Monday Morning Rangers Update

HOME GAMES!! Precious, precious home games.

The Rangers lost yesterday but they still won the series against Atlanta and that wasn't unimportant. Evan Grant writes behind the DMN paywall that while a series win against the Braves was a positive, problems still exist even with the team heading home. 

Richard Durrett chronicles the Rangers' concluded 10 game road trip. Needless to say, it was dreadful for pretty much the entire team. Mostly everyone wasn't good. Except for Yoshi. Yoshi is always wonderful.

T.R. Sullivan recaps yesterday's loss which apparently happened in sauna-like conditions in Atlanta which was probably why everyone seemed a little sluggish.

Durrett reacts to the game while noting the tough days Yorvit Torrealba, Alexi Ogando, and Arthur Rhodes had in contributing to the sloppy game.

Torrealba in particular had a rough go of it. Durrett details Torrealba's efforts in the third inning in which the Braves scored three runs after several botched plays by the Rangers starting catcher.

A long stretch of road games over the last couple of weeks and then physically exhausting conditions in Atlanta perhaps explain the lethargic appearance of Torrealba and others. And the conditions were apparently so bad, Jeff Wilson reports that Ogando and Torrealba had to be treated for dehydration.

Congratulations, Rangers! You get to go from the steam room of Atlanta to the dry sauna of Texas. Apparently, as Wilson reports, the homestand the Rangers begin tonight will be accompanied by, surprise, really hot temperatures.

But, as T.R. Sullivan writes in this notebook, the Rangers are excited to be home regardless. Sullivan also notes that Derek Holland feels he most perform consistently as a starter or he might find himself in the bullpen soon. On the prospect of a pitcher getting healthy and taking his spot, Holland said: 

"Yes, I definitely have to defend my ground," Holland said. "Who knows what might happen? I might go down or I might go to the 'pen. So definitely I have to defend my ground. That's the main thing."

Wilson's notes touch on Adrian Beltre's recent limp, Yoshinori Tateyama getting comfortable in the midst of YOSHIMANIA!, and Matt Harrison saying that while he feels really tired from throwing likely 300 baseballs yesterday, he doesn't feel any more sore than usual.

Ryan Jones of the DMN updates us on the weeks had by the Rangers' Top Ten Prospects. David Perez will surely be on this list soon.

Finally, in a DFW sports columnist battle royale, Kevin Sherrington and Gil Lebreton square off in dueling pieces on what they think MLB should do about Interleague:

• In this corner we have Sherrington who writes behind the DMN paywall saying MLB needs to end Interleague play and expand the playoffs.
• In this corner we have Lebreton saying Interleague play is awesome and baseball should radically realign to make it more awesome.