- No pizza. So close. So sad.
- With beat writers suggesting Roy Oswalt's spot in the rotation could be in danger when Neftali Feliz is ready to return, Oswalt had the type of game the Rangers were expecting to get from him when they signed him, giving up 3 hits and a run while striking out 6 in 6.1 innings.
- Robbie Ross has a 0.95 WHIP and a 0.95 ERA. Weird.
- I don't remember the last time Ross was used for just one batter in a game, like he was today in his 0 IP, 1 hit outing.
- Mike Adams loaded the bases with one out on a HBP/single/4 pitch walk sequence, though he got out of it with a pair of popups. Still...I'm a little concerned about how Adams is pitching.
- With the score 5-1 in the 8th, the bases loaded, and one out, the Rangers got Tanner Scheppers and Michael Kirkman up warming in the bullpen. Not Joe Nathan...Scheppers and Kirkman. It ended up not mattering, but still...
- Scheppers and Nathan were both warming in the top of the 9th, but the Rangers went with Scheppers once the Rangers' got the lead to five. Tom Grieve seemed to indicate during the broadcast that Ron Washington thinks there's a big difference between a four run lead (where the game can be tied with one swing of the bat) and a five run lead, and thus he will go with the closer with a four run lead, but not five.
- Also not mattering was a weird play in the Rangers' half of the fourth...with the score 2-0, no one out, Michael Young on third, and Nelson Cruz on second, David Murphy hit a grounder in the hole on the right side. Jemile Weeks ranged well to his left to make a play on what looked like it might be a single, and threw Murphy out. I turned away from the TV, assuming the score was 3-0, since even Bengie Molina could have scored from third on a ball like that, and thus was surprised when I glanced back up and saw that the display showed runners on second and third. Pretty much everyone on Twitter and on the LSB game day thread seemed stunned that Young didn't score on that grounder. Napoli singled, so it was moot, but I'll be curious to hear what the explanation was in terms of what happened there.
- Every Rangers had exactly one hit, except Craig Gentry, who had two hits, and Ian Kinsler, who had none (although he did draw two walks).
- Another maddening, baffling night from Josh Hamilton. Hamilton struck out in his first three at bats, and looked particularly hapless in the second and third Ks. Then, in the top of the 8th, with the score 4-1, he stroked a ball the other way off a lefty for a home run, and drove home the final run in the 9th with a sacrifice fly. After dropping below .300 briefly, Hamilton's batting average is now exactly .300.