Mornings after wins are definitely better than mornings after losses.
Jeff Wilson's game story focuses on the contributions of the battery from yesterday -- C.J. Wilson, who many of us thought had no legitimate chance of entering the season as a starter, regardless of what was being said this offseason, and Matt Treanor, who wasn't in the organization until late this spring and who started the season in the minors.
Meanwhile, Frank Francisco picked up the save, although Ron Washington says that Neftali Feliz is still the closer. That being said, if Feliz continues to have issues pitching on back-to-back days, it may make more sense not to use him in the traditional one inning closer role, but to use him in one-two inning stints, to maximize the innings you get from him.
The S-T's notes talk about the demotion to AAA for both Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden, along with providing a Darren O'Day and an Ian Kinsler update.
Evan Grant writes that the message in the demotion of Salty and Teagarden is clear -- if you don't produce, we'll bring someone in who will.
The amount of changes three weeks into the season is remarkable -- the starting catcher and the backup catcher have been demoted to AAA, the starting first baseman has been demoted to AAA, the leadoff hitter got dropped to 9th in the batting order, and the closer lost his closer's job. And that isn't even taking into account the fact that the starting second baseman and starting right fielder are now on the disabled list. I'm not sure if this is an admirable willingness to be flexible and adapt to the situation on the ground, or a disappointing lack of patience and ability to stay with a plan.
Cruz, of course, is on the d.l. with a hamstring strain...he was going to miss 5-7 days with it, and given the Rangers' short bench, they could afford to go that long without Cruz being available.
Craig Gentry was called up and immediately thrust into the starting lineup, which was fine by him.