Tag Archives: Leonys Martin

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.

 

 

The Cost of Competing

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DANIELS

 

In professional sports every team is seeking a window. A window that while open gives them a chance at winning their sports ultimate prize. It could be the Lombardi Trophy, Stanley Cup, World Series, or NBA Finals. General Managers spend their lifetimes trying to acquire enough talent to be able to open that window. Windows normally only stay open for a very short time.  Very few GM’s actually get to open that window. That is why when teams get there they normally overspend in order to maximize that window. They never want to admit that the window is closed or is closing. This takes me to the Rangers and the decisions the front office has made to try to keep the Rangers window open.

Jon Daniels has been the Rangers GM since October of 2005. He spent the first 5 years of his tenure rebuilding the Rangers from the ground up. He rebuilt through shrewd trades, under the radar signings, and through the draft. Instead of moves made to compete immediately he slowly started to acquire more and more talent. He brought in players like Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, and Yu Darvish. All along he said that he wanted to get the Rangers to a point where they could compete every season. He didn’t believe in a window of opportunity. The Rangers made it to back-to-back World Series in 2010-2011 and came within an out of winning the 2011 World Series. Since then the Rangers have gotten farther and farther away from making it back to the World Series. They lost a 5 game lead with 7 games remaining in 2012 and then lost the Wild Card playoff game to the Orioles. Then in 2013 in a season full of injuries they lost a one game playoff to the Tampa Bay Rays. This season just shy of Memorial Day they sit 7 games back of division leaders Oakland.

This takes me to the point of the article. In order to stay in contention teams have to make trades that normally they wouldn’t make. Jon Daniels has made several in-season trades and now this season they are seeing that once full minor league system drained by all that talent that was traded away. It started in 2011 with the Koji Uehara trade that sent Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter to the Orioles. It was a sound trade at the time because the Rangers needed bullpen help, but Uehara did not provide anything and was left off of the World Series roster in favor of Mark Lowe.  In 2012 there was the trade for Ryan Dempster that sent Kyle Hendricks and Christian Villanueva to the Chicago Cubs. The team needed a starter after Colby Lewis went down with an injury, Neftali Feliz had Tommy John, Roy Oswalt and Yu Darvish were not pitching well, and so they traded for Dempster. One thing we saw with Dempster is what we see with most NL pitchers who make the transition to the AL. They do not pitch as well. Dempster in his time here did go 7-3, but with a 5.09 ERA, and in September that ballooned to 5.68 ERA in the month.  The big problem now is that Kyle Hendricks has blossomed in the Cubs organization and is on the verge of being called up. Ryan Dempster is no longer in MLB and was not resigned after the season.

In 2013 they made another trade with the Cubs this time for Matt Garza. They gave up Neil Ramirez, C.J. Edwards, Justin Grimm and Mike Olt to complete the trade. That made sure they got him, but while here Garza continued to be the head case he has been throughout his career. He called people out on Twitter, his behavior was unpredictable on the mound, and his performance just wasn’t what the team thought they would get. He ended up 4-5 with a 4.38 ERA, and allowed 5.02 Runs per 9 innings. The Rangers needed to make this trade because Colby Lewis had not come back, Matt Harrison was out for the season, Nick Tepesch and Justin Grimm were not able to pick up the slack, and they needed a veteran to help them get back to the playoffs. It just did not work either as the Rangers season ended in game 163 to the Tampa Bay Rays. Then this past offseason Daniels really wanted to shake things up. He traded longtime Ranger Ian Kinsler to the Tigers for Prince Fielder, let Nelson Cruz go without a multi-year contract offer, traded fan favorite Craig Gentry to the A’s for Michael Choice, and signed Shin Shoo Choo. Only one of those has really worked out.

Having to trade prospects is the cost of competing. It is what general managers will call a necessary evil, because the here and now is more important than the future. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out for the team acquiring the veteran. That is what the Rangers have found out as they have had to trade numerous prospects in order to stay in contention. That is what makes a GM’s job very difficult, weighing the question of whether or not to make a trade, and the future consequences of making that trade. Every GM battles with that decision in the offseason and especially during the month of July. Jon Daniels I am sure did not make any of these trades lightly. He knew what could happen, but he wanted to give his team a chance at getting back to the playoffs. The problem has come this year as the team has faced numerous injuries and no longer has the depth to cover up those injuries. Here is a sobering thought, if none of those trades had been made, here is what the Rangers lineup would look like.

LF Shin Shoo Choo

2b Ian Kinsler

1b Chris Davis

3b Adrian Beltre/ Mike Olt

RF Alex Rios

DH Mitch Moreland/ Mike Olt

CF Leonys Martin

C Robinson Chirinos

SS Elvis Andrus

This is the downside of trying to keep the window open. Does it produce exciting pennant race baseball? Yes it does. Does it bring regret later? It does that as well. Every team that competes for a period of time goes through that and now is the Rangers time to go through it. It may lead to a couple of down seasons, but players like Joey Gallo, Luke Jackson, and Jorge Alfaro are just a year or two away from being ready to contribute. That will give the team the shot in the arm that it needs and the ability to compete for the World Series again.

The Major Issues affecting the Rangers

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The team celebrates Choo's walk to end the game.

The team celebrates Choo’s walk to end the game.

 

The Rangers lost again last night 12-1 to the Colorado Rockies to fall to 17-16 and 2 games back in the division. They have now lost 8 of their last 11 games and are clearly going in the wrong direction. This all comes after the run they went on in the middle of April till late April when they won 4 straight series to surge into first place in the division after sweeping the Oakland A’s. The question becomes what has changed from then to now? Why are they struggling so much? Finally, how do they get it turned around?

Lets start with what has changed from then to now. During that stretch of winning 4 straight series they were mainly relying on getting solid starting pitching, decent bullpen work, and timely hitting. They were not scoring a ton of runs, but they were scoring them at the right time. It was during that stretch also that the starting staff was pitching its best. Martin Perez had thrown those back-to-back shutouts, Robbie Ross was pitching well, Colby had just come back, and Yu was pitching deep into games and being very efficient. Since then though, the league has made adjustments to Perez and he has followed the shutout streak with 2 very underwhelming starts. He has given up 13 runs in his last 9.2 innings pitched. He hasn’t been able to pitch into the sixth in either start. He seems to be pitching the same, but not getting the same results. That is another thing, the starters as a whole are not lasting as deep into games as the teams needs them to. For example, in the A’s series last week in Texas neither Darvish or Perez were able to get through the 5th inning. It also doesn’t help that Colby and Matt seem to have pitch counts put on them. The two of them are both coming back from injuries that kept them out all of 2013, and so it makes sense that the team would be overly cautious in their first few starts. If they are going to do that, then guys like Darvish, Perez, and Ross have to pitch deeper into games. If they don’t it will put a lot more stress on an already thin bullpen. Alexi Ogando has already pitched in 18 of the Rangers 33 games. That is just asking for trouble. He is an arm injury waiting to happen if they keep using him at this rate.  The starters just have to pitch into the 6th and preferably the 7th inning.

Offensively, the lineup is just out of balance. Elvis has been in a slump that has lasted for the last couple of weeks and it has seen him drop in the order to number 9. That happening though has caused Ron Washington to have to experiment with who to hit in the number 2 spot. He has went with Josh Wilson, Dan Robertson, and Leonys Martin. None of them has seemed to work, but even if it did, the middle of the order has been struggling. Alex Rios is still putting up solid numbers, but Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre are hitting with little to no power. Beltre just got his first home run of the season last night and Fielder is still just hitting .233 with just 11 RBI’s. The bottom of the order is really not doing much especially with guys like Donnie Murphy, Josh Wilson, and JP Arencibia hitting down there. They also just are not getting the timely hits that they need. Last night there were several instances of getting runners on base and they couldn’t drive them in. To me it is inexplicable to play two games in Colorado and score only 3 runs. That is a place that with as big of an outfield as they have that they should have been able to score a few runs. Really the only player who seems to be doing his job at the plate is Shin Shoo Choo. He continues to get on base at a ridiculous .500 clip and his average is .370. In his role as a leadoff hitter he is doing his job, but no one else seems to be doing theirs. That is what is holding the offense back is everyone doing their part.

Now the question becomes how do they fix this? How do they get back to playing better baseball and winning games. It has to start with the starting pitcher. The starters must be able to pitch into the 6th or 7th innings. That will take the stress off an already overworked bullpen. Right now it seems the bullpen is running on fumes. Last night Washington even ran Mitch Moreland out there for an inning so he didn’t have to use anybody else in the game. Alexi Ogando will be more effective if he is not being called on to pitch every single day. The big help for the staff will be improved health. Derek Holland and Tanner Scheppers both should be back in the next few weeks. That will allow Robbie Ross and Tanner Scheppers to go back to the bullpen and provide some relief. Robbie I would imagine would take over being the long man and middle relief option and Scheppers would be the 8th inning guy. Then there is that guy Neftali Feliz who is sitting down there in Triple-A still trying to work his way back. He is dealing with soreness and general fatigue right now, but he should be back to pitching soon and hopefully will be option come June. That would provide some serious punch to their bullpen. Having all of those guys come back will certainly help the pitching staff. Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison need to have the shackles taken off of them. Lewis has shown to be as healthy as he has been since probably 2011. The Rangers just need to let him pitch deeper into games. He still has yet to pitch more than 5.2 innings in a game. That will be happening soon though for both of them and that will help the bullpen and the team out as well.

The offense needs Elvis Andrus. They need Andrus to spray line drives all over the field and cause havoc on the basepaths. They need his energy and enthusiasm for the game. The offense has been at their best when Choo and Andrus have been getting on and providing opportunities for Fielder, Beltre, and Rios. If Andrus can go back to just hitting the ball and move back up in the order that should provide a little bit of balance that the offense needs. Once again I say that the offense needs Prince Fielder to produce. They are paying him $24 million this season, and they brought him here to be the major run producer that the team lacked last season. So far he has not been able to be that guy.  This offense is just waiting for him to go on a prolonged streak and when he does it will make the whole lineup look better. Beltre will get better pitches to hit, and Alex Rios will see more runners on base as a result too. Health on offense will also help as well. Jurickson Profar is starting the process of coming back as he is now swinging a bat and throwing, so hopefully he will be back by the beginning of June. Geovanny Soto will be back too come June and so that will mean no more at-bats for Arencibia. Having those guys back will provide some punch to the bottom of the order and less key at-bats for guys like Donnie Murphy and Josh Wilson. The key though is getting Elvis back on track and having Fielder start hitting on a more consistent basis and for more power. If they do that and they get healthy the offense should be fine.

To wrap up, like I said before the season if they could survive these first two months and be at or above .500 they would be fine the rest of the season. That spurt we saw in the middle of April goes to show me that this team can play on that level. For a few days they had the best record in the AL, so they can be as good as any team in the AL. It is just a matter of balance and people doing their jobs. The starters must pitch deep into games, the bullpen must be able to hold onto leads, and the offense must provide timely hitting. In the lineup everyone needs to do their job. Right now they are not doing that and so the team just needs to survive this stretch and hopefully get it turned around starting tonight at home against Colorado in a weird home and home series. Tonight starts a 5 game homestand as it will be Colby Lewis against Jorge De La Rosa. Lewis needs to continue to build off of the success that he had in his last start against the Angels. Note to Colby, don’t give Troy Tulowitzki anything to hit. The guy is a beast right now. Game time is at 7:05 tonight.

Rangers Get Gray’d Out by A’s

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The Rangers lost last night as Yu Darvish drops another game to the Oakland A’s. This loss drops his record against the A’s to 1-7 with a 4.73 ERA. It is becoming quite the issue. Darvish had the option of either facing the Mariners on Sunday or the A’s last night and he chose the A’s. He has a lot of bravado and pride, but this time it might have hurt him and the team.  Last week in his game he had to really labor through 6 innings and tonight he couldn’t get out of the 4th. The A’s approach to facing Darvish is just to be patient and not swing at anything outside of the strike zone. That approach takes a lot of discipline and that is what the A’s have. Darvish tends to throw right on the border of being a strike and most hitters will swing, but the A’s do not. The Rangers staff and Darvish will have to figure out a way for him to have success against the A’s. The A’s look to be the Rangers top rival for the division and if Darvish cannot pitch well against the A’s it will make winning the division very difficult. They still have 15 more games against the A’s and Darvish figures to pitch in a few of them. That is the big takeaway from last night’s game was that Darvish just cannot pitch against these guys.

There were other things to this game as well. Sonny Gray was brilliant for the A’s as he pitched his first MLB complete game shutout. He bounced back from his last start against these Rangers when he gave up 3 runs in 7 innings and took his first loss of the season. Last night he only gave up 3 singles and shut the Rangers out. They did not have an answer for Gray. His fastball was constantly moving and his curveball was breaking very sharply. On this night he won in the battle of aces.

There were some positives for the Rangers. The bullpen was lights out. Aaron Poreda came in for Darvish in the 4th and finished out the inning and then Nick Martinez came in to finish out the rest of the game going 5 innings and not allowing a run. The highlight of the game had to be Leonys Martin’s double play catch and throw in the 8th inning. I have embedded it above because it was certainly the play of the game. Martin is starting to really play gold-glove level defense. His timing on the jump was perfect and his laser throw to first base was right on time. Fielder wasn’t even on the base and still had time to jump back. The only reason I can think of that he wouldn’t be on the base is that he wasn’t expecting it to come on time. He must have thought there is no way he get it back in, but Martin just threw a laser back to Fielder to get the out. It was remarkable. Outside of that though those were the only two positives to take away from this game. The A’s just came in and played better.

Today it will be Martin Perez and Scott Kazmir. Perez will carry with a 26 inning scoreless streak into the game and a streak of back-to-back shutouts. The last pitcher to throw 3 consecutive shutouts was Cliff Lee for the Phillies in 2011. The only Rangers pitcher to accomplish the feat is Charlie Hough in 1983. Perez has been pitching very well and last start really neutralized the A’s offense. He must continue to keep his pitches down and force the A’s to hit groundballs. Early on in the season Perez has been able to do that as he has forced teams into 11 double play grounders. He hopes to continue doing that and improve on his 4-0 record. Scott Kazmir also has been having success for the A’s early on this season. He is 3-0 with a 1.62 ERA. It has been a comeback season thus far for Kazmir. He once was the Tampa Bay ace before they started winning, but since then he has bounced from team to team. He has pitched for Angels, Indians, and now the A’s. It looks like from his early results that he has rediscovered that success he had early on in his career. It will be lefty vs lefty tonight as the A’s look to win the series and the Rangers look to get one back. The game starts tonight at 7:05.

Rangers Win in the 9th Again!

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Josh Wilson scores go-ahead run

Josh Wilson scores go-ahead run

 

The Texas Rangers once again won with a dramatic 9th inning rally. This team has faced adversity by losing multiple players to injury, yet here we are on April 23rd and with a win today they will be in first place and have the best record in the AL. I can’t wait to see how well this team plays once they have their full compliment of players. This attitude of never quitting is the best attribute that Ron Washington imparts to his team. Washington is no Tony Larussa or Buck Showalter as far as a tactician, but his teams always play hard and never stop trying until the final out is recorded. Time and time again this season we have seen that. In actuality this team should not be 13-8. They still are missing 2/5 of their starting rotation, 2nd baseman Jurickson Profar, 3rd baseman Adrian Beltre, left fielder Shin Shoo Choo, and last night they lost back-up 3rd baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff. Despite all of that Ron Washington has them playing and believing that they can still win games. It is like those Real Texas Baseball commercials where Washington says, “We are going to win, because that is what we do”. It is a cheesy line, but the players have bought into that and are playing like that every night. The expectation now is to just win and they are doing just that.

Last nights game as mentioned above was another example of this attitude and belief that has permeated among the team. We are just going to fast forward to the 9th inning. The A’s had a 4-3 lead and closer Luke Gregorson on the mound. Mitch Moreland, who had been sitting due to a lefty on the mound, pinch-hit and led off with a double that got past Coco Crisp. It looks like if the Rangers execute they should be able to at least tie the game. Robinson Chirinos then bunts Moreland over to third. So, one out and Leonys Martin coming up to try to drive him in. All it would take is a deep fly ball or a base hit, but instead Martin bunts and Moreland gets a late break and is thrown out by a mile. Now there are two outs with Martin on first and little to no chance to win the game. After the game Washington revealed that there was some miscommunication and that Martin was not supposed to be bunting there. At the time it looked like it might cost them the game. Martin then stole second to give himself a chance at scoring with a base-hit. Josh Wilson was up at the plate trying to extend the game. Wilson had made an error earlier in the game at third that allowed the A’s to be able to score the go-ahead run. He was certainly looking for redemption from his mistake. He got it as he lined a ball to deep left field off of the wall and Martin scored to tie the game. Wilson got a double from it. Then, two pitches later Michael Choice singled up the middle to give the Rangers the lead. Incredibly the Rangers went from their final out and final strike to having the lead in a matter of minutes. It was a remarkable turnaround. Joakim Soria then came in to close it out and he was able to go 1-2-3 and the Rangers somehow won this game. With the win the Rangers improve to 13-8 and the A’s fall to 13-7. They also won their fourth straight series and continued their winning ways.

Notes from the Game

  • Nick Martinez started the game and pitched pretty well. He struggled and was very lucky to make it through the first two innings. The Rangers established him to an early 2-0 lead, but the A’s came back with 2 in the bottom of the first to tie it. Then in the second he walked two guys and had runners on second and third with only one out. It looked like he was just about to get pulled if he had walked another batter or allowed the two runners to score. He got Jed Lowrie to fly to medium center field and Leonys Martin then threw a laser to Robinson Chirinos and he tagged out John Jaso to end the inning. After that he settled down a bit and was able to get through 5 innings only allowing two more runs. He saved the bullpen for today by getting through 3 more innings. It was a successful start though and I imagine he will be back up at some point later on this season.
  • The Rangers lost 2 more players in this game. Kevin Kouzmanoff left in the fourth inning with what is being described as back tightness and Pedro Figureroa left after one pitch complaining about pain in his elbow. The Rangers have 2 wins in this series and 3 players lost to injury. Shin Shoo Choo will still be out today, but is expected to be back this weekend when the team travels to Seattle. There will be more news about Figueroa and Kouzmanoff later today.
  • In the 6th inning the Rangers were able to properly execute a wheel play. The A’s were threatening, but the Rangers were able to bait Eric Sogard into bunting to Josh Wilson. Wilson then turned around to fire it to Andrus who had run over to cover third and get the out and minimize the chance the A’s had at scoring.
  • The bullpen once again pitched very well. Aaron Poreda came in and pitched an inning, Shawn Tolleson came in and pitched an effective 1.2 innings, and then after Figueroa left with an injury Ogando came in and finished the 8th. Soria then was able to close it down. Washington has had to mix and match early on this season, but it doesn’t really seem to be affecting the bullpen. Everyone continues to pitch very well. The bullpen is becoming a strength of this team, much like it was last season.

Preview of Today’s Game

Today’s game will be an afternoon start at 2:35. It will be Martin Perez facing Sonny Gray. These two are among the best young pitchers in the entire AL. Perez has been outstanding early on this season. He has a 3-0 record and a 1.86 ERA. He also has thrown 17 consecutive scoreless innings. His last time out he threw his first complete game shutout against the Houston Astros. He will look to continue that success today against the A’s. In his career he is 2-3 with a 5.79 ERA against the A’s. He has made a lot of improvement since the last time he has played them.  It will not be easy as the A’s will be looking to not get swept for the first time this season.

For the A’s it will be Sonny Gray. Gray has been as good if not better than Perez early on in the season. Gray is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA. Gray was the A’s Opening Day starter and has won each time out. It will be Gray’s first start against the Rangers. It will be interesting to see how the Ranger hitters approach this matchup as they will have a scouting report, but not previous at-bats to call back on. I expect the first time through the order they will be feeling him out and the next two times they will have more success.

 This will be a good test for both pitchers as they will be counted on to deliver in these types of situations throughout the year. The winner of this game will be in first place come tomorrow. Still a lot of baseball to be played, but if the Rangers continue to play hard and pitch well they will give themselves a shot to win late. That Michael Choice gets Game-Winning Hitis all you can ask for.

Rangers Strike First against the A’s

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Darvish pitching against the A's in game one of their series.

Darvish pitching against the A’s in game one of their series.

 

The Texas Rangers went on the road and won a hard-fought game against the division leading Oakland A’s 4-3. It was a game that saw both starting pitchers bend, but not break. That was highlighted mostly by Yu Darvish. When Darvish is going well, he is able to easily get through 6 or 7 innings with double-digit strikeouts and few hits allowed. Tonight was not one of those nights. Heading into the game Darvish was 1-6 with a 4.30 ERA against the Oakland A’s. He also has not won at the Colliseum in his short career. So the question became how would he do last night? It wasn’t a sure thing that he would pitch well, and early on it looked like that trend might continue.

Darvish early on in the season has not gotten any run support and has not pitched with the lead in any of his prior 3 starts. That changed last night as Shin Shoo Choo led off the game with his second home run of the season to give the Rangers an early 1-0 lead. Yesterday, I had remarked that for the Rangers to win last night they had to score early, make Straily work, get to the bullpen early, and get timely hits. They did establish a lead early for Darvish, but he was only able to hold that lead till the bottom of the second inning. Brandon Moss led off the second inning with a home run. It was the fourth home run he has hit in his career against Darvish. The A’s would go on to add 2 more runs to the board on a Eric Sogard double and Coco Crisp single. Darvish early on was trying to establish the fastball and get ahead in the count and then work in his other pitches. He lacked his usual control though and so the A’s were just looking at those pitches or fouling them off making him work harder than he normally does. They were very methodically driving up his pitch count. Darvish said about that start, “Compared to last year, I think I’ve matured mentally to battle through these kinds of games”. That is certainly what he had to is battle.  In Darvish’s previous starts he had been able to maintain control of his pitch count which has allowed him to go 7-8 innings in those starts. Last night that was not the case. This is where I credit Darvish and Chirinos for coming up with a different plan mid game. Yu doesn’t get a lot of credit for being as cerebral as he is. He is a very intelligent pitcher who just happens to throw hard. He knew that the A’s were sitting on his fastball and that he didn’t have the best control of it, so mid game he changed to more curveballs and off speed pitches. This midgame adjustment really saved the game. It caught the A’s off guard and allowed Darvish to get through the 6th inning. He had even told Wash, “I was going to get through six innings,”. In the 5th and 6th he was able to get more ground balls and facing his last hitter and his 115th pitch he struck out John Jaso. Washington said about Darvish, “He settled down and started making some pitches. He bent but didn’t break. He was good enough to keep us in the game.” When he left the game it was still 3-3.

His rebound from that 3 run second allowed the offense to be able to come back and tie the game. The main reason they were able to come back tonight was actually Prince Fielder tonight. Fielder has been hitting better lately, but tonight he actually looked very locked into the game. In his first at-bat he actually went opposite field. He drove a ball to deep left field for a double in the 4th. It is the first opposite field hit I can remember him getting this season. Kouzmanoff then followed with a single to the outfield that scored him and made it 3-2. Then in the 5th the Rangers were able to get a 2-0ut rally started when Elvis Andrus had a single to center. Rios then followed with a bloop single to right fielder Josh Reddick that moved Elvis to third. Fielder then finished it off with a hard-hit single to right field. The A’s decided not to shift there and that allowed one to sneak over the infield. That single tied the game at 3. The score would stay that way till the top of the 8th. Both team’s bullpens pitched really well. The A’s were able to call on Ryan Cook, Fernando Abad, Sean Doolittle, and Dan Otero. The Rangers called on Jason Frasor, Neal Cotts, Alexi Ogando, and Joakim Soria. The game remained scoreless through most of these pitchers. Then in 8th, Kevin Kouzmanoff led off with a double off the wall in right field off of Sean Doolittle. Doolittle is one the AL’s best left-handed relievers, but Kouzmanoff got the best of him last night. Then on 2 strikes Moreland was able to lay down a sac bunt that moved Kouzmanoff to 3rd. That caused Bob Melvin to bring the infield in for Donnie Murphy. Murphy proceeded to hit it right back up the middle against the drawn-in infield. That gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead. They would fail to score another run in the 9th with Choice at 3rd when Chirinos struck out. Soria came on in the 9th to try to close it out. He did just that, despite a throwing error by Elvis Andrus that put a run in scoring position. He kept the ball down, he kept calm and showed why he is their closer.  This was probably his best save this early in the season. The Rangers with the win move to 12-8 and 1.5 games back and the A’s fall to 13-6.

Notes from the Game

  • Fielder did what I have been screaming for him to do all season and that is hit it opposite field. All season teams have been shifting on him and he just would continue to hit it right into the shift. If he shows he can do this, then he might not see such large shifts. His two hits though were huge. It looked like early on that this will be a 3-1 game that they lost, but Fielder’s opposite field double seemed to turn the tide. He did look way more invested than he has at times this season. He sometimes gives off an aloof feel, but tonight he looked locked in. That is the guy the Rangers need to be hitting 3 or 4 in the lineup.
  • I have never seen Darvish gut it out more than he did last night. In the past when he didn’t have it you could tell from his body language and then poor results would follow. Tonight he didn’t have it, but he kept battling and just found a way to make it through the 6th inning. That is what the best pitchers are able to do, is even when their stuff isn’t on they still find a way to get hitters out and last deep into the game. That is what Darvish did last night.
  • Kevin Kouzmanoff once again with two hits, including the rbi single to make it 3-2 and then the leadoff double in the 8th that helped to give the team the 4-3 lead. Kouzmanoff yesterday was named AL Player of the Week. That is quite the accomplishment for someone who wasn’t even expected to make the team this year. He has certainly earned himself a role and at-bats even when Adrian Beltre possibly comes back this weekend.
  • In the 9th inning Shin Shoo Choo turned his ankle trying to beat out an infield grounder. He was stretching out try to beat the throw and landed on the bag awkwardly. He will have an MRI today to see if there is any damage, but is likely out for the rest of the series. No word yet on who will move up to leadoff. The candidates are Elvis Andrus or Leonys Martin. Martin did hit some leadoff last year, but really struggled and so midway through the season Wash moved him back down the order. He has been hitting better this year, but Wash might not want to mess that up. I would not be surprise if he goes with Andrus-Choice 1-2 in the order. We will see later on today how Wash plans on handling this and how long Choo will be out for.
  • To me Joakim Soria really claimed the closers job last night. There has been this thought among Ranger fans that Neftali Feliz will be the closer at some point if he can regain his velocity and control. Unless Soria gets hurt the closer job is his. I know at some point he will struggle, but last night he was great. He showed he could come through in a hostile environment, 1 run lead, and the A’s best hitters at the plate. He is the closer, if Feliz does come up at some point maybe they can slide him in as the 7th or 8th inning guy.
  • Overall it was a great win. It is not September though yet. They still have 18 games left against the A’s. They will play 6 games total with this series and a series next week in Arlington. After these two series they will still have 13 left. It is nice to get a win though and show that even with all these injuries they are doing more than just surviving, they are playing good baseball.

Tonight’s Game Preview

Tonight it will be rookie Nick Martinez against Tommy Millone. Martinez who last pitched for the Rangers on April 5th against the Tampa Bay Rays will be brought up to pitch for Tanner Scheppers. Scheppers was placed on the DL last week due to an elbow issue. Martinez like last time will be brought in just for this one appearance. Last time out he pitched 6 innings and only gave up 3 runs. Hopefully he can do that again tonight. He had been pitching for AA Frisco and has made two starts with no decisions and has a 1.86 ERA. He will asked to try to continue that. Washington I am sure will have a short leash and will be ready to go to his pen at any moment. The A’s are going to try to make him work. They are going to make him throw strikes. To win he has to throw first pitch strikes, don’t nibble around the plate, and pitch to contact. If he does those three things he will have an opportunity to go deep into the game and give the Rangers a chance to win. On offense the Rangers have to survive the loss of Shin Shoo Choo. They still have to be patient at the plate and not be swinging at everything. Once again getting timely hits will be important. In order to beat the A’s the Rangers have to do the small things. They must get runners on, move them over, and drive them in. The A’s really require  teams to be fundamentally sound. That is how they beat teams is by forcing them to make mistakes they normally would not make. Game once again is at 9:05 tonight.

 

Rangers Homestand Recap and Road Trip Preview

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  The Rangers just concluded a very succesful 10 game homestand. They went 7-3 in the homestand and won all three series. They took 2 of 3 from the Houston Astros, 3 of 4 from the Seattle Mariners, and 2 … Continue reading →

Game 7 Recap

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The Rangers first road trip of the season moved on up the East Coast to Boston. The defending World Champion Red Sox welcomed the Rangers to Fenway Park on a beautiful night for baseball. Tanner Scheppers got his second start … Continue reading →

Game 3 Recap

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  Another day and another walk-off win for the Rangers. This one probably more incredible than the night before. Instead of a 2-run comeback this was a comeback from 3 runs down in the late innings. This game also showed … Continue reading →

6 Things We Have Learned This Spring

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With the Rangers moving on from Arizona in a couple of days and the season starting in less than a week I am going to start a series that looks back at camp and then looks forward to the season. … Continue reading →