to Adam Rosales, who made a great diving stop. He was then able to strike out Dustin Ackley and Mike Zunino to end the inning with no runs allowed. Tanner Scheppers was making his first appearance of the season and gave up one run in his inning of work. The offense was able to scratch together an insurance run in the 9th when a base hit by Adam Rosales hit the 3rd base bag and allowed Robinson Chirinos to score. Neftali Feliz came on in the 9th and was able to close it out, but not before it got interesting. Logan Morrison came up in the 9th and sent a shot to right field that looked like it had a shot to leave the ballpark, but then this happened.

 

 

 

Choo timed it perfectly and made it look real easy. That out pretty much ended the game and the Rangers won 3-1. Gallardo improved his record to 2-1 and Feliz recorded his 2nd save of the season and the Rangers are now just half a game back of being in first place in the AL West. A good start to what should be an interesting road trip for the Rangers.

Other Game Notes

  • Mitch Moreland was a late scratch from the lineup as he was dealing with a sore elbow. After the game it was revealed he might need surgery to deal with loose bodies in elbow and that could keep him out for 3 weeks. They are going to monitor that the next few days and see how it progresses. I would hope the Rangers will go ahead and have the surgery done, because it is still really early and I would rather get it done now rather than have Mitch try to play through it and make it worse and then have to have the surgery in July or August. We will see over the next few days which direction Mitch and the team decide to take.
  • Prince Fielder made a bold statement before the news about Moreland came out. He said right now the team is better with Moreland in the field. It leads me to believe that he will be fine with DH’ing more and playing in the field less, which is actually what should be happening. That is pretty big of him to say, because his reputation says that he wouldn’t be willing to give up playing first base,but to come right out and say that is good for him and good for the team as well.
  • I said earlier the Rangers lead the league in double plays, that is true. The Rangers in the first 11 games have turned  15 double plays. That has them tied with the Giants. The infield has made their share of errors, but they are great at not messing up double plays. Elvis and Odor have a great chemistry on the field and they rarely miss an opportunity at a double play. It has been great to see them grow in their partnership these last two seasons. I can’t forget about Beltre who has started his share of double plays from third. That is one thing from game to game that will be consistent. Right now they do not have a pitcher on their staff that is dominant just by himself, each pitcher they have is to a large degree reliant on the defense. Thankfully, the infield defense is solid and should be able to keep them in most games.
  • Adrian Beltre had a funny moment in the game last night.

 

 

 

 

 

  • Elvis continues to drive the ball. He sent a rocket to dead center field that went right over the head of Austin Jackson. It was not a lazy fly to center, he got behind the ball and drove it for a double. That is the type of hitter the Rangers want him to be. This will be something to watch as the season goes along.
  • Tonight it will be a matchup of two veterans, Colby Lewis against Felix Hernandez. Lewis is 1-0 on the season and is coming off a no-decision in his last start against the Astros when he pitched 7 innings and gave up 4 runs. Hernandez had to be taken out in the 5th inning in his last start against the A’s. with tightness in his right quad muscle. He had a throwing session on Wednesday and declared that he is ready to go. The Rangers have fared well in the past against Hernandez, but this is a different team and if King Felix is on his game the Rangers will lose. Hopefully he is having an off night and the Rangers can pick up their first series win of the season and get back .500. Game time is at 8:05 tonight. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!!

Ranaudo doesn’t impress and the Rangers Lose to the Angels

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Yesterday afternoon was Anthony Ranaudo’s first start with the Rangers and lets just say it did not go well at all. He last 1.2 innings, giving up 6 runs, and picking up the loss in what turned into a 10-2 shellacking by the Angels. He threw 62 pitches to get 5 outs. His problem was that he would get ahead of the hitters, but could not put them away. He has good stuff, but not great execution. As the pitcher he has to have an idea of how to get a guy out. Lets take the Erick Aybar at-bat that led off the game. He quickly got ahead of Aybar 1-2 just throwing fastballs, but it took him another 5 pitches to record the out. He tried to just get him out with his fastball, but Aybar kept fouling it off. In the at-bat he threw 6 fastballs, 1 curveball, and 1 slider. He did record the out on a flyball to center field. It was like that in the two innings he pitched. It is something that he is definitely going to need to work on. I doubt he will be back next week when the spot in the rotation comes up. He definitely put the Rangers behind the 8 ball and it led to the Rangers losing the game and dropping their record to 4-6.

Not a lot else happened in this game. The lineup that Banister likes to use against left-handers predictably stunk as did the team against Hector Santiago. Santiago gave up 1 run in his 7 innings of work to improve his record the last two seasons in Arlington to 4-0. The problem the Rangers have when they try to trout out the lineup with a lot of right-handers is that Deshields is not a major league hitter, Smolinksi is not hitting well enough this early in the season, and the lineup functions better with Choo and Moreland in it than not in it. At least that is what my eyes tell me watching the game.

I am sure the team is thankful that now they get a full day off for the first time this season. 4-6 is not too bad considering they had to go on the road for a 4 game series in Oakland and then come home and lose their staff ace after one inning. I would have liked to have seen them do better than 2-4 on the homestand. The game that they should have won was the extra inning affair against the Astros on Sunday. They had numerous opportunities and just could not bring it home. Now they go out on the road for an 8 game roadie against the Mariners, Diamondbacks, and Angels. Now game today and they will be back on Friday night at 9:05.

Rangers Stop Losing Streak Behind Martinez and Resurgent Offense

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Nick Martinez collects his second win of the season in win against the Angels

Nick Martinez collects his second win of the season in win against the Angels

 

 

The Rangers ended their first losing streak of the season with an 8-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and improved their record to 4-5. Nick Martinez picked up his second win of the season as he continued his strong start with 7 innings of 1 run baseball. Jeff Banister having changed up the lineup again saw his team score 8 runs and hit 2 home runs. I guess this says that he needs to be changing the lineup everyday. It was a good team win though. The pitching was solid, the offense was great, and the defense helped keep the Angels off the board in key situations. Jeff Banister could not ask for a better win in the given situation. Lets get to what actually happened in the game though.

It was Nick Martinez going up against Drew Rucinski, who was making his first major league start. Martinez got off to a tough start. He allowed Erick Aybar a sharp single into the right-field corner, but Choo came up firing and was able to throw Aybar out at second. Mike Trout followed with a double and Albert Pujols walked putting runners at first and second with 1 out. He was able to get out of it with a lineout from Matt Joyce and a ground out from Rangers nemesis David Freese. In the bottom of the first the new Rangers top of the order was able to produce a run. Roughned Odor walked, stole second, and Mitch Moreland singled up the middle to get him home. They functioned as the top two hitters should and I loved Moreland’s approach with two strikes in that at-bat. He shortened his stroke and was able to hit a sharp grounder up the middle. It was nice to see him thinking there about just getting a base hit, rather than continuing to try for the home run. It looked like the lead would be short-lived though in the bottom of the inning as the Angels once again put pressure on Martinez. They were able to load the bases with one-out and their fastest runner coming to the plate in Erick Aybar. I thought for sure it would be difficult to get a double play grounder, but sure enough they did. Aybar hit it sharp enough at Odor that he was able to turn it quick enough to get Aybar out at first. Through two innings Martinez was up to 38 pitches. As I am watching this I am thinking that he may only be able to make it through 5 innings.  From there though he was able to calm down. It helped that the bats woke up in the bottom of the second inning.

The Rangers were able to put 3 more runs on the board all with two outs in the inning. They finally got a break to go their way when Mike Trout and Matt Joyce were converging on a drive to left center off the bat of Robinson Chirinos when neither one of them were able to catch it even though both were in position to catch it. That allowed two runs to score and allowed the Ranger players to be able to take a deep breath and just relax from that point forward. Odor followed up Chirinos’ double with one of his own that landed right in front of a dive from Mike Trout. That allowed the Rangers to be able to put 3 on the board that inning and extend the lead to 4-0. It was certainly an inning the team really needed and it allowed Martinez to settle in and pitch his game.

After the big second inning, Martinez retired 12 of the next 14 hitters from the third through the sixth inning and the score expanded from 4-0 to 8-0. The Angels didn’t even really pose another threat till the 7th inning. That is when the first two runners reached due to a single and throwing error from Adrian Beltre. After that though he was able to get out of the inning with only one run allowed. There could have been more, but Carlos Peguero was able to track down and catch Mike Trout’s drive to the wall. All in all Nick Martinez threw 7 innings. allowing 1 run, but 0 earned runs, 5 hits. 3 BB’s, 1 K. That makes it 14 innings he has thrown so far without giving up a single earned run. His ERA is still 0.00. He showed a lot of poise and maturity out there being able to get out of those first and second inning jams. Right now I feel decently confident about 3/5 of the rotation. I feel like Martinez is poised to be a really solid member of this rotation. He will have his bad starts from time to time, but he is continuing that success he had down the stretch of last season. The Rangers are going to need that if they have any dreams of competing. If they can get solid starts from Martinez every fifth day that will go a long way toward keeping that dream alive.

Other Game Notes

  • Robinson Chirinos had his first big game of the season. He caught a break in the second with that deep drive double to left center that landed between Trout and Joyce. The home run though was no joke. He drove that to deep left center field. It was a no doubter and gave him 5 rbi’s on the night. That was good for Robinson as he was in a 1-13 slump entering this game and had not had many quality plate appearances so far. He looked confident at the plate and the double in the second may be what he needed in order to get going. With it being a day game today I expect him to get the day off today and Carlos Corporan will be behind the plate.
  • Elvis Andrus has left the building. All Spring Training they talked about how Elvis had worked on changing his stance and tried to get stronger in order to be able to drive the ball into the gaps and into the outfield. In the past it looked like any hit he got was just a soft hit line drive. Last night he was driving the ball. He had two hits, but easily could have had 3 if not for Erick Aybar making a fantastic play with the infield drawn in. One of those two hits was a home run. It was Elvis’ first home run since May 21st of last year and snapped a string of 481 at-bats without a home run, the longest active drought in the major leagues. If he continues to get the bat behind the ball and driving it, the next drought will not be anywhere close to as long. The Rangers don’t need him to be a home run hitter though. They survived last season having Alex Rios hit 6th and only hit 4 home runs. What the Rangers need is for him to be getting on base, causing havoc on the bases, and helping to drive people in.
  • Prince Fielder strikes again with two more singles in his 4 at-bats, but he almost did hit a home run though. Jose Alvarez left one hanging in the fifth and Prince thought he had it, but he just got underneath it and flew out to right-fielder Collin Cowgill. He gets his average up to .405 though and for the first time this season, we did not see a massive shift from the Angels in his at-bats. Word is getting around that Prince is not pulling the ball anymore. That actually allowed him to get his second single when he hit it right back up the middle where the shortstop normally would have been.
  • And can we please calm down the talk on Carlos Peguero being like Nelson Cruz. Peguero has looked good so far, don’t get me wrong. I think he has been very solid and is filling in for Ryan Rua very nicely. He needs to do it longer than 5 games to be considered Nelson Cruz. Cruz even had to prove he could do it longer than 5 games. I remember back before he became the monster he is today that everytime the Rangers called him up he would hit two home runs in the first game he would play and then would go into a massive slump. Peguero is doing good, but lets calm down the Nellie Cruz talk until May or June. Lets see what he does over these next few weeks. For now I prefer the comparison to Kevin Kouzmanoff prior to his back injury from last season. A veteran who was given another shot and excelled until he got hurt.
  • It is an afternoon game today as it will be Anthony Ranaudo making his first start for the Rangers going up against the Angels Hector Santiago. Ranaudo was called up last night and Phil Klein was sent down after the game last night. Santiago will be looking to continue his success in Arlington from last season when he went 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA against the Rangers in their home ballpark. Ranaudo will be looking to make a good first impression on the Rangers coaches and management as he tries to keep in the rotation. Ranaudo will likely be given a short leash as Anthony Bass will be ready and waiting in the bullpen should Ranaudo falter. The game is today at 1:05 and will end this stretch of 10 straight days with games to open up the season. The Rangers get their first day off tomorrow before heading to Seattle to face the preseason division favorite Seattle Mariners. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!

 

Breaking Rangers News

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Just a quick post as there has been some news come out this afternoon on the Rangers.
First Anthony Ranaudo will get the first shot to fill in for Derek Holland. He will pitch tomorrow in the finale against the Angels. He pitched last Thursday for the Round Rock Express and went 5 innings, giving up 4 hits, 0 runs, and 6 K’s, and 0 BB’s. He will have to show that same type of control as he will be making 8th major league start. He made 7 starts last season for the Red Sox and went 4-3 with a 4.81 ERA, he pitched 39.1 innings, giving up 10 home runs, walking 16, and striking out 15. He does have potential though as he went 14-4 with a 2.61 ERA for their AAA team last season. That is why the Rangers brought him in and so he will get the first shot and if it goes well tomorrow it is likely that he would stay for the time being. If it doesn’t Chi Chi Gonzalez, Jake Thompson, Luke Jackson, and others will be waiting for their chance at a spot in the rotation. There is no word on what the corresponding roster move will be. That will come out tomorrow afternoon likely.
Finally, Jeff Banister is switching up the lineup again in order to get the bats going. Roughned Odor will be your leadoff hitter, Mitch Moreland will bat 2nd, and Leonys Martin will drop down to 8th. Martin is in the middle of a 2-28 slump and is not being the sparkplug the Rangers had hoped for. It is clear Banister is still trying to get a feel for this team and is willing to try whatever it takes to get the offense moving. It should be interesting to see if this move works and if the offense can finally get on track. First pitch is 7:05 tonight and it will be Nick Martinez on the mound against Drew Rucinski.

Offense continues to be a lightweight in Loss to Angels

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The Texas Rangers got off to a good start last night leading 3-0 after the first inning, but couldn’t build on it and the Angels came back to take the first game of this series 6-4. Ross Detweiler picked up his second loss of the season and the Rangers fell to 3-5.  He was good the first time through the order in limiting the Angels to just no runs. After that though the Angels went 7-17, 2 home runs, and 2 BB’s to go from 3-0 to 5-3. He showed the same tendencies he showed last week against Oakland. He is going to have to pitch much better or they will banish him to middle relief. He has to show that he can control his fastball and throw it in the lower portion of the strike zone and be able to mix up his pitch selection in order to make it through a lineup 2 or 3 times without the hitters picking up on what he is doing. Right now, he is leaving his fastballs up and over the plate and American League hitters will make you pay for that. The Rangers want him to succeed and will give him every opportunity to succeed, because they don’t want to have to go to Anthony Ranaudo and Chi Chi Gonzalez this early in the season. If come Mid May or early June and he is still struggling they will certainly pull the trigger on a switch. Sometimes the team finds out that a player is just not meant to be a starter. Detweiler could be that type of pitcher, tantalizing stuff but just can’t control it enough to be a quality starting pitcher. The Nationals seemed to think the same thing as they went back and forth with him between the bullpen and the rotation. It will be up to Jeff Banister and management to make a determination down the line on Detweiler on if he can be a starting pitcher for this team.

He was not the only reason they lost though. The offense continues to struggle. They did score 3 runs in the first, but after that could not get any other rallies going. Right now they are a soft hitting singles team. They have hit 4 home runs on the season and they all came last Thursday against the A’s. No home runs in the other 7 games. They don’t have a lot of power, but you would figure a lineup with Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre, and Mitch Moreland would be able to generate more than 4 home runs. Right now, Prince Fielder has become the $24 million dollar singles hitter. He is hitting for a high average at .394, and getting on base at a .444 clip, but he only has two extra base hits and is not even getting close to hitting home runs. The Rangers need some boom to their lineup and Fielder isn’t really providing it. He only hit 1 home run in Spring Training too and so it could just be a matter of him trying to regain his timing coming back from neck surgery and as he gets more comfortable the power swing will return. If not this offense will be in trouble because they are expecting I would figure at least 30 home runs from this guy. That is where the problems lie is that they have to work so hard to get any runs. It is not a bloop and a blast. It is a hit, followed, by another hit, and followed by another hit to get a run in. Right now they don’t have 3 guys in a row who are hitting well enough to consistently produce runs. 6 of the 9 starters in the lineup are hitting below .200 and Mitch Moreland is trending that way hitting .217 right now. The offense will continue to struggle every night until they either start producing home runs or players like Martin, Choo, Andrus, Moreland, and Odor can get hits at a more consistent rate than they are right now. Hopefully that will start tonight, if not the Rangers could be in for a 3rd straight loss.

Other Game Notes

  • Man do I hate David Freese. It seems like everytime we face the Angels now he does something to the Rangers. Last night it was hitting a solo home run. Its just like Game 6 wasn’t enough for him, he just has to continue to torture Ranger fans and remind them of Game 6 everytime he steps to the plate. Why couldn’t the Cardinals have traded him to somebody in the National League. I would have much preferred that.
  • Something else to watch, Chirinos has gotten off to a very slow start offensively this season and was even pinch hit for in the 9th inning. He is another one who could be in danger of losing his starting spot. Carlos Corporan has been hitting very well in his starts behind the plate and if he keeps it up they might make him the starter. Chirinos is 1-13 on the season with 4 strikeouts. I am sure with the way the offense is struggling 1-9 that Banister might want to put the more offensively gifted catcher Corporan behind the plate. Jorge Alfaro does wait in the wings for probably next season to get his shot at starting.
  • Stolmy Pimentel made his first appearance for the Rangers last night as well. The bullpen really needed a guy to come in and take innings and he certainly did last night. He pitched from the end of the 6th inning into the 9th inning before he tired out and had to be relieved by Roman Mendez. That allowed Feliz, Tolleson, and Kela to all get a day off. Now there is two games left in this series then the whole team gets a day off. Tanner Scheppers should also be returning either tonight or tomorrow. That will give the bullpen more depth and allow guys to get more rest.
  • Tonight it will be Nick Martinez going for his second win of the season against the Angels starter Drew Rucinski. Martinez is trying to build on his strong start against the A’s last Thursday and help to end the first losing streak of the season. Go Rangers!!!!!

Texas Rangers Week 1 RoundUp

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Now that we are into the season this is going to be a new weekly feature of this blog. Every Monday I will publish a recap of the week. It will contain the best moment of the week, the Top 5 players of the week, and the best gifs of the week. If you don’t have time to read my game recaps just come here on Monday afternoons for a look at the week that was or what I like to call the Roundup.

It was an up and down kind of week. No, literally it was up and down. The Rangers lost on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. They won on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. No winning streaks last week and no losing streaks last week. It was certainly a weird week. The season got started on Opening Night with an 8-0 loss to the Oakland A’s. Sonny Gray took a no-hitter to the 8th inning when Ryan Rua delivered a single through the right side of the infield for the first hit of the game. The Rangers hit several balls hard, but most of them were right at were the fielders were standing. They won their first game of the season the next night 3-1 behind Colby Lewis and his 6 innings and a nerve-wracking debut of Keone Kela. Kela entered to start the 7th inning and proceeded to load the bases, but then he was able to get out of it with a double-play grounder off the bat of Marcus Simien. They closed the game and evened the record at 1-1.The A’s capitalized off 4 Ranger errors and Scott Kazmir shut down the offense and the A’s won 10-0. That dropped the record to 1-2.  The offense finally woke up in the afternoon to the tune of 4 home runs and 1o runs as the Rangers won the final game of the series 10-1. Nick Martinez was sharp that afternoon in limiting the A’s to 1 run in 7 innings of work. The Rangers were able to get the split in an important season-opening series on the road.

The Rangers then returned home for a 3 game set against interstate rivals the Houston Astros. Friday afternoon was the home opener. All of the pomp and circumstance were there, the flyover was there, the crowd was fired up, and staff ace Derek Holland was on the mound to help deliver a victory for the Rangers. The only fly in that ointment though was the Holland only made it through the first inning in what setup to be one of the weirdest home openers in Texas Rangers history. Holland left the game in the second inning with what was later diagnosed as a subscapular strain. He went on the 60 day DL Satuday morning and cannot even pick up a baseball for four weeks. He will be out till at least June 10th. Shin Soo Choo and Ryan Rua also were taken out of the game early due to injury. Choo had back spasms and Rua left because of a sprained ankle.  The Rangers ended up losing the home opener 5-1 to send their record to 2-3. They again bounced back on Saturday with an impressive performance from Yovanni Gallardo, who was able to get his first win in a Rangers uniform. Gallardo showed more control and stayed strong under pressure as he was in trouble for most of the night. The Rangers lost a heartbreaker on Sunday 6-4 in a game that they left 15 men on base. Leonys Martin looked to have a walk-off grandslam until George Springer caught it at the wall and brought it back for the 3rd out of the 10th inning. That is a quick recap of the two series from this past week. If you want more detail feel free to read my previous recaps of the games.

Top 5 Players of the Week

  1. Colby Lewis, 1-0, 3.38 ERA, 13.1 innings pitched, 9 k’s, 2 BB, .208 OBA. Lewis had one bad stretch all week and that was a 5 batter stretch against the Astros. He allowed 2 home runs, a triple, and double to give the Astros the only 4 runs he would allow. From the 3rd to the 8th the only batter who reached base was Jed Lowrie who reached due to an error. He was similarly dominant against the A’s on Tuesday night. He struggled in the first, but settled down after that and pitched 6 innings in that game. He won Tuesday and could have still won yesterday if the offense could have capitalized on their opportunities. He did get a no-decision though which is better than a loss.
  2. Prince Fielder, .379 BA(11-29), .438 OBP,3 RBI’s, and .886 OPS. I don’t quite know what to think of this week for Fielder. He is hitting the ball to all fields, and is getting base at a great clip, but he is not hitting for any power. 9 of those hits are singles and so it is hard to say he had a great week, because they pay him to hit home runs and knock in runs and he only had 3 rbi’s all week. The offense does need someone who is getting on base and that is what he is providing right now. Hopefully as the weather gets warmer the home runs will come. I believe they will. I believe this is part of a strategy devised by Fielder and hitting coach Dave Magadan to get teams to play Fielder more stright up, instead of shifting so much. We will see if the plan works out.
  3. Keone Kela, 2 holds, 2.25 ERA, 4 appearances, 4 innings. 1 earned run, 3 K’s, 2 BB’s. He has a look about him on the mound. He is unflappable. The moment for me was easily the double play grounded he induced from Marcus Semien. 1 out bases loaded and he goes up there and gets the ground ball he needed to allow the Rangers to still have a chance to win. I could certainly see him at some point taking over the closers position if Feliz continues to be just so-so on the mound. Tanner Scheppers will get off the DL hopefully Tuesday night. That will allow Kela to have a more flexible role instead of just being the 7th inning guy.
  4. Nick Martinez, 1-0, 0.00, 7 innings, 4 hits, 5 K’s, 2 BB’s, and a .174 OBA. Colby’s two starts were really good, but Nick Martinez against the A’s was great. He executed the Rangers gameplan perfectly. He threw first pitch strikes, he was economical with his pitch count, he kept the A’s hitters off-balance all day, and did the job the Rangers needed him to do. He was outstanding and showed great poise as well out there on the mound. With Holland now out two months more is going to be expected of him and the rest of the starting staff.
  5. Adrian Beltre, .188 BA, 1 home run, 2 2b’s, and a triple, .406 slugging. He got off to a 0-13 start to the season, but since then has been 6-21. He has warmed up and is now looking like the Adrian Beltre we are used to. The offense will look better with a productive Fielder and Beltre.

The Best Gifs of the Week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rangers Leave the Game on Base in Loss to Astros

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The Rangers continued the early season trend of losing-winning-losing by dropping the game to the Astros 6-4 in 14 innings. That drops their record through the first week of the season to 3-4. It was a game that they should have won, nearly did win, and then ultimately lost. The offense continued to be flat for much of the day. They just could not generate runs with men on base. The number that sticks out to me from this game is that they left 15 men on base in 14 innings. Bill Parcells use to say when he coached the Cowboys that for every 100 yards the offense gains they should have 7 points. So, if the total yardage was 400, the team should have 28 points. Yesterday, was like watching a team gain 450 yards but only score 10 points. The Rangers put themselves in position to score in several innings, but they could not get the run across the plate. They only had one run scoring hit and that was Leonys Martin’s 2 run single. That was the problem was not getting the hit in clutch situations.

Lets recap the game as a whole though. Colby Lewis started against Dallas Keuchel. Lewis did great except for one 5 batter stretch in the second inning. He allowed a home run to Luis Valbuena, then got the next two hitters out, but then he allowed a triple to Colby Rasmus, a double to Marwin Gonzalez, and a 2 run home run to Jake Marisnick to make the score 4-0. The Rangers loaded the bases in the 4th, but Adam Rosales grounded into an inning ending double play. Then in the 7th, the bases were loaded again, but this time Leonys Martin hit the first pitch of the at-bat up the middle to score two runs. That made the score 4-2. The Rangers were again able to load the bases again in the 8th and scored a run off a bases loaded walk to Roughned Odor and a sacrifice fly from Carlos Corporan. The Rangers loaded the bases again in the 10th with Leonys Martin coming to the plate and that is when this happened.

 

A heart-breaker for Rangers players and fans as that would have ended the game and given the Rangers the series. On the telecast they showed Adrian Beltre and Prince Fielder both ready to celebrate the win that was not meant to be due to George Springer’s remarkable play of the season worthy catch.

Hank Conger then hit what turned out to be the game-winning home run in the top of the 14th to make the score 6-4. The Rangers though as they had done all day gave themselves a shot to win in the bottom of the inning. They loaded the bases with two outs and Odor was coming to the plate. He had a great at-bat against Samuel Deduno, but ended up lining out to right-fielder George Springer. It was a long afternoon and one I am sure the Rangers would like to have back. They were inches away from winning the game, but they also wasted numerous opportunities. They easily could have had 8-10 runs in this game, but they just could not get a hit when it mattered. That is the breaks of the game though.

Other Game Notes

  • Colby Lewis was outstanding in this game. He had a tough 5 batter stretch in the second inning, when he just momentarily lost control. After that though he retired 15 of the next 16 hitters with Jed Lowrie being the only batter to reach and that was due to an error by Roughned Odor. He used his curveball more yesterday than he normally does. He is usually a fastball, changeup, and slider type pitcher. Yesterday that 12-6 curveball was working very well and so he kept using it. It was a nice adjutment made by Colby after that rough second inning.
  • One weird stat revolving around this Rangers team is that the batters have been hit by pitches 11 times in the first 7 games. Stephen Vogt was asked about all the times the Rangers got hit in the A’s series and he said that they were just crowding the plate and not really looking to avoid the contact. I noticed it seemed like they were not really getting out of the way. Look for opposing managers to bring this up to umpires in future series if this continues, because the umpire can rule that they didn’t avoid contact and force them to stay in the box.
  • Two players I wish could have just come up with one hit: Mitch Moreland and Shin Soo Choo. Choo came on in the 8th after being out since Friday due to back spasms and Moreland came on as a pinch hitter for Adam Rosales in the 8th as well. Neither one registered a hit in that 8th inning rally and neither one had a hit in the extra innings either.
  • I will say that the bullpen was great for the Rangers. Mendez, Feliz, Tolleson, Kela, Klein, and Verrett kept the Astros scoreless from the 8th to the 14th inning. They gave the Rangers chances, but the offense couldn’t capitalize. One thing to watch though tonight in the game is that Feliz and Tolleson have pitched 3 days in a row and Kela has pitched the last two days. It will be interesting to see how Banister handles his bullpen if it is a close game.
  • The Rangers try to get back to .500 tonight and continue their string of losing-winning-losing-winning tonight against the Angels. It will be Ross Detweiler on the mound against Matt Shoemaker at 7:05 tonight. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!!

Gallardo walks a tightrope to get the Rangers the Victory

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The Rangers picked up their first home victory last night 6-2 behind a gutsy performance from Fort Worth native Yovanni Gallardo. Gallardo allowed 2 runs in 5.2 innings, but could have allowed much more as he was in jams much of the night. In the 3rd, he was in a bases-loaded jam with two outs when he struck out Chris Carter, in the 4th he had runners on second and third with one out, and was able to get Marwin Gonzalez to ground and Jake Marisnick to pop out. Then in the 5th he allowed a leadoff single to Jose Altuve and was able to pitch around that. That was the difference between last night and Opening Night is that he was able to pitch out of the jams, and that he was very economical with his pitch count. He actually left the game with only 90 pitches. That is the Yovanni Gallardo this team is going to need. The pitcher who is in control of his fastball and slider and mixing it up well and shows that veteran guile in tight situations. If he can do that he can succeed in the American League.

There were other things that happened obviously like the Rangers scoring 6 runs with only 2 of them being earned. The Astros committed 3 errors and the Rangers were able to take advantage to the tune of the 4 runs. That is what it takes sometimes to win, a team has to do the small stuff it takes. One of those small things is when a team gives the Rangers extra outs they must take advantage. That is why I thought Elvis Andrus’ at bat in the 5th was probably the biggest at-bat of the game. The Astros had just committed an error at 1st base that allowed a runner to score, but still kept the bases loaded. Elvis then comes up and singles through the left side of the infield to score two more runs and make the advantage 5-1 and pretty much close up the game.

There was not alot more that happened fortunately. There were no more injuries last night and so the Rangers move forward with the team they have and win the game to even their record at 3-3.

Other Game Notes

  • Adrian Beltre had what Emily Jones called a little league home run last night. He tripled to the right field corner, but rounded third a little bit wide, drawing a throwing error from shortstop Marwin Gonzalez that allowed him to walk home with the first run of the night.
  • As far as the injury news is concerned yesterday Derek Holland was placed on the 60-day DL and Ryan Rua was placed on the 15-day DL with his sprained ankle. Jon Edwards and Carlos Peguero were called up as injury replacements. Both actually got into the game. Peguero started in right field and went 2-5 with an RBI and Jon Edwards came on in relief of Gallardo in the 6th, but walked both hitters he faced allowing 1 run to score.
  • Shin Soo Choo didn’t play and is still day-to-day with back spasms.
  • The Rangers play the Astros in the rubber game of this series at 2:05 this afternoon. It will be Colby Lewis going for his second win of the season against Dallas Keuchel who also won his first start of the season. It should be a solid matchup as both are looking to continue on the success they had in their opening starts of the season. The Rangers will once again be looking for their first winning streak of the season. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!

So Yeah That Just Happened

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The Texas Rangers nightmarish home opener was yesterday afternoon and it was anything but grand. The result of the actual game was a 5-1 loss to Collin McHugh and the Houston Astros, but it was inconsequential when compared to the injuries that befell this team during this game. As a fan I was sitting at home just thinking seriously this is happening again

It started in the first inning with Derek Holland. During the inning he was not able to touch 90 mph on anything and seemed to not throw his fastball at all. He was throwing a mixture of changeups and curveballs. It led to him giving up a home run to Jed Lowrie. He was able to get out of it though, but that would be all that he would pitch. Anthony Bass came on in the second inning and all of a sudden red flags went up. What is wrong with Holland? Tom Grieve and Steve Busby thought that maybe he was just ill, Evan Grant on twitter speculated the same thing. Either way he was out of the game and it was a couple of innings before they reported that it was tightness in the back of his left shoulder. Even more red flags popped up. There is never anything good that comes when talking about pitchers and their shoulders. After the game they reported that it was a strain of the subscapular muscle and that he would be out at least 4-6 weeks and maybe longer. He is not even supposed to pick up a baseball for 4 weeks. I am leaning toward that it will be closer toward 8 weeks,but we shall see. Holland said that he had to keep himself from doing something stupid when he got the diagnosis. I feel terrible for him because he has worked so hard especially after the knee injury last year. He was ready to assume the role of staff ace after Yu Darvish went down with Tommy John surgery. He had a good spring training, a good tuneup start earlier in the week and was ready to go.Unfortunately he will have to wait till likely June to resume his season.

It would have been a bad day to just lose Holland to an injury, but Shin Soo Choo had to leave early due to back spasms and then Ryan Rua had to leave because of a foot injury. Choo seemed to be doing better after the game and will be day-to-day, but Rua will be going on the DL today. Carlos Peguero, who was one of the last cuts in spring training, will likely be called up to take his spot. Peguero and Smolinksi will probably split time in left field until Rua can come back.

As far as Holland is concerned, they may give his spot to Anthony Bass until they feel Ranaudo or Gonzalez is ready to go. The rotation as of now looks like it will be Gallardo, Lewis, Detweiler, Martinez, and Bass. Not exactly what the Rangers were hoping for back in February. That is what the team has right now. They have to make due and try to continue to win games and survive. They cannot let what happened last year happen again. The offense should still be fine. The pitching just needs to do enough to keep them in games.

Other Game Notes

  • Prince Fielder continues his hot start to the season. He had another 3 hits and is hitting .421 on the season so far. He is hitting the ball to all fields. It is obvious he is trying to become a more well-rounded hitter and trying to get around the massive shifts that accompany each of his at bats.
  • What gets lost in the game story with all the injuries is that Anthony Bass pitched really well and had maybe the play of the season so far. 

    He also pitched 5 innings and only allowed 1 run. That really allowed the Rangers to be able to stay in the game through the early innings. Then Mendez and Feliz kind of took them out of the game. If Bass can pitch like that and pitch like he did in Spring Training, he might be able to fill that hole until reinforcements are ready to go. All hope is not lost yet. It still is just the first week of the season. Holland will hopefully be back by June, Martin Perez should be back by July or August, Chi Chi Gonzalez should be ready by May or June. The Rangers have rotation depth, they just didn’t expect to have to use it this early. That is what makes baseball so unpredictable.

  • The Rangers and Astros play again tonight in game 2 of the series at 7:05. It will be Yovanni Gallardo making his second start of the season and first start at home going up against veteran right-hander Roberto Hernandez. Go Rangers!!!

 

 

 

 

Rangers Get the Split: Rangers-A’s Series Recap

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Beltre proposes that the ball go over the left field fence.

Beltre proposes that the ball go over the left field fence.

The Texas Rangers bounced back in a big way Thursday afternoon and got the series split they were looking for with a 10-1 victory. The bats finally woke up and contributed 4 home runs and tripled their output in runs from the first 3 games. It was a reassuring game not only for the team, but also for the fans. It was rough watching them get their brains beat in on Wednesday night when they lost 11-0. They bounced back nicely though and were able to walk out of Oakland with two wins, which is really what they were hoping to get. I am sure that they wanted to win all 4, but to get 2 is really good. Now they come home for a 6 game homestand against the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but before we get to the upcoming games, lets recap how they were able to get the win yesterday and talk about the series as a whole.

The offense got most of the headlines yesterday as they scored 10 runs, but my player of the game would have been Nick Martinez. He executed the game plan perfectly yesterday. He was throwing strikes, getting ahead of hitters, and forcing them to swing at pitches they normally wouldn’t swing at. That is the kind of performance we saw on occasion last season, but not consistently. He was outstanding though, as he just kept the hitters off-balance and he never was really in trouble at all in his 7 innings. In my opinion that is how you beat the A’s. The A’s are a team that like to make pitchers work by not swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. They won’t chase and it gets them ahead in most counts and forces the pitchers into hitter’s counts. Doing that normally gets the pitcher’s pitch count up higher and gets him out of the game earlier. That is what happened with Yovanni Gallardo and Ross Detweiler. Neither one had much control and the A’s took advantage and were able to get them out of the game early. Colby Lewis and Nick Martinez though had control and were able to hold them down. That is how you beat them and hopefully Gallardo and Detweiler watched how Lewis and Martinez pitched them and will learn from it, because they will face Oakland many more times this season.

It did help Martinez though that the Rangers had scored 3 runs before he had even thrown a pitch. It was a very weird first inning as the A’s committed two errors, both trying to get out Leonys Martin on the bases. Martin had reached on a walk and then advanced to second after a single by Shin Soo Choo. Kendall Graveman then had him picked off of second by a mile, Martin barely even moved toward second, but the ball had flown into center field. That allowed Martin and Choo to advance to second and third. Then, on a ground ball by Adrian Beltre to Brett Lawrie, he threw home to try and get Martin, but the catcher dropped the ball allowing Martin to score.They ended up getting two more that inning, then the power bats showed up in the later innings. Mitch Moreland, Shin Soo Choo, Adrian Beltre, and Roughned Odor all went deep to hit the Rangers first four home runs of the season. The highlight of the game had to be Beltre’s home run. The pitch before the home run he had done this.

The very next pitch he does this.

Beltre had got off to a slow start as he went 0-for in his first 3 games, but he rebounded with two hits yesterday, a single and that home run, his 396th of his career. That will be fun to watch as he pursues 400 over these next few weeks.

All in all it was a good win, good series split and now they get to head home and hopefully carry some of this momentum with them. Staff Ace Derek Holland will make his season debut tomorrow afternoon against the Houston Astros.

Other Series Notes

  • Jeff Banister made some changes to the lineup yesterday, but insisted it was not about non-production. It did work though to the tune of 10 runs. He moved Choo up from 5th to 2nd, Andrus down from 2nd to 7th, he flipped Fielder and Beltre, moved Rua up to 5th, and moved Odor up to 8th. It showed that Banister is willing to be flexible especially early this season as he gets a feel for what this team is. I would not be surprised if he uses April to see which lineup combinations work the best. It will be interesting to see if he uses that same lineup today or if he will revert to the previous lineup. We shall see. I thought it was a good move in order to shake things up after they had been shut out in 2 of the first 3 games.
  • Ryan Rua had his first good game of the season as he had 3 hits on the day. He got a single in the first to break up a stretch of 6 straight strikeouts and then went on to get two more hits, including a double in the 9th inning.
  • No errors on the day for the Rangers and for Elvis Andrus. It was a clean day for the team and that came after a keystone cops type of fielding performance on Wednesday night when they committed 4 errors. They committed 6 errors in the series, but the A’s also committed 6. It could just be a matter of trying to adjust to the regular season after 6 weeks of spring training. Hopefully this isn’t a season long story. I don’t think it will be, because they have several guys on the team who are good defensively.
  • Finally, the Rangers were lucky to get out with a split. They were outscored 20-13 in the series and it would have been much worse if not for the 10 runs yesterday. It was 19-3 heading into the game yesterday afternoon, but they got the win and walk out with the split. That is all that matters and all anyone will remember. It reminded me of the 1960 World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates going up against the New York Yankees. The Yankees outscored the Pirates 58-27 in the series, but the Pirates won the series in 7 games when Bill Mazeroski hit the game-winning home run in game 7 of that series. It just goes to show in a series it doesn’t matter how many total runs you score, it just matters did you win the game or not?
  • Derek Holland goes up against the Houston Astros and Collin McHugh at 3:05 this afternoon as the Rangers will try to start their first winning streak of the season. Go Rangers!!!!!