Kins and Beltre with clutch hits. Great start by Holland with assist from Wash to get him out of jam in 4th. Nathan with the EXCITING 9th. Whew. TG for the baserunning blunder to make up for the Young error. And eff Angels.
Great win last night. Too bad it doesn't look like we can say the same thing tonight. Perhaps almost two weeks of rest was too much for Yu. I realize you can't win them all, but it sure does drive me crazy to see such an anemic offensive club like the Mariners (only the A's have a worse team batting average in the bigs) go to town on Rangers pitching. Gotta play better than .500 ball within the division to win the West.
Very strong pitching by Harry for the 4-0 win Sunday. Take 2 of 3 while Yanks take 2 of 3 from LAA. A needed day of rest on Mon. for the entire team. Need Oswalt to have a good outing Tues. night vs. A's. Time for Josh to get a hot bat again.
The Angles have 2 ptichers and good pitchers hold them to 5 or less runs. As long as the Rangers match their record, everything will be fine as regards to the Division Championship. However they really need to keep best record in sight in order to assure home field advantage in the AL.
OK, Fellow Ranger Zealots, I'm back! I did my part by going to the game Sunday afternoon in Safeco and cheering Matt Harrison to a complete game shutout.
Now we need to join ranks and sweep Oakland while the Tigers beat up on the Angels. Need to win both games in Oakland and 2 of 3 in Anaheim!
Ditto H69 on Josh last eve - it has been killing me to see him struggle lately. I just wish he would not swing at the first pitch so often - it just seems it is always a strike or a foul ball on a junky pitch... Of course Adams had to make us all nervous as hell in the 8th loading the bases...
Nice job at Safeco on Sat. HHD. Let's take game 2 - PM today and make this a SWEEP before heading to Anaheim.
HHD - I got the Mojo Recipe today and his has a high % of the good Colby sauce, extra Hamilton batting pepper and heavy Elvis good fielding extract. We'll see if that is the right mixture. I will have to keep an eye on game trax on foxsports today at work... can't watch or listen on the radio.
Great win last night against Ranger-killer Colon, which was a good thing given today's loss after the bullpen blows a late inning lead. Can't be giving up the long ball to guys hitting below the Mendoza line, including the game winner to a guy who had never hit a HR in the majors. Drives me crazy to see such poor hitting teams (Oakland has the worst team batting average in the big leagues IIRC) take down Rangers pitching. Oh well, on to Anaheim. Take 2 of 3 from the Angels and I'll be happy.
It was nice to get help from Detroit, but I don't like to count on outside help. If the Rangers really want to go to the World Series and win it, they need to take care of business themselves. I realize the bullpen can't be perfect every day - they're 47-4 when they have a late lead, still the best in the majors. But there is no reason for this offense to be hitting so poorly - they should be scoring 6+ runs virtually every time out.
It's okay to get outside help as long as you're the team in the lead. But, I know what you mean. CJ finally had a meltdown, let Prince get to him. Go Rangers!
Zealots - if you have not already, take a look at the upcoming schedule the next 30 days. No weak NL & AL teams to feast on. The Rangers O has been mediocre as of late but they better catch fire. Batting averages are dropping.
Look what is coming up:
@LAA - 3
Boston - 3
WSoxs - 3
LAA - 4
@KC - 3
@ Boston - 3
Detroit - 3
@NYY - 4
That is a very serious stretch that takes us to mid-August. KC is the only weak sister but hell, if I recall correctly, they took a 2 game series from the Rangers back in June!
The R's need to stay healthy, get good / consistent pitching, get pitchers back from DL that pitch well and the bats really need to get HOT again. Oh, and they need to get rid of M. Kirkman
Agreed, WorsterMan. No powderpuffs coming up next month. Scoring 2-3 runs per game won't cut it - this offense needs to wake up and start hitting and scoring. This weekend series in Anaheim would be a great time to do so.
Tigers helped this afternoon, beating the Angels 5-1. Lead is at 6 games. 2 of 3 in Anaheim would build a nice cushion to take into August.
Also watching carefully to see what happens at the trading deadline. Upgrading at catcher seems imperative - Napoli is struggling and Torrealba is simply overmatched. Maybe a package deal with the Phillies to get Hamels and Ruiz???
yeah my buddy and i looked at each other and just knew once kirkman came out for a 2nd inning of relief, that it'd be a walkoff. just didnt expect it to come from someone who hat never hit one in the bigs before!! i loved kirkmans reaction right when the pitch was hit, too.... he pointed up like it a lazy fly ball or some ****! yeah, 420ft later!!!
Wash caught a LOT of heat on the radio today for sending Kirkman back out for another inning, despite the fact that the first right handed batter was batting under .200 and had NO HR's. He may have been thinking of the lefty batters behind him. Adams and Nathan could have pitched - they had an extra day of rest and would get another one today before we face the Angles on Friday when they MIGHT pitch again.
Regardless, this isn't the first or last time Kirkman sucks for us... send him back down or trade him!!!
Angels have stumbled to start second half of season much like they did to start season losing 5 of 7. Need to take advantage of that this weekend and keep them struggling. Rangers with six game lead but it is 7 in the loss column
OK HHD - you got the nod for the Mojo receipe for this opener @ LAA. I did a bad job on the Wed. mojo batch vs. the A's. Holland & the Rangers really need to take the opener and set the tone and get that first W. Good guys face Jared Weaver so it won't be easy.
Norm had some disturbing "numbers" today. Rangers have faced Weaver 12 times in Anaheim. His record is 7-0. And his month of July record at home is something like 13-2, though I may not have that exact. Either way, Holland is going to have to go low to give us a fighting chance. Go Rangers!
Angels had distinct pitching advantage in game 1 and Rangers had it in game 2, tomorrow with Harrison have to give advantage to Rangers again and a really good shot at taking the series on the road.
Ranger 9 Angles 2 - very solid game by the R's - maybe the best recently. Yu had a great game - what, 11 strike outs? Napoli had 2 HR's to break out of his slump, Ian and Beltre HR's. the bullpen closed them down.