Post-Game Show: Angels 9, Rangers 4

D-tails
• Boxscore, standings

Talk about your difficult jobs, I’ve got to find three “ups” from an ugly, ugly game in which the Rangers lost their share of first place. They now trail the Angels by a game with two left to play in this series.

Three Up
• Though it didn’t mean anything to the outcome Monday, Josh Hamilton returned to the Rangers lineup after missing four weeks recovering from surgery to strengthen his abdominal wall muscle. Hamilton had hits in his first two at-bats, then struck out in his last two.
• My flight landed early.
• If you are reading this at all, it probably is Tuesday morning, which means you went to bed early, got a good night’s sleep and were spared one of the worst performances of the season.

Three Down
• RHP Kevin Millwood had his worst outing of the season, allowing nine runs in five innings. His ERA rose a half-run from 2.80 to 3.34.
• 2B Ian Kinsler extended his hitless streak to 24 at-bats, overtaking David Murphy’s season-opening 0-for-23 for the longest ofer by a Ranger this season. He did, however, end the streak with a two-run homer.
• 3B Michael Young hurried a throw when he didn’t need to in the second inning, giving the Angels an extra out. Los Angeles turned that into three runs when Jeff Mathis hit a two-out three-run homer on a full-count pitch.

Rangers Notes: Kinsler Admits Fatigue, But Doesn’t Want Day Off; David Murphy To Learn First Base

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Rangers 2B Ian Kinsler, mired in a career-worst 0-for-21 slumpt that has dragged his batting average to .253, said he is definitely fatigued, but does not need to take a day off.

“There are seven games left to the break,” said Kinsler, who leads the team in games played (79 entering Monday). “This is just part of it. I’ve got to grind through it. I’m a little fatigued. When you get physically fatigued, then you get mentally fatigued because you aren’t having success and that wears on you. I’m still touching home plate and still finding ways to get on base. As long as I’m doing that and playing good defense, that’s the key.”

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AL West Showdown Depot: Rangers-Angels Live Game Blog, News, Notes And Other Stuff

5:19: The newly refurbished home run pool is open. Also, the Dr Pepper Pool is open. It’s not a swimming pool. That would be icky.

5:20: According to R.J. Anderson, with whom I had a bone to pick last week, comes this: Nelson Cruz is a defensive All-Star (h/t to Lone Star Ball, which pointed this out first).

7:15: The lineups have been added at the home run pool page, if that’s what you were waiting for.

7:56: Honey bunches of notes up for you to peruse.

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Newly Redesigned Home Run Pool

Thanks to our good friend and loyal reader TD, we now have a beautiful logo to run with the Home Run Pool. Of course, if we could find a fancy sponsor for our little pool, we’d put their logo with an active link right into this graphic. Hey, man, we’re just trying to catch up with Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and run adverts everywhere we can. But, seriously, thanks TD. You the man!

We’ll play blind for the time being so you can enter en masse before leaving the office. Once I do get a lineup, I’ll post it right here, but that will probably be around 6 or 7 your time.

And remember, we’ve got another weekly contest running with some where you can snag some Dr Pepper swag.

UPDATED, 7:13 p.m. CDT: Rangers lineup vs. RHP Jered Weaver: 2B Ian Kinsler, 3B Michael Young, CF Josh Hamilton, DH Andruw Jones, 1B Hank Blalock (10-for-24, 2 HRs vs. Weaver), LF Marlon Byrd, RF Nelson Cruz, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers. … RHP Kevin Millwood.

Monday Rangers Notes, Observations, Opinions And More On Kevin Millwood

• Just because OF Julio Borbon wasn’t send back to Triple-A last night, don’t expect the Rangers to roll with six outfielders for very long. With RHP Dustin Nippert expected to come off the 60-day DL to make a start on Tuesday, the Rangers are going to create space on both the 25- and 40-man rosters. Borbon is likely to be the 25-man move. Wouldn’t surprise me if RHP Brandon McCarthy is transferred from the 15-day DL to the 60, which takes him off the 40-man roster. McCarthy has already been out four weeks and hasn’t started throwing a ball yet. When he does, it’s going to be with a completely overhauled delivery. That means, he’ll essentially have to go through a whole new spring training. So, I wouldn’t expect him back until mid-August at the earliest.

• In the short-term, the biggest question is not about first base, but about how the Rangers fill the DH spot. It shouldn’t be that hard. They’ve got five legitimate options for three outfield spots and the DH. Rotate OF Marlon Byrd around the three outfield spots and DH four times a week, let him play center field one extra time a week and everybody else gets one day out of five off. Should help keep the outfielders fresh and Byrd playing two or three times a week in center with Josh Hamilton at DH two times a week should only help keep him healthier.

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (7/6)

Back in April, a Rangers minor league blogger posed this question: Who is Mike Bianucci?

Bianucci as an Auburn Tiger

Now, more than two months later, most Rangers fans probably still couldn’t answer it. But that may be about to change. Bianucci was an 8th round pick by the Rangers in the 2008 draft after hitting 27 homers and driving in 96 runs over his final two seasons at Auburn. He made his pro debut in Spokane last year, posting an impressive line of .316/.386/.535 in 114 at bats. He was rewarded with a promotion to Class-A Hickory to start the year, where he has absolutely tortured South Atlantic League pitchers. A three-run homer yesterday (his 15th in 260 at bats) raised his OPS to a tidy 1.001 and the Rangers finally promoted him to Advanced-A Bakersfield. Bianucci has never been considered an elite prospect, but neither were Ian Kinsler or Chris Davis until they performed so well they became impossible to ignore. And if Bianucci keeps hitting like this, he’ll be hard to ignore for much longer.

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Announcements, Proclamations, Promotions And FREE STUFF!

Bumping this back to the top in case it got lost in the morning shuffle. But I can’t believe nobody wants free stuff.

Thanks to our fine friends at Dr Pepper, we’ve got even more free stuff to hand out. And, if you get a chance, drop by the Dr Pepper Facebook Page and make new friends. To win a hat/t-shirt combo and a coupon for some free Dr Pepper product, here’s all you have to do.

• Pick the club’s record for the final week of the first half of the season.
• 1st tie-breaker: The Rangers total runs scored for the week.
• 2ne tie-breaker: Total runs allowed by the Rangers for the week.

Now on to some other equally important announcements, repeating from late last week when many of you may have already checked out for July 4 weekend:

First, for our next get together, we’re putting together a little party, er, fiesta we are calling a “Pennant Race Pep Rally” at Pappasito’s in Arlington in advance of the second half of the season. All plans are still being finalized, but the current plan is for a get together on Thursday, July 16 at Pappasito’s Cantina in Arlington. We’ll be there from 5 p.m. until who knows when. GM Jon Daniels and Ron Washington are tentatively planning to join the crowd and address what’s ahead for the Rangers. We will have a whiffle ball home run derby for the kids – emceed by none other than the great Chuck Morgan – early in the festivities. The lineup of players who will share some fajitas with us is still being ironed out. But make plans to join us. We hope to bring together the spirit of Cinco de Mayo and Pennant Race Fever.

Second, and we’re sooper-dooper excited about this: You asked for the opportuntiy to get together at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Well, we’re making it happen. And for a premium game, no less. Join us on Tuesday July 21 when the Rangers face the Boston Red Sox. As expected, I’ve requested the All You Can Eat Seats in the Home Run Porch. The Rangers have made tickets prices extremely affordable: $25 apiece and the food will be abundant. The Rangers have even put together a link for you to buy tickets directly. Password: inside. We’ll have more festivities, including possible Q&A sessions, available for you at the game, but those are all still being put together. Join me as I try to do my best Joey Chestnutt impersonation.  Even if you want nothing to do with me, the tickets are a good price and it should be a great matchup

Series Preview: Rangers at Angels

It’s pretty simple: come Wednesday night, somebody will have first place all to themselves.

The Rangers and the Angels are tied atop the AL West after both teams won Saturday and Sunday, and whoever gets the best of the three-game series in Anaheim that gets underway tonight will have at least a one game lead to brag about as the All-Star break nears.

Tonight’s game would seem to be one the Rangers have a great chance to win. They’ve won five straight, the offense has broken out in a big way, and Kevin Millwood takes the mound with his 2.80 ERA and a chip on his shoulder from being left off the AL All-Star roster. The only problem is the other guy on the mound probably feels snubbed too.

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Weekend In Review

There are many reasons (read: excuses) as to why you may not have kept up with InsideCorner over the weekend. But whatever the cause of your absence, here’s what you missed…

The biggest story most Ranger fans were anticipating entering the weekend wasn’t whether Josh Hamilton was elected a starter in the All-Star game (he was), or Ian Kinsler was selected at all (he wasn’t), or top prospect Justin Smoak would finally get the call up to triple-A (he did), but whether or not Hamilton would make his return after a monthlong stint on the DL (he didn’t). And though it appears that Hamilton is finally ready to debut for the Rangers tonight in Anaheim, the story of his arrival took an unexpected turn late last night when instead of sending Julio Borbon back to the minors as expected, the Rangers optioned Chris Davis to Oklahoma City to make room for Hamilton on the active roster.

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MGM – Federer, Chestnut, and McNair

I am not sure where a compilation of this weekend’s events could possibly start if not in southern London, where yesterday we had more fabulous sport theater at Center Court where the Gentlemen’s Final gave us absolute, positive pure gold.

I know many of us avoid tennis 99% of the time. But, I hope you make an exception for the majors -especially Wimbledon and the US Open. If you do, it seems that like golf, if you give yourself to the final day at most majors, it will deliver to you wonderful drama. To watch Roger Federer and Andy Roddick duel yesterday was as wonderful as watching Federer and Rafa Nadal go at it one year ago. And make no mistake, last year was unbelieveable.

There is plenty more to discuss in the world of sport (Oh, yes), but the lead is given to a tennis match that reminds us how much fun a summer can be with the constant parade of golf, tennis, soccer, racing, and other events that supplement baseball during our long weight until Labor Day when the brilliant run of football begins once again.

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