Post-Game Show: Rangers 9, Angels 5

D-tails
• Boxscore, standings

Three Up and Three Down from Rangers Ballpark in Arlington where the Rangers snapped their three-game losing streak like a twig and moved back within 1.5 games of the Los Angeles Angels:

Three Up
• The Rangers need someone to pick up the offense; Marlon Byrd tries to volunteer his broad shoulders. His first inning homer gave the Rangers an early lead. His fourth-inning blast gave them the lead for good. Byrd has three homers and is 5-for-9 over the last two games.
• RHP Scott Feldman made his eighth quality start of the season and his 21st in 38 career starts. Among active AL pitchers with 40 or fewer starts the last two seasons, only Ervin Santana (24) and Jarrod Washburn (24) have more. Not bad, considering Feldman hasn’t opened either of the last two seasons in the Rangers’ rotation.
• Elvis Andrus stole four bases, including third twice, to come up just one shy of tying the club record for a single game set by the immortal Scarborough Green in 2000.

Three Down
• 1B Chris Davis is 0-for-13 with five more strikeouts since homering in his first at-bat Saturday. He’s within four more hitless at-bats of falling back below .200. And the season strikeout total has reached 110.
• Sloppy ninth inning for the Rangers, who allowed a pair of runs and made it a little tighter than it should be.
• Total attendance for the first two games of the series: Just under 37,000. A summer series against the Angels with both teams contending for the AL West lead? Would have thought 37,000 would have been the draw for each night.

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

5:32: We’ve chased all of the lap swimmers out of the pool, so feel free to splash around in there.

7:12: Because we have a very nice family, the Malones of Plano, here as winners of our Dr Pepper SportsSnaps promotion, I’m going to fold some notes into the blog tonight, so just be aware of that. It’s hard work, being an ambassador for the game and all. But if you haven’t entered a picture in the SportsSnaps promotion, I encourage you to do so. You can even make up the sports competition. Nerf Tennis, anyone? Paper football. Extreme ironing. Or my favorite, competitive eating.

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It’s Time For A Little Home Run Pool

Rangers lineup vs. LHP Joe Saunders tonight is:

2B Ian Kinsler (3 HRs vs Saunders), 3B Michael Young, CF Marlon Byrd, DH Andruw Jones, RF Nelson Cruz, LF David Murphy, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 1B Chris Davis, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers … RHP Scott Feldman.

OK, go. I’m working on landing another little trinket for prizedom.

More About Last Night: Texas Rangers Address Issues, But Are They The Right Ones?

ARLINGTON - The Rangers need to figure out what they are. And fast. Like yesterday.

Because yesterday – in this case Monday – it sure seemed like they were casting about for answers and, in the end, running in circles in a 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels that put them 2.5 games back in the AL West. For those counting, that’s seven games they’ve lost in the standings since June 12.

In the end, this is what the Rangers did Monday: They brought up a leadoff man to replace the cleanup hitter platoon, then hit the leadoff man (Julio Borbon) in the sixth spot. Early in the game, the Angels embarrassed the rookie by intentionally walking a batter (Nelson Cruz) who is hitting .179 for June to have crusty veteran Sean O’Sullivan (appearing in his third major league game) face and strike out Borbon with the bases loaded for his first major league at-bat. Late in the game, with a rally at stake, the Rangers pulled Borbon back for Hank Blalock, the very man who was benched for the rookie in the first place. Of course, Blalock didn’t fare better. He grounded out to end the rally.

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MGM – On a Tuesday.

As I continue to catch-up from my mysterious absence (or vacation), I thought the best way to touch on a number of issues at one time is to roll out a Machine Gun Monday on a Tuesday.

On one hand, you would think this is a nice slow time of year where we could merely lock in on the Rangers attempt to battle those Angels on the sports stage all by themselves. But, look around. NBA Free Agency is tonight; NHL Free Agency is tomorrow; Wimbledon is in its Championship week; Longhorns are running into apartment buildings; and much more.

As a wise man once said, “there are no slow sports days, just slow sports people”. So let’s touch on many items in a short amount of time:

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About Last Night: Padilla’s Velocity Goes Down, ERA Goes Up As Rangers Fall To Angels 5-2

ARLINGTON - The recipe was right for Rangers hitters to come alive on Monday night: a 21-year-old Los Angeles Angel making his third big-league start, likely handing off to the American League bullpen with the highest ERA.

The promise of an early 2-0 lead disappeared when young Sean O’Sullivan stubbornly refused to give in to Texas bats while Rangers veteran starter Vicente Padilla collapsed beneath the weight of five consecutive hits in a four-run sixth inning. LAA took the opener of the three-game series 5-2 before all of 16,985 at Rangers Ballpark.

“I’ll take the way we played tonight,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “We’ll put up some more runs.”

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (6/30)

Triple-A: @ Nashville 11, Oklahoma City 1

The Josh Rupe (1-5; 6.75) project took another turn for the worse yesterday as the right hander surrendered nine runs, eight earned, on nine hits including three long balls and a pair of walks.

1B Emerson Frostad (.273 / .367 / .383) drove in OKC’s only run in a 2-for-4 outing that included a double.

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