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On my 45th birthday, the Rangers gave me a quite nice baseball present. They broke their four game losing streak with a dominating performance by CJ Wilson.
I tend to use the phrase “dominating” on this website perhaps a little more than I realistically should, but man – it certainly applied tonight. CJ was masterful (uh-oh, another overused adjective) in this one, and was EXACTLY what we needed this night. Nolan Ryan himself in his prime couldn’t have done any better in stopping the skid. CJ went 8.2 innings, allowing just THREE hits and a walk, and struck out a dozen Orioles. At one point, he got 16 Orioles in a row out. I mean, WOW! 118 pitches when he came out of the game, he still had a realistic number of pitches left. I confess at the time wishing Washington would leave him in there, but you can’t argue with the result. Rangers win, Feliz got his first save of the month, and his 30th overall.
Thing is, the Orioles pitcher (Jake Arrieta) probably pitched well enough to win the game himself. He didn’t have quite the line as CJ, but you can’t argue with what he did as a good performance. 6.2 IP, 8 hits, three walks, two runs (one earned). Quality start for sure, and on any normal night, he probably would have won. But not against Wilson on this night – that’s for sure. The Orioles pen was good though – four guys combined for 2.1 innings of shutout ball. We couldn’t pad the lead at all against those guys, but we didn’t really need it.
Interesting bit late. Buck Showatler got tossed out of the game not long after Nick Markakis did (first time EVER for Nick). Showalter had a lot to say when he was out there. He did turn all kinds of red, which my wife even noticed. Now I point that out, because my wife needs glasses, and if she’s not wearing them, what she sees on the TV is a huge blur to her. She was laying on the sofa at the time (as the kids were both down now, and she was resting). She said “Wow – even without my glasses, Buck Showalter looks rather beet red”. He did seem to blow a few blood vessels. Not quite Earl Weaver levels of Orioles manager ejections, but it was a good show for sure.
Nice that we broke the streak, and as I write this on Friday night, the Angels have already lost, and the A’s are currently losing. Assuming that holds up, we’ll end the night eight games up on both of them. That’s quite amazing, considering how lackadaisical we’ve played over the last week or so. Not to have lost any significant ground during this time. Wow.

I wasn’t sure if I was right about the shutout statement in Game 119, but it didn’t matter. The Rangers were shut out in Game 120, 4-0 in Baltimore. If you count that horrible series right before the All-Star break, we’ve now lost five straight games to Baltimore. I really hope Baltimore doesn’t become our new Kansas City – a place where we should dominate totally, but can’t win worth a damn.
While he wasn’t there for the four game sweep back in July, Buck Showalter has certainly put a charge into Baltimore. I’ve always kind of liked Baltimore (except back in 83 when they beat my Phillies). Baltimore has had such a rough time over the last 13 years, only being beat out in futility by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Buck Showalter is probably the kind of manager they need there (the Pirates could use Bobby V, too I’d take it). But when Buck got the job, I thought it would be a good long term match, provided management doesn’t get tired of waiting for a honest to god turnaround.
But one thing I loved seeing from the Showalter press conference in Baltimore was the talk about Johnny Oates. My long time readers know I have a soft spot for Johnny Oates, and that Showalter continues to pay reverence to him is great. Buck apparently asked for and got Johnny Oates’ old uniform number of 26 to wear in Baltimore. From what I read, he consulted with several people, not the least of which was Johnny’s family to make sure they’d be OK with it. That showed some class. I still remember the winter that Buck took over in Texas him coming straight over to me and asking me about the red Rangers hat I was wearing. I’ll never forget that. The man has a reputation of being a heavy duty, almost too far level of detail to him, and the fact he’d talk to a fan (me) about cap colors with the Rangers, or talk to Johnny Oates’ widow about wearing his old uniform number just makes me like him more. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ron Washington, and enjoy him now, but I wish Buck Showalter had won it big here in Texas, I thought he deserved it. I hope he can have better success in Baltimore – but not until the Rangers win the World Series.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to write a ton about Buck Showalter here, but truth be told, there’s little else to say about this game. The story of the game is the Orioles’ starter Brian Matusz (the Z is silent – Mah-toos). He went eight innings, allowing no runs on five hits and a walk. Struck out six. Koji Uehara followed with a little rocky (two hits) inning, but he too put up the all important donut in the runs column.
That was about it. Vlad Guerrero seems to be coming around again – went 2-3 with a walk for a team that got just seven hits overall. We need his power back – especially now with Cruz down, and Kinsler still out.
Tip of the hat to Brian Matusz. He looked awesome. Hard to beat that kind of pitching, no matter what your offense is doing.

Shit.

The less said about this mess, the better.
But at least Murphy saved us from being shut out. If I’m not mistaken, the Rangers are the only team that hasn’t been shut out in 2010.

Cliff Lee may have had his worst outing as a Ranger. You couldn’t tell it early on, as Lee piled up zeroes on the runs column for the first four innings. He then let the Rays on the board with a two spot in the bottom of the fifth, when a Willy Aybar single scored two. OK, not too bad. Two runs, we can live with that.
We actually made a game of it, and it looked good late. The Rangers offense was shut down by Chad Price, who went six plus innings. The first six, the Rangers had no runs at all. Then Price weakened, and we put up two in the seventh. The first scored during a double play the Rangers had hit into, and hten the other on a single. So no big power here, just a lot of small ball. But OK, game’s tied 2-2, and Cliff Lee’s on the mound. That’s good.
Even better in the eighth, when we duplicated the seventh by scoring a run in the middle of a double play, and then singling in the other guy. Now we’re up 4-2 going into the bottom of the eighth with Cliff Lee on the mound. Feeling good.
Nope, that was not the feeling I should have had given the outcome. The wheels fell off in the eighth, when Lee gave up a four spot to the Rays. None of those were power RBI’s either, as one was a fielder’s choice, and the other runs came on two singles.
Not Cliff Lee’s night, and you couldn’t blame the Texas heat for that one. He fell apart late. It’s OK, I suppose, it’s not like he’s going to go 34-0 in a season, he’ll lose some here and there. Better now than October I suppose. :)

After the series with the Yankees & Red Sox, I think a lot of pundits and national press expected the Rangers to fall back, as well, we were playing “real teams”. Well, against the Yankees and Red Sox, we went 3-2 combined, and in the standings? We didn’t lose anything at all. Going into Monday night’s game against the Rays, the AL West standings:
Rangers: 67-49, .578
Angels: 60-59, .504 – 8.5GB
A’s: 57-59, .491 – 10GB
Mariners: 46-72, .390 – Who cares?
It’s a good feeling to be that far out in front on August 16th. I’m not saying anything is over, but man is it a good feeling.
As for Sunday, the inferno game… CJ Wilson took the mound, and it seemed apparent that the heat didn’t mean anything to him. He looked quite good, and didn’t have the tentative feel he sometimes gets if his pitch count gets too high. His line was 7.2IP, 4H, 1BB, 1ER, and EIGHT strikeouts. Looked pretty darned good. He came out with 113 pitches thrown, which in that heat probably felt like 213, but when he came out, I didn’t think he looked that beat down, so I’ll give that two thumbs up.
Pedro Strop, who was just called up from the minors followed, and allowed all the runs the Sox got. He let one of CJ’s inherited runners to score, and then gave up two of his own. Blah. That killed the shutout. Neftali Feliz closed it out with a shutdown inning to close it out for the win. Shame we gave up anything at all, as CJ deserved the win with the backup of keeping the shutout going.
But hey, we got the win, beat Boston, who had a really odd lineup out there – most of their regulars were on the DL or sitting.
On to Tampa to take on the Wild Card leaders. Monday night is Cliff Lee against David Price. Man, that ought to be good. Playoff preview, perhaps? :)

The day after we won against Boston in a mashing fun way, we were shut down by their starter Jon Lester. Lester was brilliant, scattering just five hits over eight innings of shutout ball. He didn’t walk anyone, and struck out five. Not a lot on the strikeout side of things, but man, he looked good. Not a surprise that the only run we got came off of Boston reliever Scott Atchison.
That one run was a home run to Josh Hamilton, who probably could even hit Bugs Bunny at the moment. Hamilton was our best offensive player of the night, not just because he accounted for the only run, but his overall line was the best of anyone on the Rangers roster this night. Josh was 2-4 with a run and an RBI. Granted, he drove himself in, but still. Nelson Cruz also had two hits, but they didn’t amount to anything, and the entire rest of the lineup managed just three hits.
Nelson Cruz’s triple off of Lester was bad, as he came out of the game, and had to go on the DL two days later (I’m writing this two days later – ha) due to his running out the triple. It’s a shame he’s been hurt so much, as you’d think he’d have just as good a year as Josh is having if he could stay on the field. Sad.
On our side, Colby Lewis was a hard luck pitcher again, going six plus innings, and allowing just one run. His line wasn’t as dominating as Lester’s, but he certainly pitched well enough for a win. 6.2IP, 6H, 1ER, 2BB, and NINE strikeouts – that’s been Colby’s strength, the strikeout.
Shame he didn’t get the win, as he deserved it.