Rangers Gameday: 6/3 Vs. NYY
Wednesday, June 3rd Game Preview
Texas Rangers (30-21) vs. New York Yankees (31-21)
Scott Feldman (4-0, 3.91 ERA) vs. Andy Pettitte (5-1, 4.10 ERA)
6:05 p.m. CST in New York, New York (Yankee Stadium)
TV: FSNSW | Radio: KRLD 105.3 FM, XM 176
| Rangers |
Yankees |
||
| Position | Player | Position | Player |
| 2B |
Ian Kinsler |
SS |
Derek Jeter |
| 3B |
Michael Young |
1B |
Nick Swisher |
| DH |
Andruw Jones |
LF |
Johnny Damon |
| RF |
Nelson Cruz |
3B |
Alex Rodriguez |
| LF |
David Murphy |
2B |
Robinson Cano |
| CF |
Marlon Byrd |
C |
Jorge Posada |
| 1B |
Chris Davis |
DH |
Hideki Matsui |
| C |
Jarrod Saltalamacchia |
RF |
Melky Cabrera |
| SS |
Elvis Andrus |
CF |
Brett Gardner |
Pre-Game Notes: Texas has optioned right-hander Warner Madrigal to Triple-A Oklahoma City, purchased the contract of RedHawks right-hander Doug Mathis and placed right-hander Willie Eyre (strained right groin muscle) on the 60-day disabled list ... General manager Jon Daniels on the Rangers' approach in the upcoming 2009 MLB First-Year Player Draft: "Our guys spend a lot of time on a player's makeup. We are willing to take guys who are a little farther away but with a high ceiling if we feel their makeup gives them a better chance of having an impact. We're willing to dream a little bit on players who have a chance to have an impact rather than a safe pick. Safe picks aren't always safe."
Minor League Games: Memphis vs. Oklahoma City (Guillermo Moscoso), Tulsa vs. Frisco (Kasey Kiker), Bakersfield vs. Visalia (Blake Beavan)
30 Comments | in Gameday, The Season
Reader Comments (30)
Very brief rain delay at Yankee Stadium, with an apparent expected starting time around 6:15 p.m.
In an interesting twist, Teixeira is forced to sit tonight after bruising his ankle during that slide where he tried to take out Elvis.
Stream: http://tinyurl.com/oyuj4a (pw: rangers)
And Cruz continues driving in runs in the cleanup spot. I don't think we'll see anyone else batting there for awhile.
That development amuses me.
More from Grant on Padilla (I'll have more on the story in a bit):
What I would really love to see is a big homer from Davis to knock Pettite out of the game early. That would do wonders for his confidence.
Trademark Jeter jump throw sighted, but it couldn't prevent Cruz beating out the fielder's choice to first base and scoring another run to put Texas up 2-0...
Aggressive baserunning on Byrd's part backfires, but Davis dumps an RBI single into right field (!!!) to put Texas up 3-0 before the inning concludes...
Well Davis gets an RBI single, but Byrd lets Pettite off the hook by getting thrown out at 3rd.
I'm probably going out on a big limb here but I think this is going to be a breakout game for Davis. I just think it's time.
Feldman escapes the first only giving up 1 run. The way the Rangers have been going against the Yankees lately, I'd say that's the beginning of a quality performance.
Probably a fair assumption on Davis, Mike, given that he banged three long fly balls last night and appeared to finally be on the precipice of getting his act together offensively...
Batter's interference? What the hell?
Okay, thanks to TAG we have the explanation:
...and Pettitte strikes out the side, stranding two baserunners with no outs...
Pretty big double play for Feldman with the bases juiced against A-Rod, albeit one that induced a call that seemed over the top even for Lewin (seriously, he called that with more fervor than he has some walk-off wins), and now Andrus works the lead-off walk...
Posada has nothing on Elvis.
Does Posada have much of an arm anymore? I thought he was guy teams could run rampant on... Maybe Pettite is just doing a good job of holding men on base?
Brett Tomko (yes, he of the 92 ERA+) is warming in the Yankees bullpen with Petttite through just 3.2 innings, which is certainly a good indication...showers continue to approach from the west and this game isn't even official, so it would probably be to the Rangers' benefit if Feldman worked a couple of quick frames...
Time for Murphy to come up big. If he doesn't I doubt Cruz sees a pitch to hit the rest of the night.
Posada's 2009 caught-stealing percentage of 30.6 percent coming into tonight's game is an indication that his arm isn't completely shot yet (and does rank in the top half of the league), but Elvis has made him look absolutely silly tonight...
In other baseball news, Beckett has given up just 1 walk through 6.1 innings against Detroit.
Cano appeared safe by a hair, but what a brilliant play by Andrus to even put himself into a position to pull off the out (and notice that Cano mounted no resistance to the call)...in other news, Lewin is touting range factor as a stat that actually has some sort of relevance at this point...
Good call, Mike...you would assume that Francona would give him every shot to finish it out, but that pitch-count situation could get awfully interesting...
Rain falling at the Stadium. Better record those last two outs fast, Scott.
Elvis is Captain Wonderful. And C.J. is ridiculously good right now. 97 mph? Am I seeing things?
I've decided that this remix from Spring Yard Zone in Sonic 1 is pretty damn catchy.
Frankie Frank on to close it out...
Two very quick and efficient outs for Frankie...Texas is an out away from closing out a big victory...
Texas brings New York to within one strike of their demise...
And the Rangers win it, 4-2, to reclaim the best record in the American League...