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Five Down: Losing Streak Extended; Texas Rangers Lay Another Egg In 7-5 Loss To Baltimore Orioles

• D-tails: Boxscore; The Depot live game blog;  Post-Game Show comment thread; That’s offense with a zero

ARLINGTON – The Rangers scrambled the struggling bullpen Tuesday night. They still ended up with egg on their faces.

C.J. Wilson was told the eighth inning was no longer his and his alone. Frank Francisco was asked to extend himself past typical closer hours. And Eddie Guardado was moved into a more critical role.

And that didn’t work either. Guardado surrendered four runs in the 10^th inning and a late Rangers comeback died with tying runs on base in a 7-5 loss to Baltimore. It was the Rangers fifth consecutive loss.

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For The Texas Rangers, Too Many 0′s Against O’s Bullpen

ARLINGTON _ The 10th-inning home run by Adam Jones that put Baltimore ahead for good against the Rangers on Tuesday night traveled about 416 feet and plopped into the Orioles’ bullpen out in left-center. How poetic.

Baltimore starter Alfredo Simon was done after recording only four outs. He’d given up three home runs by then, and the Orioles were forced to turn to a bullpen with an early-season ERA of 7.76. But the next time that the Rangers scored against the conga line of five relievers, they faced a four-run deficit in the bottom of the 10th that they couldn’t overcome despite a shaky outing by O’s closer George Sherrill.

What happened? “I don’t know,” said catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who ended an 0-for-16 streak with a single that began the two-run home 10th. “It was one of those things where our approach was the same. We’re the same team. They made some good pitches, kept out of big innings. We did the same. It’s just one of those nights.”

Well, the Birds’ backstop – a familiar face from Rangers glory days in red – provided a few details.

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Post-Game Show: Orioles 7, Rangers 5 (10 Innings)

Let’s get right to it and keep this focused on one topic:

• The bullpen: How do you fix it? Is it fixable? Who knew the Rangers would miss Joaquin Benoit so desperately.

Ah, scratch that. If you got something you want to say, go ahead.

Ready. Aim. Fire!

Dallas Stars Earn The Eight Ball In The NHL Draft

Heavens to Denis Potvin, the New York Islanders won the lottery and retained the No. 1 pick that they worked many months to earn. The Stars just stay in eighth place.

Given the mock draft via NHL.com that was previewed here this morn, take some time if you’d like to hear from center Brayden Schenn of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Depot: Texas Rangers News, Notes, Live Blog And Live Cooking Demonstration (4/14 vs. Orioles)

OK, I made up the last part. We’re just trying to draw the crossover audience from SideDish.

Let’s get right to it. In reaction to LHP C.J. Wilson’s erratic performances in the first week of the season, the Rangers are enlarging their pool of viable eighth-inning setup options. Entering the season, Wilson was expected to be the primary setup man, with LHP Eddie Guardado as situational lefty and RHP Jason Jennings in a “utility” role. will still get chances, but manager Ron Washington acknowledged that both Jennings and Guardado are likely to get more key chances.

Washington said the Rangers met with Wilson after he lost a four-run, eighth-inning lead on Sunday, but declined to reveal any details. Wilson began 2008 as the Rangers closer, but struggled badly in the summer months and was demoted to a setup position, but never pitched in that role because of a bone chip issue that required surgery. Since the start of last season, his 6.34 ERA is the third highest among the 189 major leaguers with at least 40 appearances.

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Time To Jump In The Home Run Pool

The prize vault has been restocked with some fine Dr Pepper Products and some free stuff for our upcoming event at Pappadeaux in Dallas (ooops, did I just spill a secret? Shh. More tomorrow). So, if you want get your hands on some of it, all you gotta do is win the Home Run Pool. Remember, to win: You have to give the name of the first Ranger to homer, the inning, men on base. First tie breaker is count. Second: The distance. Third: Said player’s favorite Michael Jackson song. Oh, sorry, got carried away. The players were spinning a little old-school MJ in the clubhouse today. If you go with no homers, we’ll need the total number of runs scored by the Rangers as a potential tiebreaker.

Here’s your Rangers lineup vs. Baltimore RHP “Fettucine” Alfredo Simon (no Rangers have ever faced him): 2B Ian Kinsler, 3B Michael Young, CF Josh Hamilton, DH Hank Blalock, RF Nelson Cruz, LF David Murphy, 1B Chris Davis, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Omar Vizquel and pitching for the Rangers . … RHP Brandon McCarthy.

So, dive on in. I’ll look forward to sharing a Dr Pepper and some oysters with ya.

A Tough Couple Of Days For T.O.M.

Liverpool needed a miracle on Tuesday to advance to the Champions League semifinals after losing at home to Chelsea 3-1 in the first leg last week. And playing without captain Steven Gerrard, sidelined with a groin pull. But such a miracle appeared at hand when the Reds scored twice in the first 29 minutes at Stamford Bridge on London’s west side. But a Chelsea goal went in off the Liverpool keeper early in the second half, and from there it became a scoring circus. Final: a 4-4 draw that sends Chelsea through.

Making the final eight in Europe would be nice were it not for the presence of Chelsea and possibly Manchester United and Arsenal in the semifinals. Like it was nice for Pitt to make the NCAA regional finals, expect that UConn and Villanova reached the Final Four.

Read on for details on why Wednesday will be a particularly tough day for Liverpool and its fans.

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Tom Hicks Quote On Wall Street Journal Default Story

Some of you may have read a Wall Street Journal story this morning discussing the official default filing against Hicks Sports Group for its failure to make an interest only payment of approximately $10 million on a $525 million loan. If you didn’t buy a hard copy of the Journal, you’ll have to ante up for a subscription to the online version to see the full story, but ol’ Fingers of Fury (at least that’s what they call him in the office) Robert Wilonsky blogged about some of the key points of the story this morning at Unfair Park.

The most provocative assumption made in the story is that Hicks could lose control of either the Rangers or Stars or both. I’ve been told repeatedly by sources within HSG that there is zero chance of that happening. Hicks said nearly two weeks ago that he has been in close contact with commissioners from both MLB and the NHL regarding HSG’s decision not to make the payment and the leagues approve of his plan to re-negotiate the loans. The leagues would also offer a significant level of protection against any foreclosure attempts.

Here’s the statement from Hicks that was just recently sent out:

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Ask Sports Sturm – Worst Playoff Years

This week’s edition of “Ask Sports Me” is an interesting look at life as a 4-sport town. I have always had the theory that cities like ours, as opposed to the “one horse towns” do not experience prolonged depression and mourning when our teams fail…we just move on to the next one. The Mavs make us sad? Its’ Rangers season! The Rangers are fading? Hello, Cowboys Camp! And so on, and so on…

In San Antonio, when the Spurs fail, it is time for Spurs off-season mourning. A totally different way of sports way of life. Admirable in some ways, maddening in others. Anyway, here is Trey’s question.

Bob,

With the Mavs struggling coming down the stretch I started thinking about all the major Dallas sports teams missing the playoffs in the same year. Obviously we are used to seeing this from the Rangers and the Mavs had that awful stretch in the 90’s but I couldn’t find a year where this has happened since the Stars came to town in ’93. However, I’ll admit my research was quick and not that thorough. Also, with the way the sports calendar wraps around from year to year I kinda got tired-head looking at it. I was wondering if you had any better insight on this in your sports brain…

Sincerely,

Trey

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (4/14)

Here’s a quiz: The 2002 University of New Orleans Privateers baseball team included two relievers who just might arrive in the Rangers bullpen together seven years later. Name them.

One should be easy. The other? Not so much. Make the jump to find the name of the “other” guy.

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The Dallas Stars’ Reward For Finishing 23rd: The Eighth Spot Going Into Tuesday Night’s NHL Draft Lottery

It’ll be televised on Versus at 7 p.m. One team among the non-playoff clubs gets picked and can move up only four spots. So come the June draft in Montreal, Dallas’ first-round selection will be as high as fourth or as low as ninth. The Stars’ chance of winning the lottery is 3.6 percent.

This consensus mock first round from various NHL.com sources shows the Stars selecting center Brayden Schenn (6-0, 196) from Brandon of the Western Hockey League. He had 32 goals and 88 points in 70 games for the Wheat Kings. (Hey, their slogan was Our Team, Our Time!)

Unless they trade out, this will be the first time that the Stars have had a first-round selection since 2006 (Ivan Vishnevsky) and their highest pick overall since they drafted fifth in 1996 and took defenseman Richard Jackman.

Some other historic notes to follow regarding draft positions for the players selected to this year’s All-Star Game and for your Dallas Stars.

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