Friday a.m. Rangers stuff

Always good to start the second half with a win.  And a big win, on the road, against a playoff-caliber team, after getting swept at home by the worst team in the league?  Huge...

I'm of two minds of the offensive performance last night.  On the one hand, the Rangers scored 7 runs, put up a bunch of hits.  That's great.  On the other hand, I would have liked to have seen some more runs scored against the non-Wakefield Boston pitchers.  Last night's game reminded me too much of the game earlier this year in Boston against Wakefield, when the Rangers scored 6 runs on him and were stealing bases constantly and everyone got so excited about the stolen base record, they forgot to win the game, and ended up losing 7-6.

Jeff Wilson says in his game story that, with the Rangers having more road games in the second half than any other team in baseball, the Rangers didn't want to stumble out of the gate after the break, making the six run first all the more special.

T.R. Sullivan notes, in his game story, that the offense shutting down over the last eight innings was one of the problems the Rangers had against the Orioles in the sweep.

Evan Grant talks about Tommy Hunter's return to Boston, where he had his worst outing of his professional career.  Grant points out that, since that game in 2008, when Hunter allowed 9 runs in 1 2/3 innings, he's 15-6 with a 3.58 ERA.

Sullivan's notes has an update on Rich Harden and Derek Holland, and says that Josh Hamilton was pulled from yesterday's game because his calf muscle, which he originally hurt in Friday's game against the Orioles (the one that started two and a half hours late), tightened up on him.

Wilson also has notes on Harden and Holland, as well as talking to Chris Davis about his return to Fenway Park, the last place he was as a major leaguer before getting sent down to AAA in April.

Ray Buck talks to Chuck Morgan about the late Bob Sheppard, with Morgan relating his experience filling in for Sheppard at Yankee Stadium in 1979.

On the bankruptcy front, Barry Shlachter writes that the lenders have filed an emergency motion to change the auction bidding.

Maury Brown also has a story up about the latest filing.