Saturday morning Rangers stuff

My feeling coming into this series was that, as long as the Rangers didn't get swept, I'd be okay with whatever happened. Winning a series on the road against a good team is difficult to do, and so I figured, take one of three, and anything else is gravy.

Well, the Rangers won the first game of the series yesterday, and that was the game that seemed, going in, to be the least likely to result in a win. And they won despite Alexi Ogando not being able to find the strike zone and going only four innings. That's five in a row for the Rangers now, matching their longest winning streak of the season.

Jeff Wilson writes in his game story that this is one of these stretches where everything seems to go right, and as an example, talks about Jason Frasor escaped from a bases-loaded, two out situation unscatched despite bouncing every one of his warmup pitches when he was brought in.

T.R. Sullivan's game story talks about Nelson Cruz continuing to hit despite the possible suspension hanging over his head.

Eric Gilmore has the "Rapid Reaction" up at the ESPN Dallas blog.

Gerry Fraley calls the Rangers "resilient and rejuvenated" as they are pursuing the Oakland A's.

Wilson has a story on the Rangers contingency plans, should Nelson Cruz be suspended. He quotes Ron Washington as saying that "Profar will not be the solution," with the plan being instead to go with David Murphy, Craig Gentry and Leonys Martin as the starting outfielders, and another outfielder called up from the minors to replace Cruz.

Todd Wills has a story about how talking to Pudge Rodriguez helped get Elvis Andrus out of the offensive funk that had plagued him during the first half of the season.

The S-T's notes talk about Adam Rosales being claimed on waivers, Engel Beltre being optioned to make room for Rosales (with some nice comments from Engel about his experience in the majors), and the uncertainty about what to do with Colby Lewis after he makes what he believes should be his final rehab start tonight.

Sullivan's notes hit on Rosales, Beltre, Lewis, and Leonys Martin hitting leadoff.