Post-Game McNuggets

Gotta go get gussied up for the Rangers big Triple Play Charity event. I’m assuming with seven straight wins in hand, a 4.5 game lead in the AL West and tied for the third best winning percentage (.622) in all of baseball, it’s going to be a rockin’ good time tonight. In the meantime, here’s a little tapas plate (that’s small bites to you non-foodies) to whet your appetite:

• Though Josh Hamilton went into the wall in center field with his left side, it is his right groin that suffered a slight strain. Apparently nothing is wrong with the left side, which had forced him to the DL in late-April after another fence-busting crash. His left hip also became jammed. He had that adjusted after he came out of the game.

“I felt like I was going 100 mph when I hit the wall,” Hamilton said. “It felt like the wall moved.”

• The words “pitching” and “defense” these days are never far from one another in the Rangers’ vernacular. They can’t talk about one without discussing its impact on the other. That is a good thing.

• How bizarre has the Rangers pitching turnaround been this season? Well, all you need to do is look at the quartet that pitched today’s shutout to get an idea. Starter Scott Feldman begin the season as a reliever; reliever Jason Jennings began the spring as a starter; Eddie Guardado  could not retire a batter in April; and Darren O’Day, who picked up his first major league save, wasn’t even in the same league (he was witht he New York Mets at the start of the season).