Post-Game Show: Rangers 11-10, Indians 9-5

D-tails
• Game 1 boxscore, Game 2 boxscore, AL West Standings, AL Wild Card Standings

Story of the Day
Behind a surprisingly resilient offense, the Rangers held off a pair of Cleveland rallies to sweep a doubleheader for the third time this season. The Rangers had previously swept Oakland in May and Toronto last week, both at home.

In the opener, Marlon Byrd went 4-for-4 and his three-run home run in the seventh inning broke a tie after Cleveland had rallied back from 5-1. In the ninth, the Rangers added three more runs to give themselves a needed four-run cushion. OF Julio Borbon homered for the second time in the game and then Byrd began a two-out rally with a single. OF Nelson Cruz and C Ivan Rodriguez each had hits to stoke the rally.

In the second game, the Rangers led 7-0 at one point only to see the lead whittled to 7-5 heading to the ninth. They took advantage of a two-out error that allowed OF David Murphy to reach base. C Taylor Teagarden followed with a single and then 1B Chris Davis hit a three-run homer to left center.

The win helped the Rangers creep within two games of Boston in the wild card race, even though the Red Sox crushed the Orioles on Tuesday.

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The Depot: Rangers-Indians Live Game Blog, News, Notes and Doubleheader Viewing Tips

3:58: The home run pool remains open – briefly.Also, TV watching help: The first game is on FSN; the second on Channel 27 here in the DFW area.

4:08: Couple of earlier-in-the-day posts, I wanted to alert you to – if you are just now coming around. First, as kind of an epitaph on the “DVD” Era, we revisited the Rangers top picks from the 2002-05 draft and what they got from those picks compared to the rest of baseball. Also, it’s worth noting that despite getting very little, the Rangers were able to build baseball’s best farm system in just three years. And, I posted the first Rick Perry Republic of Texas Top 10 football poll. It’s not that much of a poll since right now I’m the only voter, but I did get at least one volunteer this afternoon. I’m always looking for more.

4:12: Josh, please, I beg you: We are headed for six plus hours of baseball, so please, please, please, slow down on the shtick.

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Doubleheader Home Run Pool

Here is your Rangers lineup for Game 1 of today’s doubleheader with Cleveland, which starts at 4:05:

LF Julio Borbon, SS Elvis Andrus, 2B Ian Kinsler, CF Marlon Byrd, RF Nelson Cruz, DH David Murphy, C Ivan Rodriguez, 1B Chris Davis, 3B Omar Vizquel and pitching for your Texas Rangers … RHP Tommy Hunter.

I’m not sure I’ve got a Daily Double-worthy prize, but if you want to submit guesses for Games 1 and 2 at the same time and you get them both right, I’ll dig as far down into the prize vault as possible for something worthy of your prognosticating greatness. Otherwise, we’ll just play one home run pool today. I will, however, be my my computer for all six or seven hours of the doubleheader today.

Putting the Rangers “DVD” Era Drafts in Perspective

The Rangers decision to waive RHP Thomas Diamond last week, which ultimately led to the Chicago Cubs claiming him, officially put an end to the once-celebrated  “DVD” Era in Rangers history. DVD stood for Danks-Volquez-Diamond and together they were going to form the heart of a championship Rangers rotation. We followed their every start, marveled at every out, counted the days until they reached the majors. And then they produced a total of three wins while in Rangers uniforms.

The divestiture of Diamond got me thinking something else: The Rangers no longer have control of their top draft pick from 2002-2005 and they got very, very little from the quartet of picks, even though the average top selection was No. 12 overall. In total, the Rangers got five games. From Drew Meyer, the 10th overall pick in 2002. He had three hits, all of them singles.

So, I decided to look at what other clubs received from their top picks in that era, characterized by the John Hart-Grady Fuson management team that was formed for 2002 and joined by GM-wannabe Buck Showalter a year later. In short, it’s not pretty, but, surprisingly, five games of contribution was not the worst in baseball.  With that in mind, here’s what you can do with this post:

1. Choose not to read it and move on.
2. Mutter about how little the Rangers got from their top draft picks during the 2002-2005 seasons.
3. Marvel at how far the scouting/player development side has come so quickly despite complete washouts with four consecutive top picks. The Rangers, after all, entered the season as the No. 1-ranked farm system in baseball, according to Baseball America. I suspect they will remain in the top five after this season, even after graduating SS Elvis Andrus, LHP Derek Holland, RHP Neftali Feliz and RHP Tommy Hunter to the big leagues.

It’s your choice. See the glass as half empty, half full or ignore the glass entirely.

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The First Republic of Texas Football Rankings

Back in April, our dear leader, Gov. Rick Perry, made some veiled secession remarks and it made us think about all the important issues of Texas returning to being a republic. Like, how would it impact the BCS?

Would Texas schools even be eligible? Or should we just thumb our noses at the Texas-less NCAA and have our own National Championship free of those fouled up computers? Hey, it’s one way to eliminate that silly tie-breaker that the Longhorns lost to Oklahoma. So in the interest of Texas Independence, we prepare for the future with the first RP Poll. I’ll give you three guesses what RP stands for. And it’s not Rensselaer Polytech.

Jump for the poll. If you want to be a pollster in future weeks, just email me. Oh, and be prepared to document your multi-generation Texas legacy. I may be kidding about that second part.

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Race Day: Looking at the A.L. Playoff Races

About the Wild Card Race

Boston: The Red Sox finished a 3-4 trip to Tampa Bay and Chicago with a 5-1 loss to the White Sox, LHP Mark Buehrle’s first win since his perfect game on July 23. DH David Ortiz has a .354 career batting average against Buehrle but sat because of a 2-for-22 performance on the trip.

RHP Clay Buchholz (4-3, 4.40) will start the first of two against the Orioles as Boston begins an eight-game homestand that will also include Tampa Bay and Los Angeles. Buchholz has allowed three earned runs or fewer in five of his last six starts. RHP Tim Wakefield, out with a bad back and leg, will be held out again on this homestand. Thanks to multiple off days, the Red Sox are going with a four-man rotation of RHP Josh Beckett (hasn’t won since Aug. 12 but pitched well Monday for the first time in weeks), Buchholz, RHP Paul Byrd and LHP Jon Lester.

SS Alex Gonzalez has an 11-game hitting streak. C-1B Victor Martinez has a 10-game streak. In 34 games since Martinez was acquired from Cleveland, he has six home runs and 24 RBIs. Beckett, by making his 28th start of the season on Monday, vested his contract option for 2010.

The Red Sox on Tuesday night will face RHP David Hernendez (4-6, 4.54). He has split two decisions against Boston this season. His longest outing of the year came at Fenway, seven innings, when he allowed one earned run. That’s the Orioles’ only victory in seven previous games this season in Boston. Hernandez has given up home runs in his last seven starts.

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Chatting Hockey with Mike Heika

With the passing of Labor Day, I feel it is time to unleash the first hockey writing from my finger-tips in months. It has been an incredibly slow summer since the changing of the Head Coach and General Manager back in early June. That is a radical change to the team, and perhaps that will be enough to raise this team from its disappointing and scarring year.

Once I got my hockey brain working yesterday, I thought I would contact my long-time hockey media colleague, Mike Heika, of the Dallas Morning News, to see what he thinks about the items on my mind with the first hockey chat of the season.

There are plenty of items to visit about, so here you go:

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (9/7)

Triple-A: Oklahoma City 5 @ Memphis 3

On the last day of the minor league season, RHP Brian Corey (7-9; 5.34) came within one out of getting his first complete game of the season, but a two out error in the 9th and a pitch count of 112, gave RHP Josh Rupe the opportunity to get a one out save. Corey went 8.2 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits and a walk before Joaquin Arias’ fielding blunder forced him from the game.

LF Casey Benjamin (.231/.349/.341) finished the season strong, going 4-5 with a homer, three RBI, and his third stolen base of the season. The bottom four hitters for Oklahoma City — CF Greg Golson, 3B Travis Metcalf, RF Jared Bolden, and 2B Adam Fox — all singled once in four trips to the plate. C Max Ramirez (.234/.323/.336) walked, singled, and stole a base.

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