Wow – what a bad season for Carlos. First he has the personal problems in his life, then he comes back, is ineffective, goes on the DL, and now we find he needs Tommy John surgery. He goes under the knife on Friday, and will be out obviously for the rest of the season.
If the usual recovery times for TJ surgery apply, he’ll start the next season on the DL, as well. We now have lost two of the major players from last year’s bullpen success. Both Frank Francisco & Carlos Almanzar are out for the year. Our bullpen this season so far as been a liability. If we’re going to make a move for the playoffs, I think we’re going to have to do a lot better than what we have going now.
There’s more in this news story on the Rangers site.
Rangers blanked Monday night, 2-0 by Tigers
Dammit! That’s about all I can think of to say about this game right now, other than Chris Young probably should have gone out for the ninth.
At least our entire division lost tonight, so the standings remain unchanged.
A small rant about sponsorships
Nowadways, everything is “The Ameriquest this”, or “The Fox Sports that”, to the “Verizon Wireless call to the Bullpen” or some such crap like that, I managed to find a sponsorship that really surprised me and made me roll my eyes driving home.
As some of you may know, I have XM Radio. I bought it because they now have the MLB Package where you can listen to every game (although not every broadcast, you only get the home feeds). My usual drive home from work is during 6PM to 630, depending on when I actually leave work. For Ranger games that start at 7, I can’t hear that, so I flip through the east coast games which have started.
So I’m listening to a Yankees game for a few minutes – they have a female radio announcer, so that kind of stops me, as it’s not something you usually hear. They’re doing the bit where “This game is copyrighted to the New York Yankees, and any rebroadcast.. bla, bla, bla”. Well, guess what?
THAT ANNOUNCEMENT WAS SPONSORED!
Right after the announcement, some New York Law Firm’s ad blurb was read by the woman. I couldn’t believe it. The “This game is copyrighted” speech had a corporate sponsor. I wonder when we’ll see corporate sponsors for those wrist guards players wear like battle armor, or sponsors for the belt buckles on their uniforms!
Alfonso Soriano named AL Player of the Week
In a move that isn’t terribly surprising to Ranger fans who follow the team regularly, Alfonso Soriano was named AL Player of the Week. From the press notes on it..
In six games last week, Soriano batted .458 (11-24), leading the league with five home runs, 13 RBI, and nine runs scored. The second baseman also led the A.L. in total bases with 28, while finishing third in slugging percentage at 1.167 and fifth in on-base percentage at .500. Soriano became the first Rangers’ player in three years with back to back multi-homer games on May 6th and May 7th against Cleveland. The three-time All-Star finished the week with a five-game hitting streak to help the Rangers go 5-1 and jump into second place in the A.L. West. This is the fourth career Player of the Week Award for Soriano and his first as a member of the Texas Rangers.
Alfonso se ardÃa la semana pasada! That’s for sure. Good for him, I wonder if it will get him over his sulking on having to bat fifth in the lineup.
G32: Rogers extends scoreless streak to 21 innings; Rangers win 7-2
Kenny Rogers shut down the Indians during his 7 innings on the mound. He gave up no runs (extending his scoreless streak to 21), six hits along with four strikeouts, and four walks. Speaking of streaks, Mark Teixeira now has a 12 game hitting streak, too. Soriano didn’t have any more home runs, but Mike Young did in the first inning to put us up 2-0 after the second batter of the game. This game felt more in control than last night’s game.
There really isn’t much to write about here. Rogers gave up nothing, we got a bunch of timely hits, but no one player dominated offensively.
Pudge and the surprisingly good Tigers come into town Monday night. Let’s see how we fare. I don’t expect it will be easy at all.
One other remark. With Rogers pitching this well, Scott Boras has to be salivating at the chance for another contract, eh?
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
G31: Rangers win behind Drese complete game, 6-1
I was at this game, and before the game started, I was talking to a few of the other season ticket holders in my area, and we pretty much all agreed that Drese had become a question mark. No one really knew what to expect from him tonight, as he had gotten not destroyed like Astacio did last night, but pretty much hit around well. Much to our surprise, Drese pitched like Drese from last year. His line was extremely impressive.. 9IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 1K, 100PT. It also was his first complete game win of his career, despite having a few complete games under his belt already.
Offensively, we were lead by Alfonso Soriano, who for the second night in a row had two home runs, with 3 RBI’s, and three runs scored. The other two RBI’s came from Mike Young and Rod Barajas (the last run scored on a throwing error). We actually only had 9 hits, but they were placed together well. Young and Teixeira had two each, as well as Soriano’s 3. Nix & Barajas chipped in with one each.
Was a nice game to be at – we won. Always good, but the game felt “in control” since the bottom of the second. Nice to not have to sit in the stands going “Oh God, we need 4 runs in the last 2 innings to just tie it”.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
G30: Rangers lose to Indians Friday, 8-6
The picture below of Buck Showalter arguing with an umpire below pretty much sums up this game. Pedro Astacio pitched even worse than Chan Ho Park did the first three years here and allowed seven runs in the first inning, and exiting after .2 IP in the game. That’s an ERA of 94.5 for this game. Hell, Rangers Captain could probably pitch better than that. Nolan Ryan RIGHT NOW could pitch better than that. Hell, I bet even Jose Canseco could pitch better. OK, I think you get my point. There was a smell coming from the pitcher’s mound of epic proportions in the first inning. Oddly enough, that’s where it ended.
Joaquin Benoit allowed 4H and 1 run in his 4.1IP. Kameron Loe allowed no runs and a single hit in his two innings. Mahay and CoCo allowed a hit each, but no runs. Our bullpen was pretty spectacular, too bad Astacio was craptacular.
Offensively, Alfonso Soriano led the way with two home runs and four RBI’s. Blalock also had a homer, and Gary Matthews chipped in for the 6th RBI. But it wasn’t enough due to the craptacularlness of Pedro Astacio. Another of those, and we won’t be seeing anymore “Vote for Pedro” signs at the Ballpark, eh?
Buck Showalter got tossed for the first time as a Rangers manager. Was cool though to see him turn his hat around backwards and argue – the mark of a true manager/ump argument, IMO. That and Billy Martin’s old “Kicking dirt” piece which I’ve seen Lou Piniella do a few times. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
Kameron Loe called up, Matt Riley DFA
To help shore up the bullpen, Kameron Loe was called up from AAA this afternoon. I saw him pitch a few times in Frisco last year, he looked like he had some good pop the times I saw him. I always thought he was a starter, but we appear to need more pen help now than in the rotation, surprising as that sounds.
Matt Riley was designated for assignment to make room on the 25 man roster. He was removed from the 40 man roster too, which leaves us with 39 men on the 40 man now. I don’t see removing Riley from the majors as a big deal – he didn’t do much for us this season, allowing 14 runs in 12.2 innings.
Riley was obtained from the Orioles late in spring training for Ramon Nivar.
Roster Transaction
- P Kameron Loe recalled from AAA
- P Matt Riley designated for assignment [
link ]
G29: Rangers sweep A’s with 16-7 bombing on Thursday
We had a 7 run fourth inning, and a 6 run 8th inning. That was pretty much the game in a nutshell. :)
Plus it rained a lot. Don’t have time to write about this one. Was nice to get a sweep inside our own division. Plus the Yankees are tied for last place with Tampa Bay. It’s all good.
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