The Depot: Rangers-Twins Live Game Blog, News, Notes and Additional Paul McCartney Parking

5:39: Have you seen our new home run pool? It’s lovely and it’s Pudge-friendly. DH Andruw Jones is once again working at becoming 1B Andruw Jones, while LHP Eddie Guardado is on the DL and OF Nelson Cruz remains on a rehab assignment.

7:08: The red catching equipment Ivan Rodriguez is wearing tonight kinda clashes with the blue hats and predominantly blue lettering across the front of the Rangers’ jerseys. But for some reason, on him, it looks just right.

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Texas Rangers Notes

ARLINGTON – DH Andruw Jones got a heavy workout at first base on Wednesday and could start playing the position against some left-handed pitching.

Jones, who started one game at first in May, has taken ground balls at the position for much of the regular season, but he got a more intense full-scale workout on Wednesday. Manager Ron Washington acknowledged the possibility that 1B Hank Blalock could get an off day or two against left-handed pitching, but didn’t indicate he was contemplating a full-time platoon.

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Old No. 7 Home Run Pool

We’re expecting Ivan Rodriguez to be in the lineup tonight, which means he should be available as a home run pool pick. We’ll have the lineup as soon as we can, but in the meantime, let me say it’s good to be back. ‘Course I gotta work on my timing. On consecutive days off, the Rangers lose out on their No. 1 draft pick and then trade for Ivan Rodriguez. Kudos to Jeff Miller for pinch hitting like a batting champ.

UPDATED, with lineup, 3:41: LF Julio Borbon, 3B Michael Young, RF Josh Hamilton, CF Marlon Byrd, LF David Murphy, 2B Ian Kinsler, 1B Hank Blalock, C Ivan Rodriguez, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers … RHP Kevin Millwood.

Linkin’ Park: Lurking Around The Web For You

The biggest news out of Arlington in the last two days wasn’t how the Rangers stretched their wild card lead to a game with a win Monday night, or how they lost it just as fast with a tough loss Tuesday. It wasn’t how a 28-year-old rookie catcher with a .223 average in triple-A is now a career .500 hitter in the big leagues, or even how a 37-year-old veteran catcher was traded back to the team he started with from just down the road.

The biggest news came at 11:01 p.m. Monday night, when it became official that the Rangers had failed to sign their 1st round pick, Klein native Matt Purke.

When the Rangers drafted him, Purke had made it clear he wanted a serious signing bonus or he’d be honoring his commitment to TCU. And while the Rangers were serious, they apparently weren’t serious enough. Reports surfaced that Texas had placed a guaranteed $4 million on the table for Purke, but he balked and chose Fort Worth over Arlington. Jamey Newberg just doesn’t get it just doesn’t understand Purke’s decision. Kevin Sherrington says the Rangers blew it. But Randy Galloway thinks there were other factors afoot. Like MLB stepping in and telling the Rangers they could offer Purke no more than $2.3 million. Evidently the league office didn’t like the idea of paying for the Rangers’ dinner if they were going to order filet mignon. (more…)

Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (8/19)

Triple-A: Colorado Springs 6 @ Oklahoma City 0

This one was ugly. Real ugly.

RHP Brian Corey(6-6; 5.14) allowed four runs on ten hits and a walk in 5.2 innings of work.

The offense fell victim to a combined no-hitter from four Colorado Springs pitchers and managed just three base runners all game. The RedHawk offensive players of the game: DH Chris Davis (.324/.420/.542), who drew two of Oklahoma City’s three walks, and Greg Golson (.270/.314/.360), who went 0-3 but was the only member of the starting lineup to avoid striking out. Yikes. (more…)

Post-Game Show: Twins 9, Rangers 6

D-tails:
• Box score; A.L. West standings; A.L. wild-card standings

Story of the Game
Who left the 2009 model of Texas Rangers baseball team parked back at the garage? For the second consecutive night, a big early lead against the Minnesota Twins was imperiled in the middle innings; this time, it was impaled. The Twins crawled from a 5-0 hole on Tuesday night to win 9-6, marking only the fourth time this season that the Rangers have scored six runs and lost; two of those games were played the first 14 games of the schedule.

Scott Feldman and Jason Jennings combined to allow eight earned runs on 13 hits. For Feldman (12-5), it was his third consecutive start of six innings or less allowing an average of eight hits.

“I might have been overthrowing a little bit,” he said. “I was probably a little too predictable in my pitches.” Manager Ron Washington chalked it up to: “When you take the ball as often as he’s taken the ball, there are going to be some times when that happens.”

Jennings has a 6.75 ERA in 11 outings since the All-Star break. He gave up home runs to Joe Mauer and Delmon Young on cutters, his first multi-homer outing since April 2008 when he was starting.

“That’s the first time in awhile it’s been hit hard,” he said of the pitch. “I actually felt good tonight mechanically, physically. But it’s not really clicking as well as it was a few months ago.”

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