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Rangers Reliever Eddie Guardado: “I’ve Been Here Before”

Posted on June 18th, 2009 6:19pm by Evan Grant
Filed under Rangers notes, Roster report

ARLINGTON - Once again Eddie Guardado finds himself on the bubble. He is a struggling 38-year-old reliever, with subpar velocity and a shoulder held together by sheer will.

On Wednesday, he surrendered a game-tying eighth-inning homer to Hunter Pence on a hanging split-finger fastball. It was the fourth straight outing in which he’s allowed a run. He gave up a homer to Toronto’s Aaron Hill at the start of the homestand. He lost a 1-0 lead against Los Angeles four days later and the day after that, he let a one-run deficit become three.

“I’ve been here before and it’s not fun,” Guardado said. “I’ve gotten out of my game plan. I’ve started thinking too much and trying to trick guys too much. I need to just stick with the plan. When you get away from it, you get into trouble.”

Guardado, who had a 9.64 ERA at the end of April and lowered it to 3.77 by June 5, has seen things balloon again. After allowing eight hits (including a pair of homers) a walk and six earned runs in his last 3.2 innings, the ERA is back to 6.00. With LHP A.J. Murray pitching well at Triple-A Oklahoma City, there is only so long the Rangers can allow Guardado to battle through his issues. For now, Guardado is trying to fix his splitter.

“That’s how its been going this year,” Guardado said. “At the start of the year, I couldn’t find the plate. Got that fixed. Now, I’ve got to make more adjustments. It still works for me some, but I can get better at throwing it without a doubt.”

6 Comments to “Rangers Reliever Eddie Guardado: “I’ve Been Here Before””

The Beer Guy @ June 18th, 2009 at 7:38 pm

It’s a bit mystifying that a 38-year old veteran, who had struggled early and seemingly discovered his “game plan” and got things back on track, then got “out of my game plan”. Uh, it was working for you, why would you change?
Jolly @ June 18th, 2009 at 7:50 pm

we love you eddie but we can’t go on like this……you’re got to be firing on all cylinders by the all star break….
Evan Grant @ June 18th, 2009 at 7:59 pm

@The Beer Guy: It’s why baseball players have slumps, while PGA golfers don’t shoot 65 every round, why running backs don’t find every hole. This is all amazingly technical stuff and repeating every time up or on the tee is much more difficult than even we can remember. The smallest adjustment to a lot of moving parts or the smallest change in thought can throw everything out of whack.
The Depot: Rangers-Astros Live Game Blog, News And Notes @ June 18th, 2009 at 9:00 pm

[...] Eddie Guardado blames his recent struggles on trouble with his splitter and just plain bad [...]
The Depot: Rangers-Astros Live Game Blog, News And Notes « wire2 @ June 18th, 2009 at 9:01 pm

[...] Eddie Guardado blames his recent struggles on trouble with his splitter and just plain bad [...]
Friday morning Rangers stuff @ June 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

[...] Evan Grant writes about Eddie Guardado being on the roster bubble, a place where Guardado says he has been before. [...]