Tuesday a.m. Rangers stuff

Another mid-series post-home-opener day off.  Bah.  And then another day game on Thursday.  Bah.  Stupid day games.

Jeff Wilson's game story looks at the late inning heroics of Nelson Cruz and Neftali Feliz, who got the save, along with Frank Francisco, who picked up the win.  Frankie, at 2-2, has gotten the decision in more than half of the Rangers' games this year.

Evan Grant has his notes up on yesterday's win at the DMN blog.  Richard Durrett has his notes up at the ESPN Dallas blog.

T.R. Sullivan says that the home plate collision between Taylor Teagarden and Travis Hafner was a key point in the game, with Julio Borbon's throw home to Teagarden keeping the score tied at 2, and putting the Rangers in position to take the game to extra innings.

Neftali Feliz says he wasn't nervous about being the closer yesterday.

Richard Durrett says that the throw should help Borbon gain some confidence in his arm, which has been the subject of concern and something Borbon has worked on with Gary Pettis at length.

Borbon's return to the lineup was more productive in the field than at the plate...he was 0 for 4 on the game, dropping him to 1 for 25 on the year, although the team says the expect Borbon to snap out of this slump and be productive.

They don't really have much choice in the matter...unlike Chris Davis, who has Ryan Garko and Justin Smoak and Mitch Moreland and Max Ramirez all waiting in the wings to play first base if he stumbles, the Rangers don't really have a viable Plan B in centerfield if Borbon flops.  Presumably, they'd ride it out with Borbon at least until Endy Chavez is ready to return from injury, since Craig Gentry doesn't appear to be the answer, either.  And with Brandon Boggs back on the disabled list in AAA with a shoulder problem, which appears to be an ongoing issue with him.

Speaking of Garko, he's apparently going to get the start on Thursday against lefty David Huff.

The S-T's notes include talk of Joaquin Arias's hot streak, although he's apparently not guaranteed a spot on the 25 man roster when Ian Kinsler returns.  For all the excitement around Arias's hot streak, it is 21 at bats, and he hasn't walked or had an extra base hit and only has one extra base hit.  We all knew he could hit singles, and I don't see that having 98 singles and 1 double in 21 at bats, instead of, say, 6 singles, should change anyone's opinion of him.