Martin Perez

A Tale of Two Teams

There have been two Texas Ranger teams this season. One that absolutely demolishes the competition and one that plays like a cellar dweller. That team leave many runners in scoring position and it’s pitching staff can’t hold a lead. A lot like the Rangers of the 70’s and 80’s. The bad version of the Rangers was around mostly in July. I think had the good Rangers been around more in July, the bad Rangers who are here for the home stretch wouldn’t be that big of a deal because we would have a pretty large lead.

So now, which team will show up in Oakland? They both were at the ballpark yesterday. Bad Rangers in game one, good Rangers in game two. It’s not like the bad Rangers can only lose. All teams can be lucky and scrape by. Or play a team that is worse than they are. That will not be the case in Oakland. The good Rangers need to play all three games. Not just to win the division, but to have home field through the playoffs.

But first the matter of starting pitching. Tonight Martin Perez will be on the hill for Texas. He has pitched fairly well, but you can tell he isn’t ready yet. This is a trial by fire that I am sure neither he, not the Ranger brass, wanted him to have. The A’s have been not only the good A’s, but the great A’s since July. They went from the worst hitting team in baseball, to one of the best. The only difference between the other times we played them in the last month and a half and now, is that Mike Napoli appears to have finally shown up. Michael Young and Adrian Beltre left the nightcap last night with injuries. Not sure if they play tonight or not.  I won’t even talk about Josh Hamilton, who has gone missing again.

Don’t misunderstand. While the Rangers clinched at least a playoff spot, this three game set with the A’s is the first round for us. We have to win two of three.

Rangers Win, So Do A’s

The Rangers handled the hapless Cleveland Indians last night and while some of us were hoping for a back and forth series between the A’s and Angels is turning out to be all A’s. I looked in on that game once, early, and the Angels were up 2-1. That didn’t last as the A’s put more runs on the board and hung on to win 6-5. We looked genuinely happy to be home early on last night and then it looked like we got bored. Adrian Beltre hit a towering ball to left that eventually became his 31st homer. They had to go to the replay to call it but it put the Rangers up 5-1 in the eventual 6-4 win. Matt Harrison, on extra rest, got his 16th win. He was really sharp until the 4th and left with two out in the sixth after throwing 87 pitches. At first I thought something might have been wrong or they had him on a lower pitch count, but after the game Matt said he started pitching to contact and left a few over the plate.  Not what we would expect from a Game One starter.

Tonight we get Ryan Dempster and he has been pitching very well of late.  The other solid candidate for Game One. We find out Roy Oswalt’s most recent troubles against Tampa Bay on Sunday was because of a forearm strain. He’ll not throw for three days and then they will evaluate. I am wondering if his post-season spot is in jeopardy pending how Martin Perez pitches the rest of the way.

One funny thing, from the I love this team file, Joe Nathan, a huge New York Giants fan lost a bet to Mike Adams, a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. The result? Nathan had to dress like Tony Romo for batting practice. I didn’t have the sound up last night and wondered why Romo would be there in full dress for a Rangers game. Turns out it was Joe. Mike also won a bet with Jon Daniels, who will have to wear a cowboy hat for a future meeting with the press. I love this team.

Romo look-a-like Joe Nathan before last night’s game.

Game 131 a Win But Yet Not

Those pesky A’s. They just won’t go away. Aided by a very weak schedule (although who thought the Red Sox would be this weak), their usual good pitching and suddenly off the hook hitting, we just can’t shake them. So while we took the game last night 5-3, the A’s were right there. Who knew they would be the ones neck and neck with us at the end. Thirty one games to go and we still have a handful of games left with these very A’s. That’s why it is important for us to stay on the Tribe as they try to snap out of a month-long funk.

Ryan Dempster was good again last night and now deserving of consideration for Game One starter status. Harrison and Darvish still lead him, but if he remains the consistent one, he has to be in the running. No dramatic stuff with the offense (outside of Adrian Beltre being RIDICULOUS right now), but just got the job done off of a pitcher who owned us in his previous match up with us.

Speaking of consistent, Scott Feldman has been anything but lately. After rattling off several very good starts, he has inspired a big “meh” from me. We’ll see tonight. I know he doesn’t want to be the one to allow the Indians to snap their current six game losing streak.

The biggest news were our Sept. 1 roster moves last night. It looks like our new utility man will be #1 prospect Jurickson Profar. While I am sure it has happened before (but I don’t remember it), Profar became a bench player the last week in Frisco to kind of get ready for being used sporadically. After a not so hot start, he hit .296 the rest of the way there and had a streak of fifty straight games getting on. That’s what he brings to the table. While he won’t dazzle you Mike Trout style, he gets on base so the rest of the guys can do their thing. He is now the youngest player in the Bigs. I do think, with a handful of at-bats and his good eye, he could surpass Elvis Andrus in homers for the season in the last month. It might put the finishing touch on Andrus time in Arlington.

The Rangers also added Martin Perez, Yoshi Tateyama, outfielder Leonys Martin and utility player Brandon Snyder from Round Rock. They’ve all been here. They join Mike Olt and show the rest of the majors how strong our organization is.

 

Did We Turn a Corner?

If we go into the post-season in a good place, you have to wonder if we look back on last night as the turning point. The Dallas Morning News Kevin Sherington, holding court in a chat room this week, said that the Rangers needed their swagger back and that they way to get it was to be more aggressive at the plate. He thinks (and I concur) that the Rangers were getting a couple of guys on and then waiting on a three-run homer. Last night was not like that. Every at-bat seemed to be about working the pitcher and getting on. In other words, fighting. Somewhere in the middle of the game last night the Rangers did just that. They took what the pitcher gave them. But they also continually worked themselves into favorable counts. Just like they did in April and May. It was only the second time in their history that the Rangers came back from a three-run deficit in extra innings to win a game. The other time? In 1975 against the Tigers. The man providing the winning hit was in the booth last night. Tom Grieve.

Elvis Andrus, who has been the most consistent hitter in this Rangers lineup, provided the winning hit. After getting a head in the count 3-0, he took two straight strikes and based on recent history, you could just see it not happening. But Elvis turned on a fastball and fired a shot down the third base line leaving no question that the tying and winning runs were coming home. But one of the other key hits of the night belonged to Nelson Cruz. He hit one of the longest homers I have seen at the Ballpark. It cleared the bullpen and landed on the walkway above. Like every other team, Ernesto Frieri seemingly owned the Rangers. It was so unfathomable to Mike Scioscia that he would fail, he sent Frieri back out for the 10th inning. Cruz took him deep. It shows that while Joe Nathan has been unreliable of late (including last night), maybe Angels GM Jerry DiPoto shouldn’t have stopped at Greinke. They’re bullpen has been one of the few things wrong with their team the last month and a half.

A couple of other notes from last night. I Tweeted that because Darvish is pretty strong in the first two innings, maybe we should consider moving him to the bullpen and putting Alexi Ogando in the rotation. I am pretty sure we are holding Ogando in the bullpen to possibly replace Scott Feldman, but maybe starter #5 could be Martin Perez. We have watched Darvish take nothing but steps backwards since June. Seemingly over-matched by MLB hitters. Josh Hamilton failed last night back in the #3 spot in the batting order. Maybe some more time in the five-spot would do the trick, but he looked like the struggling Josh as opposed to the getting back on track Josh from the previous two nights. The other thing of note is the call-up of Mike Olt. Everyone is guessing that he will take playing time from Michael Young. It’s a good guess.

Think We Can Split?

No I don’t mean bail. I mean split this series.  Here’s the box tonight. I would say it shouldn’t count because Weaver pitched, but we killed him in Arlington last time. And the numbers for Weaver aren’t his normal at the BPIA. Tonight was really like so many other games in July. Only problem being, we didn’t have as many guys to strand in scoring position. There are good signs here and bad signs. Ian Kinsler is in a slump. Look at the number of pitches he saw tonight.  As a leadoff hitter he should see way more than that and with his on base percentage he usually does. Not tonight. Elvis is in a slump, not even hitting .200 for the last week. But, Elvis is still up there battling. Beltre. Really? Nine pitches? Nellie is on the verge of busting out. We have seen it this week. So close. Josh got another hit tonight. Last night he was going the opposite way ON PURPOSE. He’s figuring some stuff out. Still could have worked it a little more, but no K’s. Where do you start with Michael Young? He had two hits tonight. A good sign. He saw 19 pitches at the plate, but that is still less than four per at bat. And he still hasn’t walked since 1985. Napoli got a walk. He’s shown some signs, but a lot of them have come against the Angels. He still has an axe to grind. Mitch appears to be pressing a bit. Making up for lost time and trying to get more playing time. And Murph is heating up again. I know it’s hard on platooned players who want to play everyday to not press. He’s been up and down all year, like normal, but it appears he is ready to make it happen. We didn’t get it done and lost 6-2.

All in all, we do look a little more confident at the plate.

Rangers AB R H RBI BB SO       #P       AVG
I Kinsler 2B 4 0 0 0 0 1 12 0.27
E Andrus SS 4 0 0 0 0 0 20 0.286
A Beltre 3B 4 0 0 0 0 0 9 0.311
N Cruz RF 4 0 0 0 0 3 17 0.261
J Hamilton CF 4 1 1 0 0 0 10 0.287
M Young DH 4 1 2 0 0 1 19 0.269
D Murphy LF 3 0 1 2 0 0 11 0.293
M Napoli C 2 0 0 0 1 0 17 0.226
M Moreland 1B 3 0 1 0 0 0 10 0.273
Totals 32 2 5 2 1 5 125

 

On the other side of things,  Derek Holland was either outstanding or awful. He’s leaving the ball up to much. Missing his spots. And worst of all, he left the ball up to dangerous hitters. From now till the end of the season, he just can’t do that. Especially the leaving the ball up. Four walks? No bueno. Scheppers, Ogando and Perez finished it out and were “efficient”.  I am still pretty certain Martin Perez is hanging around for a spot in the rotation instead of moving Ogando there. Again, it depends on Feldman. If we get Oswalt some longer outings perhaps he can work things out. I know he doesn’t want to be in the bullpen. And we paid a lot of money for him to NOT be in the bullpen.

Tomorrow Yu Darvish is on the hill and it would be nice to see him figure things out. I wonder if they will put him with Soto. Some new input from behind the plate may help him out. Thursday night we get our first look at who ESPN calls “Mr. Dependable”.  I just hope he isn’t the only one.

The best news? The next game WON’T be in July.

Experiment Fails as Same Old Song Plays

I don’t know how the batting order effected us tonight. It was lost in the problem we have had for over two months. Squandering scoring opportunities. The only real good news from the nigh was Mike Napoli continuing to show signs of life at the plate. As Jeff Wilson from the Star Telegram points out, the Rangers are the second worst in all of baseball this month, in batting average with runners in scoring position. Only the lowly Astros are worse. Maybe worse than the offensive outcome was Matt Harrison not looking anything like he has the last six weeks.  It’s like every facet of our game is leaving us. I know there a lot of bloggers/writers who are saying we won’t need to be concerned until October but if we continue down this road, there will be no October. And heaven help us if we face the White Sox in the playoffs. They appear to have our number.

On the trade front, more deafening silence. Again, that is typical of this front office and you can not read anything into it. Matt Mosely, now working for ESPN pointed out tonight, since the Brewers like Martin Perez and Justin Grimm, perhaps we can use those two guys to start up a talk about Corey Hart and Yovani Gallardo. And I started thinking, why not talk to teams about guys not on the block. I don’t know that we aren’t. Why not, as we pointed out a few posts ago, Cliff Lee and Hunter Pence? Help the bullpen out with Glenn Perkins and Josh Willingham from the Twins. Except they are on the block and the cost is supposedly high. But two guys from one team, under team control for at least two more years and we could discuss Mike Olt being in the package. I am sure we would have to. Matt Garza and Alfonso Soriano. Ian Kennedy and Justin Upton. Felix Hernandez and Chone Figgins. Something to justify giving up multiple minor leaguers.

Something to shake things up is needed. We have been going on, really, almost three months in this funk. The Angels and A’s are not only catching us, but they seem to have much more fire than we do.

Ranger Bats Start Break Early

I mean that is the only way to figure. It also continues to get worse for Mike Napoli. He is turning into a one man rally killer. Yes we have a lead. Yes we HAD the best record in baseball. But it’s like 50 wins was a curse number. We got there Saturday and haven’t won since.  The whole team just looks out of it. If we could just have one or two guys heat up it would be an improvement.

The look on Martin Perez’s face tonight when Josh Hamilton dropped that fly ball was “am I back in Round Rock?”

Maybe another team meeting is in the offing. Or maybe the break is what the doctor ordered. We need win #51 before we get there though. I just read Derek Holland is returning tomorrow night, so we’ll see. Let’s go Dutch.

In the meantime….the Angels have closed to within four games.

Five Straight- Fastest to 50 Wins

You know, sometimes you just get too close to something. You lose perspective. If anyone picked up a newspaper to check the baseball standings, they would see a Ranger team in first place in the AL West by 6.5 games. 22 Games over .500, winners of five in a row. They would think, “man, that team is really good”. Make no doubts. We are. But we are banged up and top to bottom almost everyone in the batting order can’t string together three good games. I said it the other day. What happens when we get healthy and guys like Napoli and Hamilton start hitting the ball?

Today was a great game. We took our seventh series in a row. We started the year winning our first six. This is a different ball club than the one in April. But they bang it out every night. Martin Perez was effective in his first start and Josh Hamilton drove in four as the Rangers beat the A’s 7-2. Even more outstanding was the fact that Wash didn’t have to use Mike Adams or Joe Nathan today. Now they have two days rest. Tomorrow it’s back to work to see if we can finish the A’s (and get THAT monkey off our backs finally), with Yu Darvish going for win number eleven. Darvish has already said he doesn’t think he is an All Star and I like that. I don’t want him to over analyze his performance to date, but his scrutiny is great.

After that, we have one of those odd ball road trips. Three in Chicago, then back home before the break. At least we stay in the same time zone.

A Rare Occurance

After Scott Feldman turned in the typical Scott Feldman performance, I was shocked to realize he picked up the win last night. It was another struggle against an Athletics team that continues to give us fits. I can only hope that if Derek Holland is delayed at all on his trip back to re-join the Rangers, the rotation will include Grimm and Perez and Feldman will go back to the pen. Here’s the trouble with Scott. We more than likely can’t move him. He will be a free agent at the end of the year and he is hardly of rental caliber. Even teams who are pitching poor would have a hard time moving ANYONE to the Rangers. Well enough of that.

Ian Kinsler continues to look dialed in at that plate. We missed you Kins. Josh? Well I have to say last night he had a crucial run producing single and even while his success was still limited, he looked like he had a bit more of a clue at the plate. That’s not me saying he didn’t have a clue before, it was Hamilton himself. I figure the rest of these games with the A’s will be more of the same. A struggle. But if we take 3 of 4 from them, after our earlier problems winning against them, it will be a major victory.

Tonight Matthew Harrison will take the mound after a brief injury scare during his last start. He has been efficient and a hard worker, pretty much his trademark the last two seasons. There was a question on the DMN message board the other day. Who is our ace? I would say it is between Matt and Yu Darvish. But you can’t count Colby out after we learned his struggles were injury related. They are grinders. No flash, they just get it done. OK, well Yu still has flashes. We face newcomer A.J. Griffin who was very good in his first start. But, he was facing the lightweight Giants, so we’ll see. Young, Kinsler and Andrus are having good at bats, Nellie looks close and Josh may have turned a corner last night. As I have said before, if we get everyone, or almost everyone back on it, this will be a frightening team. I’m ready.