I give you (the link for) the audio of Nolan Ryan explaining at a Ticket event why he was, at one point in time, the snow monkey ambassador for the state of Texas (I'm not joking).
Read more...Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Josh was 0-4 with 4 strike outs. Oz got beat up for 5 ER's on 13 hits in 6 IP.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Oz did get the win though since the Rangers offense (without any help from Josh) put 13 runs on the board. Again, with all the pitching injuries the Rangers have strung together 6 series wins. David "Charlie" Murphy went 4-5, going yard twice along with 2 singles, scoring 3 times, and 5 RBI's-very nice.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Your Texas Rangers have, for the season, a run differential of +91 against their opponents. The team with the next best run differential is the Spankees, with a +62. Even with that going for them and the 6 straight series wins, the pesky Halos are still hanging around 4.5 games back of the Rangers, making all those games (13) against them after the All Star break loom even larger.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Oz didn't throw a no hitter or complete game shutout.
On a serious note, Dave Barnett is still not in the booth. Sending good vibes his direction, hope the testing he's undergoing reveals all is OK.
Josh struck out 3 times and according to Busby (subbing in for Barnett) Josh hasn't hit a homer in fourteen days. For most that's not a big deal but, with the clip at which Josh was hitting them at the beginning of the season, it is a drought for Josh. And Gentry tweaked his ankle legging out an attempt at a bunt single.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Oz was great, especially for his first start. Win streak at 7.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: I'm going to say what maybe no one else will say or thinks. I think Busby is great on the TV broadcast. Does that mean I'd like him to stay on the TV broadcast even when Barnett is (hopefully) ready to resume his duties as the TV play by play guy? No, absolutely not. But, I wouldn't mind seeing a booth of Barnett as play by play and Busby riding shotgun. I know Tom "TAG" Grieve is, I guess, Mr. Ranger but, listening to the games recently TAG seems to offer very little compared to the knowledge that Busby drops in between nearly every pitch. TAG talking about the food the booth receives from fans might have been endearing when the Rangers were basement dwellers but now how about a little more baseball talk during the game. Just a thought.
Since that's likely not to happen since TAG is Mr. Ranger and Busby didn't play ball for the Rangers and isn't a former Rangers GM like TAG...
Alternatively, I'm thinking about pulling an old trick I know others have when watching the Cowboys so they could hear Brad Sham on the radio: I'll turn down the sound on the TV and put on the radio when Busby goes back to the radio booth.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Again, big deal, it's not like the Padres are very good. And Moreland pulled a hamstring legging one out during the series.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: They still had to play the games and take care of business, which they did.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Apparently the NL West teams the Rangers had to play aren't, for the most part, very good. Even with the Rangers putting together back to back series sweeps, the pesky Halos are keeping pace and hanging around at 5 games back.
And Oswalt makes his season and Texas Rangers debut tomorrow having sat out almost half the season. Let's see how that goes, fingers crossed.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Much like sweeping the 'Stros, big deal, the Padres are in last place in their division.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Scooter Feldman got his first win, alert the media! Josh is back. And again, like sweeping the 'Stros, they beat a basement dweller like a drum like they're supposed to, so good.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The word of the day today is perspective, from the Oxford Dictionaries meaning: a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something. In this context everyone needs to keep the Rangers' season to date in perspective. Yes, they've had weird lapses in offense. Yes, they've suffered some injuries, particularly to the pitching staff (Holland, Ogando, Feliz). Yes, it's a long season and we're just in June. But, your Texas Rangers have the biggest lead of any division leader in all of MLB going into tonight's ballgame. Not too shabby.
All that being said/written...
If I counted correctly the Rangers play the Halos 13 more times before the end of the season and all those games are after the Allstar break. I would bet the Halos have those dates circled on their calendars.
After the below weird/scary(/distrubing?) ramblings from Texas Rangers' play-by-play announcer Dave Barnett it's being reported that he's going to undergo some testing and will be out the next few games.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Everyone calm down about a sweep, the 'Stros are 11.5 out it in the NL Central, ahead of only the hopeless Cubbies. And Josh is still out with that stomach bug.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Rangers sweep Houston, like they should have.
And if there was any question, Cobra Lewis is the ace of the staff. Yeah, Yu's been great but, Cobra is mowing down hitters, and hardly walking anyone.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: When is Mitch Moreland going to get a chance to be the every day first baseman?
I'm thinking I'm done with inter-league play. It's been nice but, I'd rather have more divisional games. Of course there's no way MLB will do away with a cash-cow like inter-league play. Of course I'm assuming it's a cash-cow, I wonder if inter-league games really drive up gate receipts anymore...
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Scooter Feldman just cannot seem to put together a good game much less a good inning this year. He's 0-6 with and ERA north of 6. When the Rangers could really use a spot starter to come through, Scooter just hasn't delivered.
And Josh is in the hospital with an intestinal virus (that sound unpleasant to say the least) getting fluids through an IV. Same thing that put Doogie Holland on the DL? Don't know.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Still up 3 games on the Halos even though the pitching and offense has been inconsistent.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The thing about Scooter's performance that really hurts is two-fold: (1) on the one side Scooter could have played himself into the rotation (at least for a while) especially with Ogando, Feliz and Holland out and Oswalt not ready yet but, his play has made that all but impossible; (2) and if Scooter had played well and when Feliz, Holland, Ogando and Oswalt are ready to pitch, Scooter would have been great trade bait to offer a team near the trade deadline. Oh well.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Errors. Way too many errors. And way to many runners left on base, which is very unusual to date for this incarnation of the Rangers.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Matt Harrison looked great through 4 innings (perfect I think) and they hung on to win the last game of the series.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: After all of that your Rangers are still up 4.5 on the second place Halos. Now the dog days of summer are about to begin. The Rangers will play in games during the day in the mid to high 90's and the low 90's to at best the high 80's at night. But, our Rangers are used to that kinda heat right? What about the new guys like Nathan and Yu? We'll see.
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