Texas Walks Mendoza Line In 7-3 Victory Over A's

Somehow, I don't think this was quite the way Luis Mendoza envisioned his major league career taking off.

The Rangers pulled off another very impressive win against the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night, thanks in large part to the offense shelling A's starter Chad Gaudin for six runs on ten hits and two walks in just 3.2 innings. Hank Blalock (3 for 4, HR), Marlon Byrd (3 for 3, BB) and Ian Kinsler (2 for 5, HR) led the attack against a more than bewildered Oakland pitching staff.

Meanwhile, right-hander Luis Mendoza made the emergency start for Texas in place of left-hander Kason Gabbard, who was scratched mere hours before the scheduled first pitch due to a blister on his left thumb.

According to pitching coach Mark Connor, the blister had affected Gabbard's fastball command over his last two starts, as well as "nearly every pitch" he attempted to throw during a bullpen session on Friday; not surprisingly, those have been Gabbard's two worst starts in a Rangers uniform. He's expected to miss just this one start, and will hopefully return to the rotation on Thursday in Oakland.

Mendoza's night began well enough, as he quietly retired four of the first five hitters he faced. But with one out in the top of the 2nd inning, Nick Swisher drilled a line shot towards the middle, which nailed Mendoza on the inside of his left knee cap and knocked him clean to the ground.

After being visited for several minutes by manager Ron Washington and trainer Jamie Reed, Mendoza threw a couple of warm-up pitches and declared himself ready to go; he finished the inning with a pair of fly ball outs. But after sitting down in the dugout before the third inning, Mendoza's knee began to stiffen up on him, ending his first major league start after just two innings. Quite unfortunate, but what can you do?

Luckily, the Texas bullpen stepped up in a big way for their fallen comrade: A.J. Murray earned his first major league win by allowing two runs in three innings of work, while the trio of Mike Wood, John Rheinecker and Wes Littleton combined to throw four innings of shutout baseball. I'm not sure if that's a testament to the quality of those pitchers, or to the shoddiness of the presently constructed A's lineup - either way, I'll take it.

And for what it's worth, Ron Washington had praise for his rookie starter after the game, even though he threw just 30 pitches during his injury-shortened effort:

"He didn't seem to have any jitters," manager Ron Washington said. "And he showed me a lot of guts just by getting up from that line drive. He showed me a lot, period. He showed a good sinker, good makeup, good attitude and good tempo. What we saw, we liked."

Washington also said that Mendoza would "probably" get another chance to start this season, but the jury's still out on that one.

Kason Gabbard wasn't the only Rangers left-hander unavailable on Saturday night: C.J. Wilson was out with a sore ribcage, and will not pitch again until Tuesday in Detroit at the earliest. C.J's recent high pitch counts have the club concerned, and for good reason: he's not terribly far removed from Tommy John surgery, which put him out for all of the 2004 season.

In any event, the Rangers are planning to be more careful with Wilson the rest of the way, which means he probably won't pitch in back-to-back games again this season. Take note, Joaquin Benoit.

Brandon McCarthy will return to the Texas starting rotation for the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader, a development that took shape only after he threw a successful 45-pitch bullpen session from a mound on Friday without experiencing any pain. McCarthy had been planning to pitch a simulated game on Tuesday, but his tremendous strides in the recovery process have the Rangers believing he can safely return to the rotation.

Before getting too excited about B-Mac's imminent return, it bears mentioning that he'll likely be limited on Tuesday to just 45-50 pitches, or about three innings. Nonetheless, this is very good news for the Rangers as far as their long-term prospects go - less than a month ago, it looked like the walls were about ready to cave in.

After being absent from the lineup for four consecutive games, Nelson Cruz went 1 for 4 with a run scored and two strikeouts on Saturday night. While his lone hit, a double, came on a fairly well struck line drive that landed barely fair down the right field line, it also came on a fairly hittable 92 MPH fastball from starter Chad Gaudin.

Nelson's first inning showdown against Gaudin was especially ugly: he struck out swinging - badly, I might add - on three breaking balls that were down and well outside of the strike zone. In fact, Cruz was so badly fooled by Gaudin's off-speed stuff that I'm not sure any of his three wild hacks during that at-bat were even in the same zip code as the baseball.

What's particularly disturbing is how Cruz appears to be doing the whole "one step forward, two steps back" routine: since going 7 for 15 with 3 HR and 3 BB in four games immediately following his promotion on July 28th from Triple-A Oklahoma, Cruz has batted just .210/.269/.290 with 1 HR in 100 AB. Let's be perfectly honest: that's terrrrrible. The open stance is still there, but the ability to hit breaking pitches isn't. And at this rate, it may never show up.

Deservedly so or not, David Murphy is stealing a growing number of at-bats away from Cruz, and unless he begins to turn things around rapidly, it appears as though Nelson's time in the Rangers organization may be drawing to a close. That would come as a major disappointment to me personally, considering how bullish I was on his chances to succeed before the season began.

But in my haste to express my optimism about Cruz, I neglected to mention those pesky rumors that were buzzing around at the time of that article's publication. As I remember it, those rumors stated that Brewers GM Doug Melvin was not too terribly grief-stricken at being forced to include Cruz in the Carlos Lee deal, since Milwaukee believed that his inability to hit breaking pitches consistently would prevent him from ever becoming a full-time major league player.

At the time, with the intoxicating aroma of spring training in the air, and the eternal hope of another season nearly ready to spring forth, I dismissed those rumors as nonsense. In retrospect, that was a really stupid thing to do on my part; it's indeed beginning to look like Doug Melvin was right all along.

And finally tonight, the DMN's Evan Grant included this odd piece of information in his game story from Saturday:

Manager Ron Washington said he was not aware Frank Catalanotto was only a double shy of hitting for the cycle when he pinch hit for him Friday. However, the manager said he probably still would have opted to go with Sammy Sosa in an effort to put another late run on the board.

Ignorance is bliss.

Sunday, September 9th Game Preview

Oakland Athletics (69-74) vs. Texas Rangers (67-74)

Lenny DiNardo (8-3, 3.70 ERA) vs. Kevin Millwood (9-11, 5.31 ERA)

2:05 PM CST in Arlington, Texas (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)

TV: KDFI/My27 | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

Volquez Dazzles In 5-3 Rangers Win

If Edinson Volquez's performance on Friday night is any indication of what's to come, the Rangers are well on their way to solving a piece of the 2008 starting rotation puzzle.

With the aid of six brilliant shutout innings from Volquez, Texas defeated the Oakland Athletics by a 5-3 margin at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Friday night.

Things couldn't have gone much better on the mound for the 24-year-old Dominican native, who allowed just two hits and three walks in his six scoreless innings of work. Edinson also struck out five during his 87-pitch effort; he would have pitched deeper into the ballgame, but a blister developed on his right thumb, forcing the Rangers to cut his night short. It's not expected to impact his ability to make his next start.

Two of the three walks issued by Volquez were of the back-to-back variety in the top of the 1st inning, and both hits came back-to-back in the 3rd inning; however, none of those baserunners came around to score obviously. Edinson surrendered one final walk to Mark Ellis to lead off the sixth inning, but that was promptly erased when Jack Cust grounded into a rally-killing 4-6-3 double play. Pure dominance.

And with the way Volquez was pitching, it's not hard to see why he was so dominant. Featuring a repertoire consisting of a low-to-mid 90's fastball that touched 96 MPH, an above-average low-80's changeup and a nasty high-70's curveball, Edinson kept the A's lineup off balance all night by mixing up his pitches effectively, as well as throwing all of his pitches for strikes.

Volquez credits an early visit from catcher Gerald Laird and pitching coach Mark Connor for making him turn to his changeup, which subsequently slowed down his delivery and allowed him to take command of the game:

"I didn't feel comfortable on the mound at first," said Volquez, who has won 16 of his last 18 decisions in the minors and majors. "I know my change-up is going to be a good pitch, so I went to it. When you show them that you can throw something else for a strike, they are going to start swinging. That's what happened tonight.

"Last year, everything was just too fast. Now, things are more under control."

In the meantime, the Rangers jumped all over Oakland starter Dan Haren, who came into the night with an American League best 2.87 ERA in 191.1 IP. After Texas pounded him for five runs on a whopping twelve hits and three walks in just 4.2 innings, Haren would still be the AL ERA leader at 3.03 - but only by the slimmest of margins over Anaheim's Kelvim Escobar, who currently has a 3.04 ERA.

Frank Catalanotto set the tone for the night immediately, cranking a 91 MPH fastball over the Rangers bullpen in deep right-center field to lead off the game. Texas would threaten for more, but it wasn't until the bottom of the 4th inning that the Rangers started to break the game open.

After Hank Blalock struck out swinging to begin the inning, Jarrod Saltalamacchia sliced a one out double over the head of left fielder Shannon Stewart. Ramon Vazquez followed with a line shot that deflected off the glove of second baseman Mark Ellis, and subsequently died in shallow right field, allowing Saltalamacchia to score and Vazquez to reach second base. With the score at 2-0, Frank Catalanotto stepped into the batter's box once again.

Catalanotto promptly smashed a deep fly ball to right field, which was badly misread by Jack Cust; instead of making what should have been a fairly routine catch, Cust made an awkward lunging leap at the ball, which went over his head, off the right field fence and back towards home plate, scoring Vazquez and putting Catalanotto on third base with a triple.

I liken Cust's miserable attempt at catching that ball to something resembling a wounded gazelle futilely trying to hop across the African plains. Then again, the gazelle might actually be halfway competent defensively in right field compared to the loafing Cust. Perhaps Billy Beane should sign him.

After an Ian Kinsler strikeout, Michael Young drove home Catalanotto with a two out RBI single. Marlon Byrd, who went 3 for 4 on the night, singled as well, and Brad Wilkerson drew a walk, but Gerald Laird struck out on a 3-2 fastball to end the scoring threat.

Hank Blalock collected a rare triple of his own to lead off the bottom of the 5th inning, and after a pair of strikeouts, Catalanotto plated Blalock with an RBI single for his third hit of the night. At this point in the game, Frank was just a double away from his first career cycle, and just the fourth cycle in Rangers history, with at least one more at-bat left. Or, so we thought. More on that in a moment.

John Rheinecker pitched a perfect 7th inning in relief of the departed Edinson Volquez, which signaled the entrance of right-hander Frankie Francisco to begin the top of the 8th inning. Two singles and a walk later, the bases were loaded with just one out, and manager Ron Washington was forced to call on his closer, C.J. Wilson. He escaped the jam successfully, but not before Oakland trimmed the Rangers' lead to 5-2.

Queue the bottom of the 8th inning: with Catalanotto set to lead off the inning against left-hander Dallas Braden, Ron Washington inexplicably made the call for Sammy Sosa to pinch hit in Catalanotto's place. Naturally, A's manager Bob Geren countered with right-hander Andrew Brown, who forced Sammy to ground out weakly to shortstop. And thus, Catalanotto's shot at history vanished into the night

My biggest question is: Why? Obviously, Ron Washington was attempting to play the matchups, but he had to know that if he used Sosa as a pinch hitter, Geren was going to counter with a right-handed pitcher of his own. Catalanotto isn't remotely spectacular, or even average, against left-handed pitching, but come on: the guy's got three hits on the night, and has a shot at attaining a fairly prestigious (though admittedly rather meaningless) individual hitting accomplishment, that being the cycle.

What bothers me more about this inept bit of managing than anything else is that while Catalanotto may have just 10 AB against lefties this year, he's probably just as likely, if not moreso, to reach base against the left-handed Braden than Sosa is against the right-handed Brown in this particular situation.

To put that idea to the test, I decided to look up Catalanotto's and Sosa's respective batting splits. Since Catalanotto has had so few plate appearances against left-handers the past few years, I used his career numbers against LHP as a comparison point to Sammy's 2007 numbers against RHP; since the sample sizes are relatively close (+/- 50 AB), it's a more than reasonable starting point. The results?

Catalanotto vs. LHP, career: 320 AB, .250/.333/.347

Sosa vs. RHP, 2007: 271 AB, .218/.261/.399

In the interest of fairness, I could theoretically include Sosa's 276 AB against right-handers in 2005; however, his .196/.266/.341 batting split doesn't exactly serve to help him there. Going any further back than 2005 with Sammy is pointless, since 2004 and the preceding years reflect his offensive peak, a period in his career which has long since passed. On the other hand, Catalanotto is more or less still the same player offensively that he's always been, which makes his career numbers fair game in this example.

So, to recap: Ron Washington robbed the red-hot Frank Catalanotto of a chance at a rare individual baseball accomplishment, just so that he could use Sammy Sosa off the bench with a three run lead - despite the fact that they're both equally miserable at hitting pitchers throwing from the same side of the plate that they're batting from.

And when accounting for the fact that Frank's numbers are actually better in this example, and was already 3 for 4 at the plate on the night, this move becomes all the more baffling. Of course, Ron is defending his decision to pinch hit Sosa:

Washington said he gave no thought to Catalanotto's pursuit of the cycle, which would have been the fourth in Rangers history.

"I had one thing on my mind � winning the game," Washington said.

Catalanotto said that while he was happy to win the game, he was disappointed he didn't get an opportunity to finish the cycle. I can't say that I blame him. I've been a Ron Washington supporter since the day he was hired, but tonight's debacle only supplies further evidence to the belief that he has to improve his in-game management skills.

C.J. Wilson came out for the top of the 9th inning in an attempt to close the game, but Nick Swisher led off with a double, Marco Scutaro singled, and John Hannahan hit an RBI sacrifice fly to left field, putting the tying run at the plate in a suddenly close 5-3 ballgame. With Wilson already at 26 pitches, Washington went to Joaquin Benoit, who recorded the final two outs on just seven pitches. The struggles of the Blue Glove Lefty continue.

I'm completely drained for tonight, but I'll have more tomorrow - including the return of Brandon McCarthy to the Texas rotation, as well as a look at Nelson Cruz's struggles, and what lies ahead as far as his future in the Rangers organization goes.

Saturday, September 8th Game Preview

Oakland Athletics (69-73) vs. Texas Rangers (66-74)

Chad Gaudin (10-10, 4.25 ERA) vs. Kason Gabbard (6-1, 4.07 ERA)

7:05 PM CST in Arlington, Texas (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)

TV: KDFI/My27 | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

Otsuka's Season Done; Blalock To Return To Third Base And More

Very nice win by the Rangers on Wednesday night to take their series against Kansas City, and as Brandon noted on Thursday morning, Texas is less than ten games under .500 for the first time since May 21st. With twenty-three games left in the season, Texas would have to go 16-7 the rest of the way in order to finish with a .500 record.

Realistic? Not particularly. Possible? With the way this team has been playing lately, yes.

First thing's first: MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan reported late Wednesday night that ailing right-hander Aki Otsuka will not pitch again this season for the Rangers. His latest throwing session from flat ground on Wednesday "did not go well," and according to pitching coach Mark Connor, he's still 10 to 14 days away from being able to pitch off a mound again, leaving no time for a comeback attempt during the remainder of the 2007 campaign.

Meanwhile, the DMN's Evan Grant says that Aki will make a decision on whether or not to have surgery on his right arm within the next two weeks. However, it's still unclear at this point what type of surgical procedure he may undergo. Grant also includes this rather foreboding paragraph:

In all likelihood, any type of surgery would keep him out at least eight months, which would then force the Rangers to decide whether to tender him a contract for 2008. He could re-sign for a lesser amount if the club does not tender him a contract.

Yeah, this is very disturbing. When accounting for the lengthy rehabilitation effort required after being out for such a long period of time (not to mention the possible setbacks that can pop up), it's quite possible that the earliest Aki would be able to return would be sometime in June 2008, or perhaps even as late as the All-Star break. Funny how fast this whole situation went downhill, isn't it?

As mentioned previously, the contract of right-hander Luis Mendoza was purchased from Double-A Frisco before Wednesday's series finale with the Royals.

The reasoning behind the roster move is fairly simple: Texas is concerned about the heavy workloads placed on the bullpen trio of Joaquin Benoit, C.J. Wilson and Frankie Francisco - in fact, the latter two have already set career highs in innings pitched this season, and there's still 23 games left on the schedule. Ron Washington wants to hold all three of them to one inning per outing the rest of the way, but we'll see how that goes.

Hank Blalock believes that he'll be able to play at third base sometime during the upcoming nine-game road trip:

"The earliest would be the first game in Detroit [on Tuesday] and the latest would be the first game in Oakland [on Thursday]," Blalock said.

Before retaking his old spot at the hot corner, Blalock first wants to ensure that he can make throws on the run and in the hole without any pain. Very encouraging news, nonetheless.

Left-hander Bill White made his major league debut on Wednesday night, pitching a scoreless 2/3rds of an inning in relief of Wes Littleton. After surrendering a David DeJesus single to right field, White got Mark Grudzielanek to fly out to end the top of the 7th inning, and then struck out Mark Teahen on six pitches to begin the 8th inning, before being lifted in favor of Jamey Wright.

White's repertoire came pretty much as advertised; his fastball sat anywhere from 92-93 MPH during his brief 10-pitch outing, six of which were thrown for strikes. Mark Connor said on Tuesday that White also had a "good, hard slider," which was apparently the 83 MPH pitch he struck out Teahen with.

In any event, the case seems pretty open and shut on White: either he'll throw strikes and catch on with the Rangers as a lefty specialist (ala Ron Mahay), or he won't throw strikes and will end up as a minor league journeyman for the rest of his days. Given the command problems he's had throughout his minor league career, I'm betting on the latter. But I hope I'm wrong. After all, how can you not root for a guy who says something like this?

"It's hard to explain," the 28-year-old said. "All the excitement. Everything you always dreamed of. You step out there and look around and soak it up for a minute. I threw a couple away and started thinking 'Oh gosh. Oh Lord.'

Jason Botts attributed his strong 3 for 4, two RBI night at the plate on Tuesday to a mechanical adjustment in his batting stance, which was suggested by hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo:

Botts and hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo recently tweaked the 6-foot-5 switch hitter's batting stance, changing from a high leg kick to a toe tap.

"Over the last couple days, having some time off, I worked on building a better base, and the toe tap kind of made me feel a little more comfortable," Botts said.

On that same topic, make sure to check out Scott Lucas's excellent statistical analysis of Botts' 2007 campaign, which aims to determine why exactly he's struggling so badly at the plate. Basically, Lucas suggests that Jason's above-average plate discipline isn't of much use when he's chronically falling behind in the count. That makes sense.

It's also not helping that Botts' swing still appears to be very long and loopy, despite the talk of it being shortened and compacted at Triple-A Oklahoma earlier this year; he's swinging and missing on pitches that he should be crushing, something which doesn't bode very well for his future in the major leagues.

Granted, he's only just now passed the 100 AB plateau this year, and he's known for having a rather long adjustment period at each stop he makes, but he's not exactly making all of his supporters (myself included) look particularly brilliant - yet.

Evan Grant's latest "Inside The Rangers" newsletter is out, which contains an endorsement in favor of keeping Gerald Laird for 2008, and continuing the pseudo-platoon situation that's currently in place with Laird and Jarrod Saltalamacchia at catcher and first base. There's also thoughts on Hank Blalock's future position, Brandon McCarthy's stress fracture, and of course, the ever popular question of whether or not Torii Hunter is the club's center fielder of the future.

And if you're looking for a double dose of Evan, here's the link to his Thursday afternoon chat transcript. Grant suggests that the Rangers would be willing to go as high as five years, $75 million on Hunter (ugh), and addresses a reader who accuses Tom Hicks of throwing Jon Daniels under the bus, in regard to this August 29th story on the failed Josh Beckett deal.

The DMN's Jean-Jacques Taylor has a surprisingly well-written piece out on Sammy Sosa, which discusses how Sammy finally "gets it" as far as his attitude on and off the field. Despite Sosa's epiphany, Taylor doesn't think the Rangers should bring him back next year - nice to see some common sense showing up. Once again, Sosa's been a nice story, but there's no logical reason for Texas to bring him back again next year.

Evan Grant has a solid player profile on outfielder David Murphy, who's hitting .367/.404/.571 in 49 AB since coming over from Boston in the Eric Gagne deal on the July 31st trade deadline.

Despite Murphy's hot start with his new club, his minor league track record certainly doesn't suggest he can continue producing at anywhere remotely near this clip; it's much more likely he ends up as a .750 OPS type of player. Moreover, I'm beginning to grow concerned that the Rangers will decide he's a guy that they can afford to give 350-400 AB in 2008. Doing that based off of such a small sample size of plate appearances would be a tremendous mistake.

MLB.com's Drew Davison has a new article out examining the up-and-coming foursome of Chris Davis, John Mayberry Jr., Taylor Teagarden and German Duran, which I don't have the energy left to recap.

And finally tonight, I'd like to thank Lone Star Ball's Adam Morris for bringing to my attention this very touching story from Padres' non-prospect Dirk Hayhurst, who's writing a diary for Baseball America this season. This is one of the very few stories to bring a tear to my eye in a long time, and I'd strongly encourage everyone to give this a read.

Needless to say, it sort of puts all this baseball stuff into perspective.

Friday, September 7th Game Preview

Oakland Athletics (69-72) vs. Texas Rangers (65-74)

Dan Haren (14-6, 2.87 ERA) vs. Edinson Volquez (1-0, 5.40 ERA)

7:05 PM CST in Arlington, Texas (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)

TV: FSNSW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

Don't Laugh...It Really Was a Pitcher's Duel!

The Rangers found a way to hold on to a lead late in a game, and along the way SP Vicente Padilla managed to pitch a 6 inning, two-hit shutout game. He struck out five and allowed two walks. While Padilla did his part, the Rangers bats were pretty quiet as well, with exception to Hank Blalock's two hit/two RBI night and Michael Young's 2hit/1 RBI night. Ron Washington is not bothered by the close score, rather he enjoys the grit and determination this team has show of late. "We're trying to create an attitude for the Texas Rangers ," Washington said. "I said a couple of weeks ago I wish this were April. We could go against anyone right now. We've done the little things. Scratch out a run here and there and you can win close ball games."

This is especially true of the Rangers because a quick look back at the final scores lately will show that the six of the last seven games won by the Rangers have been by a margin of one run. That is a great sign and very encouraging for the foundation of next year.

Padilla has struggled with consistency this season, but he was very reliable last night, retiring 9 of the first ten batters he faced. "He had a good fastball around the zone," Washington said. "That opened everything else up. When he uses his fastball like that, he's pretty effective. Earlier in the year he was inconsistent. The only thing that matters is what he did tonight."

The Rangers took the series by a margin of 2 games to 1, and most importantly seemed to have found the "shovel" I was referring to on my September 2 blog. Don't look now, but the Rangers are slowly creeping to .500 overall. They are only 9 games back and the closest they have been to the .500 mark since May 21. Incredible!

Notes of Concern:

Just over 17,000 were at the game last night, which recorded the smallest home attendance for the Rangers this year. I wonder how many of those coveted lower dome season ticket seats were vacant.

Ian Kinsler headed into the game with a 10-game hitting streak. He was unable to get a hit in his 4 ABs and stranded 3 runners.

Joaquin Benoit had a perfect 9th inning save and struck out one batter along the way.

Brad Wilkerson had two runs, thanks to Blalock driving him in. Hank looks pretty comfortable in the DH spot, eh?

NEWSFLASH: Mendoza Called Up; Otsuka To 60-Day DL?

Per T.R. Sullivan, the Rangers are planning to call up right-hander Luis Mendoza from Double-A Frisco before tonight's series finale with the Royals. Interesting.

Mendoza, now 23, went 15-4 with a 3.93 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, and 93 strikeouts and 148.2 innings with the Roughriders in 2007. He was acquired last July 30th from the Red Sox in exchange for reliever Bryan Corey, who's currently languishing with Triple-A Pawtucket in the Boston organization.

Texas will have to clear space for Mendoza on the 40-man roster; Sullivan mentions the possibility of placing Aki Otsuka on the 60-day disabled list in order to make room, as he's been out for over two months already and will likely not pitch again this season.

Texas Holds On For 9-8 Win Over Royals

Let me present to you the following game matchup: the Rangers and Royals playing in early September, two teams with a combined record this season of 126-150.

Now, throw in a big heaping dose of on-and-off showers passing over the friendly confines of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington throughout the night. Oh yeah, and let the game last three hours and thirty-three minutes.

There aren't many things in baseball more brutal than that scenario.

Yet, that's exactly what happened on Tuesday night in Arlington, as Texas managed squeak by Kansas City for a close 9-8 victory.

Kevin Millwood was unable to build off of his strong effort against the Chicago White Sox his last time out, as the veteran right-hander surrendered six runs on eight hits and three walks in just five innings of work; he did punch out seven, for what that's worth. Millwood gave up a two out RBI double to Mike Sweeney in the top of the 1st inning, but then buckled down and retired eight straight Royals, and seemed to enter cruise control mode.

In the meantime, the Rangers offense staked Millwood to a sizable early lead. In the first start of his young major league career, right-hander Billy Buckner allowed six runs on seven hits and three walks in four innings. Texas pounced on Buckner immediately, with Ian Kinsler and Jason Botts both pounding first inning RBI doubles.

Brad Wilkerson went yard with his 20th home run of the year to left-center field later in the inning, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia capped the offensive barrage with a solo shot of his own, a laser beam that landed in the Rangers bullpen in deep right-center field. What a gorgeous swing Salty has, by the way; it's hard not to see him flourishing in this lineup within the next couple of years. But I digress.

Texas would add to their early lead in the top of the 2nd inning: Ramon Vazquez led off with a triple to right field, and Ian Kinsler would drive him home moments later with his second RBI base hit in as many innings. Just like that, Texas led 6-1, and it appeared as though they would never look back.

Alas, the Kevin Millwood train suffered a derailment. After retiring Ross Gload to begin the top of the 4th inning, Millwood allowed back-to-back singles to Mike Sweeney and Mark Teahen. Alex Gordon struck out swinging, but shortstop Jason Smith, a career .224/.265/.377 hitter, cranked a three run blast to right field, bringing the Royals within 6-4.

Millwood finally escaped the 4th inning, but a walk and a double to lead off the top of the 5th inning put him right back in trouble. Mark Teahen hit an RBI single, and Jason Smith tied the game on an RBI sacrifice fly. I should mention at this point that I wandered off to study for my classes shortly after Texas took a 6-1 lead, and thought I was seeing things when I came back to the TV, approximately an hour later, to find the game tied at 6-6.

The score remained knotted until the bottom of the 7th inning, when Ian Kinsler and Michael Young led off the inning with back-to-back singles against reliever Leo Nunez. With Jason Botts at the plate, Kinsler took off running for third base.

Catcher Jason LaRue's throw bounced past third baseman Alex Gordon into left field, allowing Kinsler to score easily and Young to advance to second base. Moments later, Botts drove home Young with an RBI single to center field, giving the Rangers an 8-6 edge.

Both teams traded blows in the eighth inning, bringing the game to the top of the 9th inning with Texas protecting a narrow 9-7 advantage. Joaquin Benoit had bailed Texas out of a two man on, one out jam in the previous frame with an inning-ending double play, and retired Mike Sweeney to lead off the ninth, but was inexplicably lifted for the Rangers' enigmatic but struggling closer, C.J. Wilson.

Sure enough, the blue-gloved lefty immediately issued a five-pitch walk to Mark Teahen, bringing the tying run to the plate. Wilson induced a fielder's choice force out for the second out of the inning, but permitted back-to-back singles after that, scoring a run and putting the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Thankfully, C.J. induced a Tony Pena Jr. groundout to end it. Yeah, Ron Washington might want to revisit the closer situation sooner rather than later.

What a painful, painful game that was to watch.

Speaking of painful, Kameron Loe will miss his next start due to the sore right elbow he sustained on Monday night. However, according to team physician Dr. Keith Meister, there's nothing "seriously wrong" with Loe's elbow other than basic inflammation:

"My velocity was still good," Loe said. "I just got erratic because I was trying to find a release point where I could throw and not have it hurt."

Jamey Wright is expected to be replaced by Jamey Wright when the Rangers once again need a fifth starter, which will be during one of the two games during next Tuesday's doubleheader in Detroit. It appears Kameron has gotten lucky - this time.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for poor old Aki Otsuka, who has had his rehab program shut down once again. Apparently, Aki experienced more pain in his right elbow when trying to throw from flat ground on Tuesday. Since rest doesn't appear to have helped at all, it's probably a foregone conclusion that he'll have some type of surgical procedure performed on his elbow this winter; hopefully, it's nothing more than a minor cleanup of the injured area.

Brandon McCarthy threw 24 pitches from a mound on Tuesday with no problems, which is obviously a big step in the right direction for the lanky right-hander:

"Everything felt great," McCarthy said. "This is the best I've felt since God knows how long."

McCarthy will throw another bullpen session on Friday, followed by a simulated game next Wednesday in Detroit, and finally a possible return to the Rangers rotation on September 15th in Oakland. Brandon's also volunteered to pitch in the Fall Instructional League in October if necessary, in order to get his innings totals up.

Texas and Kansas City will square off for the final time in 2007 on Wednesday evening, with Kyle Davies squaring off against Vicente Padilla.

Weather.com's Arlington weather forecast is calling for a 40% chance of rain at Wednesday's 7:05 PM start time. Please, no more of that.

Wednesday, September 5th Game Preview

Kansas City Royals (62-76) vs. Texas Rangers (64-74)

Kyle Davies (2-3, 6.75) vs. Vicente Padilla (4-9, 6.36 ERA)

7:05 PM CST in Arlington, Texas (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)

TV: FSNSW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

Snakebitten: Rangers Fall 9-1 To Kansas City

Right from the get-go, it was clear that something wasn't right with the Snake.

We now know what that something is.

Kameron Loe departed after just three innings with right elbow soreness, and the Royals pounded Texas on Monday night en route to a 9-1 victory.

The 25-year-old right-hander struggled mightily, issuing four walks in the top of the 1st inning while Kansas City took an early 2-0 lead. Loe managed to haphazardly work through two more innings, surrendering five hits in total, before he was yanked from the mound.

After the game, Loe attributed his lack of command to right elbow inflammation, something which he has actually been battling for his last few starts:

"It's like a sharp pinch right before I release the ball, and they say it's just a little impingement," Loe said. "It definitely contributed to the four walks. I tried to give as much as I could, but it wouldn't have been smart for me to go any further."

Although I didn't catch too much of last night's game, I do recall tuning in fairly early and noticing what appeared to be a slight mechanical kink in Kameron's delivery, particularly in his arm motion. Although it seemed rather odd at the time, I guess it all adds up now. The Rangers will re-evaluate Loe after 48 hours before deciding whether or not he'll miss any time, but at this point, that seems like a foregone conclusion.

After Loe's departure, the normally reliable Rangers bullpen coughed up six runs to put the game out of reach; Scott Feldman (2 ER, 2.2 IP) and Mike Wood (3 ER, 1.2 IP) were among the worst offenders.

In the meantime, Texas could muster absolutely nothing offensively against Kansas City starter Zach Greinke, who fired five shutout innings. Reliever John Bale finally surrendered a two out RBI single to Michael Young in the bottom of the 8th inning, but the game's outcome had long since been decided by that point.

One noteworthy item did take place in the top of the 9th inning, when newly promoted catcher Guillermo Quiroz went behind the plate in relief of catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Quiroz is the first player in Rangers history to have a last name that begins with the letter "Q;" I guess you might find that exciting, if you're into that whole Jayson Stark/Tim Kurkjian strange baseball factoid line of thinking.

Hank Blalock, who went 0 for 4 at the plate as the designated hitter on Monday night, is reportedly a week to 10 days away from being able to play third base. It's critical that the Rangers get Blalock out of the everyday DH spot as soon as his health permits, because the only purpose that serves right now is to take away at-bats from Jason Botts. While Blalock's already a known quantity, Texas has to find out about Botts this month.

Aki Otsuka threw off flat ground from about 30 feet for five minutes on Monday, and said that he believes he'll be able to pitch again this season:

"It's important [I come back this season], because I have to show I'm healthy," Otsuka said.

On a somewhat related note, Aki's former teammate, Eric Gagne, has been sidelined due to "right shoulder soreness." Although his latest injury doesn't sound particularly serious, red flags have to be flying - and I don't mean Red Sox flags, either.

While still on the topic of Blalock and Otsuka, Baseball Prospectus's Will Carroll offered these thoughts in his latest "Under The Knife" column this morning:

Hank Blalock returned to the Rangers lineup and promptly showed that the shoulder isn't going to affect his hitting. A grand slam was a nice return, but don't be fooled. Watch to see if his throws come back to their previous level. Blalock won't get the full job at third base back�there's just no need�so he should have plenty of time to recover and becomes a nice bat off the bench for Ron Washington.

The Rangers are also watching to see if Akinori Otsuka can make some progress in throwing sessions this week. There's little chance of him getting back into competition and less of him getting meaningful innings, but the best result would be avoiding surgery and being ready for next season. His absence has provided a reminder that there's some depth in the Rangers pen, something that should be a strength next season.

Right-hander Willie Eyre had successful Tommy John surgery performed on his right elbow last Monday by team physician Dr. Keith Meister. He cleared out his locker yesterday, and is heading home to Utah. Eyre is expected to report to the Rangers facility in Surprise, Arizona during the first week of January to begin playing catch.

Although the Rangers are not yet mathematically eliminated from making the playoffs, they have officially "flat-lined" in BP's Postseason Odds report. That is, during a simulation of the rest of the season that is repeated one million times daily, Texas made the playoffs exactly zero times in those one million simulations. Wow.

And finally, Evan Grant's is reporting on the DMN SeamHeads Rangers blog that the Rangers will add reliever Bill White to the roster today. The 28-year-old lefty is 2-0 with a 4.29 ERA, 1.56 WHIP and 66 strikeouts in 50.1 innings between Double-A Frisco and Triple-A Oklahoma this year.

Grant seems pretty excited about the addition - perhaps a bit too excited, considering White's more than questionable control on the mound during his minor league career, not to mention his ugly career WHIP of 1.57. And, you know, the fact that he's 28.

Although the hard-throwing White is certainly capable of striking people out, it doesn't appear that he's going to be able to parlay that alone into a major league career, unless he has a sudden epiphany and begins finding the strike zone consistently.

Veteran right-hander Kevin Millwood will be opposed by rookie Billy Buckner on the mound tonight. No, he's not related to that Bill Buckner.

At least things can't get much worse tonight, right?

Tuesday, September 4th Game Preview

Kansas City Royals (62-75) vs. Texas Rangers (63-74)

Billy Buckner (0-0, 1.17) vs. Kevin Millwood (9-11, 5.11 ERA)

7:05 PM CST in Arlington, Texas (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)

TV: FSNSW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

NEWSFLASH: Guzman, Murray, White Up; Eyre To 60-Day DL

According to the latest press release on the Texas Rangers website, the club has recalled outfielder Freddy Guzman and left-hander A.J. Murray from Triple-A Oklahoma, purchased the contract of left-hander Bill White from Double-A Frisco, and placed right-hander Willie Eyre on the 60-day disabled list as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

The 26-year-old Guzman hit .269/.348/.363 with 4 HR in 535 AB for the Redhawks this year, along with 56 steals in 70 attempts. Texas acquired the speedy outfielder in a two-for-two swap with the San Diego Padres in May 2006, which brought Guzman and right-hander Cesar Rojas to the Rangers in exchange for infielder Vince Sinisi and right-hander John Hudgins.

At this point, Guzman's major league potential likely tops out at being a pinch runner and possible fifth outfielder, a role which would make him a better fit for the National League than the American League. With roster space looking tight this coming off-season, don't be surprised to see Freddy dropped from the 40-man roster sometime this winter.

By the way, if you're wondering about the outcome of that trade: Rojas pitched just 5.2 innings with the AZL Rangers last year, and is apparently no longer part of the organization. Then again, he may be floating around on a disabled list somewhere that I don't know about.

Updates are scarce on Hudgins as well, but it appears his troublesome pitching elbow (which he had surgery on in August 2005) prevented him from pitching in last year's Arizona Fall League for the Padres, and has forced him to miss all of the 2007 season. Whether or not he's still part of the San Diego organization is a mystery as well.

On a brighter note, Sinisi has had a bounceback season with Triple-A Portland, batting .310/.356/.475 with 9 HR in 303 AB for the Beavers in 2007. Alas, the injury-prone outfielder hasn't played since July 2nd, and has been on the disabled list ever since with an undisclosed ailment. In essence, all four players appear to be failed bits.

Meanwhile, the 25-year-old A.J. Murray is beginning his third tour of duty with the Rangers this year; he allowed five runs in nine innings during his first two stints with the club, and has compiled a 3-3 record with a 3.08 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 51 strikeouts in 52.2 innings for Triple-A Oklahoma this season. Considering A.J. has already had to overcome a torn labrum in his left shoulder, it's hard not to root for this guy.

As for Bill White, I already touched on his addition to the roster earlier today, and I think we already know everything there is to know about Willie Eyre.

Rangers Digging Without a Shovel

No team likes to lose, especially 54% of games played in a season.� However, I am not too sure the Rangers aren't enjoying this just a little bit more than other teams might.� Sure, this opening to my blog�is heavily laced with sarcasm, but in reality, the Rangers have an opportunity to accomplish some positive steps going forward to the 2008 season and I wonder if they realize it.� First and foremost on their list needs to be not finishing in last place in the AL West.� This doesn't seem too hard to do seeing as though the Oakland A's are throwing away games.��The Rangers�only trailed them by 4 games at the beginning of Monday.� However, the A's were visiting the Angels tonight and lost, which also closed an opportunity for the Rangers to pull within 3 games of tying them for the worst record in the AL West.� The Rangers were rocked today by the AL Central powerhouse: The Kansas City Royals (Hint: more sarcasm).� Actually, if any team enjoys losing more than the Rangers it would be the Royals, right?�

It's not all doom and gloom for the Rangers, in reality.� They have a very nice role as spoiler set up in the following weeks and it will be fun to see if they can capitalize on that chance.� They will also face Oakland 7 times this month, and that may decide who will be the cellar dweller for 2007.� The big series for the Rangers will be against the A's, Detroit, Baltimore, and Seattle.� Reasons?� Well, the A's is big to see who will end up in last place. Detroit will be big because they are fighting for a playoff spot via�the AL Central Title or a Wild Card.� The Baltimore series is important because, well, I think we all want to see another 30-spot on the box score, and the Seattle series because they will be under tremendous pressure to win the remaining games, and I don't know if they will have enough gas in the take to fight off the Yankees or the Tigers.�

The month of September�will be�full of drama and the Rangers have a great opportunity to shape the playoff picture.� Either way, hopefully they will stop digging themselves in a deeper hole in the AL West.�

At least not without a shovel.

NEWSFLASH: Quiroz Called Up; Sullivan's Latest Mailbag

According to Rotoworld, the Rangers have officially purchased the contract of catcher Guillermo Quiroz from Triple-A Oklahoma, and have added him to their 40-man roster.

The 25-year-old Venezuelan native was, at one time, a top prospect in the Blue Jays organization. Baseball America ranked Quiroz as the third best prospect in the Toronto organization in their 2004 pre-season rankings, and the 35th best prospect in baseball. In addition, he was named as the starting catcher for the World Team in the 2003 All-Star Futures Game.

Unfortunately, injuries have taken their toll on Guillermo's once promising baseball career. He suffered a collapsed lung late in the 2003 season, and a broken hand in mid-2004 robbed him of his power, along with several prime months of development. In early May 2005, Quiroz had surgery to repair another collapsed lung, which cost him several more months behind the plate.

A pair of lackluster major league auditions with Toronto in 2004 and 2005 led to Quiroz being claimed off waivers by Seattle in March 2006. The Mariners cut him loose last winter, and the Rangers signed him to a major league deal on December 28th; he was designated for assignment on April 1st, and cleared waivers, allowing Texas to outright him to Oklahoma.

Quiroz has yet to regain his top prospect status with Oklahoma, batting just .266/.307/.398 with 6 HR in 259 AB for the Redhawks this year. Texas will likely carry him the rest of the way as their third-string catcher; however, unless he really shows something during his limited opportunities for playing time this month, you can expect to see Quiroz dropped from the 40-man roster this winter. At this point, he's a long shot to win the backup catcher's job in 2008.

Finally, T.R. Sullivan's latest MLB.com mailbag is out this afternoon, and it includes some more thoughts on the Sosa/Botts DH situation - as if that topic hasn't been beaten to death already. Sullivan also discusses the future prospects of Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla and others with the Rangers, and defends Mark Teixeira's less than cordial departure from Arlington. Definitely worth checking out.

Blalock's Grand Return Propels Texas To Series Win

What Hank Blalock giveth, C.J. Wilson nearly taketh away.

Playing in his first game since May 16th, Blalock hit a dramatic go-ahead grand slam in the top of the 8th inning off of Anaheim reliever Scot Shields, and the Rangers survived yet another late Angels rally to hold on for a 8-7 win on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.

Kason Gabbard's seventh start in a Rangers uniform did not go especially well, as the 25-year-old lefty surrendered five runs on five hits and five walks in six innings of work; he also struck out three during his 102-pitch outing. Gabbard was staked to an early 2-0 lead by Ian Kinsler's two run blast in the top of the 3rd inning, but Anaheim's Jeff Mathis responded in the bottom half of the frame with a two run homer of his own, tying the game.

Things went downhill rapidly for Gabbard in the bottom of the 5th inning. With Jeff Mathis on first base and two outs, Reggie Willits drew a four pitch walk, and Orlando Cabrera followed with an RBI double that barely landed fair down the left field line, giving the Angels a 3-2 lead.

Kason issued an intentional pass to Vladimir Guerrero to load the bases in an attempt to escape without any further damage being done, but Garett Anderson deposited a soft single over Michael Young's head into left field, scoring Cabrera and Willits. Gabbard would finally strike out Maicer Izturis to end the inning, but not before Anaheim had taken a three run edge on the scoreboard.

However, the Rangers would fight back against Angels starter John Lackey. With two outs in the top of the 6th inning, Brad Wilkerson launched an outside 91 MPH fastball into the Anaheim bullpen in left field, cutting the deficit to 5-4. Considering the way Lackey was cruising along on the mound, the importance of Wilkerson's home run should not be understated - make no mistake about it, Texas would not have won this game without his contributions at the plate.

The score was still 5-4 in favor of the Angels when Scot Shields entered the game to begin the top of the 8th inning. Michael Young, who went 3 for 5 on the night, led things off with a single to right field. Marlon Byrd lined out to center, but Brad Wilkerson drew a four pitch walk, and Shields' second pitch to Frank Catalanotto hit him in the right ankle. With the bases loaded, Hank Blalock stepped to the plate.

Shields put his first pitch to Blalock in the dirt, but then fed him a steady diet of 92 MPH fastballs for the remainder of the at-bat. After running the count to 2-2, Hank fouled off a couple of pitches, and Shields delivered his seventh pitch to Blalock: a 93 MPH fastball down the heart of the plate.

Good night, Mr. Shields.

The Rangers' win probability percentage soared an incredible 50% in the wake of Blalock's game-altering tomahawk blast into the right field seats, which was the fifth grand slam of his major league career. Angels manager Mike Scioscia finally yanked Shields in favor of Chris Bootcheck, but the damage was already done. With Texas now up 8-5, it seemed Anaheim was finally done, and especially so with the dominant Rangers bullpen now protecting the lead.

Not so fast.

Wes Littleton pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Gabbard, effectively bridging the gap from the 6th to the 9th inning. In addition, Blalock's grand slam put Littleton in line for his third win in as many appearances, and granted him an opportunity at picking up a win on his 25th birthday. C.J. Wilson came on for the save opportunity in the bottom of the 9th inning - and that's where the trouble began.

Howie Kendrick led off the inning with a double down the left field line, which was badly misplayed by Jerry Hairston Jr. as the ball ricocheted off the wall and away from Hairston. Ironically, Jerry had come into the game as a defensive replacement moments earlier, but his defensive miscue allowed Kendrick to reach third base with nobody out.

Wilson struck out Gary Matthews Jr. swinging, but coughed up an RBI single on an inside changeup to Robb Quinlan, who came into the game batting just .228/.284/.342 on the year. KRLD radio commentator Victor Rojas lit into Wilson's decision to throw a first pitch changeup to such a miserable hitter, but the worst was yet to come.

Jeff Mathis followed, and stroked a double down the left field line that should have been caught, if not for some less than brilliant defensive positioning by Ramon Vazquez at third base. All of a sudden, the lead was down to 8-6, and the Angels had men on second and third base with just one out.

Reggie Willits would mercifully line out to Vazquez at third, and Wilson was able to get ahead with an 0-2 count on Orlando Cabrera, putting him just one strike away from ending his ordeal on the mound. Alas, C.J. hit Cabrera on the foot, loading the bases for the feared Vladimir Guerrero.

Wilson wisely pitched around Vlad, and eventually walked him on a 3-2 pitch, scoring Robb Quinlan from third base and trimming the lead to 8-7. Garret Anderson, who hit a three-run homer against C.J. one day earlier, stepped into the batter's box with a chance to win it for the Angels.

With the count at 2-2, Wilson fired a sweeping breaking ball down and away from Anderson, which he appeared to check his swing on. In a rather controversial call, home plate umpire Lance Barksdale said that Anderson went around, and called him out on strike three swinging, without even bothering to appeal to third base umpire Gary Cederstrom. Queue much cursing from the Angels dugout.

ESPN's TV replay showed after the fact that Anderson didn't appear to swing, meaning that Anderson and Mike Scioscia were probably somewhat justified in their post-game tantrum that was directed towards Barksdale.

Oh well.

A couple more things worth noting from Sunday's thriller: Ramon Vazquez was nailed by a John Lackey fastball immediately after Ian Kinsler's two run homer in the 3rd inning, which prompted Vazquez to stare down Lackey for several seconds as he slowly walked down the first base line. Texas has three home games remaining against the Angels later this month, and it'll be interesting to see if the bad blood between the two clubs reaches a boiling point like it did last August.

Also, tonight served as a perfect reminder of why I hate ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. Shortly before the first pitch of the game, Joe Morgan proclaimed that Lackey's 16-8 record was the reason why he was a legitimate 2007 AL Cy Young contender. Not his 3.18 ERA, or his 138-46 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 181.1 innings this season - his freakin' win-loss record, which is largely team-dependent. Unbelievable.

Oh yeah, and here's another solid gold pre-game quote from Joe Morgan over at FJM:

When asked by Karl Ravech if he thought that John Lackey should be considered the frontrunner for the Cy Young this year, Joe said yes, because, "his team is playing well, and he's 'the man.'"

You know, I hate to jump on the Joe Morgan hate bandwagon like most other vocal internet baseball fans, but there is a reason why he's garnered so much widespread criticism for his broadcasting: he provides inaccurate information and assertions constantly, and has become simply unlistenable.

I understand that it must be rather difficult trying to fly by the seat of your pants in the broadcast booth for three hours, but you'll notice that Josh Lewin and Tom Grieve are nowhere near as inept as Morgan - and to a lesser but similiar extent, Jon Miller. Well, except for when Josh and Tom are broadcasting from the left field bleachers; that was a legitimate trainwreck.

Brandon McCarthy resumed his throwing program on Sunday by playing catch on flat ground, and experienced no problems in either his right shoulder or elbow. He still hopes to make at least a couple of starts before season's end:

"If I'm healthy, it's important," McCarthy said. "We don't want to rush it, but if I feel the way I did today and stay that way, it's important. The more Major League starts I make, the better. We're talking about 10-15 innings and that's 10-15 innings I don't have. Each inning I get, I learn more about myself."

McCarthy will continue to play catch for the next few days, before progressing back to pitching from mound; if everything goes as planned, he'll follow that up with a couple of bullpen sessions, a simulated game and finally a return to the Rangers rotation, perhaps a couple of weeks from now.

Embattled reliever Aki Otsuka will attempt to resume his own throwing program on Monday, something which the DMN's Evan Grant doesn't seem to be particularly optimistic about:

It is essentially a last-ditch effort to stave off exploratory surgery that could range from a minor cleanup to Tommy John surgery.

I thought we had previously heard that Tommy John surgery wasn't going to be necessary in Aki's case, and that a minor elbow cleanup would be the most serious surgical procedure that might be required? This isn't sounding good at all, to be honest.

Catcher Guillermo Quiroz is expected to be promoted from Triple-A Oklahoma to the Rangers on Monday. However, Quiroz's personal gain will come at the expense of fellow catcher and teammate Chris Stewart, who is reportedly unlikely to be called up. Redhawks' outfielder Victor Diaz, who went 5 for 6 with three HR and eight RBI in a 20-3 pounding of Albuquerque on Sunday, could also be in line for a promotion to the big leagues within the next few days.

Kameron Loe will square off against the Royals' Zach Greinke on Monday night back in Arlington.

Farewell, 7:35 PM start times.

Monday, September 3rd Game Preview

Kansas City Royals (61-75) vs. Texas Rangers (63-73)

Zack Greinke (5-5, 4.07 ERA) vs. Kameron Loe (6-10, 5.35 ERA)

7:05 PM CST in Arlington, Texas (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)

TV: FSNSW | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

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Volquez's Return Helps Power Rangers Over Angels

Welcome back to The Show, Edinson.

The Texas Rangers took command early and survived a late scare during Saturday afternoon's nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and held on to win 7-6.

Undoubtedly, the biggest story of the day was the return of right-hander Edinson Volquez to the big leagues. The 24-year-old Volquez hadn't made a major league start since being clubbed for five runs in just three innings by the Angels back on September 25th, 2006. Although he would receive the loss in that game, that wasn't the case on Saturday.

Volquez's pitching repertoire consisted of a low-to-mid 90's fastball that touched 95 MPH with regularity on the radar gun, along with his usual complementary curve and changeup. Edinson threw a perfect 1st inning, but allowed seven hits and two walks over his next four innings of work. On paper, that wouldn't seem to bode well for his ERA.

Luckily for Volquez, he was able to limit the damage on the scoreboard to just three runs, thanks in large part to the four strikeouts he racked up during his 94-pitch outing. One especially crucial moment came during the bottom of the 4th inning, when Anaheim put men on second and third base with just one out.

One run was already in, but Volquez was able to settle down and retire Jeff Mathis on an infield popup, and then proceeded to strike out Gary Matthews Jr. looking on a 92 MPH heater on the inside corner to end the Angels' scoring threat. Volquez would diffuse yet another potentially devastating rally during the next inning; Edinson's resilience on the mound earned him praise from the coaching staff:

"Last year, those would turn into big innings," pitching coach Mark Connor said. "But both times, he calmed himself down and kept the damage from getting big. When he had runners on base and was in some trouble, he was a different pitcher than he was last year."

Indeed, Saturday's start was a huge milestone for Volquez, and marked a big step in the right direction as far as his future with the club goes. His performance on the mound during the month of September could well mean the difference between starting 2008 with Triple-A Oklahoma, or getting an opportunity with the Rangers out of spring training.

While Saturday afternoon's game time temperature of 99 degrees didn't appear to have too much of a negative impact on Volquez, it would certainly take its toll on Anaheim starter Kelvim Escobar. The 31-year-old right-hander came into the game as a legitimate AL Cy Young contender, holder of a 15-6 record and 2.77 ERA in 172 innings for the Angels.

He would leave with a 2.99 ERA.

Escobar retired just eight batters against a relentless Texas offensive attack, which pounded him for five runs on six hits and four walks during his abbreviated 78-pitch outing. David Murphy and Brad Wilkerson both contributed two run doubles, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia delivered the knockout blow to Escobar's day with an RBI single of his own in the top of the 3rd inning.

Texas would tack on a couple more insurance runs against reliever Dustin Moseley, courtesy of a solo home run from Marlon Byrd and an RBI triple from Ian Kinsler. In the meantime, Jamey Wright fired three shutout innings in relief of Volquez, which allowed the Rangers to go into the bottom of 9th inning with a fairly comfortable 7-3 lead.

Joaquin Benoit struck out Gary Matthews Jr. on an 89 MPH slider to begin the frame, but quickly surrendered a double to Orlando Cabrera, and walked Vladimir Guerrero on four pitches. With the tying run suddenly on deck, the game had become a save situation, and Ron Washington called for closer C.J. Wilson from the bullpen.

His first assignment was to retire the left-handed Garett Anderson, who was hitting a surprisingly solid .315/.342/.466 against LHP coming into the game. Sure enough, Anderson proceeded to launch a 94 MPH fastball into the right field seats for a three run blast, giving the Angels new life and closing the gap to just 7-6. Thankfully, C.J. quickly snuffed out Anaheim's newfound momentum in a hurry, and retired Maicer Izturis and Kendry Morales to end the game.

Hank Blalock will make his long awaited return to the Rangers on Sunday, and will start at DH against Angels starter John Lackey. Blalock hasn't played since May 16th, and been recovering from a May 21st surgical procedure that removed a rib from underneath his right shoulder. The rib was the cause behind his painful bout of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, which can lead to serious neurological damage if left untreated, and even death in very rare cases.

The original timetable had Blalock set to return approximately 10 to 12 weeks after the completion of his surgery - he missed the upper limit of that goal by almost three weeks. Granted, Hank's had his share of setbacks during the rehab process, so you can't really fault him for that. Blalock said that he's "been ready to hit for the past five weeks;" whether or not he can match his early season batting line of .285/.335/.493 the rest of the way is another matter entirely.

Texas had their streak of 24 consecutive stolen bases without being caught broken on Saturday, as Ian Kinsler was thrown out by catcher Jeff Mathis while trying to steal second base during the top of the 1st inning. Kinsler had been 17 for 17 on the basepaths in 2007, and the Rangers were 75 for 92 coming into the game, good for an AL-leading 81.5% success rate that's on pace to be the second highest in club history (81.7% in 2005).

Now that's how you add offensive value on the basepaths.

While still on the topic of noteworthy individual accomplishments, Frank Catalanotto finished the month of August with a monster .406/.479/.688 batting line, good enough to win the AL batting title for the month of August. Yeah, I think he's still got a little something left.

Texas will attempt to win just their 7th out of 28 at Anaheim on Sunday evening, with Kason Gabbard squaring off against John Lackey.

Boy, would I love to see the Rangers shell an AL Cy Young contender two days in a row.

Sunday, September 2nd Game Preview

Texas Rangers (62-73) vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (80-55)

Kason Gabbard (6-1, 3.65) vs. John Lackey (16-8, 3.18 ERA)

7:05 PM CST in Anaheim, California (Angel Stadium of Anaheim)

TV: ESPN2 | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM

Angels Snap Rangers' Winning Streak Via Walkoff

And so ends the Rangers' longest winning streak of the season.

How appropriate that it came to an end at the hands of the hated Angels.

Texas rallied against Anaheim closer Francisco Rodriguez in the top of the 9th inning, but the Rangers were unable to take the lead, and Howie Kendrick hit a walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat Texas on Friday night, 7-6.

The up-and-down saga of Vicente Padilla since his return from the disabled list continues, as Padilla gave up six runs on ten hits and a walk in 6.2 innings of work; on an even more concerning note, Padilla struck out nobody during his 83-pitch outing.

Padilla did regularly work in the low-to-mid 90's on the radar gun, and touched 96 MPH on more than one occasion, but it simply wasn't a good night for him. At this point, it's starting to become a tossup which version of Vicente Padilla will show up on a given night - the one that will give you six quality innings, or the one who will implode at the first sign of trouble.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ian Kinsler both hit RBI singles in the top of the 2nd inning against lefty Joe Saunders to give the Rangers an early 2-0 lead, but it would be a short-lived triumph. Howie Kendrick hit a two out, two run double to the right-center field power alley that tied the game up in the bottom of the frame, setting the tone for a back-and-forth game which saw no fewer than four lead changes.

Fast forward to the top of the 9th inning: after a failed attempt by Gerald Laird to reach base on a bunt single, Michael Young rolled an infield hit down the third base line with one out, and then proceeded to steal second base. Sammy Sosa would come through once again, as he deposited his lone hit of the night into right field, scoring Young and tying the game against the superb K-Rod.

Marlon Byrd grounded into a force out fielder's choice at second base, but partially made up for the poor outcome of his at-bat by stealing second. Unfortunately, Jason Botts struck out swinging to end the inning, stranding Marlon in scoring position. Texas would pay dearly for their failure to take control of the game right there.

Frankie Francisco pitched a shutdown 9th inning, but came back out for the 10th inning, despite the fact that C.J. Wilson was warmed and ready in the bullpen. In retrospect, it appears that Frankie lost the strike zone while sitting on the bench between innings, as evidenced by the five-pitch walk he issued to Garett Anderson to lead off the inning. That one called strike was also technically a ball, according to MLB Gameday.

Francisco then gave up a sacrifice bunt to Maicer Izturis, intentionally walked Kendry Morales, and managed to induce a fielder's choice force out at second base from Casey Kotchman, putting runners on first and third with two outs.

Although the Rangers still had a reasonable chance to send the game to 11 innings, things would progress no further. Howie Kendrick lined a 97 MPH fastball from Frankie up the middle for a walkoff RBI single, prompting the Angels' dugout to erupt in celebration as the Rangers walked dejectedly off the field.

Ugh.

Hank Blalock will be activated from the disabled list on Saturday, as the expansion of the active roster to 40 players provides plenty of added room to carry the injured third baseman. Oddly enough, he's still not ready to play the field, and will only be available initially as a pinch hitter:

"The strength and endurance is not there yet," Blalock said. "I'm not ready to play third base every day. There are some tricky throws I have to make, and I want to make sure my arm is solid."

Obviously, Blalock's not 100% healthy yet; hopefully that doesn't come back to bite the Rangers where it hurts the most. In any event, Hank hopes to be back in the field as the regular third baseman by the next road trip, which begins September 11th in Detroit.

Brandon McCarthy attempted to begin his throwing program earlier this week, but was shut down due to stiffness in his right pitching elbow. McCarthy's attributing the stiffness to the fact that he hasn't thrown in two weeks, and will give his latest rehab effort another shot on Saturday.

In addition to Edinson Volquez, the Rangers are expected to add left-hander A.J. Murray, outfielder Freddy Guzman, and a third catcher to their roster on Saturday. T.R. Sullivan notes there is "sentiment within the organization" to bring up catcher Guillermo Quiroz instead of Chris Stewart, as the Rangers are hoping to get a first-hand look at the 26-year-old Quiroz before the season is over. Outfielder Victor Diaz and another yet to be named pitcher could also be added to the roster.

August came and went without the Rangers making a trade via waivers, with Sammy Sosa, Brad Wilkerson and Jamey Wright apparently drawing little to no interest among contending teams. All three cleared waivers earlier this month; as for Adam Melhuse's status, it appears he'll be given his walking papers sometime in the next few days.

Frisco third baseman Chris Davis has been named as the DMN Sportsday Rangers' Minor League Player of the Year, thanks to a monster 2007 campaign which has found the 6'4", 235 pound infielder clubbing 36 home runs between Single-A Bakersfield and Double-A Frisco. Davis has hit .316/.387/.745 with 12 HR in just 98 AB for Frisco thus far, and perhaps more importantly, has trimmed his strikeout rates big-time. This kid's coming in a hurry.

Also, Sportsday has named Oklahoma right-hander Eric Hurley as their Rangers' Minor League Pitcher of the Year, and Frisco second baseman German Duran as their Surprise of the Year. The 21-year-old Hurley has gone 11-9 with a 3.87 ERA in 158 IP between Frisco and Oklahoma, while Duran has hit an awesome .302/.355/.526 with 22 HR in 473 AB for Frisco this season.

The DMN's Jean Jacques Taylor has a new piece out discussing the recent contract extensions doled out to Jon Daniels and Ron Washington, and how the Rangers finally have a sense of direction after the disasterous early-2000's seasons.

And finally tonight, FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal interviewed former Texas and current Atlanta first baseman Mark Teixeira on Friday, which includes this fairly eye-raising quote:

Q: You made some critical comments about the Rangers' commitment to winning about two weeks before you were traded. How frustrated were you at the time?

A: I was very frustrated. Every player in Texas was frustrated to some degree. It was the kind of article that everybody in Texas wanted to write and they needed me for quotes.

Mark Teixeira's batting line in April 2007: .231/.346/.341. 2 HR in 91 AB.

Just sayin'.

Saturday, September 1st Game Preview

Texas Rangers (61-73) vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (80-54)

Edinson Volquez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Kelvim Escobar (15-6, 2.77 ERA)

2:55 PM CST in Anaheim, California (Angel Stadium of Anaheim)

TV: KDFW/Ch. 4 | Radio: KRLD 1080 AM