Texas Rangers 2 Minnesota Twins 15 (July 31, 2006)
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0 commentsJust a couple of hours of my writing that this was likely John Rheinecker’s last start in the Majors this season, Rhino pretty well etched his fate in stone. 1.2 innings, 8 earned runs on 9 hits. Those eight runs he allowed in the first two innings gave the Twins just enough cushion to go on to build a 15-0 lead. The Twinkies would go on to win 15-2, and Rheinecker is now 0-3 with an 8.89 ERA in his last five starts.
Joaquin Benoit also made a strong case for his demotion, coming on in relief of Rheinecker to give up five earned runs in 2.1 innings. "Bailout Benny" had an ERA of 4.91 in July, which actually lowered his season ERA from what it was at the end of June. Speaking of players losing their jobs, Brad Wilkerson backed up what I wrote about him earlier today rather nicely by starting as the DH and going 0-3 with two strikeouts against the right-handed Carlos Silva.
To make the night especially painful, Carlos Lee had his first bad night as a Ranger, going 0-3 and committing his first error as a Ranger. The other part of the Lee trade, Nelson Cruz, cleaned up after Lee by hitting a solo homerun in the ninth inning after coming on as a defensive replacement for Lee in the 6th inning. The homerun was the first of his Major League career.
With the loss, the Rangers fall to last place in the AL West, but are still just four games behind first place Oakland.
So, what good can be said about a 15-2 loss in which the Rangers got outhit 18-7? Mark Teixeira and Hank Blalock played well. Why they don’t get this kind of production in wins and close losses, I’ll never understand. But the two both went 2-4, and Teixeira broke the shutout in the 7th inning with a solo homerun.
That’s truthfully the only good thing I can say about tonight’s game. There was no other aspect of the Rangers game that was even remotely adequate tonight. As one reader said earlier, how do you win 15-2 and then turn around and lose by exactly the same score? Perhaps with a horrendous July behind them, the Rangers can look at August as a new beginning. They have a lot of fresh faces between their trade acquisitions (Lee, Cruz, Kip Wells and Matt Stairs) and players recovering from injury (Adam Eaton). This is like a whole new team, so just maybe they’ll start playing like it.
The Rangers had a record of 11-15 in July, and closed out the month by losing seven of their last eight games. It was the first month this season the Rangers have finished with a losing record. Oddly enough, the good news for the Rangers in August is that they have 17 of their 29 games on the road. They are 26-24 on the road this year, versus 26-30 at home.
Texas follows up their series with the Twins with 13 games against division foes. That includes six games against the red hot LAA Angels, who went 19-7 in July. It’ll be a defining stretch that could either launch the Rangers in the standings or crush their hopes of reaching the post season. Scary to think of that during the first half of August.
The Rangers will begin their fresh start tomorrow against the Twins at 7:10 CST. RHP Adam Eaton (0-1, 7.36) will be making his second start of the season against RHP Scott Baker (3-6, 6.27).
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Date
July 31, 2006
