Rangers Magic Number

7-6 Rangers win!!

WHEW! IS RIGHT H69.

My gosh the bullpen nearly gave it away. Murph came through again tonight when we needed it.

Now the bullpen is strained - there will be no Nathan or Ross or Adams Fri night - all have had 3 straight days of work. Fortunately the bats are robust and we face a 0-0 pitcher tonight with Harrison on the mound for the Good Guys!

GO RANGERS!
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Rangers are 3-4 against the A's on the season and really need to take 2 of next 3 and at least even the season series if not take next three. The Angels are on eastern road trip but have started 3-0 on it so even though Rangers have been on a great run they only have a 3.5 game lead.
 
Long season, everyone gets tired and has down times, but it's time to move Michael Young out the five hole. He bats with the bases loaded and no outs and hits a weak pop up. Even his usual double play grounder would have scored a run.

Let him get it back, if it's there from 7 or 8. His OBP is in the Torreabla range!
 
Hard to complain about Rangers since they continue to have best record in baseball. Angels are tied for 4th best. This is shaping up to be an even hotter summer!

P.S.: Glad I'm not having to name the AL All-Stars. There will be guys having great seasons left off.

Hook'em!!!
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Nice W for the Rangers tonight. Great eight innings from Matt Harrison. Good clutch hit by Gentry to drive in three runs in bottom of eighth. And a nice job by Tanner Scheppers in the ninth for his first save.

And to make it even better, Toronto beat the Angels. Lead now up to five games.

HHD
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Damn straight to all of that HHD! Just finished watching the game. Great AB by Josh and Nellie to draw the walks (and smash single by Elvis) and then crushing blow by Gentry over the rook. Hats off to Harry and Scheppers for getting it done on the bump. F the Angels, Go Rangers!! 80.

Hook'em!!!
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I just don't worry much when this team gets behind. They kind of remind me of the '98 Yanks -- when one guy would go into a slump, someone else would step up. Twenty games over, and with a patchwork rotation.

Once Hamilton learns how to hang on to the handle, he'll be able to relax at the plate, and he'll regain his form. Right now he's so afraid he's going to kill someone that he's handcuffing himself.
 
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Nice comback last night after bats struggled for seven innings. Harrison really battled to keep Rangers in game and it was nice to have a night off for the bullpen especially with a rookie being run out tonight and the expectation that the pen will be called on early and often.
 
Game is at 6 tonight and my seats are in the sun - great. Perez is pitching so there will be a ton of runs scored; I just hope the Rangers don't let the A's get to far in front.
 
I have a real problem with Wash's habit of pitching Nathan with a 4-run lead, and this week illustrates why.

On Tuesday night against the Tigers, Wash went to Nathan with a 13-9 lead in the 9th. Then, on Wednesday night, he had to go to Nathan with a 7-6 lead over the A's. Nathan was therefore unavailable with a 4-2 lead in the 9th last night. All because Wash "likes" to use his closer with a 4-run lead.

Nathan has appeared in 33 games, but has had only 19 save opportunities. [To Nathan's credit, he has converted an excellent 18 of those opportunities.] That means Wash has used Nathan in 14 non-save opportunities. In other words, Nathan is getting the ball in a non-save situation almost as often as he does in a save situation.

That's a bad ratio (and a heavy workload) for a 37-year-old pitcher with a history of recent arm surgery. I understand that there are some non-save situations in which it makes sense to use your closer (e.g., tie game in the 9th or extras, if he hasn't pitched in a few days and needs work, etc.). However, IMO, Wash has got to be smarter about how he uses Nathan for the rest of the season.
 
^^^This. I've never been a big fan of Wash's bullpen moves, but he's managed to survive many of the head-scratching decisions so far. One of these days, though, it's going to come back to bite him and the Rangers.
 
PFD, I agree with you about using Nathan with the 4-run lead...you definitely don't want it to cost you a game like it could have last night. The only thing I'd pick at your stats is that there have been games, esp. early on, when Nathan got into blowout games just to get his work in.

Otherwise, Wash has pushed so many correct buttons the last 3 seasons, this is fun to be able to do this after wins.
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Hook'em!!!
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Good points, Horn69. It's hard to nitpick when the team has the best record in the majors - Wash must be doing something right!

Furthermore, they are on a nice winning streak with half the pitching staff on the DL. Admittedly the schedule has been pretty kind during this stretch, but they've been able to keep winning in spite of the growing DL. When they get the staff healthy and ready to produce, they should be well-positioned to put the AL West in their hip pocket.

BTW, it would also help a bunch if the offense would start clicking again. Napoli, Young, and Hamilton need to regain form. Thanks to Gentry and Murphy for picking up the slack.

In the meantime, I think we need to give credit to Young and Napoli for handling the 1B dutries very well in the absence of Moreland.

HHD
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Angels getting rung up in Toronto this afternoon so a chance to pick up another game and extend lead out to 6.5 games tonight.
 
78!! Gosh,could any more players contribute to their success? Perez and Kirkman of all pitchers gets the job done. Nice to see Josh go yard. And Beltre. Red-hot Rangers!!!

Hook'em!!!
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And this good postscript...after 16 days of tracking the Magic Number, EIGHTEEN has been reduced or better than one per day. If this continutes Rangers postseason chances look bright. Especially since every freaking pitcher bar save Harrison, Darvish, Nathan and Ross have been on the DL!

Hook'em!!!
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With the injuries this team has had to get to 50 wins in 79 games is pretty incredible. I dont know if the Rangers can maintain this pace but if it really will take between 92 and maybe 95 wins to win the west they need only play 4 games over .500 or 45-38 with 83 games left the rest of the way to get to 95 wins. There is a legitimate shot at pushing 100 wins though we still hace the dog days of July and August to get through.
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Yu was not his best last night and the Good Guys missed a sweep of the pesky A's but took 3 of 4 so it is still good. Season record is 50-30 - best in the entire league. Going into CWS series the R's need to take 2 of 3 to keep the momentum going
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Get the son of a ***** outta there. Takes 6 runs in 1.1 to get the bullpen up. Are u kidding me???
 
Wow. 1st start was great, the last 2 not-so-great to suckage. This is kind of the way Oswalt's minor league starts went IIRC. I sure hope he is just working out the kinks, like he would've done in spring training.
 
Rangers should reassess EVER picking up another NL pitcher. AL firepower is just too much. Roy O's W was vs Rockies.

Hook'em!!!
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Rangers should reasses EVER picking up another NL pitcher. AL firepower is just too much. Roy O's W was vs Rockies.

Hook'em!!!
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19-2 loss to the wsoxs -uggh. Oswalt was awful from the get-go. H69 I think you are right about NL pitchers. Bullpen didn't help much and the R's couldn't get any serious battage going to try and keep up.... regardless it wouldn't have been enough when the other team scores 19.

Gotta turn it around tonight
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It's impossible to get major league hitters out when you center the ball in the strike zone. Oswalt couldn't seem to pitch on the black edges of the plate - he either missed the strike zone or teed it up for them in the center.

Oh, well, it was super ugly, but it still counts for only one in the loss column. Better results coming tonight.

Happy Fourth to all!

HHD
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5-4 - 10th inning walk off loss to the soxs was disgusting. I am not going to put all the blame on Feldman - the O had plenty of opportunities to get runs to win this thing but didn't get it done.

Gotta win this PM !
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Disappointing loss, as Rangers had opportunities to put it in the Win column. Can't blame this one on Feldman - he pitched very well after he settled down in the second, and Robbie Ross was lights out (again).

1:10 start this afternoon with Matt Harrison on the mound.

BTW, ESPN lists Derek Holland as the Saturday starter against the Twins. If true, the Rangers will have to make a roster move to bring him back onto the 25-man roster. Grimm back to Frisco??? Also, reports say Ogando and Feliz both throwing now - it would really help to get Ogando back on the 25-man to handle the 7th inning.

HHD
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