"That is a gutless, six foot seven, two hundred hitting. formerly good player - what a joke."

This game started off with a lot of moves, and a little less than halfway through there were a lot of moves on the field. First off, the roster moves. Two guys were activated from the disabled list. One was tonight's starter Kason Gabbard. The other was third baseman Travis Metcalf, who hadn't yet appeared in a game this year. Metcalf didn't really seem needed to me right now, as German Duran is doing a decent job over there, and we have Ramon Vazquez both to handle third till Blalock returns. However, with Ben Broussard being designated for assignment today, I guess you needed an infielder. Broussard other than the first couple of games of the season really hasn't hit the ball at all. Nice enough guy, but man, he was just not getting it done. Additionally, A.J. Murray was sent back to AAA, but that's no surprise, he was just up for a spot start.

Then the game started. Kason Gabbard started for us, and was looking pretty good. Gave up no runs, and just two hits. But unfortunately, he only went 3.2 innings (more on that later).

The game started off well, with Vazquez singling and both Hamilton and Bradley walking. A sac fly and a single later, the Rangers are up 2-0. Felix Hernandez (I still refuse to use his dumbass nickname) labored. I didn't get a count, but he was around 30 pitches for the inning. Gabbard tossed up a donut on the scoreboard in the first. Gerald Laird was hit by a pitch, and then was driven in by a two run home run by Ian Kinsler. That was about it for the Rangers offense for awhile. In the fourth, Ian Kinsler was hit by a pitch. He wasn't thrilled about it by his look at the plate, but didn't do anything about it.

Then in the bottom of the fourth comes the head scratcher of the evening. Kason Gabbard threw a pitch up high, but over the plate. For some really unknown reason, Richie Sexson charged the mound. The pitch was easily a foot or more away from him - he ducked out of a pitch that if it was a foot lower would have been a strike. And he charged the mound. That was quite odd. Then to make it worse on himself (probably with the Commissioner's league) he tossed his batting helmet at Gabbard before he got to the mound. Charging the mound is a suspension anyway, but throwing an object will probably make the penalty worse.

As he was charging the mound, Josh Lewin said "...with a helmet throw - COME ON!" In the replays of this and the discussion while the melee was going on, Tom Grieve came out with a comment that was right up there with his opinion on Hideki Irabu's ability to pitch himself out of a paper bag. Grieve's quote here that made me laugh out loud was:

"If he doesn't get suspended for a week for that gutless move, I'll be completely shocked. Number one; for charging the mound on a pitch that wasn't even close, and then getting twenty feet away and throwing a helmet at him like a girl. What a joke."

That made me laugh out loud. Another really good Grieve line from this was the one I started this article with. I actually thought of another word to use here, but it definitely isn't a good one to use on a baseball blog like this one. All I'll say about that is "meow". Grieve's comments made me get out the laptop and start writing this commentary before the game was over; something I don't normally do. After the initial remark, there was the usual brawl milling around, and pushing and shoving happened. The only actual person who was ejected was Sexson - probably because there wasn't any real fighting in the brawl outside of Sexson. What was interesting was the clip of Milton Bradley pushing Gerald Laird - about 3 or 4 times on camera, and with some force too. On one of them, I thought Bradley was going to push Laird down, actually.

Gabbard ended up coming out of the game shortly after that; early reports say it was about his leg, and not his back (which he was on the DL for). One never knows if it was directly related to Sexson, but that seems like the obvious response to the situation. Gabbard was followed up by Franklyn German, Jamey Wright, Eddie Guadardo, & Frank Francisco. These guys continued their pen dominance, and allowed squat. In fact, all those guys allowed just two hits.

In the sixth, we tacked on another run after a Gerald Laird double, and a Ramon Vazquez single. Speaking of Vazquez, he started in place of Michael Young tonight, and more than picked up the slack for Young. Vazquez went 4-5 with with an RBI and a run scored. A pretty good night for him. Brandon Boggs was 2-3 with a walk, showing no signs of giving up his spot to go back to AAA.

This was the first time the Rangers had back to back shutouts in four years.

With two shutouts in a row, plus going back into Tuesday night's game, that's a total of 22 innings in a row the Rangers have shut out the Mariners, and going further back, that's just one run in the last 27 innings, and just one in the previous 32 (the M's put up a four spot in the third on Monday's game).

The one thing I don't want to see is Tom Grieve back down from his comments. Stick to your guns, man. You were right. Don't back off them. Don't apologize.

Usually towards the end of the year, we always hear about how many players the Texas Rangers have used overall in any particular season. The Rangers are usually towards the high end of that list. Injuries, callups, usually make for a long list, and you tend to forget the guys who are here so quick that they don't even have time for the proverbial "cup of coffee".

So this year I've decided to keep track of it. This post will get bumped whenever there is a player who is making his first appearance for the Texas Rangers in 2008. I am going to count guys who get called up, but don't play, as they will be part of the 25 man roster officially. So here goes. The most recent additions will be on the top of the list. The original opening day 25 man roster is not in any particular order.

Total players in 2008: 36
Total pitchers used in 2008: 18

• #36 - Travis Metcalf (May 8)
• #35 - A.J. Murray (May 2)
• #34 - Brandon Boggs (Apr 29 - Major League Debut)
• #33 - Chris Shelton (Apr 29)
• #32 - Sidney Ponson (Apr 26)
• #31 - Jarrod Saltamacchia (Apr 25)
• #30 - Frank Francisco (Apr 22)
• #29 - German Duran (Apr 17 - Major League Debut)
• #28 - Wes Littleton (Apr 14)
• #27 - Scott Feldman (Apr 13)
• #26 - Luis Mendoza (Apr 12)
• #25 to #1: Joaquin Benoit, Franklyn German, Kazuo Fukumori, Jason Jennings, Dustin Nippert, Kevin Millwood, Jamey Wright, Josh Rupe, Vicente Padilla, Kason Gabbard, Eddie Guardado, C.J. Wilson, Gerald Laird, Adam Melhuse, Hank Blalock, Jason Botts, Ben Broussard, Ian Kinsler, Ramon Vazquez, Michael Young, Milton Bradley, Marlon Byrd, Frank Catalanotto, Josh Hamilton, David Murphy

I'm going to do my best to stay on top of this, but if you notice someone I've missed, please tell me. Thanks.

This was an extremely well pitched game - on both sides of the field. The Rangers were going up against Eric Bedard, who for some reason seems to have had his reputation as a "Godlike" pitcher increased just because he was traded away from Baltimore. Now don't get me wrong, he was a great pitcher in Baltimore, but does anyone else feel that the press is making him out to be better than he really is, merely because he wears a different uniform? Anyway, Bedard did pitch well, he went seven innings, gave up just six hits and two runs. Struck out five. A pretty decent outing.

Thing is, Vicente Padilla is pitching by far the best he's ever done in a Rangers uniform - perhaps ever? He was fantastic - he went seven innings as well, but no runs and just two hits with eight strikeouts and two walks. On top of that, he was stupidly efficient with his pitches. Going into the seventh, he had thrown something like 60 pitches total. He had to work a bit in the seventh, but the first six were total cruise control. Even the seventh was something cool. Vicente's two walks were both in the seventh. He started the inning with them. Then proceeded to strike out the side. He looked strong, he could have come back out for the eighth, I'm sure, but I understand the decision.

Also on Padilla, the way he just went after Seattle after the two walks in the seventh was really impressive. I'm going to shamelessley steal this bit from Joey M over at Baseball Time in Arlington, because he already wrote this better than I could. :)

And yet, it was Padilla's seventh inning that really stole the show, if only because of the way he buckled down in the face of adversity. After walking Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre on back-to-back 3-2 pitches to lead off the frame (which prompted a predictable visit from pitching coach Mark Connor), Vicente went into overdrive:

92. 95. 94. Strikeout looking.

95. 96. 95. 95. 95. Strikeout looking.

96. 96. 97. 95. 96. 96. Strikeout swinging.

Dynamic. Singular. Electric. I'm not sure any one adjective can properly describe that 14-pitch sequence.

The two runs we got were both scored by Milton Bradley. One was in the fourth when Bradley scored on Brandon Boggs' first career triple. The other was the sixth when Bradley jacked a home run ball into the Mariners' bullpen. We had a chance to get some more in the latter innings, but didn't come through.

The win now puts us in sole possession of third place. I really hope we win Thursday night, as I don't want to leave Seattle tied for last place again. We're now 15-20, and inching back to .500.

I also hope we win against the Red Wings, but I don't see it happening.

I got this email in earlier today about a new Rookie of the Month award being run on MLB.com, so I thought I'd pass it along, as David Murphy is one of the candidates...

DAVID MURPHY ONE OF FOUR NOMINEES FOR NEW ROOKIE OF THE MONTH AWARD PRESENTED BY GILLETTE & MLB

David Murphy of the Rangers is one of four American League nominees for Major League Baseball's newest major award in both leagues -- the Rookie of the Month Award presented by Gillette (www.mlb.com/gillette).

In the American League in addition to Murphy, nominees for April (including March games) are right-hander Armando Galarraga of the Tigers, outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox and left-hander Greg Smith of the A's.

Fans get to decide the best starts by players starting their careers, and by voting become automatically entered in a drawing for a trip to see either the 79th All-Star Game on July 15 at Yankee Stadium or one of the 2008 World Series games. Voting will be conducted at the start of each month for the top rookie from each league.

In the National League, the four nominees are outfielder Kosuke Fukudome of the Cubs, right-hander Jair Jurrjens of the Braves, right-hander Kyle McClellan of the Cardinals and catcher Geovany Soto of the Cubs.

The online fan vote represents 20 percent of the overall balloting, with the remaining votes coming from team baseball writers and club broadcasters. Once voting is concluded, Gillette, MLB and Major League Baseball Advanced Media will announce the winning rookie for each league in a monthly press release and congratulate the winners at mlb.com/gillette.

That first announcement will be this Friday, after which Gillette will present the award winners with a Rookie of the Month trophy and make a donation to a charitable organization in each award recipient's name.

Statistical criteria is provided on the site for fans to make their selections. For position players, it's home runs, batting average, on-base percentage, runs scored. For pitchers, it's wins and saves, strikeouts, ERA.

After the third inning, I needed to hit the head, so on the way I remarked to my wife (who was reading in the bedroom) "Man, it's about time the Rangers had a game like this, we're winning 10-0 in the third inning". Since our daughter was born, my wife has kind of tuned out on Rangers games. That's fair, since she spends so much time taking care of our girl that when Samantha is asleep, Mommy usually wants to pass out. Last night though she watched the first inning with me, and the Rangers were up 2-0. So when I walked by her last night saying we were winning, she remarked that she needed to watch them more. She also remarked in the inning she did watch, "Wow, I don't know any of these guys". I did inform her about what I wrote about her in the Rusty Greer entry from yesterday, which is what made her say she didn't know anyone.

The game started off nicely, as Miguel Batista (who normally pitches well against us) was really putting up a stink in Seattle. He threw I think 47 pitches in the first inning, walked several, and had virtually no command to speak of. To be honest, he should have given up more than two runs in the first inning. If I remember right, we left the bases loaded, and it just felt like we should have nuked Batista a lot worse, although that was still to come.

Sidney Ponson, who seems to be the 2008 "Lightning in a Bottle" pitcher for Texas so far started off the bottom of the first with a walk and a single, and you thought - "Uh, oh - here we go", but he ended up getting out of the inning with no runs scored. Good. So Batista goes back out there for the second, and gives up just a single run, which wasn't too bad for the Mariners. 3-0 is still manageable, even if your starter is stinking worse than the animal barn during the State Fair. Ponson follows that up with a 1-2-3 in the bottom of the second. Then the Rangers come out for the third.

Batista is still out there - at this point having thrown about 6,453 pitches. Not surprisingly, Milton Bradley leads off with a walk. David Murphy followed it up with a home run to right field. It was a line drive home run from a ball rather high in the strike zone (if not out of). Was nice to see it go out - because off the bat, it didn't have the trajectory that looked like a home run - it looked like a double in the gap. Batista did get Boggs to strike out, but then walked Catalanotto (Batista's SIXTH walk), which prompted John McLaren to finally pull Miguel Batista. In from the pen comes Cha Seung Baek, a guy who has traditionally in the past done extremely well against Texas. Not tonight - Baek was just as bad as Batista (in this inning, anyway). Saltamacchia flies out to Ichiro, but Ramon Vazquez followed up with a single. Michael Young singled, scoring both Catalanotto and Vazquez. Funny thing about Young's single is that it looked like an out - was heading up the middle, but Seattle second baseman Jose Lopez had the ball go just under his glove. Really - it looked like an out, and then - whoops - there it is in center. Lopez probably REALLY wished he had caught it a few minutes later, because it would have ended the inning. Instead Lopez watched with everyone else as a Josh Hamilton hit ball was deposited WAY up in the upper deck in right - it was a SERIOUSLY impressive home run. The kind that you just watch and go "HOLY CRAP - Look at that!" Josh & Tom were both impressed with it. I didn't hear it on the radio, but I suspect Eric & Victor were also impressed. If you click on the MLB Game Recap for this game, there's video highlights there, and you can hear the Mariners call of the home run too - even they were impressed with it. Milton Bradley finished up the inning with a ground out (he was the first and last batter in the frame).

That home run restored Hamilton to the major league leading lead in RBI's with 36. Josh is looking quite good, and boy, I hope he stays on the field. I know Volquez is looking good in Cincinnati now (at this point, 6GS, 4-1, 1.27 ERA), but Hamilton has been equally as good on our side, so it's nice to see this trade working so well.

I watched through the fourth, and at this point did something I didn't normally do - I turned off the game when we were winning. I did that because I wanted to play some Grand Theft Auto IV - if I waited till the end of the game, I'd be too tired to get in some gameplay. Peeked in on the game from time to time, but I was confident in the win - turns out (for once) I was right about it - the Rangers didn't score any more this game. The Mariners did pick up a lone run in the fifth on two consecutive doubles by Balentien and Ichiro.

Ponson got the win, and is now 2-0. Sidney went seven innings, gave up seven hits, one walk, one run. Didn't strike out many (two), but had a pretty decent, if not dominating outing. Can't argue with one run over seven innings, no matter what the rest of the numbers were.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention a catch by David Murphy (which is in the video highlights on the MLB Game Recap link above) later in the game. I missed it live, but I did go back and watch it a few more times. Nice rolling, diving catch. I've said it a few times already, but I really like the acquisition of this kid. I expect the emergence of David Murphy has really kind of negated the acquisition of Frank Catalanotto, who hasn't done a whole heck of a lot since his return. I know Cat is signed through next year (with an option for 10), but it wouldn't surprise me if Murphy keeps going like this if Cat isn't moved or released after this season.

Funny thing is with ten runs, you'd think we'd have a boatload of hits. We didn't. The Rangers only had eight hits all evening. Granted, two were doubles, and two were home runs, and the Mariners pitching staff gave up 10 walks (all the walks came early, too), but still - you'd think we'd have like 17 hits or something. Nope, just eight.

Very efficient evening, very nice to see a night like that. It also keeps the Mariners with us tied for last place. Two more games in Seattle - be nice to take both, and not leave Seattle still tied for last place.

I was going through my photo gallery today, and this picture came up at random. Whenever I see it, I think this should be a legitimate sign, and not a fan made one. What do you think?

Whenever my wife sees someone wearing #7 or #29, I usually hear "That's not Pudge" or "That's not RUSTY!"

I was busy working on another website tonight, so I flipped on the radio and listened to the first inning. OK, we're down 2-0 early, not great, but not bad.

I then had to go do something else, so I turned off the radio. Came back to my desk, turned it on again, and when the KRLD coverage came back from a commercial, I heard "..and the Rangers are down 7-0". I actually said "Shit!" out loud, and turned off the radio - that was it I was done for that game.

I'm really tired of 7-0 games early where I have to hope we'll come back. There's too many of them, and I'm getting burnt out hoping we'll have a comeback (that almost never seems to happen anyway).

• Rookie pitcher Greg Smith was quite dominating for the A's.
• Josh Hamilton lost a fly ball in the seventh which led to Oakland's three runs.

Those are about it for the two major points to this game. Scott Feldman started the game, and took the big hard luck loss. His first six innings pitched, he allowed NO runs, and only three singles. Then in the seventh came the non error error that led to the three runs Oakland scored. That was a shame, as Feldman deserved better than that. At least call it an error so the runs are unearned.

Offensively, there was only one thing to talk about for the Rangers. That was German Duran's solo home run in the third inning. The Rangers had just four hits total. German's home run, a double by Brandon Boggs, and singles by Michael Young & Gerald Laird. That's it. This was of course due to Greg Smith. Smith went six innings, striking out ten Rangers, walking two, and allowing just three hits. A quite masterful performance. Smith's bullpen mates followed him up by not allowing any more runs, but Houston Street almost blew that. He obviously felt he was being squeezed, and got into a minor shouting match with the home plate umpire. I was a bit bummed he didn't get ejected, as it might have turned the tide.

Duran's home run gave us a 1-0 lead at that time which held up for awhile. However, as the game progressed, you kept getting that feeling (well, I did) that one run was not near enough - you kept waiting for the meltdown. Normally, those meltdowns involve the other team getting five to seven (or more) runs, so the fact it was just three was nice, but still. Never thought we'd win 1-0.

Still, we took the series, and that's always a positive thing.

A.J. Murray was called up to start this game on Saturday. I generally don't like once we start going into the minors for guys to start games, who aren't likely to start more than a game or so. It just "feels" like panic. Oh, I know all the rational, factual reasons for why it's done, but once we start having these kinds of subs (and especially on May 3rd), it just feels like desperation and/or panic.

Still, Arlington John Murray started this game, and actually pitched pretty decently. He went 5.1 innings, giving up six hits and two walks. Gave up three runs, although one was unearned (oh look, another Ranger error). Our bullpen threw another 2+ innings of shutout ball, so that was nice to see, although CJ Wilson did not get the save opportunity - must have been unavailable (missed that point when I was watching).

Offensively, we had about as spread out an offense as you could get. We had nine hits overall, and each Rangers player (there were no subs this game) had exactly one hit. David Murphy's though was the biggest - a three run home run in the first inning - which pretty much set the tone for the whole game. Chris Shelton had another home run, his first as a Ranger - that came in the ninth for an extra insurance run at that time.

Jarrod Saltamacchia and German Duran connected on a strike 'em out - throw 'em out double play, which was nice to see.

Milton Bradley had a caught stealing, and a pickoff in his ledger this game. Makes you wonder if there was a lapse of attention on the bases for him tonight.

I suppose the biggest news of this day was not the Rangers win (which is good), but the fact that Josh Hamilton was named the American League player of the month for April 2008. That hasn't happened to a Ranger in many a season. It was nice to see him get that award in his first month as a Ranger. Based on his spring training numbers, it's nice to see it carry over into the regular season. As a Christian, I rejoice in his story of salvation, but as a baseball fan, I rejoice in his performance. Praise be to God that Josh is in the place he is in, and has the skills he has to get noticed, and be able to deliver God's word from a place you don't normally see it delivered from. Good for Josh.

This game was a game where you took advantage of the situation. The Rangers had just seven hits overall (and three by the same player; Milton Bradley). There was not a lot of concentrated offense here.

In fact, of the seven runs total in the game, just three of them were earned. Vicente Padilla was hit with that more than Joe Blanton was. Padilla only gave up one earned run, and the Rangers only had one error. The A's, on the other hand had FOUR errors in the game, although one of them was that bogus foul ball where nothing actually happened foul.

Milton Bradley and Gerald Laird doubled, but everything else was a single, so there were no longballs here to account for the "efficient" runs. Joe Blanton only walked one. Heck, Ian Kinsler's RBI was on a groundout to second base. Those kind of runs. :)

Josh Hamilton took an ofer this game, but made a quite spectacular catch in centerfield, to double off Daric Barton, who had gone all the way to third. It was quite the highlight catch, and I think a bit more cool than Gary Matthews catch from two seasons ago.

Our pen was good, too (Wright, Guardado, Benoit, Wilson). No runs allowed by those guys. Nice to see after the recent shaky appearances by Benoit.

VIcente Pidente earned the win, going 5.2 innings, giving up just five hits and four walks (too many walks). He was not as crisp as he has been in his other wins (VIcente threw 108 pitches), but it was enough to get the win.

We're still not that great at 12-18, but the last week or so has been much improved over earlier in the season. Perhaps some of the local talk about Ron Washington's head can go away for now.

Uh, hello? Is that really Sidney Ponson who did that? Did my ears deceive me? Perhaps it was because I was at work, and not listening as intently as I do at home. No way could Sidney Ponson go eight innings, give up just one run and striking out five. Not THAT guy. No way. That had to be some sort of typo.

Turns out it really was Sidney Ponson - the guy who couldn't "pitch his way out of a bleeping paper bag" (Thanks Tom) for awhile now. It was his first win in the majors in a full calendar year. The same guy who last had what could be qualified as a "good season" in 2003 when he split the year between Baltimore and San Francisco. It was quite impressive to hear. Probably better to watch.

There were just eleven hits total by both teams. Nine of those were singles. The other two were solo home runs by the Rangers, accounting for all of our runs. The first was a leadoff home run by Ian Kinsler in the first, and the other was a shot from Ramon Vazquez in the sixth. The Royals pushed across their run in the third. But that was it. Little offense to speak of. We turned two double plays against Kansas City, which always helps.

The biggest surprise to me (sadly) was that we didn't make any errors. There were a few lineup changes. Michael Young DH'ed, and Vazquez played short. Milton Bradley did not play at all, and Brandon Boggs started in left.

The game was very short, by far the shortest of the season, lasting just two hours and ten minutes. Given how much games cost anymore, I prefer longer - I feel like I get more value, but 2:10 is always nice to see from time to time.

This game got off to the start you want to see in a home game. Seven runs and multiple home runs before the second inning. We were up 7-0 after two, and 9-1 after five. But as some baseball players might tell you, a ton of runs (even 22 of them) isn't always enough.

The Rangers got out to a 9-1 lead due to the longball. This was an extremely windy night, and even the changing of the wind with the Gold Club probably wasn't responsible for this one - it was REALLY windy. It was one of those games where hot dog wrappers and All Star ballots were blowing all over the place. Not quite like that footage from Pittsburgh from the 80's where it was a mini tornado, but there was enough of it. Kind of like this picture from the August 6, 2005 game...

That's significant, since several of the home runs balls (David Murphy's to left in particular) were severely assisted by the wind. Now they weren't all windballs, but most were. One that was not was Josh Hamilton's first career grand slam, which came in the second inning. That was Josh's only hit of the night, but it was a good one.

There was a lot of offense, as the score would indicate. Every Rangers starter except Chris Shelton had at least one single. There were five home runs in all (Bradley, Murphy, Hamilton, Boggs, Laird). In addition to Hamilton's first career grand slam, it was Brandon Boggs' first ever major league home run. The other eight hits were singles.

Things were going great until the seventh inning when we couldn't get anyone out. The Rangers threw out three pitchers in the seventh (Millwood, Francisco, Wright). Didn't seem to make much difference. We gave up a five spot that inning, which made things 9-6 at that point. OK, nowhere near as good as 9-1, but we're still winning. We got the lead up to 5 again with a two spot (Murphy's HR) in the bottom of the seventh. Then we got to play nail biter again, as we gave up three more in the 8th and 9th, to make the game's final score what it was.

Don't like endings like that. Like when we get out 9-1, and the margin stays that way.

Still, a win is a win, and we're now 10-18.

The Seattle Mariners DFA'ed Brad Wilkerson on Wednesday. That was a bit of a surprise. Brad's time here wasn't great, but I figured he had a slot in Seattle. I guess they were tired of his whiffing like the fans in Texas were. Seattle is still on the hook for the rest of his signed salary this year, which was $3 million. He also had $2 mil more in incentives, which he obviously will not get the chance to reach.

I think Brad's uniform number below is the way most Ranger fans will remember him.

My subject says it all, I think. The only thing I can think of to write about Jennings is that according to several post game stories, he got hurt during the game. If that's true, and something really is wrong, it could be a graceful way out. Jennings looked good early on, and had a few fantastic moments, but he's making Mark Clark look good now. Time for something else there.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention something that I always love seeing - someone make their major league debut. Tonight it was Brandon Boggs. Pinch hitting for Frank Catalanotto, Boggs worked the count to I think 3-1, and then jacked a low and away pitch into right center for his first major league hit. In fact, Boggs got another hit on his second at bat, so he's 2-2 so far in the majors.

The game left lifeless, and that's because of the crappy feeling you get early on when down 5-0 after the first two innings.

But in more interesting news, the Philadelphia Eagles are suing Terrell Owens over money he did not pay them back. Go Philly! :)

Usually when a guy is DFA'ed, you don't hear much from them. But Jason Botts apparently wants out per this article over at the Ft Worth Star Telegram today.

Normally, I'm of the ilk of if a player wants out, get him out of here. But for some reason to hear the player actually come out and say it makes me want to bury him in the franchise somewhere so he doesn't get a fresh start. Petty reaction, I admit, but my point is you usually don't see quotes from the player saying this stuff.

Let's just hope he doesn't end up like Travis Hafner.

It's been awhile since we've had a game like this. We were out in front early, and kept it - no looking back. We've not had many of those. We're usually down 4 or 5 to nothing in the first inning, and we have to hope. Not this time.

Milton Bradley had a no doubter of a three run home run in the bottom of the first. His home run got me to say something I haven't said much this season - GOODBYE! the second the ball hit the bat. There was no doubt about this one. One funny thing I was surprised that Josh didn't talk about with the home run was some guy near where the ball landed had his popcorn fly up in the air - and it looked like a pretty full bucket. Whether it was an accident or he was throwing it at the ball is unknown, but popcorn was a flyin' when the ball went over the fence. That wasn't the only home run of the game for the Rangers. Josh Hamilton & Jason Botts also launched balls over the stands (but no more popcorn).

But this game wasn't about the offense, even though there was a lot of it. It was about Vicente Padilla looking very much like the pitcher that Arizona and Philadelphia hoped he would be. Looked strong, pretty good pitch count (121 for nine innings), and most importantly, a complete game shutout. We haven't had one of those in several years now, and I could go for seeing more of those. We all could. Question is next time out, which Padilla are we going to get? He needs to string together several of these before I think people will really buy into him. I don't mean complete game shutouts (although that'd be nice), just good strong outings. On the whole, he's been better in 2008, but I don't think Rangers fans are ready to completely buy into him just yet.

Josh Hamilton and Michael Young both had three hits, not a huge surprise there. Gerald Laird was 2-5 and is now batting .269. Respectable, definitely an improvement over last year. If he keeps going up, I suspect he'll get traded in July.

Ian Kinsler had two hits in the #1 hole, and has an OBP of .359. Not bad at all, but you'd like a little better from the leadoff guy.

This was a good game. Something we needed. Next up are the Kansas City Royals starting on Tuesday. They're not as light a touch as they used to be, so we better keep our heads about us.

Our huge one game winning streak is over, having been thrashed by the Twins 12-6 on Saturday night. To be honest, I wasn't filled with confidence when the game started. That's mostly because of who was starting for us. Sidney Ponson. I'm thinking - GREAT. It's April 26th, and we're already using guys to start games for us that are now journeymen trying to resurrect a career, and if they don't make it here, they're done. I have issues with that for two reasons. First, that we're using guys like Ponson, and second that we're considered the last line. Can't make it in Texas? Well, you're done then. That's fairly annoying.

So anyway, Sir Sidney Ponson took the hill for the Rangers. Didn't look too bad early on, actually. His pitches had a lot of movement on them, and actually looked decent. His line is actually pretty good too, so he'll probably stay in rotation for awhile, now with Brandon McInjury going to be out for awhile. Ponson's line was 5.1 innings, seven hits, one walk, and five runs, although only ONE was earned. Finished with an ERA of 1.69 for his work.

Yeah, four unearned runs. That's thanks to more errors by the Rangers. In all we had THREE errors (plus a passed ball by Saltamacchia). One of the errors was by Ponson himself, the others by Ramon Vazquez, and one by Michael Young. The one by Vazquez was one I saw happen, and it was just "Come one dude, you can make THAT". The fielding does seem extremely sloppy this season.

Of course when the team gives up sixteen hits and twelve runs, there's not going to be much in the way of great pitching lines. In fact, only Franklyn German gave up a donut, and he went just 0.2 innings. Blech.

Offensively, we had twelve hits. All were singles except one double by Josh Hamilton, who seems to be going to left field an awful lot. David Murphy was 2-5 with three RBI's, and is turning into quite a steal from Boston last year. Josh Hamilton was 3-4, and Ian Kinsler was 2-5. Not much power, and we did have a decent number of hits, and of course, we left a dozen men on base.

Ron Washington looked fairly blah in what little of the post game interview I saw. Looked pretty flat. Whether it's a product of the team just being bad, or everyone (except me) seemingly calling for his head, I don't know, but the team does seem fairly lifeless now.

Saw an interesting link tonight which was a summary of stories about the possibility of Gerald Laird finally being dealt, now that Saltamacchia is back, and by all accounts will a) not be playing first, and b) is not going back to AAA. Laird's been doing fairly decently this year, and could bring something back, but it seems a bit early in the season to push that button.

I suspect he'll be dealt eventually, but my gut feeling is not this early. I didn't expect to see that happen until June somewhere. I still think he'll end up in Boston, but I don't have any hard facts on that - just a gut feeling.

The Yankees could probably use him too, but what do they have that they'd be willing to give up that we need? Unless a trade is expanded beyond 1x1, I don't see that happening, either.

Hands up those of you who thought that Justin Morneau's home run was the end of the game. It was for me. Fortunately, I didn't just skip past the bottom of the third inning.

The third inning was an active one. The Twins got two singles (one of which was a bunt single), and a walk. Morneau followed that with a grand slam, putting the Twins up 5-0. Given how our last week has gone, that was a "Oh crap, here's #8" feeling. Fortunately, though the Twins put a stinker of their own up there in the bottom of the frame.

If my box score is right, the Rangers started off with five singles in a row, and then two doubles. Unfortunately, the second one had a boneheaded baserunning play. Jason Botts doubled to right field, which sent Blalock home. Hank was thrown out, though, and on the play, Botts stupidly tried to advance to third - he was so out it was laughable. That killed the momentum we had that inning, as Catalanotto struck out looking right after that. Now, a five spot is nothing to sneeze about, but had we not had the bonehead play, five runs would have been in and men on second and third with nobody out. Could have been a heck of a lot more.

What made that feel worse is that in the sixth inning, Catalanotto was called out at the plate, too. Two outs at home - something you never want to see.

Kevin Millwood's line obviously wasn't good, but he seemed better than his line showed. He did go six, but gave up eight hits and three walks. Struck out six, but did give up five earned runs. Even with that, his ERA is still a VERY respectable 3.32.

Our bullpen threw four innings of shutout ball. Something nice to see after the bad performance on the losing streak. Eddie Guardado came off the DL and was the first of the four relievers (including Wright, Wilson, & Benoit) to toss a scoreless frame.

Offensively, we had a lot of hits (fourteen in all). Every Rangers starter had at least one, and we had four guys with multiples. We were led here by David Murphy who went 3-5. Hank Blalock had two doubles in this game. Jason Botts & Josh Hamilton also had doubles. Hamilton's double was one of those that stopped in between two outfielders, and Josh chugged his way to a double where most guys would have settled for a single - nice hustle on that one (if you saw it, you know what I mean). Murphy would have had two doubles, except the walkoff one was far enough for a double, but was only credited with a single; the game having ended at that point.

Unfortunately, though in the bottom of the 10th inning, Hank Blalock came up gimpy going to second base, and was quite clearly in pain, clutching his hamstring. That looked bad when it happened, but he was going to be evaluated today. The fact that he wasn't put on the DL last night is hopeful, but hamstrings are never a good thing to see happen in a game. I'd be surprised if he doesn't end up on the DL.

Also, there was an enormous amount of press yesterday about this weekend bringing the firing of Ron Washington. Some of my blogging brethren were actively calling for it. Quite frankly, I don't see the need for this. Washington reminds me a lot of Johnny Oates, and Wash I think needs more time than the one year and a month he's been given during the regular season. Are things going great? No. Does someone need to be accountable? Oh sure, my gut just doesn't say it's time yet.

Having said that, if Wash is let go, my guess for interim replacement is probably Art Howe, as he's already here. But I really don't want to see Wash go yet. I don't think it's time, even given the horrendous start we've gotten off to.

That's one Wash for each loss in a row. Seven of them. As with most of the recent games in the 2008 edition of the Texas Rangers, there's little to like. It did, however start off pretty decently, at least for me.

I work across the street from a Chili's. I had gotten an email from them recently saying they had a new Soup & Salad deal for lunch (the express lunch). So I decided to walk across the street for that. I'm siting there eating my bowl of really extremely good Chicken Enchilada soup, and the TV's there were on. Baseball Tonight was just finishing, and it was noon, so I mentioned to my waitress that the Rangers game was starting, and she had the bartender change the channel, so I got to see the first inning of the Rangers game in High Def. I have not seen a Rangers game that way before - at least not like this (meaning not at demo setups in your Best Buys, that kind of thing). It was seriously cool watching it that way. Michael Young's home run was pretty cool, too.

Jason Jennings took the hill, and I got to see Curis Granderson's leadoff home run - which actually got me to say out loud at Chili's "here we go again". I was pretty much done at this point, but I hung around to see the whole first inning in High Def. If I was't on my lunch hour, I might have ordered some beers and watched the whole thing that way. :)

The problem today was the longball. Jennings gave up three of them, and Kaz Fukumori gave up two. Seven of the eight Tigers runs all came off one of the longballs. Speaking of Fukumori, man, what the heck happened to the guy in spring training? He was lights out, and when the lights went on for the season, his lights were knocked out. Thing is, his ERA went DOWN to 20.25 after this outing. Ugh.

We never could get much going this game. After the initial high of being in the lead (gasp), we never could get anything going. The Rangers managed just four hits total (two were by Michael Young), and looked pretty lifeless.

We limp home to play the Twins at home this weekend. Hopefully, maybe, the team will show some life after getting home. We've already tied the record for worst start in team franchise history (even including the Senators days?) according to the local press, so some home cooking might help.

Something's gotta.

I get a decent collection of emails in my almost 10 years running this site. Most are pretty nice, and occasionally, I get some that are somewhat rude. Like this exchange. Last night I get an email from a guy. I won't name him, but let's call him Oscar for the sake of this discussion. Unsolicited last night Oscar sends me this email:

I don't know about you , but the Rangers are bad enough on their own , but that pissant announcer Josh Lewin makes me sick while I watch a horrible game

So I wrote back a couple of hours later with this:

I can't help you there. I like Lewin. Also, "pissant" won't foster many good conversations, really.

One other thing I should add is all the emails I send out have a bible scripture in the signature. I change it from time to time, but the current one is Philemon 1:6, which reads, I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. This will come up in the next sequence.

So this evening, I get another email back from Oscar, saying this:

Ok , Joe , I apologize for offending you . Looks like a clear case of me barking up the wrong tree . My mistake by writing a letter to a person who has a ranger baseball site but is not that much into baseball . Josh's penchant for talking about anything other than baseball is ludicrous , but if that's your cup of tea , more power to you . Maybe one day you'll appreciate the great game of baseball for what it is , the national pastime , NOT a forum for lame comedy acts.

BTW , Jesus never played the game

Now, I know Josh Lewin isn't everyone's cup of tea. I realize that. I like him, but I don't go around calling him a pissant, or assuming people's appreciation of the game is based on whether or not they like a particular television play by play announcer. That seems quite out there, and is the reason I'm posting this. The entire exchange seems quite bizarre. Anyway, I sent this back to him...

>>Ok , Joe , I apologize for offending you . Looks like a clear case of me barking up the wrong tree . My mistake by writing a letter to a person who has a ranger baseball site but is not that much into baseball .<<

I'm very into baseball. Moreso than I think you possibly realize or assume.

>> Josh's penchant for talking about anything other than baseball is ludicrous , but if that's your cup of tea , more power to you . Maybe one day you'll appreciate the great game of baseball for what it is , the national pastime , NOT a forum for lame comedy acts . <<

I'm 42. Been paying attention since I was 7. Thank you for assuming you are aware of all the facts of my life and that you know enough about me to assume you know what's going on in my mind and how I appreciate things. Insulting me merely because I like something you don't is a pretty narrow minded view of the world and people. Grating emails like that don't make me want to explain myself to you. Just makes me want to stick you on ignore, so I don't have to see you again, but I won't do that.

>> BTW , Jesus never played the game <<

No, but there's a lot to learn from Jesus about anger and poor attitudes towards people.

I really am perplexed by this. I will pray for understanding on this Oscar, as well as for your rather open hostility towards me.

Someone care to tell me (besides Oscar) if I'm off base here?

UPDATE: Friday evening, I got this back from our buddy Oscar. I don't quite understand him at all.

why waste your time responding to a person who obviously is beneath you ? I've got all day , but your message of hope is wasted on cretins like me. Strike me from your reply list

So I gave him this in reply, but I think I'm done here unless he wants to discuss the Gospel some more.

It's not my message of hope. It's Jesus' message of hope, and it's never a waste of time. If you'd like to talk about it, I'd be glad to. Here's one that I think applies to you.

"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3: 22-24)

What a shocker that is. Saw that remark on a piece over at Baseball Digest Daily. In it, Nolan talks about how few innings it takes to be considered a staff ace anymore. Check out the article here.

The Buccos got off to their usual start. Behind early. Only this time it wasn't perennial "run surrendering guy" Matt Morris, it was Ian Snell.

Snell's actually been a decent pitcher for the Pirates, which on the surface isn't that difficult a thing to do. The Buccos haven't had a winning season since Barry Lamar played there, and that was 16 years ago. Snell is supposed to be one of the long term blocks of the Pirates rotation, and outside of the first inning, he didn't really do that bad. Ian gave up four runs overall, and all of them were in the first inning. After that he settled down and threw five innings of shutout ball.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Pirates strung together a few singles, and got a sac fly, which scored two. OK, that's helpful, but then in the following frame, Jason Bay smacked a two run home run off Cardinals starter Todd Wellmeyer to tie the game up at four apiece. A few more singles sandwiched around a double brought in three more runs in the bottom of the eighth to give the Pirates the lead, and the eventual win. Domaso Marte, who followed Snell, got the win, and Matt Capps picked up his sixth save of the season so far. That's an interesting number as the Pirates only have nine wins total. That's a better percentage than Steve Carlton's 27 wins in 1972 for the Phillies, the year they only won 59 games total!

Nate McClouth, a bright spot for the Pirates took an ofer tonight, but his average is still pretty darned good at .349.

Other offensive highlights for the Pirates were doubles by Xavier Nady and the rookie Brian Bixler. There was the aforementioned home run by Jason Bay, as well as eight other singles. Was a nice comeback win, and in PNC Park, too. Good feeling for the Pirates in this one, for sure.

What the heck is all this?

I covered another game, as I there was no way I could bring myself to cover the fiasco in Detroit tonight. On top of that, I spent most of the night watching weather reports about all the storms in the area, and only superficially paid attention to the Rangers game. Here's all I have to say about the Rangers and this one:

Yeah, Moe, that team sure did suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

Dear Mr. Hicks.

We suck.

Lovingly,
Joseph M. Siegler

P.S. You should have retired Johnny Oates' number when he was alive.

I don't know why, but the path to a win now seems worse than the terrain of the Hartz Mountains of Asia. There was a momentary feeling that we were over our blip of bad play there, but we definitely seem mired in the mud, that's for sure. Our starting pitching is generally doing well, there doesn't seem to be any one glaring thing that if it was fixed, you could say "Hey, we'd be 14-7 instead of 7-14". Just don't seem to be able to get out of our own way.

Milton Bradley has been a nice surprise, as has the starting pitching ERA. Josh Hamilton was tied for the league lead in RBI's after this game, so it's not like we're total shite. I'm reminded of a graphic I've used before here. Seems appropriate again.

As for the specific game, there isn't much fun to say about it. Frank Catalanotto's early home run was a nice feeling, but that was pretty much wiped out by the three home runs Detroit got in the third. I saw that before I started skipping forward on my TiVo. Anyone else expecting Padilla to plunk someone in the back? I certainly was.

I don't think we're quite at the point where I'm ready to panic, but I am now skipping more of the games on my TiVo than I'm actually watching.

P.S. Josh Lewin should probably understand the references at the top of this post.

You know, I thought I was disgusted after Sunday's game, and being disgusted with that to the point where I had a one word review. This one annoyed me more, and I've written quite a few more words. But it still boils down to a one word exclamation.

SHIT!!!

SHIT.

Jason Jennings bounced back, had a decent outing on Saturday against the Red Sox. Gave up just two runs in six innings. Unfortunately, Joaquin Benoit blew it late and gave up a home run to Manny Ramirez, giving the Sox the win.

Dammit.

That picture pretty much says it all, doesn't it? As a habitual nail biter myself, I can understand Gerald Laird's doing so here.

This game was a mess. Of course, the big blast was David Ortiz' grand slam in the third inning. Mendoza's outing really hurt the overall team pitching. TR Sullivan said it very well, with this:

Mendoza gave up seven runs in all, as his ERA went from 1.80 in his first two starts to 9.00. The Rangers' rotation ERA also went up from 3.65 -- third best in the league -- to 4.18.

Ugh - ugh - UGH! To add to the lovely overall performance, we had another error, this time by the guy wearing Rusty Greer's old number; Jason Botts. All three Rangers pitchers (Mendoza, Rupe, Nippert) gave up runs, although one of Nippert's was a result of Botts' error.

Rangers batters had only six hits overall. Only one was a single. Four doubles and a home run. The home run was Hank Blalock's, and the swing reminded me of that home run he had in Chicago a few years back in the All Star game. It looked nice.

In all a pretty craptacular performance by the Rangers out there.

Given this Wednesday was my daughter's birthday, and my mother was in town this week for the event, I didn't spend much time thinking about the Rangers outside the time I watched the games, so I tuned in for this one, and saw Roy Halladay, and got bummed. He dominated us last week, and generally it's hard to beat a pitcher like that. But, as the saying goes, that's why you play the games.

The Rangers started by making a few roster moves, and rested some guys. Michael Young did not play, nor did Hank Blalock. Playing short was swiss army knife (thanks Josh) Ramon Vazquez. Playing third was a kid making his major league debut, German Duran. A few other roster moves had to be made to make room for Duran, as he wasn't on the 40 man roster, either. The 40 man roster was to move Thomas Diamond to the 60 day disabled list, and the 25 man move was to put Marlon Byrd on the 15 day DL. I don't recall much being said about Byrd being hurt, I wonder if this is one of those fake DL moves or not. Anyway, watching Duran at the plate against Halladay was somewhat painful. Felt bad for the kid, as he was up three times, and struck out three times. He also looked like a kid. He was born after I graduated high school (June 1983), which is becoming a far more common occurrence. Still, it probably was a major thrill for the kid, which was cool to see. For some reason, seeing kids make their major league debut continues to be something fun to watch. Haven't gotten THAT jaded about the game yet. ;)

Vicente Pidente took the hill for the Rangers, and followed up the previous game's performance by Kason Gabbard with one of his own. Vicente went seven innings, giving up seven hits, three walks, but most importantly just a single run. Jamey Wright and CJ Wilson followed up with scoreless frames of their own, sealing the win. But Pidente looked pretty darned good, and I'm wondering if all the talk about him being a different player in the spring is true. He's now 2-1 with a 3.12 ERA. Pretty decent numbers for the first couple of weeks of the season. Extrapolated over the whole season, that's 24 wins. That's probably dreaming, but it's a great start, I hope it continues.

David Murphy had three doubles in this game. Too bad some of them couldn't have come in the previous game when we had 6,334 men left on base. Still, three doubles against a Cy Young pitcher is nothing dismiss too lightly. Murphy was the only Rangers batter to get anything other than a single against Halladay.

Josh Hamilton's monster home run power hasn't shown up yet, but he continues to hit the ball hard, no matter what he does (single, pop up, or foul). When that light goes on, I wonder if we'll start hearing talk about the old "Hit it here - win a suit" sign that used to be on top of the scoreboard in right field at our park. You think if all the planets align right, he probably COULD do that. Or, he could hit one into one of the hotel rooms in Toronto, too.

Come on Josh, "Hit it here!"

In a game that took four hours and fifty three minutes, the Rangers finally prevailed, and got back in the win column. But not for a lack of trying to give the game to the Jays. Jack Benoit had a bad outing, giving up three runs (only two earned - uh oh, another error!) in his one third of an inning of work. Oddly enough, Benoit was credited with a hold. His successor on the hill (Wes Littleton) was charged with the blown save, despite not giving up any actual runs of his own. I mean I know WHY this happened, it just seems odd. That's all.

Kason Gabbard started the game, and pitched well. I thought he deserved the win, actually. Six innings, seven hits (OK, a few too many), and two walks. But only two runs, which was the important part. This felt like the first week of the season again. Not the sharpest pitching outing, but certainly effective, and enough where he should have gotten the win.

Toronto burned through their entire pitching staff (save for the other starters), I believe, including finishing up with AJ Burnett which threw the final inning.

When you have a 14 inning game, you get some weird stat lines. One of the weirdest is Milton Bradley, who shows as going just 2 for 3, but with FIVE walks. Michael Young was 2-8, and Josh Hamilton was 4-7. Some weird sounding numbers there. :)

We had seven doubles in all (Catalanotto, Bradley, Botts, Hamilton, & Young), with two of the guys (Catalanotto & Hamilton) getting two each. Jason Botts finally broke through for his first hit of the season; a solo home run in the fourth. Frank Catalanotto also had a home run, he had a good day overall (3-7 with three runs scored, and an RBI).

Unfortunately, our men left on base problem continues unabated. The team left a total of NINETEEN men on base. Granted, it was a 14 inning game which helped that number a bit, but even if take out the average of that for the extra innings, we still left over a dozen men on base. That's not good at all. The individual left on base numbers were downright nauseating. There were FOURTY ONE men left on base by individual batters. The worst one was David Murphy, whose numbers were 11 in that department. Ugh.

This night's entry in the Bad News Bears Rangers fielding clinic was Ben Broussard, who had a throwing error.