Yankees Continue to Own the Rangers
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by user ASwaff
Game 100
Rangers 2
Yankees 6
51-49 (-1.0)
The Texas Rangers dropped their second straight game tonight and fell to 0-4 at home against the New York Yankees this season. Randy Johnson dominated the Rangers, holding them to two runs on seven hits in six innings. He also record seven strikeouts.
Texas would fare no better against New York’s exceedingly mediocre bullpen, which shut them out for three innings while holding them to three hits.
I don’t know which I want to blame more for the loss - the pitching, the defense, or the hitting. There was no aspect of the game that was good for the Rangers tonight. For the second game in a row, they were done in by allowing three unearned runs. The only redeeming thing about those errors committed by Mark Teixeira and Mark DeRosa is that the two combined to go 4-8 with one run and two RBI.
Kevin Millwood looked good for the first two innings. That’s really all I can say about him. Melky Cabrera led off the game for the Yankees with a single, and quickly stole second base. But Millwood managed to work out of the jam by getting a fly out from Derek Jeter and grounds out from Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez.
Millwood looked much better in the second inning, retiring all three batters he faced. He even got some early support, courtesy of a solo homer by Teixeira in the bottom of the second.
Then the wheels came off for Texas. With two outs in the third, the Yankees scored their first run with back-to-back triples by Cabrera and Jeter. The Yankees went on to score two unearned runs in the fourth and another unearned run in the fifth. All told, Millwood allowed five runs (two earned) in six innings of work. He recorded just two strikeouts.
You know who I think I’m gonna blame? The bottom three in the Rangers lineup - Gerald Laird, Brad Wilkerson and Jerry Hairston. The combined line for those three hitters goes something like this: 1-12, 8 Ks, 14 LOB. The Yanks picked up 12 strikeouts against the Rangers tonight, and 8 of them came from just the bottom three hitters in the lineup.
They may have lost by four runs, but it’s not as if the Rangers did not have their chances. They simply failed to capitalize.
This game really brought something to my attention. The Rangers need to do something about their hitting against left-handed pitching. They really stink against leftys. Brad Wilkerson was starting at DH tonight, despite the fact that’s he’s hitting .196 against leftys this year, almost 50 points lower than his average against rightys. Showalter opted to sit Hank Blalock, who is batting 10 points higher against leftys than Wilkerson. But, he couldn’t be called the better option, because that’s a 100 points dropoff from his average against rightys. Rod Barajas bats .132 against leftys. As a team, the Rangers are seventh in the Majors and third in the AL with a .282 average against left-handed pitchers. But there are obviously some glaring holes there.
Just something for Rudy Jaramillo to work on in the coming weeks.
Here’s a funny thing I noticed looking at that list. The Houston Astros, who are 28th in the Majors in total batting average, are 8th in average against leftys. That’s because they’re 28th in average against rightys, with a .248. Talk about a glaring hole.
The LAA Angels won earlier today to retake second place, and later in the night, the Oakland Athletics fell to Boston. That means the AL West now has a tie for first place between the Angels and A’s, with the Rangers sitting a half game out in third. Seattle also won to close their deficit to three games. Man, thing are really starting to heat up!
Date
Mon 07/24/06, 9:26 pm EST
