The Short, Sweet Version: Rangers Manager Ron Washington Wraps Up Sweep Of Boston Succintly

ARLINGTON - There are times when Rangers manager Ron Washington fumbles for the words he wants to use to describe the way his team is playing.

Wednesday night was not one of those nights.

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Post-Game Show: Rangers 3, Red Sox 1

D-tails
• Boxscore; Standings

Three Up
• Sweep!
• Perhaps the surprise pitching outing of the season: RHP Dustin Nippert is fetched from the bullpen to give the Rangers what amounts to a quality start
• It’s about time RHP Doug Mathis gets some attention for the work he’s doing in relief. He hasn’t allowed a run in 16 innings of relief work this season. He picked up a 3.1 inning save on Wednesday that ended with him retiring three consecutive left-handed hitters in the ninth. It’s the first save of his professional career.

Three Down
• I think something happened to all those passionate Boston fans at Rangers Ballpark. By the end of the game, you couldn’t hear them at all.
• It appears the worthless Royals have blown leads of 2-0, 4-2 and 6-4 and will lose to the Angels.
• Some nights you just don’t have anything for this space. This is one of those nights.

Rangers Notes: GM Jon Daniels Concerned About Offense, But Still Wants To Make Best Pitch

ARLINGTON - With less than 10 days to go before the trading deadline, Rangers GM Jon Daniels still doesn’t know if he could take on any additional payroll in a trade and has been growing more concerned about his offense, but still believes the club’s top target in the trade market should be a starting pitcher.

Daniels, however, declined to discuss any details relating to specific deals.

According to a source, however, the Rangers remain at the very least on the fringes of Roy Halladay talks, where the biggest development over the last 24 hours was a July 28 self-imposed deadline by Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi to either make a deal for his ace or call off talks. The Blue Jays have apparently not told the Rangers that Halladay would veto a deal to Texas.

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The Depot: Rangers-Red Sox Live Game Blog, News, Notes And Occasional Incoherent Ramblings

6:53: Hey, have you entered the Super Terrific Home Run Pool?

6:54: Click here for your latest flu updates.

7:15: Just another hearty round of thinks to the Corneans who attended Inside Corner night at Rangers Ballpark last night. I had a blast seeing the commentors that I recognized or who recognized me. If you were there and didn’t say hello, well, I’m crushed. But I do promise to make the event more organized for next year. Next year, you are going to have fun, whether you want to or not.

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This Bulletin Is Not Brought To You By The CDC: Texas Rangers Flu Count Currently At Five

ARLINGTON – A few notes about the flu bug currently ravaging the Rangers clubhouse. This should not be taken lightly.

• The Rangers are dealing with an influenza outbreak, not just flu-like symptoms, GM Jon Daniels confirmed. At least three players have tested positive for the flu, but it will take time to detect the specific strain. And the treatment is the same regardless of strain. So, even if the Rangers are dealing with Swine Flu, the medical treatment would remain the same.

• There are now five players dealing with either the flu or symptoms of it. RHP Frank Francisco was placed on the DL Monday with the flu/walking pnuemonia. LHP Eddie Guardado, INF Omar Vizquel and RHP Vicente Padilla all have the flu. Guardado and Padilla were told to stay away from Rangers Ballpark on Wednesday. OF David Murphy has some of the symptoms, but no fever. The Rangers had planned to play him in left field, but instead will DH him tonight.

• The club has put off its departure for this weekend’s series at Kansas City until Friday morning. The Rangers had been scheduled to leave on Thursday afternoon, but after consulting with medical personnel, Daniels wants to give the players a full day away from one another (Thursday is an off day) and allow the ill players to stay in bed for a full day.

• The Rangers were considering pulling an Oklahoma City player off a plane that was to make a stopover in Dallas on its way back from New Orleans and adding him to the roster. Guardado would likely go on the DL in that scenario. With OF Nelson Cruz about to play for the first time with a slight fracture in his right ring finger and Murphy potentially dealing with the onset of the flu, the most likely callup might be OF Julio Borbon. INF Joaquin Arias is also a consideration.

It’s The Super Terrific HappyTexas Rangers Home Run Pool For July 22 Against Boston

So, all us Corneans who sat up in the Home Run Porch last night eagerly awaited an actual home run, especially to shut those freakin’ Red Sox fans up (I especially liked the family that had the dad who like very much like Kevin Youkilis). But nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. We had to settle for one of those stinkin’ superbly-pitched games that featured great fielding plays and tense moments. Talk about BOR-ING!

No, we had a great time though it appears our seats were a little spread out across sections 246-248. I tried to meet as many folks as I could, but with no central gathering point a lot of folks seemed to not know me (or were intimidated by my awe-inspiring presence). For next time – and I hope there will be a next time – I will definitely plan some pre-game festivities that will bring everybody together to Ehren can say “hello” to Jack Daddy and Becca can converse with Scooper and so on.

Now, here’s your Rangers lineup of able bodies who will square off against Boston RHP Clay Buchholz tonight: 2B Ian Kinsler, 3B Michael Young, CF Josh Hamilton, LF Marlon Byrd, 1B Hank Blalock, RF Nelson Cruz, DH David Murphy, C Taylor Teagarden, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers. … RHP Dustin Nippert.

Rangers Scratch Vicente Padilla From Tonight’s Start

ARLINGTON - The epidemic of flu-like symptoms running through the Rangers’ clubhouse has knocked another player on his back.

RHP Vicente Padilla, who was scheduled to start tonight against Boston, was scratched Wednesday afternoon because of the bug. The Rangers had to send LHP Eddie Guardado home on Tuesday when he reported ill and SS Omar Vizquel was scratched from the starting lineup on Tuesday as well. RHP Frank Francisco also has pnuemonia and was placed on the DL on Monday. The Rangers don’t believe Francisco’s condition and that of the other three players is related.

Assistant GM Thad Levine, who handles all inquiries about club health issues, said on Tuesday night that the team was taking precautions to ensure that whatever is running through the clubhouse does not become a team-wide issue. He said the Rangers are not concerned about the Swine Flu.

The Rangers are expected to patch the game together with relievers with RHP Dustin Nippert starting. RHP Willie Eyre, who was called up Monday, and RHP Jason Grilli could also be asked to pitch multiple innings.

Padilla has been one of the club’s most effective pitchers for the seven weeks since the Rangers placed him on waivers. His first start after clearing waivers was at Boston on June 7. He went seven innings and allowed three runs (two earned) in that game.

Padilla

Linkin’ Park: Lurking Around The Web For You

When you start a rookie pitcher against a veteran team with the AL’s best record, you don’t really expect good results. Especially not when that veteran team has their ace on the mound who leads the league in wins and is top ten in ERA. But Tommy Hunter doesn’t seem to understand how these things are supposed to work.

Hunter shut down the Red Sox out for the better part of his six innings last night before finally allowing an RBI double to Kevin Youkilis 17 outs into the game. It was a Feldman-esque start in its length — although his pitch count was low enough to at least start the 7th, he just seemed to wear himself out in 6th — but Hunter carried the torch effectively until he could hand it off to the bullpen, which has been the strength of the team for the better part of a month. Not much about his starts suggest that Hunter has performed like a typical 23-year-old pitcher so far this year.

And his curveball is good. Like Roy Halladay good.

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Armchair Farm Director Roundtable

And it’s huge. I gathered up a couple of my best baseball-talkin’ buddies for what turned out to be about a two-hour discussion of the Rangers farm system yesterday.

The truth is that I engage in these sessions with Jason Parks from Baseball Time in Arlington and Jason Cole, who commands lonestardugout.com , at least two or three times a week via IM sessions, but never for this long at one time and never with all three of us gathered together in one chat room.

I have enormous respect for both of these guys. If you are into the farm system and you aren’t reading their stuff, you are really missing out, as you will quickly realize after you make the jump to take in more prospect talk than anyone ought to want or need in one sitting.

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Sports Debating Rudy and Romo

I always very much enjoy a good email disagreement after putting something up here at Inside Corner. Let’s be honest, arguing a good sports point is all part of the fun. And we are having fun here, no?

So, in the last few days and weeks, I have written (Edit) about Tony Romo and Rudy Jaramillo – 2 of the greater lighting rods of 2009 in DFW. So, I thought I would share two of the hotter disagreement emails, and then answer them for all to see:

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For Texas Rangers, Scorching Summer Has Turned Into Prime Hunter Season

ARLINGTON - Late Tuesday night in the visitors’ clubhouse at Rangers Ballpark, the George Costanza “It’s not you, it’s me” blame speech got a lot of mileage. Boston starter Josh Beckett threw a complete game but took responsibility for the Rangers’ 4-2 win, especially for giving up a two-run hit with two out in the first inning. Red Sox hitters and batting coach Dave Magadan bemoaned making it too easy for the Rangers’ 23-year-old starter by not going deep enough into counts.

But this is four consecutive excellent outings by Tommy Hunter, who has looked nothing like a temp. An ERA of 1.52 since being called up a month ago, two wins and a no decision against Tampa Bay’s Scott Kazmir, Seattle’s Felix Hernandez and the 2003 World Series MVP. Maybe it was him, not them.

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (7/22)

Mugatu says “Robbie Ross. He’s so hot right now.”
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