Tag Archives: Keone Kela

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!!!!!

Seattle’s Cruz Missile Hits Rangers

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That was a tough loss and I have been thinking of the words to say since yesterday afternoon when it happened and all I can come up with is inexcusable. That was a loss that should not have happened and is a loss that goes to show you that this team might not be good. 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. They had a 7-2 lead and a 10-5 lead and yet lost the game 11-10 behind a monster game from Nelson Cruz and another disappointing outing from Ross Detweiler. As I have said I have faith in about 3/5 of the rotation: Gallardo, Lewis, and Martinez. Gallardo has won his last two starts, Lewis has suffered a no-decision and a loss in his last two starts, but has pitched well in both, and Martinez has not allowed an earned run in either of his starts. Those three are giving the team a chance to win, but right now Detweiler is not. He has been awful in all three starts and is probably another bad start away from going to the bullpen. That is just a loss that is infuriating, because they should have won. It was right there in front of them, but they could not close the door on the Mariners. That makes 3 straight series losses after opening the season with a split at Oakland. Their record right now sits at 5-8 as they head to the desert to face the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday and Wednesday. Before moving on the Diamondbacks series lets recap the game from yesterday.

Tom Grieve and Steve Busby were talking about in the first inning how Detweiler needed to avoid the middle of the plate and up, which has led to problems in his other two starts. Austin Jackson steps to the plate and of course he leaves one up and over the plate and Jackson deposits it over the fence in left field for a quick 1-0 lead, Nelson Cruz follows that up with a solo home run of his own to make it 2-0. That is all though in the first two innings. The Rangers then come back with a 7 spot in the third inning. It was the most offense they had shown all week long. Martin got it started with a bunt single, then a throwing error allowing Andrus to reach, a single by Prince Fielder allowing Martin to score, a ground out by Shoo allowing Andrus to score, a single by Adam Rosales allowing Fielder to score, a groundout by Odor allowing Beltre to score, and then punctuated by a 2-run home run off the bat of Jake Smolinkski. Leonys Martin coming up again ended the scoring barrage by singling home Carlos Corporan and making the score 7-2. That should have been a good enough lead to hold through the middle innings and get to the bullpen, but Detweiler comes back in the bottom of the third and walks the first hitter. That cannot happen and of course Robinson Cano would then single, and Nelson Cruz would hit his second home run of the game. That made the score 7-5 and after two more singles that would be the end of the day for Ross Detweiler. He would finish the day 2.1 innings, 5 runs, and 3 home runs allowed. He now has a 10.95 ERA through 3 starts and has not even been able to get 4 ground ball outs in his last two starts. He said after the game, “I’ve never had a point in my career where I just could not get a ground ball. I think I found something I can clean up.”

That was not the only reason they lost though, the team did bounce back and score 3 runs in the 6th. They did so with a Shin Soo Choo single, a single from pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland, and a RBI-groundout from Roughned Odor. That made the score 10-5 as Anthony Bass was able to hold the Mariners down from the time he entered in the 3rd all the way to the 7th inning. That is when the game got away from the Rangers. Tolleson allowed one run in the 7th to make it 10-6. Then Scheppers came in for the 8th and proceeded to walk 3 of the 4 hitters he faced and then he was removed for Keone Kela, who walked Robinson Cano to make the score 10-7. It was at that point manager Jeff Banister went for the win, he brought in Neftali Feliz for a 5 out save. He needed someone to be able to get out of this bases loaded jam and someone to face Nelson Cruz. Feliz throwing 96 mph and 97 mph for the first times since probably before the Tommy John surgery was able to get Nelson Cruz, but allowed a two run single to Kyle Seager, because that is what Seager does is beat Rangers pitching. Feliz finished out the inning and the Rangers took a 10-9 lead to the 9th inning. There was a moment that I would have liked Banister to handle differently. First, with two outs Corporan worked a walk. At this moment they could have removed Corporan and put in Delino Deshields Jr. in as a pinch runner. He could have tried stealing second, or when Martin doubled down the left field line maybe Deshields could have scored on that. It would have given them options and a better chance at scoring the run. They did not though and Andrus ended up flying out to center field harmlessly to end the inning. Predictably enough Feliz tired from the stress in the 8th inning quickly gave up the one run lead and then the game after Nelson Cruz won it with a walk-off single.

It was a game that was theirs for the taking, but they ended up giving the game and the series away to the Mariners. Now they move on to the second city on their 3 city roadtrip and hopefully will learn from this, be able to get better from it, and not let this season get away from them.

Other Game Notes

  • What we will forget about this game because of the loss is that the offense was really good for the first time since the last game in Oakland. They bottomed out after Saturday night’s loss to King Felix. Their batting average was the worst in the league at .201. They bounced back big though yesterday getting 13 hits, scoring 10 runs, and getting 4 extra base hits. That is the kind of production they are going to need going forward. That is what made this such a tough loss, is because their offense actually performed, but unfortunately it came in a losing effort.
  • Anthony Bass performed solidly again. He came on in relief of Ross Detweiler and pitched 3.2 scoreless innings. He has been outstanding as the long man so far this season. He is keeping the Rangers in several of these games that seem like lost causes. If Detweiler performs poorly again Saturday against the Angels I would not be surprised to see Bass filling that role if only temporarily until the team feels like one of their younger starting pitchers on the farm are ready to go.
  • I did not have a problem with Banister bringing in Feliz in the 8th. It is a vital situation there and the team wants who they feel is their best pitcher to try to finish it off. The issue that I did have though is that he allowed Kela to just pitch to one hitter. I would have brought Feliz in for Cano and held Kela out. If Feliz ran into trouble in the 9th, maybe Kela can be brought in to relieve a tiring Feliz and hopefully finish the game out. Banister left himself with no options except to keep pitching Feliz until he was able to close it out or lose the game. That is one area that is clear that he is still learning is how to properly manage the bullpen. I feel Banister has done a good job so far, but I wish he would have handled that situation just a little bit differently.
  • Oh and count me in the camp that I wish the Rangers had signed Nelson Cruz either of these last two offseasons. His power is something the Rangers have been lacking these last two seasons. The team thought they were getting that with Fielder and Choo, but neither has provided near the amount of power that Cruz brings to the lineup.
  • Mitch Moreland did pinch-hit in yesterday’s game and did play the field in the final 3 innings and it looks like for now he will avoid elbow surgery.
  • The Rangers are off today as they make their way to the desert for a quick 2 game series against the Arizona Diamonbacks. Nick Martinez will be going for win number 3 on Tuesday night and carry a 14 inning, no earned run streak in the game. First pitch is at 8:40 CT. GO Rangers!!!!!

 

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!!!!!!!!!!

Rangers Rebound Behind Fielder and the Kid

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Kela congratulated by teammates after escaping 7th inning jam

Kela congratulated by teammates after escaping 7th inning jam

The Rangers get that first win of the season and the first win for manager Jeff Bannister with clutch hitting from Prince Fielder and pitching from rookie Keone Kela. The final was 3-1 as Colby Lewis picked up his first win of the season. The story of the game though was Keone Kela. The rookie made the team after an outstanding Spring Training that saw him pitch 9.2 innings and 11 strikeouts and allowed a .167 Opponents Batting Average (OBA). Bannister thought so highly of him that he installed him as the team’s 7th inning guy. That for a guy that a year ago was pitching in Double-A for Frisco. There was a lot more pressure last night for Kela than I am sure he faced at all last year. Kela doesn’t wilt under pressure. He was a 12th round draft pick for the Rangers and worked his way up from there to being in the majors at age 21.

That takes us to last night. Colby Lewis had just went 6 innings, allowing only 1 run with 4 strikeouts, and 2 walks. He had kept the A’s off-balance off night and allowed the only run in his last inning as he was tiring. Kela was brought in for his first major league appearance in a big spot. Normally you see managers try to bring in rookies in low pressure situations so that they can get the nervousness out of the their system. Bannister showed enough trust in Kela though to not bring him in on Monday to get that first appearance out of the way. Kela came in and quickly allowed the first two batters to reach base. Billy Butler lined a single up the middle on an 0-2 pitch that Kela left up. Then he walked Ike Davis. So two runners on and no outs and only up two.  Mike Maddux came to visit and Prince Fielder came up to him and according to Kela told him to, “man up and throw strikes”.  After that he struck out Brett Lawrie with 3 curveballs. Stephen Vogt then lined a hard line drive single to Shin Shoo Choo in right field, and thankfully because Butler was the lead runner they had to hold him at 3rd. The crowd starts to get loud, pressure ratchets up as it looks like the bullpen might blow another lead, and Marcus Semien is coming to the plate. He works the count to 3-2 and on the 7th pitch he gets Semien to ground into a game-saving double play.

What a double-play turn by Elvis Andrus. I loved Kela’s reaction to that, he clearly was able to breath a sigh of relief after that play. He was struggling, he did not have any fastball command and had to rely on his changeup and curveball to get him out of the inning and he did. I think he is going to be a solid piece to the bullpen. If he can perform in that situation then I think he can handle any situation. He will be an interesting story to follow throughout the season. Tanner Scheppers is scheduled to be back next week and that means that Tolleson will slide into that 7th inning role, but I could see him and Kela splitting that role in order to keep both of them fresh. Having both of them also gives the bullpen needed depth.

After that Tolleson and Feliz were able to close the door on the victory and the Rangers now just need to get one of the next two to consider this series a success. The goal was a split and they are halfway there. Ross Detweiler will make his Rangers debut tonight against Scott Kazmir and Nick Martinez will throw on Thursday afternoon in the finale of the series against Kendall Graveman.

Other Notes from the Game

  • Prince Fielder is looking pretty solid thus far this season. He is actually looking like a good hitter and not just a pull-happy home run guy. From the Spring Training games I saw and the two games so far this year, he is hitting to the opposite field and driving it, and he is finding holes in the shift as well. He is also making solid contact with everything. Last night he provided the two biggest hits the bloop single to center that scored Roughned Odor for the first run of the season, and then solid line drive to Craig Gentry that skipped underneath his glove that scored both Martin and Andrus. If he can do that from the 3 spot the rest of the lineup will be fine.
  • Adrian Beltre celebrated his 36th birthday last night by putting on a show defensively. Colby Lewis was struggling in the first inning. Sam Fuld had beat out an infield single and then he walked Eric Sogard. That is when Beltre came to save the day. He caught a popup deep into foul territory and caught it over his shoulder with his back to the infield. Then he started a double play off the bat of Billy Butler to get out of the inning. He also made a great stop and throw to get Eric Sogard out in the 8th inning. Happy belated birthday to Adrian Beltre.
  • There was also a nice hit-and-run by Elvis Andrus and Leonys Martin that preceded Fielder’s rbi double in the 5th inning. Martin had reached on a line drive single to center. The A’s then tried to pick him off by pitching out on the first pitch because the scouting report on Martin says he tries to run on the first pitch. This time he didn’t. He left on the second pitch when the Rangers called the hit-and-run and Andrus was able to place it right where the shortstop was and the ball rolled into the outfield and Martin was able to go third on the hit.
  • Tonight’s game is at 9:05 p.m. and will be Ross Detweiler against Scott Kazmir. Go Rangers.