Winning Isn’t Everything: Texas Rangers Beat Angels In First Game, But Aren’t Overwhelmed By Performance

ARLINGTON – The Rangers beat the team favored to win the AL West Friday night. They won their fifth straight game. They moved as high as seven games above .500 for the first time in nearly four years.

And still this question must be asked: Could such a win ever be a bad win?
In the wake of nearly losing a seven-run, ninth-inning lead before holding on for a 10-8 victory, the Rangers surveyed all answered “no.” But they did think about the question for a while.

“The ninth was kind of a momentum-killer,” said 2B Ian Kinsler, who homered twice as the Rangers built a 10-3 lead through eight innings. “We had all the momentum and they kind of took some of it in the ninth. I think they feel like they gained some.”

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First Look at ’09 Texas Rangers Leaves Angels Impressed

ARLINGTON - Chone Figgins managed a weak smile.

“You don’t like to score that many runs and lose, but that’s part of the game,” he said.

From the perspective of past Rangers teams playing the Angels, it definitely was part of the game. Last season, Texas twice scored in double digits only to lose while dropping the season series for the fourth consecutive season.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia seemed impressed with what he saw Friday night in his first in-person glimpse of a Rangers team billed as new and improved, Texas allowing five in the ninth to hold on 10-8 in the weekend opener.

“There should be some good head-to-head battles,” Scioscia said. “They present a lot of challenges.”

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Post-Game Show: Rangers 10, Angels 8

As I referenced earlier, I think this series is far more important for the Rangers than for the Angels. The Angels have past performance and slew of stars on the comeback trail on which to fall back. The Rangers need to win this series to assert themselves as a team that will be hanging around the pennant race all summer. Winning this series would only build the Rangers’ confidence and would possibly create a littlle self doubt in the Angels about their superiority.

I typed all that before the Rangers allowed five runs in the ninth inning. Now this questions confronts us: The Rangers got the win tonight, but how much of the club’s confidence might the Angels’ ninth-inning rally dampen.

The Depot: Rangers Live Game Blog, News, Notes

Sorry, we are catching up on our Dr Pepper SportsSnaps winners, so I’ve been playing host again, in addition to shooting a bunch of viral video today with Ted Price. We spoke with Nolan Ryan, Matt Harrison, some guy named Hamilton and goofed with Eddie Guardado. We’ll have those up on the web site over the next few days. In the meantime, let’s get on to the ball game and that promised AL West showdown.

7:21: It was indeed a migraine for Derek Holland, who spent batting practice locked away in a trainers room trying to alleviate the pain. Assistant GM Thad Levine said he expected Holland to be available for tonight’s game. With Frank Francisco out of the mix, I wouldn’t expect Levine to say anything else. Still doesn’t give me any indication that Holland will be able to pitch.

7:23: News flash: Ben Sheets was at The Ballpark today. Still not doing anything.

7:41: Seriously, for me Ben Sheets is Jeff Zimmerman or Justin Thompson or somebody along those lines. He’s not even on my radar as a guy who could help this team this year. If he’s not throwing at this point, I see no way he can make any kind of meaningful contribution this season. So, for me, dead issue as far as 2009 is concerned.

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Home Run Pool: Quickie Edition

Running a little behind here – what else is new? – so I’m just going throw the homer pool up here casually. No first names. We’re on a last-name basis today against Los Angeles LHP Joe Saunders:

2B Kinsler, 3B Young, CF Hamilton, RF Jones, DH Blalock, LF Byrd, 1B Davis, C Salty (on a nickname basis on that one), SS Andrus and pitching for the Rangers … RHP Padilla.

Go for it.

Quick Medical Update

RHP Frank Francisco played long toss today (throwing from 120 feet) and will throw a “light”  bullpen session tomorrow. Manager Ron Washington still could not commit to whether Francisco would be available for Sunday’s series finale. Feel here is: He won’t.

A more immediate concern, however, may be LHP Derek Holland. He was not on the field during batting practice and I’ve been told he’s dealing with a headache. Not sure if its a migraine or not. But we’ll be checking on that to try and get you an update.

You Can’t Have An AL West Showdown Without A Showdown Radio Preview

The Hardline wants to get a little hyped up about the big AL West showdown. So, if you want to pull your baseball pants on about an hour before the first pitch tonight, I’ll be visiting with the boys from KTCK-1310 AM, The Ticket, at about 5:50-5:55 this evening. Consider it the pre-game show to The Depot.

Homestand Helper: Rangers vs. Angels

You can check out the serious baseball info part of our Rangers-Angels series preview here. Otherwise, here’s your friendly Big B edition of Homestand Helper. It includes Bobbleheads, Bobby Earl Keen and Broadway show tunes (yeah, I know what you are thinking). That logo to the left? Trying to figure out if its the Angels logo from 1965-70 or something from the new Dan Brown book-turned-movie.

Friday: Rangers vs. Angels, 7:05 p.m. (KRLD-105.3 FM, FOX SW)

Probable starters: Rangers RHP Kevin Millwood (3-3, 2.92 ERA) vs. Angels LHP Joe Saunders (5-1, 2.66)

Worth noting: The Rangers lost out on CF Torii Hunter when he was a free agent after the 2007 season and the Prosper resident has never let Texas forget. Hunter hit .333 against the Rangers last year (thanks, James). This season, with OF Vladimir Guerrero on the DL, Hunter has extended his dominance to the rest of the league as well. He enters the series seventh in the AL in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (1.007).

Giveaways/Promotions: Big Bang Friday Fireworks (Best of Broadway music)

Ticket deals: FANtastic Fireworks Fridays. Enter FIREWORKS as the coupon code on texasrangers.com to purchase tickets regularly-priced up to $25 for only $10.  Plus, all cash parking will be just $5.  Offer is also available in person at Rangers Ballpark or via phone at 972-RANGERS, all compliments of 105.3 The Fan.

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The Mavs’ Achilles Heel Remains The Same

24 hours after the end of the Mavericks season, and I cannot quite move on just yet.  I understand why the season ended, but one thing that I don’t understand is why the Mavericks have been committed to the same strategy year after year on offense.

They built a team around Dirk.  That makes sense on a number of levels, because for all of his flaws, he may just be one of the most unique talents in NBA history.  A 7-foot perimeter sniper who can also perform some McHale-like post moves when he is interested.

The problem, to me, comes back to the way they build the rest of the team.  If you are going to build around a perimeter shooter, you must vary the rest of your 5.  You should have a penetrating guard and you would prefer to find a post presence.  If you did, then a Dirk-team would be more dangerous.  But building a team is a little more difficult than simply realizing what you need. You have to figure out a way to get it.

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Big Weekend: A Closer Look At Rangers-Angels Series

Once you finished up the round of asking the Rangers about their second consecutive walkoff win, there was only one other Jenny-the-Elephant sized topic left to tackle Thursday afternoon: What about the weekend series with the Angels? What is the significance of the first meeting between the Rangers and the team that has ruled the AL West for four of the last five years?

“These are just baseball games, that’s how we have to look at it,” said OF Marlon Byrd. “We’re not going to look ahead. But we area aware of the opportunity to create some separation in the standings. And when you are in first place, you want to create separation as quickly as possible.  We’ve got the right guy on the mound to start a series in Kevin Millwood. Now, we just go and play baseball.”

Although the Rangers have gone 6-2 since they seized first place nine days ago, they have not been able to create much separation. Almost as soon as they knocked Seattle out of first place, the Angels got hot, too. The Rangers have not led the division by more than 1.5 games since taking over the top spot.

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The Clubhouse Dogpile

ARLINGTON — The dogpiles that have littered Rangers Ballpark with alarming frequency this year don’t just happen at home plate or second base. They seem to continue down in the subterranean retreat that is the Rangers clubhouse.

Gathered in one corner of the room, they sat piled together in a group while the hero of the day, Chris Davis, was in the middle of the media gang-bang on the other side of the room.

Ian Kinsler, Marlon Byrd, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Andruw Jones, Hank Blalock and team leader Michael Young sitting in chairs, watching the game highlights playing on the expansive flat screen that hangs above the lockers. Pretty much everyone who didn’t have a date in the trainer’s room or who was being held up by a member of the leering press. A couple were even sipping on longnecks.

The scene wasn’t much different than you and your buddies getting together to watch baseball, except they were watching themselves. Standing next to them was Taylor Teagarden.

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (5/15)

Oklahoma City's Neftali Feliz

I shouldn’t even mention this, because I’m not entirely sure that most of the Rangers fans I know can take any more good news, much less good pitching news. But I’m paid to report this stuff, so here goes.

He’s back.

And for a little lagniappe, there’s more left-handed pitching goodness coming your way.

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