Rangers End Road Trip on High Note
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by user ASwaff
Game 115
Rangers 14
Athletics 0
57-58 (-5.5)
Where has this pitching been the last four games? Where has this offense been the last four games? Where has this entire team been the last four games? The Texas Rangers exploded for two touchdowns worth of runs in this afternoon’s game to avoid being swept by the Oakland Athletics and come home with a sliver of a fraction of momentum.
They do remain, however, 5.5 games out of first place and three games behind the second place LAA Angels. And, with the Seattle Mariners defeating the Tampa Bay Devil Rays this afternoon, the Rangers remain in tie with Seattle for last place in the division.
I take this offensive outburst with a bit of trepidation. The last time Texas scored more than 10 runs, they went on to win four of their next five games. But then, there was also their 15-1 rout of the Baltimore Orioles in the first game after the All-Star break. Following that game, the Rangers lost 10 of their next 15, and averaged just 3.3 runs per game during that span.
Crucial challenges lie in the very near future for the Rangers, but for now, they can bask in the fact that they played their first good game in five days.
Mark DeRosa stood out in particular for the Rangers today, going 4-5 with a double, two homeruns, two runs and six RBI. The entire middle of the order was phenomenal, though, as DeRosa, Mark Teixeira and Carlos Lee combined to go 11-14 with eight runs, eight RBI, two doubles and three homeruns. In all, the Rangers knocked five homeruns today, one of which was Lee’s first homerun as a Ranger. You knew he had to get one eventually. His solo shot in the first inning gave the Rangers an early lead they would never relinquish.
The only players that didn’t contribute anything were Michael Young and Nelson Cruz, who both went 0-5 with two strikeouts.
As always, however, the biggest story is the pitching. Good or bad, the story is pretty much always the pitching. Vicente Padilla recorded his second good start in a row, shutting the Oakland A’s out for seven innings on six strikeouts. In his last seven starts dating back to the beginning of June, Padilla is 5-2 with a 3.38 ERA.
For all intents and purposes, we can momentarily put aside the fact that the Rangers pitchers always should have been able to contain an Oakland offense that is dead last in the Major Leagues with a .249 team batting average and second to last in the A.L. in runs scored.
In a rare occurance, the Rangers knocked around Barry Zito. Coming into today’s game, Zito was 16-2 lifetime against the Rangers. He was pitching pretty well through the first four innings, but the Rangers exploded for four runs in the fifth, courtesy of a solo homerun by Gary Matthews and a three run homer by Mark DeRosa (his first of the afternoon).
With Zito out of the way after just five innings, the Rangers piled on the runs, plating eight more against Brad Halsey and Jay Witasick in just 1.1 innings.
The only genuinely interesting thing to occur after Zito left was when Oakland outfielder Milton Bradley (no stranger to tantrums) got tossed for arguing with the home plate umpire in the sixth inning. What was odd about it was that he wasn’t arguing balls and strikes during the at-bat. He popped out to shortstop, and then started saying something on his way back to the dugout.
At that point, the game was well out of reach for the A’s, and they were not losing because of Paul Schrieber’s strike zone. It seems that Bradley was intentionally trying to get ejected to avoid playing the rest of a blowout game in the hot sun. How well that will go over with his manager is something we’ll have to keep an eye on.
So, the Rangers come back home with a badly needed win, and finish their road trip with a 5-5 record. Definitely would have liked to see them do better, but they did not bury themselves as they very well could have done.
No time to take a breath, though. The Rangers kick off their homestand with four games against the co-bottom-dwelling Mariners, followed by two more games against the Angels. Then they take their act back on the road for four games against the A.L.-leading Detroit Tigers.
- FOR MORE RANGERS NEWS AND OPINIONS, VISIT BASEBALL TIME IN ARLINGTON
Date
Wed 08/09/06, 5:15 pm EST
