Post-Game Show: Rangers 2, Diamondbacks 1

Three Up and Three Down from Chase Field where the Rangers broke a five-game losing streak Wednesday night:

Three Up
• Since the Great Waiver Incident, RHP Vicente Padilla, who went seven strong innings in 101 degree heat, is 3-0 with a 2.16 ERA. He has worked with C Taylor Teagarden in all four starts. You can bet he will be working with him again the next time out.
• RHP Frank Francisco hasn’t pitched on back-to-back days since returning from the DL, but that is the only thing that appears from allowing him to return to the closer’s role. He pitched around a leadoff double in a one-run game Wednesday.
• Well, maybe the back-to-back days thing isn’t the only thing keeping Francisco from returning to the closer’s role. LHP C.J. Wilson, who has allowed an earned run in just one of his last 20 appearances, lowered his ERA to 2.79 for the season with a perfect ninth. He also picked up his seventh save.

Three Down
• The Rangers have scored 11 runs in five games on their NL West road trip.
• With runners on the corners and one out in the third, 1B Hank Blalock had an excellent chance to turn up the heat on Dan Haren by simply putting a ball in play. He struck out. An inning that started with the Rangers putting three of the first four hitters on base ended with just one run.
• 3B Michael Young, was hitless in four at bats with a pair of strikeouts and a double-play grounder. Young, who entered the day with the eighth highest batting average in interleague games among active players (.328) is 3-for-20 on this interleague trip.

The Depot: Rangers-Diamondbacks Live Game Blog, News And Notes

7:36: Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez made his debut at Triple-A Oklahoma City today and had a breezy 11-pitch inning in the RedHawks 3-2 win over Round Rock. El Duque reportedly threw from multiple angles and struck out the first two hitters he faced in his perfect inning of work.

7:39: Oh, and the home run pool is open.

8:26: Roof opening. Official temperature 101 degrees. Hey, Arizona, if you aren’t going to use the roof to keep the place cool, can we have it?

8:35: “Moneyball” movie is apparently dead. I can’t imagine why. Sounded action-packed.

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Texas Rangers Notes: Kevin Millwood Will Be All-Star Ready, If Added To AL Team

PHOENIX - The Rangers adjusted pitching schedule now calls for Kevin Millwood to face the Los Angeles Angels twice in the next two weeks and puts him in perfect position to be added to the AL All-Star team.

On Tuesday, the Rangers adjusted Millwood’s schedule so he will pitch Friday against San Diego instead of Saturday as was originally scheduled On Wednesday, pitching coach Mike Maddux said the plan is for Millwood to pitch every fifth day through the end of the first half, without regard to off days.

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Home Run Pool Time Again

The Rangers lineup against Arizona RHP Dan Haren includes a couple of interesting items:

• OF Nelson Cruz, who was dropped from the fourth spot to the fifth spot on Tuesday, is getting a full day off today. Cruz is hitting .183 for June, lowest among the eight hitters on the roster with at least 50 plate appearances. He’s also got just a .256 OBP for the month, higher only than Chris Davis (.250). David Murphy slides from left to right and Brandon Boggs will play left field to replace Cruz.

• C Taylor Teagarden is in the lineup. Though manager Ron Washington has maintained that he is not pairing Teagarden specificially with RHP Vicente Padilla, it will be the fourth consecutive outing they have worked together. Padilla has a 2.50 ERA in those three starts. If the move is not designed to keep the duo together, it comes at a most strange time. C Jarrod Saltalamacchia had a pair of hits on Tuesday and a couple of other nice swings.

OK, so the lineup: 2B Ian Kinsler, RF David Murphy, 3B Michael Young, CF Marlon Byrd, 1B Hank Blalock, LF Brandon Boggs, C Taylor Teagarden, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers … RHP Vicente Padilla.

Ron Washington’s Big Test

On the most recent Rangers Podcast in Arlington, I suggested that Ron Washington might be at a very pivotal moment in his career as a manager, facing the job of keeping the Rangers on top without Josh Hamilton in the lineup.

Citing the work Joe Torre has done in keeping the Dodgers rolling without their slugger, I suggested that Washington had an opportunity to establish himself as a manager by doing the same thing.

So far, Washington has not distinguished himself in the face of his club’s adversity while Torre has.

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Linkin’ Park: Lurking Around The Web For You

I admit it. When Justin Upton’s line drive flew over Chase Field’s right-center wall in the 1st inning last night, I flipped back to ESPN to watch my alma mater play LSU in the College World Series. And I stayed there most of the night

It’s not that I was disgusted with Upton’s home run. After all, there aren’t many 21-year-olds with a 1.000+ OPS in the big leagues. It’s just that the combination of a hot pitcher in Max Scherzer and an ice cold Rangers offense didn’t bode well for the road team, who had only mustered 10 runs during a four-game losing streak (make that 12 runs in five loses now). So how bad has the offense been? Very bad, says Adam Morris. As in swinging and missing at 20 percent of the pitches they’ve seen, which is a full 5 percent higher than the teams tied for next-to-last in the AL.

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Rangers Moving Neftali Feliz To The Bullpen

PHOENIX - In hope of beefing up their bullpen for a pennant race, the Rangers have asked top prospect RHP Neftali Feliz to move from the starting rotation at Triple-A Oklahoma City to the bullpen. Feliz was told of the planned move on Tuesday and he will make his first relief appearance on Thursday for Oklahoma City. There is no timetable for when he may be promoted to the major leagues.

GM Jon Daniels suggested Tuesday the Rangers would probably look at internal options for improving the club more closely than at a bunch of trades. He also suggested, though more along the lines of a trade, that a bullpen piece might be the most realistic way to improve the club.

“If we’re going to improve the club, we’d like to be able to do it from within,” Daniels said on Tuesday while discussing trade possibilities. “We’ve got some young players that we’ve talked about who might be able to give this club a lift.”

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About Last Night: Small Signs Of Progress From Rangers Offense In Big Loss To Arizona?

D-tails: Diamondbacks 8, Rangers 2
• Rangers lose sole possession of first (AL standings)
• Boxscore; game blog; Daniels: Bullpen help is most realistic trade target

PHOENIX – These are the longest days of sunlight in the calendar year. For the Rangers they are simply the longest days.

They start with players and coaches trying to find clues from the past game’s performance to solve a most uncommon problem for this team – a prolonged offensive slump.

It continues right through early batting practice, video work, a round of individual meetings and pep talks between hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo and his frustrated hitters, regular batting practice, another game and then, if the game is anything like Tuesday’s 8-2 loss to Arizona, another round of introspection and analysis.

Tuesday was even longer than unusual. About an hour after the Rangers lost, the Los Angeles Angels finished off a come-from-behind win over Colorado to pull into a tie for the AL West lead.

Amid it all, the Rangers thought that maybe, just maybe, there was a little progress to build on.

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (6/24)

The race for player of the month for June is heating up between the regular center fielders for Oklahoma City and Frisco.

Who should be the choice, and why?

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Time Was Never Called Before Saltalamacchia’s Errant Throw

The weirdest play of the game came in the sixth inning when Arizona scored its final run on Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s errant throw back to the mound that sailed over Jason Jennings’ head. It allowed Felipe Lopez, who had tripled, to run home.

The confusion was whether time out was ever called. It appeared that a pitch to Stephen Drew was in the dirt, but Saltalamacchia actually caught the ball. Home plate umpire Mike Everitt started to call for a new ball, but Salty said he told the umpire he caught the ball in the air and time was never called. Clearly, Everitt put up a hand, but, according to Saltalamacchia he assumed the umpire called time out when he didn’t.

“It was just some miscommunication on our part,” Saltalamacchia said. “And a [bad] throw by me.”

Angels Catch Rangers In AL West

The Angels scored twice in the eighth inning Tuesday to pull out a 4-3 win over Colorado. Combined with the Rangers fifth straight loss, the Angels win vaulted them into a first-place tie in the AL West. It ends the Rangers 48-day exclusive hold on first in the West.