Post-Game Show: Rangers 10, Yankees 9

D-tails
• Boxscore, AL West standings, AL Wild Card standings

Story of the Game
NEW YORK – A team that has turned meek when there were two outs against them for most of the season, the Rangers fashioned three big two-out rallys to account for all but one of their runs Tuesday.

They did it the hard way. Each rally began after there were two outs in an inning.

And the Rangers needed every last one to withstand a furious Yankees’ ninth-inning rally in which a five-run lead melted to one before there was an out. Oh, and did we mention the Yankees had runners at first and second before the Rangers stemmed the tide?

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The Depot: Rangers-Yankees Live Game Blog, News, Notes and Discounted Subway Tokens

5:29: The City Homer Pool is open for your splashing pleasure. And you might want to read about how the promotion of Chris Davis will ripple through the Rangers clubhouse. For the 71 percent of you who voted that Andruw Jones was the most likely casualty from the 25-man roster, congratulations for being right.

6:03: Small correction to the lineup. The outfield alignments is actually LF Nelson Cruz, CF Marlon Byrd, RF Josh Hamilton. Two things about this. It’s the first time this season Cruz has started in left field and I think you can pretty safely assume Josh Hamilton is now a right fielder who may occasionally play center when Marlon Byrd is in the lineup, not a center fielder who moves over to right.

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Chris Davis’ Promotion Causes Ripple in Lineup

NEW YORK – The Rangers sent a tremor through their lineup with the callup of 1B Chris Davis.

After nearly two months at Oklahoma City working out the kinks in his swing and the mental blocks in his head, Davis returned to the Rangers Tuesday and the move impacted a handful of players. It sends Andruw Jones, the team’s primary DH the last two months, to the DL and 1B Hank Blalock to the bench for the first time in his career. It also means the Rangers might consider C Ivan Rodriguez an occasional right-handed DH, particularly in September when rosters can be expanded.

Asked how he sees using Davis, manager Ron Washington replied in fairly blunt terms:

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Rangers Place Andruw Jones on D.L.

According to a text from Evan, Andruw Jones has been placed on the disabled list with a hamstring strain.

Homer Pool Takes over Broadway

… Or the Bronx.

But the homer pool is here and so is 1B  Chris Davis. No official move yet, but Davis is down on the field taking some early batting practice right now. We’ll get you the lineup just as quickly as we can. In the meantime, you can start guessing what the batting order might look like and taking some early guesses at your homer hitter of the day. Remember, you can change your entry up to game time.

UPDATED, 4:23 p.m.: The Rangers lineup for tonight goes like this: DH Julio Borbon, 3B Michael Young, RF Josh Hamilton, CF Marlon Byrd, 2B Ian Kinsler, LF Nelson Cruz, C Ivan Rodriguez, 1B Chris Davis, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers … RHP Kevin Millwood.

Series Preview: Rangers at Yankees

The good news for the Rangers is that their two biggest competitors for the wild card spot, Boston and Tampa Bay, still have games to play against baseball’s best team, the New York Yankees. The Red Sox will head to Yankee Stadium on the final weekend in September for a three-game series, and the Rays have four games in New York and three in Tampa left on their Yankee ledger.

The bad news is that those games don’t come for a while, and the Yankees might cool off by then. Texas, however, has the misfortune of facing the Bronx Bombers in the midst of one of the hottest stretches any team has enjoyed this year. New York is 27-9 since the All-Star break. Not only do they own MLB’s home best record, but they’ve taken baseball’s best overall record from former manager Joe Torre as well. Their big offseason acquisitions are paying off, with C.C. Sabathia leading the majors in wins and Mark Teixeira making his case for an MVP candidacy. And they’ve got a pretty good shortstop, too.

So life is good in the Empire, while the Rangers are, at the moment, on the outside looking in. That’s why the upcoming series at Yankee Stadium should mean more to the road team. Because it has to.

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If Chris Davis Is in, Who is out?

The Rangers are expected to officially recall 1B Chris Davis from Triple-A Oklahoma City today. The flip side of that move is they are going to have to remove somebody from the 25-man roster either by a DL move, optioning a player to the minors or flat out releasing somebody. Here’s a look at the possible choices. And here is where you can vote for who is likely to lose his spot. Try not to let personal frustrations get involved in your vote. Think of what you may need in September and what gives you the most roster flexibility. (Note: All players are listed in alphabetical order.)

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My Weekly Cowboys Schedule:

With no more vacation time until Christmas (I promise), you can count on me to beat you down with my daily NFL/Cowboys -intensive thoughts for the long haul now.  Given that students everywhere are pondering their new schedules, let’s look at our own schedule here:

Since some of you have asked – and more importantly, since we have never done a football season here at Inside Corner – Here is what we have planned for the NFL weeks once the regular season joins us in just 2 weeks!

Mondays: Post Game Notes from the Cowboys game as we have been doing for years - by the way, kudos to Eric Celeste for filling in last week.  I think that he should feel more than welcome to add his thoughts to mine anytime he pleases.  Anything to enhance the football content around here is good.

Tuesdays: A breakdown of the offense in a very nerdy sort of way.  If you followed these breakdowns last season you know that is it my goal to come up with theories about how and why the Cowboys attack with the ball. If we understand what they like to do in certain situations – and what they don’t like to do – then we are more informed than the drunk guy who wants to know why they don’t pass more on 3rd and 2. At least, we think we are. In fact, in the days to come, I will try to give you a synopsis of what we learned in 2008 about Jason Garrett. I will admit right now that Tuesdays are not for everyone.

Wednesdays: Wildcard. Chat? Column? Email? Not sure. It may change every week.

Thursdays: Breaking down the opponent. Making sure you know everything you need to know about the opponent by using their newspapers and their websites. We need to analyze this enemy. It starts with watching their last 3 games so we are ready for them, and then reading everything so there are no surprises when they get here.

Fridays: Game Preview time. We have all of the information, now we need to ponder the match-ups and situations that will decide the winner and loser. This is where we all get together and work it out.

So, there you have it. My plans for the season. Will there be the occasional bonus postings for other things (college football, hockey, and Ask Sports Me)? Sure! But, this is the template for the Cowboys season.

And, of course, get the new posts sent to you via my twitter feed if you so choose: www.twitter.com/bobanddan

Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (8/25)

One time Ranger 3B Travis Metcalf was designated for assignment by Texas on April 5, despite mashing six home runs in just 56 major league at bats last season. Metcalf was claimed by the Royals, who play about 100 miles from his hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, and spent this season with their triple-A affiliate in Omaha. He struggled, posting a line of .219/.285/.345 in 388 at bats, and the Royals released him just a few days after his 27th birthday.

Texas swooped in, signing Metcalf to a minor league deal and sending him to the triple-A Oklahoma City RedHawks. And Metcalf headed right back to Omaha to play against his former club in the final game of a four-game set between the RedHawks and the Royals last night.

Metcalf’s OPS was .630 this year for the Royals. And for the RedHawks? After one game, it’s 2.500 thanks to a 2-4, two homer performance against his former mates.

Welcome back, Mr. Metcalf. (more…)