The Depot: Rangers-A’s Live Game Blog, News, Notes and Tag-Team Extreme Rules Match

8:07: The home run pool is awaiting your visit. Are you ready?

9:14: We are having some lightning/storm-related technical issues, so bear with us.

9:19: The Rangers decision to start Kevin Millwood tonight can’t be interpreted in any fashion other than this: The club apparently doesn’t believe it could win a grievance that would be filed on his behalf if he was shut down at this point and fails to reach 180 innings. Even if the Rangers want Millwood back – and it’s worth noting that it is Sept. 21 and his ERA remains below 4.00 for the  year – it’s pretty clear that $12 million is not 2010 market value for a pitcher of his class. With the Rangers essentially out of the race, using any other younger pitcher (Dustin Nipper or Guillermo Moscoso come to mind) would seem to be more worthwhile than running a tired Millwood out there. It doesn’t make much sense to start Millwood right now. But the club apparently doesn’t have any other options.

9:28: C Jarrod Saltalamacchia had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome surgery today to remove a rib. All went well (it should have, considering the practice surgeons have had with performing the procedure on Rangers players). He should be ready for spring training.  … Also, on the Thoracic Outlet beat, LHP Matt Harrison, who had the surgery earlier this summer, pitched an inning in the instructional league today.

10:33: Kevin Millwod reaches 180 innings with a double play grounder from Mark Ellis in the fifth inning. He’s now locked in his contract option for 2010.

10:37: Folks, you may have to bring this one home on your own. My internet keeps failing at home tonight. AT&T going to be getting a little ringy-dingy in the a.m.. I’ll try to stick with it, but this is quite frustrating as those of you who have dealt with it before understand.

Bayside Home Run Pool

Imagine how exciting it would have been for us all to be sitting around in our jammies for the next three nights, hanging on every pitch of pennant race baseball. Wow. Would have been awesome. Well, the pennant race may be out the window, but you can still curl up with your laptop tonight and join in for a discussion of Rangers baseball. We’re going to focus on the positive side of the season throughout tonight’s game. Call it “Chicken Soup for the Ranger Fan’s Soul.”

In the meantime, here is your Rangers lineup against Oakland tonight: DH Julio Borbon, SS Elvis Andrus, LF David Murphy, CF Marlon  Byrd, 1B Hank Blalock, 2B Ian Kinsler, RF Nelson Cruz, 3B Chris Davis, C Taylor Teagarden and pitching for the Rangers … RHP Kevin Millwood.

Series Preview: Rangers at Athletics

Back in July, the Rangers didn’t made a blockbuster move to assist in what was going to be a strenuous sortie with the Angels for AL West supremacy. Instead, they stood pat at the trade deadline and hoped their young team could spin a surprising postseason berth without any outside help.

Now we know better. And with Texas’ playoff hopes seemingly wilted and only a few weeks until they’ll spend a long October at home, they’re allowed a hypothetical do-over. But, in truth, they probably wouldn’t trade for Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee to anchor the pitching staff, or Victor Martinez or Nick Johnson to curb their bouts of offensive anemia. And quite frankly, those guys might not have been enough anyway.

My guess is the Rangers would go back to September 4 and swap schedules with the Oakland Athletics. That was the day Oakland hit rock bottom following a 6-3 loss to the Mariners that pushed the Athletics to a season-high — or season-low — 17 games under .500. The Rangers, meanwhile, pulled within 3.5 games in the division and 2.0 in the wild card chase after a 5-1 victory in Baltimore. Since then, the A’s have won 12 of their last 14 and seven straight to move to 71-78 on the season, while Texas owns a 5-9 record over that stretch, being shut out in five of their nine losses.

So if anyone has Doc Brown on speed dial, now might be a good time to speak up.

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The Morning After: Giants 33, Cowboys 31

The new stadium opens like the old stadium closed – with a gut punch.

This game was a game of so many ups and downs. On one hand, the Cowboys did so much to beat themselves that they really were lucky to have a lead and a chance at the end. And on the other hand, they had so many “bad breaks” that you wondered who they angered, because if one of those bounces doesn’t go the Giants’ way, then the Cowboys surely get the win.

Welcome back, NFL Season. Welcome back, 200 emails when Romo has a bad night. And welcome back, Monday after a gutting defeat where knee jerk reactions are flying in every direction. We missed you all. 16 hurdles in the meat grinder, and the Cowboys get nailed in their first home game, because they took an inexcusable -4 in the turnover rating.

On Wednesdays, we demonstrate the importance of turnovers around the league . There is no other stat so important as turnovers. If you are even a “-1″ in a game, you lose 3 out of every 4 games. Worse than -1, and the number grows quite a bit. By the time you get to -4, it is almost 99% loss rate. In fact, since the start of last season, 24 teams have been a -4, and 24 teams have lost. Simply put, you don’t take care of the football, you don’t win.

And the Cowboys did not take care of the football. Namely, Tony Romo did not take care of the football. There are days when you can get away with that, and when you run for 251 yards, I thought for a bit that this might be one of those days. But, the combination that couldn’t be overcome is this: The Cowboys offense gave the ball away 3 times; The special teams gave the ball away once; and the Cowboys defense did not create a turnover. Again.

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