I’ve said this before, and I’ll probably say it again. Whenever you pitch against a guy who is making his major league first start, you either score 50 runs in the first inning, or what happened last night happens – you can’t do anything against them. It’s the nature of the beast with an unknown quantity like that.
We got shut out by Robinson Tejeda (not Tejada, guys!) last night. He went 5 innings of two hit shutout ball. In fact, the Phillies pen (former Ranger Aaron Fultz, Ryan Madson, Billy Wagner) went 4 more innings of shutout ball. Between the four Phillies pitchers, we managed just 5 hits the entire night, with Rod Barajas getting two (the others by Teixeira, Blalock, Hidalgo). That’s pretty much the story of the game. The Phillies pitchers closed us down.
On the flip side, our pitching was pretty decent, too. Starter Chris Young more and more looks like a really good rotation guy every time out this season. He went 5.1, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits (6K, 1BB). Our pen (Tejera, Regilio, Shouse) didn’t give up any runs in their time on the hill.
The highlight of the game for me was the opening of the 6th inning when they showed the Philly Phanatic and Rangers Captain dueling it out with lightsabers, in Jedi gowns. That was most amusing. Stupid me didn’t save the game on the TiVo, I deleted it before I got a chance to take a picture of that. Anyone get one?
But the big talk of the day had to have been the DFA’ing of Ryan Drese. I don’t think anyone following the team would have predicted THAT. A guy who was a 14 game winner just last year, and was this season’s opening day starter gets DFA’ed. I’m really surprised they didn’t carry on with him longer than that, especially since he has a guaranteed contract through next year (and an option for 07). Oh well, I seriously doubt we’ll be able to hang on to him and get him to the minors through waivers. It’s just a surprise to me. Hmm, I know we’re bringing up RicRod from AAA to take his place on Sunday, but an opening in the rotation, eh? Perhaps there’s more to those Roger Clemens rumours.. Nah, just joking. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
Roster moves aplenty – including a major shocker
We’ve had some big roster moves over the last few days. Not all of them are huge players, but there was a lot of movement the last few days. A summary..
On Monday (our offday), we optioned Nick Regilio back to AAA, and purchased Michael Tejera from AAA. To make room for that, Carlos Almanzar was moved from the 15 day to the 60 day DL. Not entirely sure what this move was about – I don’t see Tejera as a big upgrade over what Regilio is doing at the moment. Still, I don’t have a complaint about this.
On Tuesday, Marshall McDougall was purchased from AAA to be a utility infielder as we’re in National league games for the next several games. OK, that’s a useful move. To make room for him, we designated Chad Allen for assignment. I’m not going to lose sleep over that, but I thought Chad was doing a decent job in his role. I hope we can keep him in AAA.
On Wednesday Ron Mahay was placed on the 15 day DL. Nick Regilio was recalled after having just been sent down two days ago. Gary Matthews was activated from the DL. All were injury moves. However..
A major bombshell of a roster move also happened today. We’ve apparently designated Ryan Drese for assignment. That’s a major stunner. I know he hasn’t been doing well this year, but oh my. He’s signed through 2006. His salary for this year was $700k, and for 2006 he was signed for $1.75Mil. There also was an option for 07 with a $50k buyout (07 Salary was 3 Mil). But wow – this is a surprise to me. I wonder if there isn’t more to this move. I’m writing this at 4:20PM, so hopefully the broadcasts tongiht will have some more insight. The official release on the Rangers site doesn’t have any insight into this other than just stating his record.
G56: The Rangers drop the first game in Philly, 8-5
This was an odd game for me. My adopted team (Rangers) vs my hometown team (Phillies). I’d always wanted this to happen. Finally did (outside of spring training in FL). So it was with much anticipation I drove to the Cheesesteak place not too far from my house to pick up a couple for my wife and I to eat during the game. I pulled up, and the place was gone. Out of business. That was an omen for the Rangers for the night, and sort of put me in a down mood, as I was really in the mood for that. I didn’t really know what to do with my baseball loyalties, as I didn’t really care who won the game.
When I got home, I was about an hour behind the live game on my TiVo, and my brother called me. Wanted to know if I was watching (dumb question). I said yeah, but I’m an hour behind, and while he didn’t tell me the score, he told me enough that the Rangers got torched. The way he told it, it seemed like we gave up 8 runs in the third inning. We did give up a bunch, but it wasn’t as all horriffic as my brother made it sound. Note to self. Don’t answer phone calls when watching games behind on the TiVo.
Ryan Drese, however, looked bad. It was his shortest outing this year, only 2.2IP. He gave up 5 runs on 8 hits. The other three were given up by Ron Mahay in his .1 IP. A scary thing is how well Benoit has been pitching out of the pen. I read where they’re thinking of trying him in the starting rotation again. Have we not learned our lesson with him? He’ll go there and stink up the joint. Leave him in relief where he’s finally doing good.
Offensively we were powered primarily by the longball again. In Philadelphia, that’s an easy thing to do in the new park. We had two run home runs by Hank Blalock and Rod Barajas for a four spot in the fourth. We tacked on another one in the 8th on a Mike Young solo home run. That gives Young a hitting streak of 16 games, and I believe 10 or 11 games where he’s also scored a run in a row. Soriano who was hurt somewhat came in and pinch hit, and extended his own hitting streak to 12 games.
When the Phanatic was in Philadelphia recently, Rangers Captain had let out that he was going to Philly. If he was there, he wasn’t on the TV coverage last night.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
Here we come Phillies!
This Tuesday through Thursday, the Rangers do something they’ve never done before. Play the Phillies in a regular season game. As I’m from Philly, I would have loved to have gone, but I couldn’t afford it.
Bet the house I’ll be watching all three of these from start to finish.
I just hope they come here next week. And here’s to Kevin Mench – hope he has a monster series back home!
G55: Rangers win Sunday afternoon, 8-1
Got extremely busy, didn’t have time to write much.
Kenny Rogers pitched extremely well again. He’s been amazing since the start of May. With each performance, I have to imagine Scott Boras’ eyes are getting bigger. In fact, that scares me. Two of our best players now (Rogers & Teixeira) are both Boras clients. Not good.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
G54: We win again on Saturday in a shootout, 14-9
Got extremely busy, didn’t have time to write much. But the best thing to write about is the total lack of good pitching in this game.
Chan Ho Park got his 100th career win, but he really didn’t deserve it the way he pitched. He was bailed out by our offense who beat up on an even worse pitcher, Jose Lima.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
G53: Our losing streak reaches 3 on Friday with a 2-1 loss to the Royals
Aw dammit. A team we were expected to stomp on continues their odd mastery of us by taking a pitcher’s duel on Friday night by the score of 2-1.
Pedro Astacio took the hill for the Rangers and had a good performance. He gave up just two runs in his seven innings pitched. I could whine about that, but then I look at what Roger Clemens is going through this year, and it could be a lot worse. Still, one hates to waste a good pitching performance by the most inconsistent of our starting pitchers. That’s exactly what we did by scoring only one run, and that run was not exactly a power display.
Our offense was asleep on Friday night. KC’s Hernandez isn’t exactly a bad pitcher, but he isn’t one you would expect to give up just one run over six innings, but that’s what he did. The Royals threw out three relievers who threw shutout ball, so we couldn’t mount any kind of comeback.
The saving grace is that the entire AL West lost last night, so we remain .5 of a game back of the Angels for first place.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
A Rant about Payroll
I don’t know how many of you read the Newberg Report, but Jamey’s site is something you should be checking out. In his newsletter, he has a co-writer who mostly handles minor league game updates. That’s Mike Hindman. Recently, Mike wrote (what I consider to be) a brilliant essay on the state of the Rangers’ payroll. It’s most excellent, I suggest reading it.
It’s rather long, so you’ll need to click on the “Read More” link below to check it out. Again, I wanted to point out this is not my writing, it’s by Mike Hindman. He was kind enough to give me permission to copy it here. I wanted to make sure my site visitors read this, too.
I think it’s a great stance against the Ranger fan who only thinks “SPEND MORE MONEY YOU CHEAP BASTARD OF AN OWNER”. Quite honestly, I detest fans like that, there’s a lot more to the issue than just throwing money at things.
G52: Rangers Lose to Tigers Thursday afternoon, 6-5
Sorry, no time for an update for this game.
G51: The Winning Streak ends with a 6-4 loss to the Tigers
The streak has come to an end at nine wins. Ryan Drese didn’t keep the great pitching performances intact, going 6.1 innings, giving up 10 hits and 6 runs (5ER). On the positive side, he didn’t walk anyone, but gave up too many hits. But it wasn’t all bad, Drese looked good through 6 innings, as we were up 4-1, and feeling good. But the wheels fell off in the seventh inning, when we gave up a 5 spot to the Tigers. That was the game in a nutshell, unfortunately.
Offensively, we had a few more home runs by the currently hot Richard Hidalgo, and the extremely hot Kevin Mench. Dellucci went 3 for 5, but no runs scored, or RBI’s.
The bottom line for me is that the game felt like the 10th win in a row until the seventh inning when all the air went out of it due to the 5 spot the Tigers got.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
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