I still don't get exactly what has happened with Matt Harrison. But all of a sudden, he's gone from looking like a poor man's Kason Gabbard to...well, I don't know. A good lefty pitcher who throws pretty hard and who throws strikes.
Evan Grant says that the most impressive thing about Harrison's complete game shutout yesterday was that he did it against a team he had faced just five days earlier. Conventional wisdom holds that it is harder for a pitcher to come back that quickly against the same team, because the hitters have seen all his pitches and know what he throws and when, which gives the offense an advantage. Harrison's ability to shut the ChiSox down again, twice in less than a week, is a credit to how he is throwing.
Anthony Andro's game story has Matt Harrison offering his explanation for his new success:
Matt Harrison has a simple answer for why he’s suddenly become impossible to score on.
"I’m just throwing the ball," Harrison said.
* * *
"He started throwing the ball over the plate," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Harry has good stuff. He played on the edges. He’s stopped playing on the edges and started making them swing the bat and put the ball in play."
The one bad thing about yesterday's game was Michael Young going out with a lower back problem. The S-T blog says he hurt it diving for a ball in the third inning, and that he did something similar in Detroit a couple of years ago, resulting in him missing two games. He's apparently going to see how he feels today, and make a decision then about whether he can go. Given what he's shown in the past about his pain tolerance, if there's any way he can play today, he'll be out there.
Andro also has some injury updates...Josh Hamilton took batting practice yesterday, did well, and is ready to go on a rehab assignment this weekend. And Jon Daniels had this to say about Neftali Feliz's shoulder soreness, which led him to miss yesterday's scheduled start:
General manager Jon Daniels wasn’t too concerned about the shoulder.
"Typically something this minor wouldn’t warrant a medical update if the subject was a lesser name," Daniels wrote in a e-mail.
Derek Holland has to carry the pink Snow White backpack since getting called up.
T.R. Sullivan has some bloggy notes up, that includes comments from Marlon Byrd on supplements and advice that Elvis Andrus was given in spring training.