Solid performance leading to a nice 6-1 victory last night. Cliff Lee, for his second start in a row, looks like Cliff Lee. Magic number down to 6. Nice feelings about this team all around right now.
Jeff Wilson's game story focuses on the contributions of four mid-season Ranger acquisitions, all of whom had big games yesterday.
T.R. Sullivan praises Cliff Lee's stellar 8 inning outing, with only Franklin Gutierrez's home run resulting in any blemish to his line.
Richard Durrett has some data on how good Lee's command was yesterday.
Evan Grant writes about Jorge Cantu's game yesterday, with the Rangers hoping Cantu can get back on track in the next couple of weeks, to give them another option for a righthanded first baseman for the playoffs.
I've been assuming that the Rangers would take either Cantu or Jeff Francoeur, but not both, come playoff time. However, if the decision has been made that Julio Borbon will be relegated to a bench role in the playoffs, the team may decide that they are better off with both Cantu and Francoeur on the bench, and that Esteban German would be superfluous.
Sullivan's notes have quotes from Ron Washington about Justin Smoak having been rushed to the majors, Julio Borbon talking about his bunt attempt against Felix Hernandez with a no-hitter going on Friday, and the Rangers being concerned about C.J. Wilson's problems holding baserunners.
In Wilson's notes, Ron Washington says that the problem was not C.J. being slow to the plate or Bengie Molina's throws -- the problem was apparently the runners simply getting too good of a jump. Wilson also talks about Josh Hamilton being concerned about whether he'll be ready to go come playoff time.
Anthony Andro writes that Hamilton deserves the AL MVP Award.
Wilson has a Q&A with Jon Daniels up.