Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Doogie Holland looked shaky early.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: After a talking to by pitching coach Mike Maddux, Holland settled down. Oh yeah, Beltre was a triple away from hitting for the cycle. Again. In less than a week.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The ballgame was on ESPN and all the ESPN announcers could talk about was how great Maddon and Price are.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Rangers had an error in the game, albeit by Harrison.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Harrison had a no hitter going into the 7th and left the game only giving up 2 hits. Awesome.
Beltre, who's been on a tear of late, hit for the cycle. Again, awesome.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Hello best record in the AL.
And the Red Sox apparently officially threw in the towel and traded away Gonzalez, Beckett and Crawford to the Dodgers. I wonder if this means Bobby Valentine will get another year with a new group of players or if they'll give him a pink slip at the end of the year. Ready to have Bobby V as a TV talking head again?
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers, with Oswalt starting in place of an ailing Yu, again gave up a first inning run. Again.
And Oz apparently doesn't know how to execute a run down between 3rd and home. When the ball was hit right back at the mound and the runner, going on contact, was caught in no man's land Oz had the ball and just stood there near the mound and threw to 3B. Don't just stand there, run at the base runner. And Beltre was somehow given an error on the play when he threw around the base runner to home even though Soto caught the ball but dropped it trying to apply the tag.
Scheppers looked good at first, getting 2 quick outs, then shaky, loading the bases in the top of the 9th. Then, Elvis had a throwing error that scored 2 that made it 10-6.
This game was closer than the final score indicates. A huge offensive explosion in the bottom of the 8th (Rangers scored 6 runs) broke a 4-4 tie and put it out of reach. Gotta wonder how different the game would have been if the Twins' starter isn't thrown out in the early innings.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: But the early run wasn't a crooked number so I guess that's something. Beltre went yard again. Josh had a double that scored 2 early and had 5 total RBI's in the game.
Oh yeah, Nathan came in to clean up the mess and got his 23rd consecutive save and Wash notched is 500th win as Rangers' manager.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: After Oz plunked Mauer, the Twin's pitcher threw a ball at Josh's head (it missed him). The ump threw out the pitcher and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. I don't know if both dugouts had been warned prior to the the brush back pitch to Josh. If so, then retaliate at your own risk.
Oh yeah, the vaunted Halos were 8.5 GB and had lost 13 of the 20 games they've played in August going into tonight. Where's John Kruk gushing about how the Angels are the team to beat in the West now?
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: I got nothing. Yes, Holland gave up 3 ER's but, that's not too bad against a team fighting for a wild card spot.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Beltre (with three homers, and his head touched in the dugout more than a few times, much to his supposed chagrin)! And the rest of the offense including a grand salami by Mitch Moreland. And to point it out AGAIN, Murph had another multi-hit game.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: No one's talking about the Rangers winning the World Series. All the talk is about Yankees. Good.
There was a balk called in the top of 8th against Lowe. While on the rubber Lowe started to bring his throwing hand back towards his glove to get set in the stretch and then stopped it. Balk. Very minor, but yeah, it was a balk. Don't hear about balks called very often anymore, only reason I mention it.
Rangers win another series. How far back are the vaunted Halos? But, watch out for the scrappy A's.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Scooter Feldman gave up an early run (first inning) and a big crooked number (4 runs in the 4th inning).
And the Rangers didn't have a runner in scoring position till the 6th (Kins had a solo homer before that with no one on). And Josh went 0-fer with 3 SO's including a strikeout to end the inning in the 7th with 2 runners on.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: But as mentioned, Kins did go yard to tie the game at the time in the 3rd. Hopefully he's starting to work his way out of his offensive funk. Soto went yard with Murph on base to make it 5-3 O's is the bottom of the 7th.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The other night the local broadcast guys referred to the O's as the east coast Rangers. That's kind of true. In the field they have Chris "Crash" Davis and catcher Teagarden (Omar Quintanilla also played for the Rangers less than 15 games). They also have Hunter, O'Day and Strope on their pitching staff. And Showalter (Dr. Gaius, see below) as their manager.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Dempster again gave up a first inning run.
The Rangers had 9 LOB, 4 of those LOB when the Rangers were down 1 run in the early innings.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: After giving up the early run and 2 hits in the first inning Dempster only gave up 2 more hits the rest of the way and retired the last 11 Orange birds he faced with 8 strong IP. And Nathan capped it off by striking out the side, all swinging, to finish the game in a non-save situation.
In the 4th Soto had the RBI, scoring Nellie (did anyone notice that it looked like Nellie was cringing after sliding into home on that play?), to put the Rangers up to 2-1 at that point and up for good as it would turn out. David "Charlie" Murphy again had a multi-hit, multi-RBI game.
Elvis had a great defensive play, going towards 3B he back handed a grounder and made a jump-throw from at least 2 feet deep in the left field grass to get the batter out at first. How has he not won a gold glove yet?
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Nathan set a franchise record by recording his 22nd consecutive save this past Saturday. Now if the Rangers make the postseason let's see how he does converting saves then. And let's see if this is the Ryan Dempster we'll see down the stretch.
As I've had mentioned to me by a good friend, doesn't ex-Ranger manager and current Orioles skipper Buck Showalter kinda look like Dr. Zaius from the original Planet of the Apes movie? Kinda? Compare for yourself below:
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: In the loss in the first game of the series Yu walked 10 in 7 IP.
And the Rangers mighty, potent offense (written sarcastically) managed a whopping 4 runs in the first 2 games of the series.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: But, the Rangers won game 2 of the series because they were bailed out by a great group effort by the pitching staff (6 pitchers saw action), including 4.1 IP by Oswalt in which he gave up only 1 ER.
In the last game of the series the offense woke up scoring 11 runs with Young going for 5 RBI's in the game.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Dempster didn't make to the trip to his native land of Canada because of "personal reasons." Some speculated that it was passport (lost?) issues. Weird.
The Rangers look like, in some games, they cannot put runs across the plate and in others they drop double digit runs their opponents. How about this? How about some offensive consistency?
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: That's what happens when you put a 3B/1B in right field (Olt). You get an error.
The pitching staff is continuing to give up crooked numbers/big innings, like today with a 5 run 6th inning.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: However, through 5 IP Doogie Holland had a 1 hitter going and the Rangers offense had staked him to a 4-0 lead.
6 Rangers had multiple hits with David "Charlie" Murphy leading the way with 3. Beltre and Gentry both had 3 RBI's. The offense finally woke up after managing just 6 hits in the last 2 games and 2 runs in the last 3 versus the Spankees.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Even after losing 3 straight before today's win and even if both the Halos and the A's win tonight the Rangers will still lead the division by 6 games. That would still be at least the 2nd biggest division lead in all of baseball at the end of the day.
I came up with the nickname David "Charlie" Murphy as an homage to Charlie Murphy, Eddie Murphy's younger brother who is also a comedian and pretty darn funny in his own right (see his appearances on the Dave Chappelle Show). Charlie Murphy doesn't seem to get the due and respect that he's earned/owed. Sound familiar? Of course, they share the same last name so it works on that level too.
David Murphy has been playing great baseball this year and has played well for the Rangers going back a few seasons but, he's still not quite an everyday player. And to be clear Murph wasn't considered an everyday guy when he first started out with the big club. Sure, he's gets a boatload more starts in the field nowadays so he's not quite as unappreciated as he has been in years past...
But you know who hasn't been an everyday player this year but maybe deserves to get more starts in the field down the stretch and next year? Craig Gentry. Craig "Charlie" Gentry?
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: 4 hits by Rangers. Again, not good.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Josh went yard twice, albeit on solo efforts. Wasted good effort by Scooter Feldman.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Welcome to playoff style baseball Texas. Looks like it might be a problem.
Soto is our catcher with Napoli on the DL, forgot to mention that.
Is it just me or does Soto have a double hitch when he throws it back to the mound?
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: I know hindsight is 20/20 but, Harrison was in a pitching duel with Kuroda. Harry was at 106 pitches, had only given up 5 hits through 6.1 IP, he still looked like he had good stuff and still had a shutout going. And the Spankees had 2 switch hitters due up in Texiera and Swisher so there was no match up (lefty vs. lefty for example) that you were going for. But, Wash pulled Harry and Ogando gave up 2 homers for 3 runs. Ballgame.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Harry looked good (and in my opinion at the time should have been left in to finish his pitching duel with Kuroda).
Tanner Scheppers looked great in relief even with the ump not giving him pitches that were well within the strike zone.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: To go on even more, with the way the game was going for the Rangers at the plate why doesn't Wash leave Harrison in so long as he keeps his own shutout going?
But, bottom line is that the Rangers aren't going to win too many ballgames when they can only manage 2 hits (the first one in the 7th inning).
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