Tag Archives: Josh Hamilton

Rangers Enter the Stretch Run

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Jeff Banister congratulating catcher Chris Giminez after hard fought victory over the Astros

Jeff Banister congratulating catcher Chris Giminez after hard fought victory over the Astros

 

Well here we are and it is August 5th and the Texas Rangers are at .500 and solidly in the playoff race for the wildcard and for the AL West. People say August is the dog days of summer for the baseball season, but this year it could the month that the contenders separate themselves from the rest of the pack. This month alone the Rangers will have series against the Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, and Baltimore Orioles. Those are all the teams they are competing against for one of the two AL wildcards. Those series starts on August 11th and run through August 30th. That 2 1/2 week stretch will really determine if they will still be in the race come September 1st.The success of this past week has given them the opportunity to still be in the race as we move forward into August. Lets take a look back at where we were a week ago today and where we stand today, because in my opinion this week will go down as the turning point in the season.

It started right after the 21-5 beat down at the hands of the Yankees. That was hitting rock bottom for the team. They had scored 5 runs in the first to force out Chris Capuano, but then allowed 21 runs unanswered and didn’t get a hit the rest of the night. It was an absolute embarrassment in front of the home crowd. The team could have went one of two directions after that game, they could have started to pack it in like they did in that game and play out the string looking forward to next season or they could rally and say now is the time to turn it around. It would have been easy to pack it in, the bullpen had blown big leads in the first two games of the series against the Yankees and they had just given up 21 runs. The team though decided to rally and were able to earn a hard-fought win the next night behind the pitching of Colby Lewis. Lewis has been the rock on the pitching staff this year and was the perfect guy to pitch the night after that beat down. He was able to keep the Yankees off-balance and the maligned bullpen was able to hold on to get the win.

The win though was an after-thought after news started to come out during the game that the Rangers were closing in on a deal for Phillies ace Cole Hamels. As the night progressed news started to come out that it was close, that they were finalizing a deal, and then player names started to come out. It turned out to be a pretty big trade and it can be looked at as a win-win for both sides. The trade ended up being Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman, and cash from the Phillies for Matt Harrison, Jorge Alfaro, Jake Thompson, Nick Williams, Alec Asher, and Jerad Eickhoff. It was quite the haul for the Phillies, but the Rangers got that number one starter that the 2015 Rangers have been missing and someone to combine with Yu Darvish next season to have a formidable rotation for 2016 and beyond. That news started to come out Wednesday night and the trade was actually finalized on Friday afternoon before the trade deadline. The Rangers proceeded to play Thursday night and won a back-and-forth game with a walkoff hit from Josh Hamilton against Yankee closer Andrew Miller, who is dominant against left-handers. Just like that they end up the Yankees series with a split.

They follow-up that series with a 3 game series against defending World Champion San Francisco Giants. The Cole Hamels trade was announced Friday morning and they also completed a trade for Marlins reliever Sam Dyson at the deadline. Game one of the series saw struggling Nick Martinez facing World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner. It was a clear mismatch and add to that the Rangers are one of the worst teams against left-handed pitchers. Yet, they were able to score 6 runs in the first two innings against Bumgarner and jump out to a 6-2 lead with much of that coming from home runs from Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre. Nick Martinez settled down after the second and was able to pitch into the 7th and not give up any more runs. All of a sudden the Rangers are on a 3 game win streak following 21-5 and with Cole Hamels on the mound on Saturday night for his first start.

Cole Hamels made his first start since pitching a no-hitter against the Cubs the previous Saturday. The Giants have hit Cole Hamels hard in the past including scoring 10 runs against him on July 10th. Buster Posey has a over .400 batting average in his career against Hamels. So, not the best matchup for the Rangers newest acquisition in his first start, but he did pitch well. He pitched 7.2 innings, giving up 4 runs, and leaving with a 3 run lead. The problem was that it was now up to the bullpen to close out this game and unfortunately the lead was lost by Tanner Scheppers. Scheppers who has consistently being inconsistent this year gave up the 3 runs that tied the game and was removed without even getting one out. The game went into extra innings where the Giants hit two home runs in the 11th inning to come from behind and win. That hurt as the bullpen blew another multiple run lead. Scheppers has played a big part in blowing those leads and he was promptly put on the DL the next day with left knee inflamation.

That setup a rubber game matchup Sunday afternoon between the Giants and Rangers. It was Martin Perez against new Giant acquisition Mike Leake. Leake who came over from the Reds in a trade deadline deal had been pitching well the whole month of July. He pitched well on Sunday as well, but he did give up a 2-run home run to Josh Hamilton and he was clearly outmatched by Martin Perez. Perez coming off the 21-5 start in which he could not get out of the second inning pitched as well as we have seen him pitch since last season. He was absolutely brilliant in getting 15 ground ball outs, striking out 6, and only throwing 80 pitches in 8.1 innings. He was controversially taken out though after a double off the bat of Angel Pagan. Banister decided to go to Jake Diekman to face Nori Aoki. Diekman proceeded to walk Aoki on 4 pitches. Banister then went to Sam Dyson to try to get a ground ball double play. Dyson did just that, but not before giving up a run and loading the bases with one out. The Rangers did walk out with a victory in the game 2-1 and a series win.

That set them up well heading into the next series against the division leading Houston Astros. The Rangers heading into the series were behind by 8 games and really needed a series win to stay in the race for the AL West. That is just what has happened. They ambushed Lance McCuller in game one and forced him out of the game in the first after scoring 6 runs, and they proceeded to tack on 6 more runs to win 12-9. Adrian Beltre in that game continued his hot hitting by hitting for his third career cycle in his first four at-bats. They followed that up by squeaking by last night 4-3 on the backs of a lock-down bullpen. Sam Freeman was able to escape a one out bases-loaded jam and Shawn Tolleson closed it out in the 9th by escaping a 1st and 3rd situation with no outs by getting a groundout from Marwin Gonzalez, a strikeout from Jason Castro, and a strikeout to end the game against Jose Altuve. He was absolute nails in being able to lockdown the save and the win. All of a sudden the Rangers are back at .500, 6 games back of the Astros with 8 games remaining against the Astros, 3 games back of the Angels for the first wild card, and 2 games back of the Blue Jays for the second wild card.

The season ends in just under two months from today and the Rangers are in a good position, but they are going to have to continue to play good baseball and can’t afford any long losing streaks. In my opinion it is a 4 team race for the two wild cards. Those teams are the Los Angeles Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, and Texas Rangers. The Rays, Twins, Tigers, and White Sox are all within striking distance, but I just don’t think they have enough to stay in the race through this month. The Angels, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rangers have enough to battle all the way till the end of the season. The key for the Rangers will be playing better at home and against teams under .500, getting more innings from the rotation, and the bullpen being able to hold on to leads and getting the ball to closer Shawn Tolleson. The team has played well against contenders, but is well under .500 against teams that have records under .500. That is easily correctable as is the home record. The Rangers have more games at home than on the road the rest of the season and so the ability to win at home is key if they want to be in the playoffs. The rotation has to be able to pitch through the 6th inning and provide that bridge to the late inning guys. The team has struggled in middle relief and if the starters can get into the 7th that will help them be able to close out more of these games. Finally, Shawn Tolleson has been solid as a closer when he has gotten the ball, but these last two months it will be up to the middle and late inning guys to get him the ball with the lead. If they can do that they will be able to win more games down the stretch. This stretch from August 11th till August 30th will tell a lot and so as fans keep an eye on that and to the standings. I am sure they will look a lot different on August 11th than they do on August 30th. We will see if the Rangers will still be in the race come September.

Sale Shuts Down Rangers

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Tonight was just one  of those nights where nothing went right for the Rangers and they lost 9-2.  Games like this happen every so often when you play 162. Nick Martinez was not sharp at all and Chris Sale was his usual dominant self. That is a combination that will lead to a loss every time. I had predicted a 5-2 home stand before it started and with a win tomorrow they will finish the home stand 5-2. I kind of expected them to lose this game. The Rangers are very lefty heavy and so they will struggle against dominant left handers like Sale, Clayton Kershaw, and others. Tonight was not that much of a surprise. It became even less of a surprise when Prince Fielder was given the night off and Josh Hamilton was kept out of the lineup due to a hamstring injury. So no Adrian Beltre, Fielder, and Hamilton and all of a sudden it felt more like a Spring Training lineup going up against maybe the best left hander in the AL. The loss drops the Rangers record to 27-26.

Other Game Notes

  • Joey Gallo followed his monster debut and predictibly struggled against Chris Sale. He went 0-3 against Sale with 3 strikeouts. He did come up against another left-hander in the 9th, Zach Duke and hit his second home run and hit it again into the upper right field porch once again. He will strike out, but I think it was a great learning experience for him.
  • Prince Fielder who is 4-25 in his career against Chris Sale was given his first night off the season. Not a bad decision. He has been struggling in this home stand so I am sure instead of continuing that slide Banister decided to give him the night off with the thought being that he will be rested and ready for tomorrow.
  • The bad news that came out after the game tonight was that Josh Hamilton’s minor hamstring tightness is not so minor. After having an MRI it was determined that he will be out 3-4 weeks. It was strained on a play in the outfield on Saturday night where he chased down a ball in the corner. It was made worse on the walk-off hit on Sunday when he was rounding first. The Rangers did not have him before Memorial Day and still were winning games. They will find a way. This could keep Gallo on the team longer than the 3 weeks timeline if Hamilton is not back yet. Gallo has played the outfield so he can fill in the out there so that the Rangers can keep his power in the lineup. I imagine he will be put on the DL tomorrow and I do not know who they will call up. Jake Smolinski is already on the team. They could call up Roughned Odor to put another player on the bench, Michael Choice is on the 40 man roster but has struggled all season, I guess the more likely option is a pitcher to fill out the bullpen. We will see tomorrow. The option is short term Deshields Jr. plays everyday in left and Martin is back in center everyday. Ryan Rua is expected back later this month and will play in the outfield some and Kyle Blanks will be back as well. The Rangers do have options and should be fine. They just will need to survive these next few weeks.
  • There was good news in the organization. Matt Harrison made his first rehab start for Triple-A Round Rock. He threw 5 innings, throwing 78 pitches, and came out of it “feeling great”. At this point the plan is for him to be back later this month. They will evaluate him after every start. No pitcher has ever come back from Spinal Fusion surgery and so the team doesn’t want to mess this up. Good luck to Matt and I can’t wait to see him back in Arlington.
  • Tomorrow is the finale of the series and the home stand. It will be Carlos Rodon against Yovanni Gallardo at 7:05. Go Rangers!!!!!

Month of May Recap

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If you had told me on April 30th when the Rangers were 7-14 and struggling in all aspects of the game that by June 1st they would be one game above .500 at 26-25 I would have thought you were crazy. In April they had Prince Fielder hitting well over .300 and nobody else hitting anywhere close to .300. In April Leonys Martin, Elvis Andrus, Shin Soo Choo, Adrian Beltre, Robinson Chirinos, and Roughned Odor all hitting below .200. I thought that they were close to an offensive breakthrough. I even said this on April 27th:

I feel like the offense is a consistent Shin Soo Choo away from really exploding.

That is exactly what happened in May. Choo got moved to the leadoff spot at the beginning of the month and the offensive potential seemed to be unlocked. Deshields gained a more prominent role as well and ascended to the leadoff spot by the end of the month and the offense that had struggled so much in April was scoring runs in bunches in May. They were among the league leaders in runs and ran their record to 19-11 for the month, which was tied for the 4th best record in all of MLB. It has been fun and exciting to watch. I am back to looking forward to watching Texas Rangers games every night and they seem to have what it takes to win now and in the future. Lets take a look at the top moments from this month, the top players on the team from this month, and look ahead to June for this team.

Top 5 Moments from the Month of May

5) Sweeping the Astros in Houston. I know this is not a singular moment, but this series in the grand scheme of things for May will get forgotten, but this is the series that really got them rolling.  They had just lost 2 of the 3 to the Oakland A’s and they were not looking good at 9-16. The Astros had flown through the month of April and were 18-8 and were 8.5 games up in the division race and had a 10 game winning streak they were on. It was not looking like a good matchup for the Rangers at that moment. This team though is the arguably the best road team in the majors. They showed that when they needed to most. They beat ace Dallas Keuchel in the first game of the series with a late comeback 2-1 in a game that Ross Detweiler was brilliant in. Wandy Rodriguez pitched brilliantly in his return to Houston to help the Rangers win the second game 7-1 and they completed the sweep with an 11-3 victory in-game 3. That was the game Carlos Peguero hit a couple of home runs to help drive the offense. That sweep helped propel them for the rest of the month and it kept them from falling behind in the division by 10 games or more. When the book is complete on this season no matter what happens this series will be the one to look at as the start of the turnaround.

4) Andrus scores from first off a steal of second. This happened in the home series against the Cleveland Indians. The score was 6-5 and Elvis was on first base. He took off for second and the throw went into his body and ricocheted off and into left field. He got up and kept going to third base and as the Indians struggled to get to the ball he just rounded third and headed home and did not beat the throw, but made a great head first slide around the tag and tied the game at 6. They would go on to lose 10-8, but this moment showed how good Elvis can be. This is the type of player that helped drive those World Series’ teams and one that can be among the most exciting to watch in all of baseball. It was a moment of individual brilliance that will not be easily forgotten.

3) Chi Chi Gonzalez winning in his debut. Gonzalez was the Rangers first round pick in 2013 and had been steadily climbing up the Rangers organization and nearly made the team out of Spring Training, but the Rangers thought he needed more seasoning. Last Saturday against the Red Sox they decided he was ready to be brought up to make his debut. He did not pitch as well as he can, he did not strike out 10 or more, but he was mature and poised out on the mound. He walked 5 guys, but did not give up a hit until the 6th inning and was taken out to a standing ovation by the near sellout crowd that was there to watch him. Bannister held him out there on the mound for a minute and told him to soak it all up and remember this. Now though they will want him to have better control in his future starts. He is a member of the rotation now and going forward. He will hopefully give them more consistency from the number 5 spot than Detweiler could provide.

2) Prince Fielder’s game tying 3-run home run in Cleveland. The Rangers had been trailing in this game 3-0 and looked lifeless on offense for much of the game, but they got a couple of runners on board for Prince and then Danny Salazar left a changeup up and over the plate and Prince sent it over the fence in deep right field to tie the game at 3.This helped to extend the season long winning streak to 7 and helped them to get back to .500. This came in the middle of the scorching hot Prince streak that saw him 9 home runs in the month and helped him to draw into the lead for RBI’s. Prince has really been the driving force for the team this month and this season and the team has finally caught up to him.

1) Josh Hamilton’s walk off double. This has to be number one. It put the Rangers above .500 for the first time in 359 days and was just one of the best moments you will ever see on a baseball field. It was his first series back home as a Ranger and in a pinch-hitting opportunity he came through with a double into the left-center field gap that scored Alberto from third and Prince Fielder from first. I have now watched it probably 10 times or more. Hopefully this is the start of something and not the high point of something. The rest of the season will tell the story.

There were so many other things that happened that did not make the list but were great moments in their own right, Adrian Beltre’s 400th home run, sweeping the Yankees in Yankee Stadium, and the emergence of the no-roles bullpen. That is what kind of month it was, so much good happened that I couldn’t include all of it.

Top 5 Players from the Month of May

5) Shin Soo Choo. I have to include Choo. He was hitting .096 in April and Banister sat him down for a couple of days in order to get his head right and his swing right and boy did that pay dividends in April. He hit .295, 6 home runs, 18 rbi’s, 36 hits,  .345 OBP, and provided stability to the top of the order. He started the month hitting leadoff and then moved to number 2 when Deshields took hold of the leadoff spot. He was great in either role. He was one player the team desperately needed in April and is one that they got in May. He is my number 5 player in the month of May.

4) Shawn Tolleson. When Banister decided to go to a no-roles bullpen, he unofficially gave the role of closer to Shawn Tolleson and Tolleson has responded by going 6-6 in save opportunities and has not been challenged in several of those save chances. Banister may not be calling him the closer, but that is what role he has and he is one of the big reasons why this team is winning. They are getting leads and the bullpen is closing the games out. Baseball sometimes is very simple. Teams that win are teams that can get leads and hold on to them. That was a big reason why the Royals were in the World Series last year is the strength of their bullpen. Shawn is helping to solidify the 9th inning with a mixture of sliders and changeups and is doing a great job. That is why he is the number 4 player on this list.

3) Delino Deshields Jr. The Rule V draft pick the Rangers got from the Astros in the offseason has been a downright steal for the Rangers. He is a speed burner on the basepaths, he is getting on base, and providing a spark at the top of the lineup. One thing I have liked is his patience at the plate. He has drawn 16 walks on the season and 15 of them were in May. He had a .406 OBP in May as well as a .296 BA, 24 hits, 10 stolen bases, and 22 runs scored in the month of May. He has been everything the Rangers could have hoped for and more. He has made the center field situation a platoon of sorts between him and Martin. Banister is trying to find other ways to get his bat in the lineup like playing some 2nd base. He has taken advantage of the opportunity given to him and been able to expand his role from pinch runner to everyday starter. I was wondering before the season how he made the team, but now I see what the team saw. They saw a player who was very athletic and just needed an opportunity. What he has done at the top of the order is why he is my number 3 player in the month of May.

2) Adrian Beltre. Beltre who hit his 400th home run also turned things around offensively this month. He hit .205 in April and then hit .293 in May with 4 home runs, 16 rbi’s, 36 hits, and played his usual gold-glove level defense. The sad part is that on the last day of the month he jammed his thumb into second base trying to break up a double play and will be out for at least two weeks, but more than likely 3 weeks. He was providing solid protection for Fielder in the cleanup spot. That responsibility will now likely fall to Hamilton or Moreland making the lineup more left-handed than it already was. Beltre though in the month was a May was a driving force in the lineup and that is why he is my number two player in the month of May.

1) Prince Fielder. It has to be Prince. He was not only the best player for the Rangers this month, but one of the best players in all of MLB this month. He had video game numbers this past month. He had a .377 BA, 9 home runs, 28 RBI’s, 46 hits, .430 OBP, 1.085 OPS, and 80 Total Bases. He was insanely, crazy, unbelievable hot during that 7 game winning streak. He came back to earth during the 4 game Red Sox series at home when he when went 5-20. He has completely embraced the DH role, and is now hitting it to all fields, and is among not just the best power hitters in the game, but he can be put with the best hitters in the game. One of my favorite at-bats of Prince’s came during the Red Sox series on Friday night. They were facing knuckleballer Steven Wright. and Prince had got out in his first two at-bats, but this at-bat he saw that the Red Sox were shifting on him  and so he tried to hit it the opposite way. Every pitch he was trying to line it down the left field line. The first five pitches he fouled off trying to hit it the opposite way. Finally on pitch 7 he gets a pitch he could handle and drives to the left fielder. He did not get frustrated, he had a plan, and he executed that plan. It was the type of at-bat he has been having all year long, but it just goes to show the progress he has made as a hitter. That is why he is my number one player for the month of May.

Looking Ahead to June

June is not going to be easy. It is a new month and they will be having to play most of the month without Adrian Beltre. News came down yesterday though that the Rangers are going to call up top prospect Joey Gallo to take Beltre’s spot at third. Gallo has been playing well for AA Frisco, hitting .314, with 9 home runs in the first 2 months of the season. The Rangers were prepared to send him to AAA Round Rock today, but when Adrian got injured decided to call him up instead. They think this will be a great learning experience. It is just temporary, when Adrian does get healthy he will resume playing third base and Gallo will be sent to Round Rock. They wanted Joey Gallo to come in and be apart of this clubhouse and try to help this team and then go back and find out what he needs to work on and then refine his skills in AAA. That way he would be ready in case of a call back to the majors either later this season or next season. Other reinforcements could be coming soon as well. Kyle Blanks will be eligible to come off the DL June 4th, Ryan Rua will be sent out on a rehab assignment later this week, and Matt Harrison will make his first start for Round Rock on Wednesday Night.  They play a majority of their games on the road this month once again. They play 11 home games against such teams as the White Sox, Twins, Dodgers,  and A’s. They play 16 road games against the Royals, A’s, Dodgers, White Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles to close out the month. It will not be an easy month, they still have to play well if they want to be able to not only get in the race but stay in the race through this month. If they can do it they then position themselves to stay in the race all season long as they spend most of the second half at home. My guess is that the team goes 16-11 this month and then really makes a run when they start to get players back in July and August.

The Rangers had a great month of May and hopefully can follow it up with a good month of June. Their first game is tomorrow night against the Chicago White Sox at 7:05. Go Rangers!!!!!!

Winning Streak Crashes Down

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8 was not meant to be today as the Rangers lost to the Cleveland Indians 12-3 today to finish the road trip 7-2 and to take their record to 23-24. Not a lot can be said about this game other than Colby was off of his game today. He was missing his spots, his slider was flat, and the Indians took advantage with the 8 run third inning that saw Carlos Santana put an exclamation point on the inning with a 3-run home run that made the score 10-0. Probably before that the game was practically over, but that really sealed it. Anthony Bass came on and pitched 4.1 innings and newly-recalled Jon Edwards pitched 1.0 inning. So the winning streak ends, the question will be can they take this momentum that was gathered on this trip and take it home and play well there.Their home record this year is an abysmal 6-13. They are tied with Oakland with the fewest home victories in all of MLB. In the past they have been able to establish a clear home field advantage at Globe Life Park. The test will come with these next two series, because they have seemingly hit their stride these last 9 games and with a struggling Boston Red Sox team and a middle of the road Chicago White Sox team coming to town they need to take care of business and start winning some of these home series. If they do that then they will not only get back to .500, but put some distance between themselves and .500 and start to creep closer to the Astros. May was about righting the ship. They solved their offensive issues and solved the issues they had with the bullpen. June will be about if they can maintain this level of play? If they can I expect them to be within shouting distance of the Astros come the All Star Break. I am not going to go on and on about this game. They lost 12-3, they deserved to lose 12-3, and now they come home.

Other Game Notes 

  • Delino Deshields Jr. made his debut at second after this game got out of hand. Word around the beat writers and other people that follow the team is that he had been working at second these last few weeks and it was only a matter of time before he got in a game at second. It was not a surprise that Jeff Banister would use this an opportunity to play him there. It will be interesting to see if this is a temporary thing or something that he might use to get Deshields in the lineup more. Martin is struggling offensively, but is a great defender in center and has a strong enough arm to keep runners honest on the bases. Making Deshields the starting second baseman would allow him and Martin to both be in the lineup. I could imagine Deshields would lead off and Martin could hit 9th and give them a speed presence at the top and bottom of the lineup. It is something to watch for though over these next few weeks as Banister and the coaching staff try to maximize the talent they have on this team.
  • Josh Hamilton did get his first hit in his second tour of duty with the team with a single in the 7th with a liner to the left fielder and he was thrown out trying to extend it into a double. The timing is getting better with every game. He is starting to make better contact every at-bat and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him have a good game at some point during this home stand. It is starting to come around. He did strike out one time, but he made solid contact in the other three at-bats. Anything that he can contribute though will just make this team that much better. The good thing is that the Rangers are not counting on him to be the Josh Hamilton from 2008-2012. They just want him to be a presence in the number 5 spot and provide protection for Fielder and Beltre and drive in runs when given the opportunity.
  • Mitch Moreland extended his hitting streak to 11 games. Elvis Andrus did not get a hit for the first time in 28 games in his career in Cleveland. Prince Fielder’s streak of multiple hit games also came to an end at 5 games. He still did get a hit though.
  • Finally, it was an extremely successful trip. To go into Boston, New York, and Cleveland and win 7 of 9 is huge. I was thinking before the trip that 4-5 was more likely. I thought they might have a chance to get two in Boston, 1 in New York, and 1 in Cleveland. They surpassed my wildest imaginations. Now they need to come home and go at least 5-2. Banister is going to be preaching that if he hasn’t already that they need to protect their home field. He was on MLB Network’s High Heat yesterday and said as much that they need to put their foot in the ground at home and protect their home field. I will be surprised if they don’t get back home and play with a little bit of an edge during this home stand.
  • The home stand starts tomorrow against the Boston Red Sox at 7:05. It will be Nick Martinez going up against Eduardo Rodriguez. Rodriguez will be called up from the minors and will be making his MLB debut tomorrow. Sometimes in these situations it favors the pitchers because there is no solid scouting report and the hitters have not faced this pitcher. Hopefully the offense can take advantage of any nervousness that Rodriguez may be feeling in his first start. Whatever happens though will happen tomorrow night in Arlington. Go Rangers!!!!!!!

7 is the Lucky Number for the Rangers

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The Rangers won again last night to make it 7 in a row with a 4-3 win against the Cleveland Indians. That gets their record to 23-23 and they are back where they started at the beginning of the season. This is not an accomplishment. It is hopefully a stepping stone to better things like leading the division or being involved in the wild card race. In the division they are 6.5 games back of the Houston Astros and tied for second with the Angels. In the wild card they are 3.5 games back of the Detroit Tigers for the second wild card. They still have 116 games left on the season and so a lot could happen between now and then. They are setting themselves up nicely with this winning streak to at least be involved in the race and as we enter into June that is all that the team could ask for is a chance.

Lets talk about last night though, because a lot had to happen for them to claim their 7th win in a row. It was Wandy Rodriguez making the start for the Rangers going up against Danny Salazar for the Indians. Rodriguez was coming off of a dominant performance against the Red Sox and Salazar has been up and down, but is leading the league with 12 k’s/9 innings. Rodriguez got off to a little bit of a rocky start as he allowed first inning solo home runs to Jason Kipnis to lead off the game and to Ryan Rayburn to stake the Indians to a 2-0 lead. He settled down after that and was able to get through the next two innings unscathed. The Rangers threatened in the 1st and 3rd but couldn’t push anything across. The Indians came back with a leadoff double in the 4th off the bat of Ryan Raburn and were able to score him with a sac fly to make it 3-0. At that point the offense was struggling and it looked like it just might not be their night. Then in the 5th things started to turn around. Leonys Martin worked a one-out walk and then on a 1-2 count Salazar plunked Shin Soo Choo to bring up Prince Fielder as the tying run. Fielder had already lined it to the opposite field for singles in his first two at-bats off of Salazar’s fastball. Tom Grieve called this in the broadcast booth that Salazar might try to throw his changeup to Fielder and that Fielder might have a chance to hit a home run. That is exactly what happened. Click on the video to watch Fielder tie this game with his 10th home run of the season

 

 

All of a sudden we have a brand-new game, but the Rangers still needed to get through 5 innings. Wandy came back out for the 5th and nearly gave away any momentum the Rangers had gained from that Fielder home run. He proceeded to walk the bases loaded in the 5th with one out and Michael Brantley coming to the plate. Brantley could have blown the game wide open with a base hit, but Wandy buckled down, got his control back, and was able to strike out Brantley. Ryan Raburn was next and he was 2-2 with a home run and a double at that point. Rodriguez got him that time though by getting him to pop out. Somehow Wandy navigated that mine field that he had set up and did not give up any runs. The score remained 3-3. Wandy got into trouble again the 6th when he gave up a leadoff double to Nick Swisher and then walked Yan Gomes. Banister decided to leave him in there to face lefty Brandon Moss. Rodriguez made sure that was a good decision by striking out Moss. Then Tanner Scheppers was brought into the game to get out of the inning and that is exactly what happened. Scheppers got Mike Aviles to line out and Jose Ramirez to ground out. The final three innings was a bullpen game for both sides as Salazar and Rodriguez were both taken out in the 6th inning. The only difference was between the performance of both bullpens was the at-bat between lefty Nick Hagadone and Mitch Moreland in the 8th inning. Josh Hamilton had just lined out sharply to Carlos Santana at first. Mitch Moreland though took a similar pitch that was given to Hamilton and did this to it.

 

 

That gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead and the combination of Ross Ohlendorf in the 8th and Shawn Tolleson in the 9th was able to put the game away for win number 7 in a row. Love how this team is playing and Prince Fielder is driving the bus, but don’t forget about Mitch Moreland. He is finally starting to realize his potential. After missing two weeks due to elbow surgery to remove loose bodies in there, he has picked right up where he left off in April. He is hitting for average and power. He takes a 10 game hitting streak into today’s game. Hitting number 6 in the lineup he is providing depth to the lineup and that is something this team didn’t have in April as Prince was hitting above .300 and everyone else was at below .200 batting averages. Win number 7 and the Rangers go for their longest winning streak since an 8 game streak in 2013 against the Indians in the finale of the 3 games series and the finale of the 9 game road-trip. Hopefully they still have the energy to get above .500 for the first time all season.

Other Game Notes

  • Just have to mention it again Prince Fielder is crazy, insanely, red-hot right now. He has 3 hits in each of the last 4 games and multiple hits in 5 straight games. It is hard to properly put into perspective what Fielder is doing right now other than it is fun to watch and I hope it lasts as long as possible. He is absolutely putting this offense on his back, but unlike April he is getting help. Choo is hitting over .300 this month, Beltre is hitting over .300 this month, Moreland is hitting, Blanks was hitting while Moreland was done, and Deshields is providing a solid presence at the top of the lineup. Fielder is the one who is driving this car though. They are a dangerous team right now for any pitcher to face and that is because of what Fielder is doing.
  • Josh Hamilton once again was 0-4, but only one strikeout. It is going to be important that he lay off that changeup down and in or down and away. If he can be patient and force pitchers to throw him strikes he will have better success. That has been his problem the last three seasons is that he too often would swing at those pitches and get himself out and pitchers know that. They know they don’t have to throw Josh Hamilton strikes to get him out. He will just wildly swing away at anything. If this season is going to be different he has recognize those pitches and not swing at them. He did have a couple of good at-bats though and made solid contact on that line drive in the 8th. It would have been a base-hit but it was hit right at where Santana was standing. He will be batting 5th again today so we will see how he does this afternoon.
  • Elvis Andrus backed up a good game offensively with another 3 hit night last night. That makes him 5-8 in this series. He has always loved playing in Cleveland and his numbers bear that out. He did make his 11th error though last night in the 9th and nearly cost the Rangers the game. It was a grounder that he was going to his left on and it looked to be an easy ground out that would have ended the game, but it got under his glove and went for an E-6. That makes 11 errors in 46 games and if not for Marcus Semien in Oakland and his 17 errors he would lead all AL shortstops in errors. He makes a great play behind the bag earlier in the game, but the frustrating thing is he will make errors on the simple groundballs. That has got to stop. This team needs him to be good on the hard plays and on the easy plays as well.
  • Today it will be Colby Lewis in the finale going up against Carlos Carrasco at 11:10 this morning. Rangers will be going for win number 8. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!!

Make that 4 in a Row for the Rangers

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The Texas Rangers won their 4th game in a row last night 5-4 over the Tampa Bay Rays and secured a winning road trip. These past few games the Rangers have started to appear like the team that we all thought they would be. A good offensive team, with good starting pitching, and a decent bullpen. This week they have had all of those things. Ross Detweiler, Wandy Rodriguez, and Colby Lewis all combined to hold the Astros to 3 runs over 23 innings. Last night it was Nick Martinez who helped pitch the Rangers to a win. He wasn’t as dominant as the other three. He actually had to be taken out with 2 outs in the 5th inning. He had already given up 3 runs in the inning and had thrown 35 pitches and so manager Jeff Banister decided to go to the bullpen to help pick him up in that situation. The bullpen was able to come in and shut the door and help the Rangers get the victory. The Rangers now sit at 12-16 and sit just a 0.5 game out of second place. The climb to get back to .500 continues. It may not happen this quickly but they are starting to trend back in the right direction and reinforcements to the lineup are on the way.

It was a good win last night. The offense took advantage of their opportunities early and the bullpen was able to hold on late. The offense really made Chris Archer work last night. Archer prior to this start had been one of the hottest starting pitchers in the AL. He had a sub 2.00 ERA and lead the league in strikeouts, but last night the Rangers really made him work. They did a good job laying off the slider that was off the plate, especially Delino Deshields Jr. He had a great at-bat in the second inning when he drew a bases loaded walk that gave the Rangers their first run of the game. It was an 8 pitch at-bat that Archer really tried to get him to chase and Deshields refused and worked the walk. Choo followed that up with another walk to make it 2-0. Then Elvis Andrus lined a single up the middle to score Roughned Odor and Shin Soo Choo. It was a hit that in April the team couldn’t seemingly get. They would make the pitcher work, but then couldn’t follow through with a big base hit that plated multiple runners. Last night they did though. Prince Fielder also got a RBI single in the 4th following a Deshields walk that led off the inning. That made it 5-0 and would be enough for the win. The Rays made it interesting late with a Kevin Kiermaier home run to make it 5-4, but Feliz came on in the 9th and was able to lockdown the win. Still a long way to go in this season, but it is clear since the calendar turned to May the team has had a renewed energy and spirit about themselves. The body language has been better and they are looking like they are having more fun with the game. It seemed like at least to me in April that everyone was feeling pressure to deliver and when they didn’t everybody would just be feeling really down. No more though, the team is loose, they are having fun, and they are collecting wins along the way.

Other Game Notes

  • I said earlier reinforcements are on the way. It appears Mitch Moreland and Josh Hamilton will both be playing for Round Rock this weekend as they both try to make their way back to the big league team. Moreland if he shows he is healthy at the plate and in the field could be back as soon as early next week. I imagine with Hamilton the team will take their time with him, let him get back into game shape. It could be probably a week to 10 days for him, unless there is an injury that necessitates a roster move being made. It will be interesting to see who the Rangers decided to drop to make room for these guys. Carlos Peguero has been playing much better on this trip. He is 5-9 in the last 3 games, with 3 home runs and 5 RBI’s. I would have said him before, but not now. Deshields Jr. has been showing the patience that the team wishes Leonys Martin had. He has also been stealing bases and getting a couple of hits. It would be hard to drop him off the team. Kyle Blanks with the way he is hitting and being right-handed will not be sent back. It looks like it will probably Jake Smolinksi that will get sent down when Moreland is ready. I don’t know who when Hamilton is ready though. Stay tuned to that.
  • Nick Martinez was very sharp for 4 innings. He was doing what he normally does. He was pitching inside, pitching to contact, and allowing his defense to make the plays behind him. Then it all came unraveled in the 5th. He started to try to get the hitters to chase and was missing the plate. The hitters were being patient and they were taking advantage when he would fall behind in the count. It led to 4 base hits, 3 runs, and a walk. After 35 pitches in the inning Banister decided he had seen enough and brought Alex Claudio in to face James Loney, and he got him to ground out to end the inning. It is definitely a growing moment for Martinez. We sometimes forget that this is just his second season and he is going to have moments like that. The good thing though is that the team won and improved to 6-0 in starts made by Martinez. Hopefully he can learn from that and be better in his next appearance.
  • Tonight the Rangers go for win number 5. It will be Yovanni Gallardo on the mound going up against Nathan Karns. Gallardo has pitched well this season, but has not recorded a win since April 17th. He has mainly been let down by his defense in his last 3 starts. The Rangers committed multiple errors in each of those games. He is a pitcher that tends to get lots of ground balls and if the defense is leaky it can look like he pitched a lot worse than he actually did. If the defense can continue the solid play that we have seen in these last 4 games he should pitch pretty well. We shall see though. Game time is at 6:10 tonight. Go Rangers!!!!!!!

Rangers Let One Get Away

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I had in my mind what all I was going to write about a 5-0 or 5-1 victory over the A’s. I was going to write about how the team seemingly played with more energy, more crispness, and more focus. They did not struggle with runners on base and were able to score runs. It was going to be a good win to get this series started. Then, the 8th inning happened and it quickly turned from a sure-fire win to an inexplicable loss. It was a nightmare inning and it was much like the 8th inning they had against Seattle when they had a 10-5 lead late and allowed 6 runs in the 8th to lose it. This time it was 5-0 and they allowed 7 runs to lose it. This loss drops their record to an AL Worst 7-15 and 8.5 GB in the  division. They are going the wrong direction and just cannot get themselves turned around. I wrote these two quotes 10 days apart. This first one was from April 20th after they lost that 5 run lead against the Mariners in Seattle:

“The saying is that good teams find ways to win games and bad teams find ways to lose games, well this was a game that the Rangers found a way to lose.” 

I had this quote just two days ago after they got swept against the Angels.

“their bullpen has been good except for games when they have been needed to close it out.”

I think it is finally time for us to admit that this team is not good. They will Josh Hamilton back in probably 3 weeks, Matt Harrison and Derek Holland back in likely June, and Martin Perez in July. It will be too late though because this team is likely to be 15-20 games under .500 by that point. I am not giving up hope, but this team is not giving me much reason for optimism. This time injuries I don’t think are playing a part. They just are not doing what it takes to win baseball games. I was mostly disappointed for the offense last night, because for the first time in about 2 weeks they actually looked like they were having fun, and to have it all fall apart due to the bullpen was terrible. The body language that they exhibited in that inning was definitely one of depression, because they knew that last night was a game that they really needed.

If we just take a look at the first 7 innings, there were several bright spots. Colby Lewis was really dealing last night. He was locating all of his pitches on the inside and outside corners. His curveball had lots of bite, and he was able to get plenty of strikeouts. He ended up with 8 on the night. He was absolutely dominant in 6 innings and really deserved a win for his effort last night. The offense too. Kyle Blanks hit an absolute no doubt home run down the left field line in the 2nd inning, the only question was would it stay fair. It did and it was his first home run in a Texas Rangers uniform. Prince Fielder also hit a home run to straight away center in the 4th, his second of the season to make it 2-0. Then they were able to manufacture one more run that inning. Adrian Beltre singled following the home run and was eventually sacrificed home off the bat of Jake Smolinksi to make it 3-0. They added two more runs in the 7th. Roughned Odor tripled to lead off the inning and then Leonys Martin hit a sac fly to get him home. Prince Fielder doubled down the left field line, was pinch ran for by Delino Deshields Jr, and then Adrian Beltre singled through the hole on the right side of the infield to score Deshields to make it 5-0. At that point as fans we are thinking with Tolleson, Kela, and Feliz all still in the bullpen the Rangers should be able to get 5 outs and close this game out.

Shawn Tolleson started the dumpster fire of an inning by allowing a leadoff home run to Mark Canha. That was a bad sign that maybe he didn’t have it. He then followed that with a single to Eric Sogard, he got Sam Fuld to ground out, but then walked Marcus Semien. It was clear by that point that he was not locating his pitches well. He then got Billy Butler to strike out. His pitch count was at around 26 by this point, so Banister decided to remove him in favor of Roman Mendez. Mendez has been good, especially good with runners on base, but he sometimes struggles with control. If Tolleson and Keone Kela are your 7th and 8th inning pitchers, then I don’t quite understand why didn’t Banister decide to go with Kela in this situation. The A’s are a team that is going to take advantage of Mendez’s control problems and they did. When he came in the score was 5-2. He proceeded to walk the first hitter to load the bases. Then he gave up a single to Josh Reddick that scored Stephen Vogt and Marcus Semien. Banister then decided to go with Feliz to try to end this rally. Yeah that did not happen. The next two batters hit a double and a single to make the score 7-5. The only reason that inning ended was a caught stealing that was upheld on review. Kela may not have made things better, but he needs to be in those type of situations. They are not going to win a lot of games, but if they can develop Kela as a potential closer option for the future, they need to do it. That involves putting the rookie in high-pressure situations to see how he responds. He ended up pitching the 9th and went 3 up and 3 down. It was a terrible inning that cost them the game.

Other Game Notes

  • Shin Soo Choo was back in the lineup after getting two games off so that he could put some extra time in the cage with Dave Magadan. He responded by ending his 0-21 stretch by getting a double in the 4th inning. That was his only hit of the game, but as we have seen throughout Choo’s career, his hits come in bunches. Normally when a cold stretch ends a long hot streak begins. Hopefully that is the case.
  • Defense was much better tonight. 0 errors. That was a big problem in the Angels series, but the infield played much better tonight.
  • Elvis Andrus extended his hitting streak to a team high 7 games with his double in the 5th inning. His batting average during these 7 games is .321. That is the Elvis that the team needs offensively. The double showed the kind of spark plug he can be. He hit a line drive down the left field line and was sprinting out of the box and was able to extend what normally would be a single for most players into a hustling double. They need more of that.
  • This season is going to be a test on Jeff Banister and his #nevereverquit attitude. This team is going nowhere fast and reinforcements are still weeks away from coming. Can he get this team to forget what happened last night and move on to the game tonight? The team has talked about how they do not want to see what happened last year happen this year, but right now they are in a tailspin. They need a win tonight to stop the losing streak, because getting a win Sunday against Sonny Gray is not an easy task.
  • They have the right guy on the mound hopefully to help them get a win. Nick Martinez will be going for the Rangers tonight against Drew Pomeranz. Martinez has a 2-0 record with a 0.35 ERA. He has only allowed one earned run in 26 innings. He has been able to stay within himself and never let the situation get too big. The team is 4-0 in his starts this season. His previous 3 starts the team was on a 2 game losing streak, a 3 game losing streak, and coming into this game they are on a 4 game losing streak. Each time he has been able to end the losing streak. Hopefully he can tonight. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. Lets Go Rangers!!!!!!!!

 

Texas Rangers Week 3 Roundup

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As I type this it has been made official that Josh Hamilton will be apart of the Texas Rangers. That will be the most interesting story once he is activated off the DL in mid-to late May. If you want to read all my thoughts on this trade I wrote about it on Friday night once it looked like this was going to happen. As far as this past week is concerned the team went 2-3. They split their series with the Arizona Diamondbacks and lost 2 of 3 to the Angels. They ended the week on a high note by coming back to win an extra innings affair with the Angels to finish the 8 game roadtrip 3-5. It was an inconsistent week. The offense for the most part struggled mightily with runners in scoring position. They only had 1 hit till Mitch Moreland’s single with two outs in the 9th that tied the game. It was glaring to watch this past weekend the team come up multiple times in key spots and only be able to score when the Angels made a mistake like a walk, hit-by-pitch, or a wild pitch. This is going to have to change if the team is going to win games moving forward. The Josh Hamilton trade may or may not help, but this offense needs to get better all around. It is up to the players to improve.

A player that could change the entire look of the offense is Shin Soo Choo. He started to draw more walks this past weekend, which is a positive. Hopefully that means that he is seeing the ball better. If that is happening then it may mean he is not too far away from reverting back to the gap hitter that the Rangers thought they were hitting. It seems like he has come up in numerous spots and not been able to come through. I feel like the offense is a consistent Shin Soo Choo away from really exploding. Elvis Andrus went 4-12 over the weekend, which constitutes a little bit of hot streak for him. Mitch Moreland and Leonys Martin have been hitting well now for the last two weeks. Prince Fielder has been consistently good all season. Adrian Beltre is starting to warm up. If Choo can join these guys this offense can be good even before Hamilton gets here. Then Hamilton doesn’t have to be looked at as the savior of the team. He can just do his thing and be another contributor to the offense.

Top 5 Players of the Week

  1.  Leonys Martin. I have got to go with Martin. He may not have the highest batting average (BA) for the week or the highest of other categories, but he is helping to drive this team. Nearly every rally this past week was either started or involved at some point Martin. He came through with the go-ahead HR yesterday against the Angels. He stole 3 bases, drove in 4 runs, tied for most hits on the team for the week, tied for most total bases, and saw more pitches in his plate appearances than anyone on the team. He is starting to become what the Rangers need in their leadoff hitter. It has been great to see him take that next step. Manager Jeff Banister demoted him after a slow start in the first week and a half. Since being reinserted as leadoff hitter he has been more patient, he has used the bunt more, and he has been hitting well against both left-handers and right-handers. That is why he was my top player for the week.
  2. Mitch Moreland. It was a tossup in my mind between him and Martin. I guess what swayed me was the home run yesterday afternoon and the fact that Moreland only had pinch hitting appearances in Arizona. Moreland in only 13 at-bats had 5 hits, 2 doubles, 3 rbi’s, and a .438 OBP. He was outstanding over the weekend. Martin had the go-ahead hit, but it would not have got to that point unless Moreland has the game-tying hit with two outs in the 9th inning. It was the exact opposite of what the team had done all weekend. Instead of flying out or grounding out, Moreland hit a hard single through the infield. Moreland, finally healthy for the first time in a few years, is starting to figure it out. He is able to hit it to all fields now. It seemed prior to this season that he was strong. His home runs to right field were bombs, but he was just that a dead pull home-run hitter. That cannot be counted on consistently. That is why he would struggle with a low .200 BA. Banister feels like he can hit him wherever he needs him as well. He is providing consistent production and that is what this team really needs.
  3. Nick Martinez. He continues his hot start to the season. He went 1-0, but the team went 2-0 in his starts this past week. He finally gave up an earned run against the Diamondbacks on Tuesday. That was it though. He pitched 12 innings this week with only 1 earned run. Overall he has 26 innings with only 1 earned run and a 0.35 ERA. He has not been a dominant starter such as Yu Darvish, but he has been able to make the right pitch when needed. He has the ability to run his fastball in on right-handers and cause them to hit easy grounders or pop-ups. He will not pitch like this all season, but he will be good. He does not fold when the pressure is on, that is often times when he pitches his best. He gave up 3 base hits to Kole Calhoun yesterday, but was able to always get out of the jam. That was especially difficult with Mike Trout and Albert Pujols being the next two hitters in the lineup. Right now the team is also 4-0 in his starts compared to 3-11 in everyone else’s. It has been great to watch such a young pitcher make drastic improvements in such a short period of time. I am looking forward to seeing what else he can do this season.
  4. Adrian Beltre. Beltre went into Arizona in the middle of a drought. He was in the middle of a 4-33 slump. That changed though this week as time off and time in the cage helped to improve his batting average. He had a .316 BA, 1 home run, 1 RBI, 10 total bases, and played some stellar defense at 3rd. He started double plays off of line drives on both Saturday and Sunday. He also stole his first base of the season. He is starting to look the Adrian Beltre that we have come to know and love these past 4 seasons.
  5. Prince Fielder. I have had Fielder higher in past columns this season, and it is not that he has been bad, it is that other players are starting to play well too. Fielder had a week like any other. He hit .300, had his first home run of the season, 4 RBI’s, 10 total bases as well, and contributed, and had a .864 OPS. He was himself. Those numbers are very similar to what he has been doing. He is still hitting it to all fields and still providing consistent production from the number 3 hole.

A Look Ahead

  • This week they will face two 3 game series against the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s. Both of these teams are what many considered the preseason favorites to win the AL West. If the Rangers want to contend these are teams that they are going to have to beat to be real contenders in this division.
  • The pitching matchups in the Mariners series will be Yovanni Gallardo versus Taijuan Walker on Monday night, Ross Detweiler against J.A. Happ on Tuesday night, and Felix Hernandez against Wandy Rodriguez on Wednesday night. No easy matchups in this series. Hopefully Detweiler has used his time off to work on his fastball command. He was too often leaving it up and over the plate in his first 3 starts. He said after his last start that he had seen something on video that was causing his ball to stay up. The key will be keeping the ball down and getting ground balls.
  • The pitching matchups in the Angels series haven’t been determined yet. For the Rangers it will likely be Colby Lewis on Friday, Nick Martinez on Saturday, and Yovanni Gallardo on Sunday. The Rangers will have to get hits with runners in scoring position and be able to pitch well if they want to play well in this series.
  • The homestand starts with the Rangers looking for their first winning streak of the season. I know it sounds incredible that in 18 games they have yet to win two in a row, but it is true. They are 0-6 following a win this season. Hopefully that can change tonight with a win against the Angels.
  • The standings in the AL West look like this
  1. Houston 11-7  0 GB
  2. LA Angels 9-10 2.5 GB
  3. Oakland 8-12  4.0 GB
  4. Seattle  7-11 4.0 GB
  5. Texas   7-11  4.0 GB

Finally the GIF Of the week

 

 

 

Freese beats Rangers Again

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I really hate David Freese. It seems he exists on this earth to not just be a baseball player, but to also beat the Texas Rangers on a consistent basis. It started with Game 6 of the 2011 World Series and continues to this day as he now plays third base for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Last night it was him hitting a 2-run home run in the bottom of the 7th to put the Angels on top 3-2, which is where they would stay.  On a day that the news broke that the Rangers were going to acquire Josh Hamilton,the offense clearly showed that they needed him as they only scored two runs and could only muster 3 hits. The pitching was good enough as Wandy Rodriguez went 5 innings in his first MLB start since last May. The bullpen made one bad pitch, that cost the game, but other than that was pretty solid. It was the offense that really struggled once again as they were only able to score two runs. It is going to have to be better than this. They have got some tough games coming up and they will need to score runs to survive this 9 game stretch.

Wandy Rodriguez started this game for the Rangers and was good. He got better as he got deeper into the game. He was in bend don’t break mode as he was in jams in 4 of the 5 innings he pitched, yet he didn’t break and ended up only giving up 1 run. It could have been much worse. I even was thinking it is a miracle he has not allowed more runs. He kept pitching and kept getting guys out at opportune times. I believe he has earned himself another start. If he can do this then the Rangers might have found a decent pitcher off the scrap pile. His overall numbers in his first start since last May were decent: 5 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 1 earned run, 3 BB, and 5 K’s. He got deep enough in the game that Banister could line up his bullpen to finish the game out. Banister was going to go Scheppers, Kela, Tolleson, and Feliz to end it. Scheppers got through the 6th with no runs allowed. Then it was Keone Kela’s turn. He very nearly got out of it with no runs allowed either. He took a sharp line drive back at his head, but was able to avoid the ball and catch it was his glove. He then turned around and had Mike Trout doubled off 2nd, but he didn’t throw it as hard, he kinda looped it to 2nd and Trout was able to beat the throw there.That continued the inning and allowed David Freese to then hit a two run home run to left center to put the Angels on top 3-2. The Rangers did make a late rally in the 9th trying to tie the game. They put runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs and Elvis Andrus at the plate. Andrus had a great at-bat, constantly fouling off several pitches, and on the 8th pitch he grounded out to of course David Freese to end the game. That dropped the Rangers record to 6-10 and started another two game losing streak. They have not lost more than two in a row, but cannot win more than 1 in a row. Hopefully this means that they will win today.

Other Game Notes

  • Prince Fielder had another multiple hit game as he went 2-4. One of those hits was an infield single that helped them score their second run of the game. He ran as hard as I have seen him to run to barely beat out the throw allowing Carlos Corporan to score. The other was a line drive to left center that was nearly a double but Mike Trout cut it off before he could reach second.
  • Choo’s slide continues. He is now 2-30 on only has 1 hit on this entire road trip. There was talk about national sports writers when news started to come out about the Josh Hamilton that Choo would have been involved in a bad contract swap. Unfortunately for the Rangers he was not. I am afraid this contract as well as Elvis’ are going to hang around the Rangers neck like an anchor, weighing this entire team down. Hopefully Choo can get it figured out and get back to being the on-base machine he was prior to coming to Texas.
  • Today’s game matches up the top two pitchers on the staff from that 2011 World Series team, Colby Lewis and C.J. Wilson. Lewis struggled in his last start against the Mariners. He was constantly up in the zone and was lucky to have only given up 3 runs as he gave up 10 hits and had two walks. It could have been much worse. Hopefully he can pitch much better than that. Wilson was able to fan 8 Astros over 6.2 innings in his last start. Neither pitcher has pitched well against the opposition. Wilson is 1-2 with a 7.36 ERA against the Rangers in 8 starts. Colby Lewis is 2-7 with 5.77 ERA against the Angels since 2010. It should be interesting to see either one of these pitchers can have success tonight. Game time will be late again 8:05 CT tonight. GO Rangers!!!!!

Josh Hamilton Apparently Comes back to the Rangers

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josh-hamilton

 

It hasn’t been made official yet, but from all indications it looks like 5 time All Star Josh Hamilton is coming back to the Texas Rangers. As soon as the stuff happened between Hamilton and the Angels before the season it really only made sense for Hamilton to come back to Texas. It was only a matter of time before the two sides made it happen. Arte Moreno pretty much drew a line in the sand with his many comments about Josh Hamilton after the independent arbitrator ruled that Hamilton could not be suspended. It was clear Moreno was just wanting a way to not have to pay his contract this season and to try to find a way out of it for the last two seasons. The arbitrator ruled that Hamilton had not violated the Joint Drug Prevention agreement and therefore could not be suspended. It looks like the long nightmare for the Angels is over and a possible redemption story for Josh Hamilton is allowed to commence. That is why this trade was made. According to many sources Hamilton is the only player being sent in this trade. The Rangers are picking up the last 3 years of the contract and covering 15 of the last 83 million according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.The Angels will cover the other 68 million. It was thought this would be a way for the Rangers to get out of the Choo contract. It appears the Angels were not interested in trading bad contracts.  They were interested in only one thing and that is getting rid of Josh Hamilton. Now, don’t get me wrong I am not under any illusions about Hamilton’s skills anymore. It has been about 4 seasons since he was an elite outfielder. He has been steadily going downhill since. This is not about that though. It is about a man trying once again to overcome his demons and become a productive citizen and a productive baseball player. There are three things we need to examine here about this trade. We have talk about the baseball impact of this equation, when Josh Hamilton could possibly be available, and what we should theoretically expect from Josh Hamilton this season.

First lets take a look at where he would fit on this team. As far as I am concerned when he proves he is healthy and recovered from his shoulder injury he will come up and platoon with Ryan Rua in left field and hit some at DH. It does make their bench better as right now Smolinski, Peguero, and Deshields are their spare outfielders. It probably will mean Deshields or Peguero will no longer be on this team. Neither one has really done enough at this point to warrant staying on this team. I imagine when he does play Banister will hit him somewhere in the middle of the lineup like at 6 or 7. He still is a threat, but he is going to have to find a way to recover that bat speed that made him one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball from 2008-2012. I will be interested to see if put back into a familiar situation where he is comfortable if he can revert back to the Josh Hamilton of a few years ago.

The second thing is when will he be available. Right now I am thinking at the earliest he would not be available till likely early June. Hamilton is coming off shoulder surgery back on February 3rd and actually that surgery was done by Rangers doctor Keith Meister. It was said at the time he would be back in 6-8 weeks. It has now been 11 1/2 weeks. He did not have any spring training due to the ongoing issues with the Angels. I am sure the Rangers would like to get him a lot of at bats and a lot of time in the field to make sure he is ready. I would imagine they start him out at extended spring in Arizona and then get him into some games in a couple of weeks. From that point when they feel he is ready they will bring him up. I don’t expect him to be helping this team anytime soon. The Rangers are doing this to help them and help the team and he is no help to himself or the team if he is not 100% ready. They will take their time with him and not rush him.

The final thing is what should we expect theoretically from Josh Hamilton. To get an idea lets go back to his last full season which was 2013, his first with the Angels. That season he hit .250, with 21 home runs, 79 rbi’s, and 144 hits. He still has power, it just is a matter of bat speed. Pitchers in the last couple of seasons have just not thrown him anything in the strike zone. The scouting report says a breaking ball down and away will get him out everytime. He can’t reach it and can’t keep himself from swinging at it. His plate discipline will have to improve. He has got to find a way to make up for the loss of bat speed and that could come by not swinging at balls. If he does that and forces pitchers to have to pitch in the zone then he can get back to driving the baseball. If he does not improve his plate discipline he will still see garbage every plate appearance and nothing to hit and will continue to struggle. Marc Mclemore made a good point on the pregame show tonight,will his head be in the game. He has a lot going on in his life right now. A trade back to Texas, a divorce from his long time wife Katie, and having to recover from a damaging relapse. When he is between the white lines will he be able to just focus on the game? That will determine what kind of player he will be.

I really hope he does well. I admire Josh Hamilton not because he has been a great player and because of what he has done for the Rangers, but because he has been so open with his struggles. He is the face of addiction. All of us deal with one addiction or another. It may not be cocaine, alcohol, or heroin. We deal with some addiction that grabs a hold of us and turns us into a person that we don’t recognize. Josh struggles like the rest of us and I hope that he has gotten the help that he needed and I hope that now he can get back to focusing on baseball. I don’t expect to see 2010 Josh Hamilton, but I hope that the Rangers get a player that can help them win baseball games. The AL West is not great this year and if the Rangers can find a way to 85-88 wins they could win the division. I just don’t see anyone running away with it. It is there for the taking and hopefully Hamilton can help this team take a step towards that. This is what I consider a low risk high reward trade. If it doesn’t work out, then the Rangers will buy out the last two years and Josh will probably be done. Hopefully he has urgency to prove that he still has it. This will be the biggest story for this team this season and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.