19-Year-Ranger-Fan & Yu
I am ceding my space today to 19-Year-Ranger-Fan, who makes me jealous every day that he now lives in Arlington, Texas, allowing him to attend Rangers games on a regular basis, while his loving father, who gave him life, suffers in silence watching yet another game on Fox Sports Southwest instead of in person with the season tickets his son should have been happy to give him as a gift, not to mention the daily airfare to get there to see them. Ah well. At least I raised him right enough to be a Rangers fan. And I only had to beat him occasionally to get him to be one. Just kidding. Really, I am.
Ok, so I have been to 6 Rangers games this year, so you would think I would have made a special guest appearance sooner than this, but alas I keep going with friends and end up just being a fan and having fun (Note from Dad: Having fun??? This is a serious game. Stop doing that!!! Not really.). However, I did get to go my second Yu Darvish outing last night and I must say…I found him much more impressive than I did in his debut.
Due to traffic and GPS issues, I missed the first batter, which ended up accounting for the A’s only run, but didn’t leave my seat for the rest of the game. I won’t go on and on about how Yu has control of the strike zone. Every sportswriter from here to Frisco is writing about that (Note from Dad: Arlington to Frisco is 47 Miles. We need to improve that.) What I will say is how impressed I am with Darvish in not letting the pressure get to him.
In the first inning he gave up a lead-off hit that bounced off the wall in such a way that Josh Hamilton wasn’t able to field it cleanly, resulting in a double. Darvish then retired the next 3 batters he faced. Unfortunately the 1st two hit the ball well enough to advance the runner, one with a grounder, the other with a sac fly.
The rest of the night Yu was nearly untouchable, giving up only 3 more hits and striking out 7. I have seen pitchers in this league (and even on this team) who would have let that unfortunate bounce get into their head and end up ruining their night, maybe citing that they were unlucky, but Yu makes his own luck and he went after the A’s. Even after allowing a 2nd runner in the 8th, you could tell he thought he could finish the inning.
The Rangers didn’t provide Yu with a ton of run support, all of it coming exclusively in the 4th. It could have actually been a 2-1 game, but 2 runs scored when, instead of tagging Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson attempted to throw out a speedy Craig Gentry. He didn’t succeed, allowing Gentry to net an RBI single instead of being the 3rd out of the inning. And while Josh Hamilton hasn’t hit a homerun this week, he is still being effective in this lineup, getting an absolutely perfectly placed infield grounder to 2nd Baseman Jemile Weeks to set up Adrian Beltre’s 2-run shot.
All in all this was a great night to be at the ballpark, and I was fortunate to be able to spend it with an old friend who I hadn’t seen since I was 8 year old Ranger Fan. If Darvish keeps improving every time I see him start, then this is one fan who thinks he was definitely worth the money (Note from Dad: I concur. Wholeheartedly.).
Malaise
Nothing like being swept at home by the Kansas City Royals to take away the luster of a fine season so far.
The last two home games for the Rangers have been nothing short of putrid. The hitters stopped hitting, the defense stopped playing defense and the pitching on Tuesday was flat-out awful.
Some of this was to be expected. Texas was coming off taking two of three from division rivals the Angels. Following the Royals is a two-game set with the division rival Oakland A’s. Thus, this brief two-game set with KC seemed to be a perfect time to give some regulars a little rest. Ron Washington gave Ian Kinsler and Mike Napoli the night off on Monday, Elvis Andrus and Nelson Cruz on Tuesday. Scott Feldman put in a spot start Monday night and pitched rather well, but fell victim to a lack of offense and an uncharacteristic error on a routine play by Adrian Beltre.
If blame can be assigned to Tuesday’s loss, it belongs squarely on Lewis. Not only did he give up lots of hits, he also committed both Rangers errors on the night, the first prolonging the first inning until the Royals had put four runs on the scoreboard. Since starting the season with a 3-0 record in April with a 1.93 ERA, Lewis in May has gone 0-3 with a 6.52 ERA. And it would be worse if not for the fact that five of the seven runs he gave up last night were officially unearned, thanks to his own bonehead plays. It makes one wonder if Lewis’ degenerative hip condition is flaring up again. Whether it is or it isn’t, this bad stretch isn’t likely to make the Rangers front office want to consider keeping him after his contract runs out at the end of the 2012 season.
One can only hope this brief malaise is just a little hiccup as Texas gears up to take on the A’s tonight and tomorrow. If not, this will be one of the more worrisome 23-14 teams out there.
Class of 2012
This play-by-play announcer is HISTORY!
For all who don’t know Eric Nadel’s signature home run call, suffice it to say if something is HISTORY, it’s pretty special. This time it’s Nadel himself who is special. The 18-year veteran behind the mike for Rangers radio broadcasts was named today as the newest member of the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame.
The Rangers alternate inductees by year: In odd-numbered years, the inductees are former Rangers players. In even-numbered years, the choices come from other places within the Rangers universe: front office, broadcasting, even the mayor of Arlington who brought the Rangers from Washington DC to Texas 40 years ago.
Eric Nadel, Rangers Hall of Famer 2012
This year it’s Nadel’s turn and you’ll be hard-pressed to find many Rangers fans who would be against the decision. Besides being the Rangers play-by-play voice for the past 18 seasons, Nadel was the color analyst on the radio broadcasts for 15 years prior to that. Needless to say, Rangers fans have become accustomed to the sound of Nadel’s voice. He’s such an institution that many fans turn down the sound of the TV broadcasts and watch the game while listening to Nadel call the game on the radio. I would do the same, except I can only get the radio feed on my computer and it’s downright impossible to get the two to synch up properly.
Nadel has been named Texas Sportscaster of the Year six times and, one of these days, I expect he’ll win the national Ford Frick Award for broadcast excellence. In fact, he is a finalist for this year’s award. Eric will officially be inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame on August 11th.
Congratulations, Eric. This is one well-deserved honor!
Fun With First Names
Josh Hamilton blah blah blah. Rangers take 2 of 3 from Angels blah blah blah. #1 in ESPN & MLB Power Rankings blah blah blah.
You all know this. The Rangers are good, maybe even great. Josh Hamilton is great, maybe even superhuman.
So instead of gloating over beating the Angels two out of three or rhapsodizing about the first 35 games of 2012, let me look even further down the road into the Rangers future.
It started in my generation. When many of us became parents, it wasn’t enough anymore to name our children “Paul” or “Jim” or “Mike”. No, our generation, for better or worse, decided it was time to start giving our children more exotic names. Sometimes it would just be a different way of spelling a name, like “Stefan” instead of the Anglicized “Steven”. For girls, it might be “Alyce” instead of “Alice”. Many in the longhair crowd would go further overboard. Frank Zappa led the charge by naming his kids “Moonbeam” and “Dweezil”. Or it could be a word no one had thought to use as a name before. Sonny and Cher gave birth to “Chastity” (now Chaz). And so on and so forth.
Lately, I think this trend has manifested itself south of the border as well. In years past, we got used to seeing major league line-ups filled with Latino players with first names like Roberto, Juan, Jesus and Luis. Most of the time, we could see the obvious translation to the English names. It was probably better that way. Broadcasters had a hard enough time with name pronunciations. The easier the better.
These days, new first names are cropping up like crazy among Latino ballplayers, making for even more challenges for broadcasters. The Oakland A’s this year have a Yoenis, the Padres an Edinson and a Yonder.
Jurickson
The Rangers have Neftali Feliz and Elvis Andrus. And there are even more intriguing first names coming up in the ranks. Here are a few of the names in the Rangers system that could be twisting broadcasters tongues over the next few years (last names in parentheses):
AAA: Leonys (Martin) and Yangervis (Solarte)
AA: Leury (Garcia), Guilder (Rodriuguez), Engel (Beltre) and Jurickson (Profar).
Hi-A: Yefry (Castillo) and Odubel (Herrera)
Rougned
A: Hanser (Alberto) and Rougned (Odor)
Dominican Summer League: Dario (Beltre), Aliangel (Lopez), Nerfy (Nunez), Richelson (Pena), Belarmino (Campos), Aneudy (Feliz), Smerling (Lantigua) and Esdras (Abreu)
We grew up knowing the names Willie, Hank, Mickey and Barry. The big names our next generation will grow up with could be Jurickson, Rougned, Nerfy and Smerling. Who knows what names will resonate fifty years from now?
Week 6 In Review
Here’s a wrap-up of the week that was in Texas Rangers baseball. All stats listed are just for the previous week of play.
Rangers Record: 5-2
Overall: 23-12 (1st Place AL West)
Jalapeno Hot (Offense): Nelson Cruz .500/.563/.750 1 HR, 7 RBI
Josh Hamilton .467/.529/1.433 9 HR, 18 RBI
Raspa Cold (Offense): Michael Young .194/.212/.355
David Murphy .188/.278/.375
Jalapeno Hot (Pitching): Neftali Feliz 2-0, 2.25 ERA 13K in 12 IP
Alexi Ogando 4 IP 0 ER .167 BAA 1.00 WHIP
Raspa Cold (Pitching): Colby Lewis 0-1 7.71 ERA 5 HR
Anticlimactic
For all the build-up, Mother Nature made it a no big deal affair.
It was Darvish vs. Wilson in name only. The rains came with one out in the bottom of the first and when play resumed two hours later, CJ Wilson was already done for the night.
Wilson was roundly booed when he popped out of the dugout to start the bottom of the first. I’m not one who agreed with that initial reaction. After all, Wilson did help bring the Rangers to the World Series the past two years. But I do understand the reasons some Texas fans would choose the negative approach.
If you look at baseball like TV’S “Survivor”, CJ is the guy you love to have on your tribe. He’s good at challenges and helps you earn rewards. The thing is, he doesn’t play the social game well. When the game becomes an individual one, you don’t mind taking CJ to the end because you know he won’t get the votes to be the overall winner. The people on the jury just don’t like him.
CJ said the Rangers never really made him an offer in the off-season. That may be true. On the other hand, you’d have a hard time convincing me Wilson would’ve re-signed if the Rangers had matched or slightly topped the Angels offer. Wilson’s a California guy and I think once the Angels entered the bidding he had what he wanted most: the chance to go home. Add in the whole Mike Napoli Twitter scandal and the fact the Angels are division rivals and the atmosphere was as ripe for boos as the gathering clouds were for an outpouring of rain at game time.
CJ didn’t come back out after the rain delay, but apparently is now going to start Game 2 Saturday. I can’t remember officially how long it has been since the same pitcher started two games in a row, but I recall knuckleballer Wilbur Wood started both ends of a doubleheader for the White Sox sometime in the early 70′s.
As to Friday night’s game, it was all Rangers. Another two home runs for Hamilton (I think Hamiltonian is a great way to describe Josh’s blasts). Another oh-fer for Albert. Another win for Yu. An 8 game lead at the end of the night.
The question is, what will CJ do for an encore today?
The Ups & Downs Of Colby Lewis
Colby Lewis today turned in one of the truly weird pitching performances I’ve ever heard (hey, it was a workday with no cable in my office). Here’s what Lewis did in the Rangers Game 1 6-5 loss to the Orioles:
1st Inning: HR, HR, HR, Out, K, K.
2nd Inning: K, K, K.
3rd Inning: K, Out, K.
4th Inning: Out, K, K.
5th Inning: K, Out, Out.
6th Inning: K, Out, Out.
7th Inning: HR, W, HR, HBP, Out, Error, K.
So that’s back-to-back-to-back home runs to start the game, followed by 18 in a row retired, followed by two more homers, a walk and a hit batter.
In the end, Lewis gave up a career-high 5 home runs in the game. He also recorded a career high 12 strikeouts in the game. He’s the first Rangers pitcher since Charlie Hough in 1989 to have a start giving up only five hits, but all of them home runs. A truly weird game.
Also weird: The Rangers came into the doubleheader second in the AL in fielding. The Orioles scored all three of their runs in the second game in the second inning, due to three Texas errors in the inning. Fortunately, Derek Holland threw goose eggs the rest of the way, the offense picked it up in the late innings and Texas came out on top 7-3.
The Rangers ended this 10-game road trip at 5-5, pretty good considering they started it 2-4.
The bullpen was only needed for four innings tonight. That helps heading into the Angels series.
New Ranger Yu Darvish vs. former Ranger CJ Wilson tomorrow night. What a match-up, and I won’t be able to see it. Friday games are only available on local TV in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, so I’ll have to be content with the radio feed. Big weekend coming up. More important for the Angels than the Rangers, but you can bet Texas will come out like they’re the ones with something to prove.
Implications Of A Rain-Out
The havoc one night of rain can cause. No, it’s not havoc in terms of property destruction. This time, the havoc is how Wednesday’s rained out game between the Rangers and Orioles will affect Wash’s Boys over the next five days.
Because of the rain-out, combined with this being the Rangers’ only trip to Baltimore in 2012, the game will be made up today as part of a day-night doubleheader. With no off day tomorrow, this puts the Rangers in the position of playing four games over a 48 hour time span.
Texas will play two today in Baltimore. Following Game 2, they’ll board a plane to take them home to Arlington. Tomorrow night will be Game 1 between the Rangers and the Angels, followed by a nationally televised game Saturday afternoon.
Needless to say, strong performances from Colby Lewis and Derek Holland would be much appreciated by the bullpen today. If the bullpen is taxed in the two games today, it could cause the Rangers to do something they haven’t had to do all season: make a roster move. Texas is the only team in the majors yet to make a roster move in 2012.
The turn of events from this rain-out has to have the Rangers happy they carry the lead they currently do over the Angels. The first showdown between the two pre-season AL West favorites takes place tomorrow through Sunday at sold-out Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and already, the Angels will have two distinct advantages. First, they have an off day today, which they’ll spend in the Dallas area while their foes play two games half a continent away, making the visitors the fresher team going into the series. Then, while the Rangers are throwing their 3, 4 and 5 starters at the Angels, the Los Angelenos get to counter with their 4, 5 and 1 starters.
This isn’t to say the Rangers can’t win the series against the Angels. I still think they can. They will, however, have to overcome a couple of disadvantages to make it happen.
As Wash would say, though, no sense worrying about it now. There are two games to play today first. Let’s worry about them.
The Awesome Mr. Hamilton
Earlier this season, a perfect game was thrown. It was the 21st in major league history.
Tonight in Baltimore, Josh Hamilton accomplished something even rarer. The 2010 AL MVP became just the 14th player in the modern era and the 16th overall to club four home runs in one game. There was little doubt about any of the shots, though Adam Jones gamely made an attempt at catching the first one. Hamilton’s 18 total bases for the game set a new AL record.
If you watch the replays of Hamilton’s night, you’ll see he missed a record-breaking fifth home run by just a little bit, slamming a double in the only at bat in which he didn’t clear the fences.
Hamilton connected off Jake Arrieta. He blasted one off Arietta again. Zach Phillips? See ya. Former teammate Darren O’Day? Let’s hit the record tying home run off you.
By the time the night was over, Hamilton had knocked in eight of the Rangers 10 runs, totally eclipsing Neftali Feliz’ pretty dominant six inning, eight strikeout performance.
Here are the sad things about this game. On a personal note, Ranger Son-In-Law and Ranger Grandson are going to be at Camden Yards tomorrow night. What memories those two would have shared had they been there tonight. On a broader note, they weren’t the only ones not there. Unbelievably, the two best teams in the American League right now record-wise met in front of a mere 11,263 paying customers. I know the Birds have not been a good team for a few years now, but that is a really horrible turnout, even if the weather was threatening.
Also overshadowed by Hamilton’s accomplishment: Nelson Cruz had his second straight 3-hit game. Adrian Beltre had a home run of his own. And Elvis Andrus was on base for every one of Hamilton’s homers, scoring ahead of him each time.
One record Hamilton did NOT set- the Rangers single game RBI record. Hamilton knocked in 8 Tuesday night. The record is still held by Pudge Rodriguez with 9.
The win evens up this road trip record to 4-4 with two games remaining. Considering it started out 2-4, it could have been a disastrous road trip. Instead, now it could still end up a winning one, thanks to the awesome Mr. Hamilton.
Week 5 In Review
Here’s a wrap-up of the week that was in Texas Rangers baseball. All stats listed are just for the previous week of play.
Rangers Record: 2-4
Overall: 18-10 (1st Place AL West)
Jalapeno Hot (Offense): Elvis Andrus .458/.519/.583 4 RBI
Mitch Moreland .421/.500/.684 2 2B, 1 HR
Raspa Cold (Offense): Nelson Cruz .115/.115/.154 6 Strikeouts
Mike Napoli .111/.227/.111 4 Strikeouts
Jalapeno Hot (Pitching): Yu Darvish 1-1, 2.77 ERA, 20 Strikeouts in 13 Innings Pitched
Raspa Cold (Pitching): Matt Harrison 0-1, 21.60 ERA , .444 BA Against
Recent Comments