Beltre Walks Off A’s

Oh don’t kid yourself. The obvious headline on this one was because I didn’t want to tempt the baseball gods. If it weren’t for the Rangers “new” leader, Adrian Beltre, we’d be looking at a three game lead and I wouldn’t be sure if I could even watch tonight. Our guys are family. Ron Washington makes it so and “Dad” sent a message not only to Derek Holland last night, but to the rest of the team. It’s on. At least that is what I got when he pulled Derek early. Our bullpen got the job done after that while Beltre went to work with a two-run homer to tie it and the single up the middle to score Craig Gentry and end the night’s drama. Magic number- 5. The magic number has been something I have wanted no part of until last night. We have no easy road to the last game of the season. But if the guys are all on the same page, they surely know that a sweep means it’s over. After 38 years of Ranger baseball, where the end of the season meant seeing the youngsters play some games, I have learned a true pennant chase is not for the meek of heart.

Yikes.

Tonight we get Tommy Milone who, until September, had been a good pitcher. Let’s keep him on the ropes for this month. We send out Yu Darvish who has been on a good roll. Because we used our pen so much last night, maybe Yu can go eight innings.

Derek Great, Offense Not So Much

The good news? Derek Holland was incredible last night. He only surrendered two hits through seven innings. Problem was, one of them was a homer. The Rays, who suddenly find themselves in the offensive hole they were in much of the first third of the season, finally won the game on a walk-off job in the 11th inning. While the Rays offense has been problematic this season, their pitching staff is not a problem. That is to say, not a problem for them. They were a big problem for us. Except for a Michael Young home run, we just couldn’t get anything going last night. I just keep thinking about what Wash said on Jim Bowden’s show not that long ago. Fatigue is a state of mind. The only problem is, we looked physically tired last night. The season is long. But it’s long for everyone.

The Angels and A’s both won so the pressure is back on. Again, we control our own destiny with 24 games to play. Matt Harrison will get some extra rest, with Roy Oswalt taking his place. That’s tomorrow. Today, the un-invented (as opposed to his constant reinvention) Yu Darvish will take the hill for the Rangers. We will try to get the offense back on track against Chris Archer. Not a lot of numbers for Archer. He still has that new pitcher smell. Today would be a good day to show him the ropes.

I Couldn’t Watch

I will admit, after the last Angels  last little losing streak and my refusal to take the A’s for real I was feeling pretty comfy. The good news after the Rangers 6-3 loss last night, the Angels took game two of their series with the A’s. Who knows? In the bigger picture maybe the Angels are giving the A’s their last reality check. I doubt it though.

Since the Royals landed Jeremy Guthrie, he has been very good. Such was the case again last night as he shut down out hitters for seven innings. Matt Harrison has hit another rough patch. So now it appears our hottest pitchers are Dempster and Darvish. We went through quite the rough patch with hitting the baseball but really haven’t had a collective rough patch throwing it. Speaking of Ryan Dempster, he’s on the mound for the Rangers tonight. Twenty seven games to go. Three more with the Royals, then off to Tampa. Tick tock, tick tock.

By the way…..he was out.

Yu Flirts with Perfection

Through 5 2/3rds, Yu Darvish had a perfect game. Then the wheels came off. Not too badly though. He recovered and got out of the inning. I don’t know if it will be this season, but he will have a noteworthy start (not going to say those words).  The real story came in the ninth inning. Nelson Cruz took one on his tucas and decided to take a few steps toward the mound. The benches emptied but nothing came of it. The Royals say it wasn’t on purpose, Nellie insists it was. I will say he lingered a bit on his home run trot and had a bit of a demonstrative crossing of the plate. I seriously doubt it was retaliation worthy. But that’s not even the cool part.

The cool part was when Michael Young hit a two run bomb with Cruz on first. End of story. Or is it? I honestly can’t wait until these to square off again tomorrow evening. Matt Harrison will be going for us and we’ll see if he decides to extract a little revenge. The bottom line is, I love our team. I love the fact that we “don’t play that” and a team that is already tight, is just getting tighter.

The Angels took care of the A’s and snuffed out their nine game winning streak. That puts us back up by four. The Angels are 8 1/2 back. We have plenty of games left with each of those teams with 29 to play. We have the best record in the AL and our post-season destiny sits squarely in our own hands.

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.

 

I Hate Off Days Pt. 27

In the old days, I cherished off-days this time of year. It was a break from being reminded daily how bad the Rangers were and or how far out of the race we were. I could catch up on the Cowboys upcoming season too. Instead, today, I am watching the scoreboard as the A’s once again beat up on the Indians, knowing they will close to within four games. Everybody keeps discounting these guys but they won’t go away. At least we cruise into Cleveland to hopefully also beat up on the Tribe.  I just hope the guys don’t think like that.

Last night’s game was almost over before it started.  It was very uncharacteristic for Matt Harrison and while I never count us out from any deficit, I think we were all just a little freaked out. Was it enough of a meltdown to give Yu Darvish the edge in the Game One starter contest? I am reserving judgement until Harry’s next start. Wash has confirmed that Yu has chucked the tinkering and is just going to do battle with each hitter. That is great news.

While this home stand was hugely successful and Adrian Beltre won accolades for being very good, the unsung hero award goes to Mitch Moreland. He had another homer last night but more importantly he continues to get better on defense. If you go back to the early posts and even up to July, while Moreland was on the DL, I was hoping that Mike Olt would play more first or even look for some help elsewhere. I am taking it back now. Not that I don’t want Olt to get more AB’s (I do), but Mitch is turning into a formidable first baseman and maybe, if this continues, we think about extending him. He is also part of this team and the family that resides in the dugout. A winning combo for sure.

Tomorrow we run Ryan Dempster back out there. He’s getting stronger, based on his last three starts. Ubaldo Jimenez throws for Cleveland. And throw he does. Hasn’t been much of a pitcher in the month of August and has gone the way of the rest of the Indians. Over-confidence is our enemy and I expect the guys to have their eye on the prize. Less off days and more October.

Yu, Bullpen Complete Masterpiece

You gotta love our pitching right now. Great outings are no longer the exception and the bullpen is slamming the door shut. Reading my usual Ranger stuff this week, I noticed a story that Ron Washington had a talk with Yu Darvish about his constant need to tinker. He asked him to consider going back and just doing what he does best. If that is what Yu did last night, I agree. Leave it alone. Now the race for Game One starter has two. Yu Darvish and Matt Harrison. Let’s add another. Soon.

Not much on the offensive side last night as James Shields appeared to be in “get even” mode for losing to the Rangers so many times in the playoffs. Just a Kins homer did the job.

We close it out with the Rays today with their new-ish starter Alex Cobb. He’s been good in August (as have most of the Rays) but has struggled on the road. He faces Matt Harrison. After the Darvish start last night, it’s your move Matthew.

On the waiver wire front, nothing noteworthy on Roy Oswalt clearing waivers and it doesn’t appear right now that we are window shopping either, even though the team’s name has come up in many Tweets and rumor mill stories. We await Sept. 1 call-ups and see if Jurickson Profar gets to play in Arlington.

Road Trip Woes Continue

Nothing says “trying too hard” like twelve strikeouts against inferior pitching. That’s right, it’s no secret that the Blue Jays are known for hitting, not pitching. I don’t know what the problem is. One of the reasons I quit tagging my recaps with a tease of the opposing pitcher is because a: I am superstitious and b: because I quit trying to analyze the upcoming pitcher because when they are not going well, they always seem to dominate us. Such was the case with the hapless J.A. Happ. He struck out every Ranger but Josh Hamilton. We’re just back in a bad place offensively again. Tonight it wasn’t about leaving runners in scoring position. It was about not getting them there. We’re now 1-4 on this current trip and are slowly removing ourselves from the home field advantage conversation. After our recent trip to New York, I don’t even want to think about that.

It was a shame really. One day after his twenty-sixth birthday, Yu Darvish looked as sharp as he has in months. This Toronto team is no pretender when it comes to hitting a baseball and except for one mistake to Edwin Encarnacion, Darvish was on it tonight. I know, I know, everybody says we’re tired. Guess what? So is every other team in baseball. It’s August. Get over it.

Nothing else really noteworthy tonight except for maybe the second hardest hit ball of the night. It was off the bat of Mike Olt and please keep him sequestered from the other players so this funk doesn’t rub off on him.

Some roster moves today. Ryan Dempster is out this weekend sue to “personal reasons” (lord don’t let that be something weird). Roy Oswalt will take his spot and the team called up the suddenly red-hot Leonys Martin. He only hit .189 in limited play for us when he was here before, but he was on fire for the Express. Granted it was in offensive friendly stadiums, but his performance was really more about pure hitting than home runs. I say play him early and often for now.

I hope Wash reminds them of what he said on the air the other day. Fatigue is a state of mind.

Rangers Give Yankees Back Their Broom

It became obvious after the Yankees pulled ahead of the Rangers in the sixth inning, that they were just not going to allow themselves to be swept by the Yankees. One unlikely hero in the game was Craig Gentry. Gentry had a key two-run single in the seventh to help secure a Ranger victory. Mike Olt played in right field, even though he had only played a few innings in right during his stay in Frisco. He looked ok until the sixth and made a horrible error that set up the Yankees fifth run. I felt bad for him. He had made a play earlier and looked pretty comfortable but also went to cut of a ball, that clearly was Gentry’s. Plus he had to deal with the Yankee Stadium right field idiots. Growing pains I get, but don’t try to crush his spirit. He’s a keeper.

It was great today to see us fired up enough that it didn’t matter who the Yankees ran out to the mound. We made them all pay. That attitude sure would be nice to carry into Toronto. A place we have had more success than Yankee stadium, but still appears to not be a place we like to play.

Derek Holland pitched five good innings. He did fall behind a lot of hitters. A ton of 3-1 and 3-2 counts. While six of the Yankee runs were his, there was the Olt miscue plus Gentry not hitting his cutoff man on another play that cost Derek two runs. He still has issues though.  I still get a bit of a feeling that he isn’t as “serious” as he needs to be. I know they need to have some fun too, but Derek really needs to buckle down always, until his dominance (like his last start) is second nature.

The first of three in Toronto tomorrow evening. Yu Darvish celebrated his 26th birthday today and could give us all a nice present tomorrow with a good outing.  Wash, during his MLB radio visit yesterday covered everything I have here as to what kind of adjustments he is having to make. But he added one I hadn’t really thought about. Darvish is basically carrying the weight of all of Japan’s expectations of him. He not just a sports start over there. He is a genuine celebrity. Because he was so amazing on the mound in Japan, his countrymen expect him to be as dominant here. I totally agree with Was on that one.

One last thought on the Olt thing. I do appreciate Wash trying something different to get him in the lineup. He had a double and hit a couple of other balls very hard today. But I think we are just putt ting off the inevitable. Olt taking Michael Young’s spot. I do not envy Ron Washington in trying to make that work.

Rangers Win, Increase Lead

This is when I need to tap the breaks as a fan. Because the Angels and A’s both lost today, we now lead the A’s by 6.5 games and the Angels by 8. Significant for the Angels because they ran Jered Weaver out to face the Mariners and they snapped his personal 13 game win streak.  So now even the most dependable Angel is had an issue or two. The question I have asked my Angel fan friends is whether they think Mike Scoscia is gone IF the Angels miss the playoffs. I mean Arte Moreno spent a ton of money in the off-season and by all accounts they seemed as much a lock for the playoffs and most picked them to end the Rangers reign atop the AL West. I know, it’s not over yet.

As far as our game went, Yu Darvish had some success today. He still had problems, but was a better pitcher than he has been his last several outings. Darvish relied on his breaking ball a lot today and the problem with it is it is just too wicked. He has to learn how to control that better. He walked five but one was intentional. He struck out six. It was a quality start, only the second in his last six tries. If he figures it out and Derek Holland found himself again last night we could finish the year strong. Because our hitting is starting to come around. Robbie Ross got back on track with a key out in the 7th inning.

Josh Hamilton has two settings this season. On and off. He is back on again and had his 32nd homer and four RBI’s. Two of our runs were gifts from the Tigers on wild pitches. Honestly probable one was an outright gift. the other was vintage Elvis Andrus not slowing down on his way to third as the ball got to the backstop. Andrus is quietly having a career year and Ian Kinsler should start working on which outfield position he would like to play if Profar makes it up next year.

Off to New York to face the other “best” AL team. If Ryan Dempster wanted the opportunity to play a role in important games, tomorrow night will be his first opportunity.