So yeah... I fell waaay behind with this this weekend's scoreboard. As Murphy's law would have it the critical stuff in life always seems to fall on what's supposed to be your recreational days/evenings... and as you can see, the result is it's now this Monday's scoreboard. With that in mind, I hope nobody minds if we skip the formalities jump right into this week's recaps...
Saturday: Royals 2, Rangers 0
Zack Greinke does not feel sorry for Kevin Millwood. If you're like me, you probably felt for Millwood when you saw see the Rangers lose 2 starts in which Millwood gave up just 2 runs in 16 combined innings (going back to April 12th in Detroit), but Zack Greinke felt no such emotion. He didn't feel sorry for the Ranger hitters either, as he carved them up like little bars of soap. It's not that Zach Greinke is cruel - no, he's just really, really good at throwing baseballs. And that's really all you need to know about this game.
Sunday: Rangers 6, Royals 5
Sunday marked the dawn of Michael Young week, which officially kicked off sometime in the seconds after the first walkoff homer of his career soared off his bathead and into the seats in right center. It had of course been preceded by an 8th inning rally against former Ranger relievers Ron Mahay and Jamey Wright, in which Chris Davis' drove home the game-tying run with a pinch hit single. The 11th-hour rally erased yet another lackluster effort from Vicente Padilla, who gave up 8 hits and 5 runs in 5 innings but found himself saved by Young's heroics and a sparkling effort from the bullpen (as aggressively managed by Ron Washington). Jason Jennings, CJ Wilson and Frank Francisco combined for 4 innings of 1-hit baseball after Padilla's exit, paving the way for the Rangers timely comeback against the truly mystifying bullpen management of KC manager Trey Hillman, who sent the struggling Kyle Farnsworth to the mound in the stead of his well-rested closer Joakim Soria for the decisive 9th inning.
Tuesday: Rangers 5, Blue Jays 4
You know what the only thing better than a miraculous walkoff win is? Beating one of the best pitchers in baseball on a good day, that's what. Roy Halladay's 5.36 career ERA against the Rangers may be his highest against any American League opponent, but that doesn't make beating him in the friendly confines of the Rogres Centre in Toronto any less of an achievement. "Doc" Halladay would go 8 innings, strike out 9 Rangers and walk no one, needing just 104 pitches to do it. But when the free-swinging Texas bats weren't making outs early in counts they where pounding the baseball, tagging Halladay for 8 hits and 5 runs - including two 2-run homers by Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler, the latter of which put the Rangers ahead for good in the 7th.
Brandon McCarthy turned in a second straight effective but fairly unspectacular start, going 6 innings and allowing 3 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks - good enough for a "quality start", but more importantly good enough to keep the Rangers in the game against Halladay. The Ranger bullpen as usual did it's best to make things interesting in the 8th, as CJ Wilson allowed an inherited (and unearned thanks to an Elvis Andrus throwing error) to score, before Frankie Francisco came on and loaded the bases before inducing a lineout to Young and a flyball to center to escape with the lead. He went on to allow a 1-out double in the 9th, but again recovered to record his first 5-out save and show that maybe - just maybe - Ron Washington has learned a thing or two about managing his late inning relievers.
Thursday: Blue Jays 8, Rangers 7
Try not too hard to look at the linescore of this one, because if you do you'll be disappointed. And you shouldn't be. Sometimes special occurrences during a game outshine the end result, and Derek Holland's Major League debut was one of those occurrences. Called upon to clean up Scott Feldman's bases loaded mess with 2 out in the 6th, Holland allowed an infield RBI single to Adam Lind, his first ML batter - and then proceeded to induce a pop fly from Scott Rolen and fire 2 more scoreless innings. He sent Aaron Hill down to a knee with a wicked slider for his first strikeout in the 8th, and later froze Vernon Wells with a sneaky fastball at the knees to end the inning. He would be pulled after allowing a single to Lind (again) to open the 9th, but that couldn't possibly detract from an overall sparkling debut - 2.1 innings pitched, 3 hits, no runs, no walks and 2 strikeouts. Not bad for a kid with just 5 starts above A-Ball.
The Rangers did eventually go on to lose the game, despite Michael Young's second 9th inning homer of the week, which tied the game and sent it to extras. Waiver pickup Darren O'Day also made his Rangers debut, donning Kason Gabbard's jersey to do so - but he couldn't wriggle out of the 10th inning jam that CJ Wilson had created, allowing the game-winning single to Scott Rolen. To be forgotten in all the drama, good and bad was yet another sub-par effort from Matt Harrison - 9 hits, 2 walks and 5 runs in just 4 innings.
Wednesday: Blue Jays 5, Rangers 2
Remember John Paul's post last Tuesday chronicling the eerie similarities between Kevin Millwood's 2008 start (and eventual collapse) and his sharp beginning to the 2009 season? Well, for those of you who enjoy a good kneejerk, Millwood made it seem more like prophecy than speculation on Thursday. Okay, so maybe giving up 4 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks over 7 innings isn't that bad, but giving up 3 home runs isn't exactly good, either.
Really though, Thursdays loss was probably more about the Ranger offense failing to score off of 'Jays righthander Scott Richmond, a 29 y/o who just 2 years ago was pitching in the independent league. They scored just 2 runs (both on solo homers) despite mustering 6 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings against Richmond. They also managed to whiff 8 times, including Taylor Teagarden K'ing with the bases loaded in the 4th. I know every dog has his day, but Richmond is a guy with a tRA+ of just 72 on the season for petes sake.
Friday: Rangers 5, Orioles 4
The offense managed to redeem themselves Friday, however. Things didn't go well early for the Rangers, but the bats saved their best for last as they erased a 4-1 deficit by scoring 4 runs in the final 3 innings, 3 against the O's best late inning relievers. Michael Young capped things with his MLB record third game-trying or lead-changing 9th inning homer in 5 days, a 2-out, 2 run shot to right center off George Sherrill.
He again spared Vicente Padilla from a loss, despite Padilla making his "best" start of the season so far, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks but working into the 7th inning for the first time. Not-so-fun tidbit: remember how I said Scott Richmond's tRA+ was only 72 on the season so far? Well, Vicente Padilla's tRA+ is just 50. Youch.
Saturday: Rangers 6, Orioles 5
As any readers that know me from Lone Star Ball probably know, I'm not exactly Scott Feldman's biggest fan. But after his performance Saturday, I'm among the first to admit I don't really know why this club considers Kris Benson a better starting option than Feldman. Sure, it was just one start, which doesn't even amount to a short jaunt in the land of small sample sizes. And sure, he hasn't exactly shined in his previous appearances out of the bullpen this year (to say the least). Maybe just like last year, comparison to a lackluster group of peers makes it seem better than it was. But his 5 innings of 4 hit, 1 run ball - the rotations best effort since Millwood's complete game loss the previous Saturday - where awfully convincing.
Another thing that was awfully convincing was Derek Holland. In his second major league outing, Holland went 3 innings and gave up his first major league walk, and his first major league home run - but not much else. He didn't appear to have the quite the command he had in his debut, but he didn't appear fased, either. The polish and maturity on the mound Holland has shown in his two appearances so far has been nothing short of impressive. It's probably still a bit soon to be calling for his slotting into the big league rotation, but if he keeps showing this kind of poise and nasty stuff for another week or two out of the bullpen it's going to become an imminent eventuality - especially if Matt Harrison's inability to miss bats continues the way it has.
Sunday: Orioles 8, Rangers 5
These are the kind of losses that hurt. Your offense knocks around a rookie pitcher and builds you a 5-1 lead... and bam. In the space of two innings it completely evaporates. Not exactly anything new for the Rangers this April, or for the past few years, really. But after seeing this team pull off 2 straight wins, seeing them blow up again yesterday and kill all that good momentum again is pretty disappointing.
The good news is Chris Davis and Hank Blalock are coming around, at least where their slugging percentages are concerned. David Murphy finally made contact with a baseball for the first time since August 6th, 2008. Jarrod Saltalamacchia in particular seems to love Baltimore - he's 7 for 12 on the series and now holds a .419/455/.645 line in 8 career games at Camden Yards. Going back to Toronto he's got a 5 game hitting streak going - in fact since April 16th, he's hit .407/.429/.630. Hopefully I haven't jinxed anything by pointing all this out, but so much for that slump I discussed last time.
As for Brandon McCarthy and Jason Jennings... bleh. Everybody has bad days, and it's worth noting Rangers pitchers have been getting almost blatantly squeezed all series. Still, Jennings has now allowed 5 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks in his last 3.2 innings and McCarthy's peripherals are looking increasingly fringy. Through four starts the hits have increased while the strikeouts have decreased every time out. To his credit he hasn't staged any Harrison or Padilla-esque meltdowns yet, but that's what things are trending towards if he can't start missing bats again like he did in his first two starts.
Stat of the week
Yeah, I know, at this point it seems like I've been spouting random stats all entry long. But one more for the road here, and this one is a biggie:
It may not seem like it looking at the overall line, but Chris Davis has a 7-game hitting streak. After logging just 1 hit over his first 22 AB's, Chris is hitting .308/.341/.718 since his 3-4 breakout against the O's back on April 13th. In fact, he's only gone 0-for in one game since then (back on the 18th against KC). Good to have you back, Chris.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment