Rangers Swept the 'Stros, Next Up Oakland

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Pierzynski is still on the DL of course.  Murph is still struggling at the plate hitting just .200, and there seems to be a lot of Rangers batting between .240-.275.  Also, other teams seem to be figuring out Tepesch and Grimm.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers did sweep Houston.  Their lead in the division is up to 6.  And David, "Charlie" Murphy's average is at least inching upward, as are most of the players' averages.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: So let's see if the Rangers can put some more distance between them and the A's in these next 3 games in CA.

Read more...

Rangers Get a Day Off

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: AJ Pierzynski is going on or has already been placed on the 15 day DL.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Colby Lewis is set to make a rehab start for one of the minor league teams.  And the Rangers get to go play the Astros next.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The offense is still not clicking but they have the biggest lead in the division they've had all year.

Read more...

Rangers Sweep East Division Leading Red Sox

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Holland, Ogando and Darvish and the bullpen were great and kept the mighty Boston offense in check.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Murphy continued to struggle at the plate.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Hopefully Murph will start to turn it around.

And looking way ahead, the Rangers finally play the A's next week.

Read more...

Rangers Lose First Series of Year to White Sox

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud:  The Rangers lost 2 out of 3 to the White Sox.  The Rangers' offense only managed 3 runs in the 2 losses.  The Rangers aren't going win too many games when they score 1 or 2 runs per game, no team is.  Base running continued to be a problem for the Rangers.  Wash admitted that he left Tepesch in too long in the 2nd game of the series.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Up to that point in the second game of the series though Tepesch again looked good.  And in the the first game of the series the Rangers offense went off for 10 runs.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The Rangers lead in the division is now only 1.5 games over the A's.

Next up the Red Sox and Napoli, who is tearing it up for his new team.

Read more...

How Many Ballgames Is Your Team Going To Win When They Score Zero Runs?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Not any, including today's game versus the Twins.  The offense continued to struggle.

Moreland wasted a base hit in the 3rd when he took WAY to big of turn around 1B, got caught in no man's land and was thrown out retreating to 1B.  This was the latest example of the Rangers looking clueless on the base pads in this series in particular and generally this season.

That's the first time this year the Rangers lost 2 in a row.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: That's the first time this year the Rangers lost 2 in a row, which is quite an accomplishment since we're almost in May. Ogando looked good early (just like Holland did yesterday).

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Even losing the last 2 games in MN, the Rangers split the series with the Twins.  And the Rangers have yet to lose a series this year.

You have to wonder if the pitching staff is looking at the position players and wondering if they're going to get any type of consistent run support.

Read more...

Rangers' Offense Takes a Step Backwards

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: 2 runs in the top 9 is all the Rangers' offense could manage in a 7-2 loss.  And Moreland continues to struggle at the plate so it doesn't help when he commits an error at first.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Holland was great early.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The lineup Wash put out there was weird.  Gentry was batting second.  Look, I like Gentry but he's not having a great go of it so far like he did last year.  Yeah, rest players like Elvis just maybe put someone else in the 2 slot?

Read more...

That Got Interesting Towards the End Versus the Twins...

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: ...since Ortiz looked shaky in the 9th and then Joe Nathan gave up a 3 run homer.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: But the Rangers hung in and won 4-3 behind a great start by Grimm.  And all the starters except Gentry had at least 1 hit.  An insurance run that Kins drove in in the top of 9 really came in handy.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: They are still your first place Texas Rangers.  And they also have the best record in all MLB.  And they're doing it with pitching.  Who would have thunk it?

Read more...

Rangers Offense Bad But Win 2-1

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Again, the Rangers' offense is bad.  2 runs with lots of opportunities.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Tepesch was great.  Through 6 IP he had a 2 hitter going!

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: With the Rangers only managing 2 runs, Rookie Nick Tepecsh was pitching a 2 HITTER WITH NO WALKS after 6 IP and I swear Tom A. Greive (TAG, our local announcer) said something close to the following, "....for the most part he's been in pretty good control of the game."  For the most part!?!?!  How about dominating?  What game was TAG watching?  Why doesn't TAG stick to what he's good at and eat more cookies or announce more birthdays?

End of the day we have the old guys from the Muppets in the balcony announcing the games for us.  Enjoy.

And yeah, I could do better.

Read more...

Rangers Pound Halos Like a Drum 11-3

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers' bats beat up on a young guy making his first MLB start so let's not assume the offense has turned the corner just quite yet.

And Moreland took a step backward against lefties, and generally at the plate as the only Ranger without a hit.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Pretty much almost every Ranger contributed at the plate, especially in the 4th inning when they put up a huge crooked number.

And Yu Darvish was, one again, amazing giving up only 3 hits in 6 IP, and had 11 K's against only 2 BB's.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: I know it's early in the season but the Rangers still have not lost a series.  They did split a 4 game series versus the Mermen and split their 2 games versus the Cubbies (the middle game was rained out and will be made up).  Not too shabby with the offense still not quite out of its early season funk.

Read more...

Rangers Lose in 11 Versus Halos

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The first inning gave us yet another example of extra outs leading to runs.  A 3rd strike against Trout got away from Pierzynski and Moreland mishandled the throw so Trout was safe at first with 1 out.  And of course the Halos scored both their runs (Trout and Pujols) with 2 outs.

Baker went out with an injury in the top of the 1st when he slid into the wall in foul territory in left field making a catch for an out.

In the top of 10 with 1 out Robbie Ross (who up to that point had pitched well in relief) gave up back to back singles.  Trout, a righty, was due up.  And Wash left Ross, a lefty, in to face Trout.  And Trout walked to load the bases.  Then, Wash brings in another lefty, Joe Ortiz, to face right handed batting Pujols.  Why oh why not go with a righty-righty match up?

In that at bat against Ortiz Pujols hit a grounder to Beltre.  It looked like Beltre could have stepped on 3B and then thrown to 1B for an inning ending double play.  Instead he went to home for 1 out.  And it looked like Pierzynski wasn't expecting him to go to home plate since he wasn't even standing on home and had to tag the runner out.  All that said, Everyday Joe Ortiz got the next batter, Hamilton, out to get out of a 1 out bases loaded jam.

But Ortiz gave up the game winning walk off homer to Kendrick (another right handed batter) in the bottom of 11.  Again, what happened to righty vs. righty and lefty vs. lefty match ups?

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Ogando battled in 7 IP with 2 ER's (the other 2 in the first inning were unearned, again that error really hurt).

Nellie hit a towering 3 run shot in the top of 6 cutting the Halos' lead to 4-3.  In the top of 8 the Angels had and error and the Rangers tied it up 4-4 with 2 outs.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Sometimes (all the time?) there really seems to be no rhyme or reason to why Wash makes pitching moves.

Read more...