Monday Morning Rangers Update
Baseball is pretty fun when the Rangers win a lot.
T.R. Sullivan's game story focuses on Yu Darvish getting through five less-than-dominant innings with an upset stomach and stiff back. However, thanks to the bats going nuclear, Darvish still won his league-leading seventh game.
Calvin Watkins reacts to the Rangers 12-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Drew Davison has wrap up notes on the Rangers win and series sweep against the Blue Jays.
Jean-Jacques Taylor writes a baseball article on Yu Darvish's command.
Matt Mosley writes a baseball article on Elvis Andrus blossoming into one of the best shortstops (Statistically, he has been the best shortstop this season) in baseball.
Davison has a piece on David Murphy trying to draw walks and remaining patient at the plate in the absence of base hits. Here's a quote from Murphy in the article:
"I feel like I've had my fair share of hard outs this year, but I haven't necessarily had my fair share of luck. It's good to get some of those now and then."
Let's see...Murphy currently has a career high LD% of 23.6% so he is correct in his assumption that he is hitting the ball relatively hard. As far as luck, though, Murphy has a BABIP of .310. So he hasn't been terribly unlucky. Sorry, Murph. That said, Murphy's current walk rate of 10.1% would also be his Rangers' career high. That's neat, at least.
Watkin writes on the Rangers already drawing 1,000,000 people in attendance this season. Of note, this is the fastest the Rangers have ever reached the one million mark.
The Dodgers, Phillies, and Yankees are the only other teams to reach the one million mark so far this season. Each of those clubs have had at least two more home dates than the Rangers, however. Also, the 16 sellout games so far this season is second in total sellouts in one season behind the year The Ballpark opened in 1994.
Sullivan's Notebook covers Mike Napoli saying he still wants to stay a Ranger, Alexi Ogando day-to-day after getting hit in the hand on Sunday, C.J. Wilson vs. The Rangers: Round Three scheduled for Saturday, and other notes.
Jeff Wilson's notes cover Roy Oswalt not looking like an option for now, updates on the health status of Napoli and Josh Hamilton, and Matt Harrison looking to do better in the first inning of his starts.
Behind the DMN paywall, Kevin Sherrington writes about Yu Darvish's start yesterday somehow being another reason why the Rangers should sign Oswalt.
Finally, it's DMN Top 12 Prospects Slideshow time. You'll probably just want to skip the Martin Perez slide.
Pick6 Leaderboard for 5/26
| 1 | mballen76 | 72.5 |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | O's Rock | 66.4 |
| 3 | Horns120 | 66.1 |
| 4 | ghostofErikThompson | 65.0 |
| 5 | TheHuntforRedOctober | 64.7 |
| 6 | CMF | 63.7 |
| 7 | Dudely | 56.9 |
| 8 | FandomSports | 55.7 |
| 9 | crazy86er | 55.0 |
| 10 | casew | 53.3 |
Complete leaderboard for all LSB participants from yesterday is after the jump...
Sunday morning Rangers stuff
Jeff Wilson's game story talks about Josh Hamilton saving the Rangers after the offense missed out on opportunity after opportunity.
The game story on the Rangers' website talks about Hamilton being light-headed during yesterday's game, as he was dealing with a head cold.
Anthony Andro writes in his game story that Hamilton saved the Rangers from what would have been one of the most frustrating losses of the season.
The incessant bunting yesterday late in the game drew a lot of criticism during the game, particularly when the Jays walked Josh Hamilton after Elvis Andrus bunted Ian Kinsler to second in the 9th. If you thought seeing Hamilton walked would change Washington's mind about bunting in that situation, think again:
``I'm not worried about them putting Hamilton on the bag. I've got (Adrian) Beltre and Michael Young coming,'' Washington said. ``They're quality hitters. They drive in runs and they drive in big runs, so if you want to walk Hamilton, go ahead. I did what I had to do to get a runner closer to home plate.''
Elvis feels that, if he gets the chance to swing away in those situations rather than bunt, he can come throw with a big hit -- much like he did in the 13th inning yesterday.
Drew Davison writes that, although Mitch Moreland has been hot for the past month, he's still not getting the opportunity to hit against lefties.
Behind the paywall, the DMN has a story about the possibility of the Rangers drawing 3 million fans this year.
The S-T has a piece on Jurickson Profar, who is being fast-tracked and has the Rangers excited about his progress and potential.
Richard Justice has a column on the memories that those who are close to Hamilton have of him.
Wilson has a story about the fallout of the Jairo Beras investigation that is worth checking out...he says MLB is now looking at whether Beras is really 18, rather than 16 or 17, and that the Rangers' reputation in Latin America is taking a hit as a result of the investigation, with the team running the risk of being shut out on top July 2 signees this summer, as top prospects are making deals with other teams rather than waiting for the Rangers to resolve the Beras situation.
The S-T's notes talk about Yu Darvish pitching in the heat, a couple of viruses that are going around the Ranger clubhouse, and Scott Feldman pitching batting practice in an effort to work on his command.
The Rangers' website notes have items on Ron Washington saying he could never use a position player as a pitcher, Darvish and the heat, Hamilton and Napoli and the bugs, and Nelson Cruz going the other way.
Thoughts on an 8-7 win
Blue Jays 7, Rangers 5 Rangers 8, Blue Jays 7
- I love this team.
- What the Showalter, man. A couple of times a season you have a game that seems to make you run through every sports emotion you can feel within the span of just a few hours. Joe Posnanski had a blog post on September 28, 2011 (if you're a real baseball fan, you remember what night that was) in which he had a line that encapsulates this: "I never argue with people who say baseball is boring, because baseball is boring. And then, suddenly, it isn't. And that's what makes it great."
- Its almost an afterthought, but Colby Lewis started for the Rangers today. I saw a few people on Twitter talking about a Colby Lewis "meltdown" after he got pulled. Colby pitched well today, though, better than the 5.1 IP, 4 ER marks in the box score would reflect. The 6th inning "meltdown" that resulted in him being pulled and replaced by Alexi Ogando started off with a ground out to first base. Eric Thames then hit a ball very well to center field that went for a double. Josh Hamilton got turned around on the ball, but I'm not sure he would have had a play on it either way...Craig Gentry might have, but even that's questionable. Brett Lawrie then hit a hard grounder to shortstop, and Thames broke for third. Elvis threw to third, but Thames beat the throw, putting runners at first and third. David Cooper then hit a tailor-made double play ball to shortstop...but it was on a hit-and-run, with Elvis breaking to cover the bag, which meant that the ball rolled into the hole vacated by Elvis, resulting in an RBI single. Instead of being out of the inning, as would be the case if Elvis had thrown to first instead of third on the Lawrie grounder, Lewis had runners on the corners, a run in, and just one out. Omar Vizquel then placed a bunt perfectly down the first base line, resulting in a bunt single, another run in, and the end of Colby's day. Colby Lewis pitched well today, striking out 6, walking no one, and allowing a Colby Rasmus home run that hit the foul pole in right field. He deserved a better fate than his line indicates.

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