More About Last Night: Why Derek Holland Pitched And Why He Came Out When He Did

ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Rangers made two decisions in Tuesday’s come-from-behind 8-5 win over Los Angeles that seemed to caused lots of internet chatter. They were:

• The decision to pitch LHP Derek Holland in the first place.

• And then the decision to pull Holland out when he was pitching so well.

Turns out there was plenty of thought on both decisions and plenty of logic behind those thoughts.

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Rangers Take The Fifth: Six-Run, Two-Out Rally Leads To Win Over Angels, Tie For West Lead

ANAHEIM, Calif. – His first two at-bats Tuesday looked like failed bits, a pair of strikeouts against John Lackey that made Andruw Jones 0-for-5 since taking over in the cleanup spot.

Rangers manager Ron Washington had another opinion. He called the first two at-bats “homework.” And by the third time around, it was Jones who was handing out the lessons.

He jumped all over a first-pitch curveball from Lackey, drove it into the fake rock formation behind center field, erased a three-run deficit and put the Rangers on the way to a six-run inning in an 8-5 win over the Angels. The big inning that led to the big win also helped the Rangers climb back into a first-place tie with the Angels.

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Showdown At The Big A Depot: Angels-Rangers Live Game Blog, News, Notes And Musings

7:23: Chlorinated the pool this morning, so it’s fresh and clean and waiting for your arrival. Here is who the Rangers are sending out against Angels RHP John Lackey: 2B Ian Kinsler, 3B Michael Young (29-for-76, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), CF Josh Hamilton, DH Andruw Jones, 1B Hank Blalock (20-for-61, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), RF Marlon Byrd (6-for-19, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), LF David Murphy, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers, making his 2009 debut … RHP Dustin Nippert.

7:37: Don’t forget about our statistical look at the first half of the season this year compared to 2008. I think the numbers are significant. Sweeping improvement in both pitching and defensive categorites. I spent a lot of time on all these charts today. I’m expecting heavy readership!

7:42: Also, today’s question is about Roy Halladay and trying to figure out what the Rangers might give up for him – if they had any financial flexibility, that is.

9:31: Some notes for your perusal. We lead with Derek Holland’s transfer back to the bullpen.

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About Last Night: Sometimes Rangers Are The Windshield, Sometimes They Are The Bug

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Sometimes, you simply play – or pitch – a bad game. Sometimes even it’s a very bad game.

After hours of introspection and a few minutes of research that seems to be the best answer to what happened to the Rangers in a 9-4 swamping they suffered at the hand of the Los Angeles Angels Monday night. The loss, of course, dropped the Rangers a game off the AL West lead. Kevin Millwood was awful, which is news in and of itself, because he hasn’t come remotely close to having a bad game this season.

For the first time this year, Millwood did not come out for the sixth inning and he probably shouldn’t have been forced to get through five, but that’s one small contribution he made to keeping the bullpen a little bit more fresh for Tuesday.  Millwood, who pitched into the seventh five days earlier against the Angels, left pitches in the hitting zone and the Angels pounced. Millwood allowed nine runs, tied for the most he’s allowed as a Ranger, in his five innings of work. His ERA rose more than a half a run from 2.80 to 3.34, pushing him down from fifth in the league to 10th.

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About Last Night: Small Signs Of Progress From Rangers Offense In Big Loss To Arizona?

D-tails: Diamondbacks 8, Rangers 2
• Rangers lose sole possession of first (AL standings)
• Boxscore; game blog; Daniels: Bullpen help is most realistic trade target

PHOENIX – These are the longest days of sunlight in the calendar year. For the Rangers they are simply the longest days.

They start with players and coaches trying to find clues from the past game’s performance to solve a most uncommon problem for this team – a prolonged offensive slump.

It continues right through early batting practice, video work, a round of individual meetings and pep talks between hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo and his frustrated hitters, regular batting practice, another game and then, if the game is anything like Tuesday’s 8-2 loss to Arizona, another round of introspection and analysis.

Tuesday was even longer than unusual. About an hour after the Rangers lost, the Los Angeles Angels finished off a come-from-behind win over Colorado to pull into a tie for the AL West lead.

Amid it all, the Rangers thought that maybe, just maybe, there was a little progress to build on.

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About Last Night: A Brain Full Of Thoughts On Rangers-Astros Game

I’ve spent the last 12 hours chewing on the Rangers’ 5-4 win over the Astros last night, fully intending to write some comprehensive, flowing account of the game. It’s just not in me. Perhaps that’s because my brain is full of so many snippets from the game, that I’ve just got to spit them out in little bits and chunks (now that’s a fine image to conjure up).

In short, I think the Rangers got very fortunate. The win, I think summarizes, why Ron Washington has job security for next yeart. It’s because his team constantly plays hard for him and, ultimately, that is more important than a manager’s ability to move pieces around. Because in my mind, Washington went 1-for-2 on managerial moves Wednesday. He used his bullpen just as it should be – even if he didn’t get the results he wanted in the eighth inning. But the handling of the bottom of the ninth is an area that must be improved. We are now talking about the Rangers as serious pennant contenders. And they will face the same situations they faced in the ninth in the playoff race later this year or, if they are so fortunate, in the playoffs. The players must improve their execution. And Washington must improve his decision making.

And with that, away we go:

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Busting Out: Texas Rangers’ Ian Kinsler Emerges From Long Slump In Win Over Houston

D-tails: Rangers 6, Astros 1
• Boxscore, Standings, Depot live game blog
• Miller: All-Star consideration for Millwood?

ARLINGTON - The how and why a player breaks out of a slump are as much a mystery as how and why he ends up in one in the first place.

The cure could come in the form of a day off to relax the mind and refresh the body. Or it could take the form of a mechanical adjustment. Or it might be something as serendipitous as facing a pitcher the player knows he owns.

It was certainly possible that a dash of all three contributed to Ian Kinsler’s big night Tuesday as the Texas Rangers beat Houston 6-1.

What was far more definitive, though, was the tie-in Kinsler’s big night – he went 3-for-4 with a pair of homers and a walk – had to the Rangers win. When he scores, the Rangers win; it’s that simple. They entered the week 22-6 when Kinsler scores a run and the fact he hadn’t scored in his last eight games, including the first six of the season’s longest homestand, stood out like a swollen thumb.

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Texas Rangers’ Young Arm, Cold Bats Make For Long Afternoon Against Dodgers In 6-3 Defeat

D-tails: Dodgers 6, Rangers 3
• Boxscore, Standings, Depot game blog
• Francisco placed on DL

ARLINGTON - The education of young Derek Holland takes place in front of a packed Ballpark against the Yankees, at Fenway Park and in Sunday’s rubber game of a three-game home series against the Dodgers, who lead the majors in wins and consume left-handed pitching with a passion.

The Dodgers took advantage of Holland’s early inability to keep his fastball down and scored four runs in three innings en route to a 6-3 victory. Afterward, Holland kicked himself with brute force and said he’s letting down his teammates: “I haven’t pitched to my regular performance.”

Usually, Ranger bats can rescue a young starter in such a plight. Not this past week. The Rangers finished the six-game home week averaging 2.3 runs, their two wins coming in shutouts. On Sunday, they collected five singles and a solo home run and scored two runs on an LA error. The Rangers’ lead in the AL West, at 4.5 games after last Sunday’s win in Boston, is now 2.5 games. They’re off Monday before closing the season’s longest homestand with three against the Astros.

“We didn’t swing the bats as well as we’d wanted,” Michael Young said. “We need to find a way to make adjustments and move on.”

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Lights Out: Rangers Fall to Dodgers 3-1 After Long Delay Due To Light Failure Chases Scott Feldman

D-tails: Dodgers 3, Rangers 1
• Boxscore, Standings, Depot game blog

ARLINGTON - From the press box, when the bank of lights atop the first base side of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington failed Saturday night, the field looked like just about any minor league stadium. To the naked eye, it was darkish, but not pitch black.

To the players, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

Rangers third baseman Michael Young said the field became too dark to play safely and concurred with umpiring crew chief Charlie Reliford’s decision to pull the clubs off the field with a scoreless tie after five innings. After a 1:41 delay, the broken breaker was fixed, light was restored and the teams resumed with new pitchers. Los Angeles went on to a 3-1 win.

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Forget Fireworks Night; It Was Goose Egg Night Again As Texas Rangers Rough Up Dodgers, 6-0

+ Box score + In game blog

ARLINGTON - Beating the Oaklands and Seattles to build a lead in the AL West since early May, the Rangers went out Friday night and looked like a complete team in shutting out the team with the best record in the major leagues. In blanking the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-0, the Rangers tossed their second consecutive shutout, made nearly every tough play in the field and got production throughout their lineup.

Said manager Ron Washington: “We swung the bats. We played defense. We pitched. We did whatever the game asked us to do.”

And when the game was still in doubt in the fifth inning, winning pitcher Vicente Padilla made a change in the middle of an at-bat that might have played a significant role in the outcome.

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Top Ten List: Things That Stand Out About Texas Rangers 1-0 Win Over Toronto

D-tails: Rangers 1, Toronto 0
• Boxscore, Standings, Depot game blog
• Rangers sign “El Duque” Hernandez to minor league deal

ARLINGTON – Despite the tiny little score, there were plenty of story lines to come out of Thursday’s win over Toronto. We’ll discuss several of them in more depth Friday morning, but in the meantime, here are 10 things that really stand out about the game:

10. 2B Ian Kinsler and DH Andruw Jones both were 0-for-4 and the last month has not been kind to either. Kinsler is hitting .200 for the last 31 days with a .328 on-base percentage. Jones is hitting .180 with a .259 OBP for the same time.

9. 3B Michael Young did not reach base bia a hit or walk during the series, going 0-for-13 and watching his batting average slide from .336 to .318. You have to go back to a late July series against Seattle in 2002 to find a series of at least three games in which he recorded neither a hit or walk.

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Hill College Alum Two Much For Texas Rangers

D-tails: Blue Jays 9, Rangers 0
• Boxscore, Standings, Depot Game Blog

ARLINGTON - The names Jon Lester and Brian Tallet don’t often appear in the same sentence. But the Rangers were two-hit on Tuesday night for the second time in four games, a 9-0 Toronto victory in which the lanky lefty Tallet, a Hill College product, and two relievers did what Lester did on Saturday in Boston.

Hey, Andruw Jones compared him to Tom Glavine.

So the Rangers have opened a 10-game homestand looking flat, never so much as taking a lead in two games. Maybe Rangers fans sensed this coming like an approaching storm; the AL West leaders played before a second consecutive home crowd of fewer than 18,000.

“That’s two ballgames. We’re still in first place,” manager Ron Washington said. “We’re still in good shape. We’ll pick it back up. You play 162 games, you’re going to have days like that.”

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Home Sweet … Texas Rangers Start Season’s Longest Homestand On A Sour Note Vs. Jays

D-tails: Blue Jays 6, Rangers 3
• Boxscore, Standings, Depot game blog
• Medical news: Hamilton to have surgery; McCarthy to DL
• Washington’s 2010 option picked up

ARLINGTON - Whew. Done with the Yankees and Red Sox on the road for awhile. Whew. Starting a 10-game homestand with four against the Blue Jays, losers of nine straight on the road, and not facing Roy Halladay. Now, that’s timing.

But timing worked against the Rangers on Monday night and helped result in a 6-3 loss to Toronto. The only two walks allowed by Scott Feldman scored. At the plate, the Rangers only began to do much of their hitting with two out and finished 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

“Nothing that we didn’t do except get some two-out knocks,” manager Ron Washington said. “They’re not easy to get.”

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About Last Night: Boston’s Mr. Lester Teaches Rangers Mr. Holland An Opus About Pitching

D-tails: Red Sox 8, Rangers 1
• Boxscore, Standings, Depot game blog
• Notes: Closing in on hits record, Vizquel to get start; Francisco still unavailable

BOSTON - Getting pulled in the fifth inning Saturday night wasn’t all bad news for Rangers starter Derek Holland.

For example, it offered him more opportunity to sit back and watch Jon Lester.

In a lot of ways Holland is currently a Lester starter kit. He is young, left-handed and throws hard. And while there are differences in their repertoires – most significantly Lester uses a cut fastball and Holland doesn’t – there are two important lessons that could be learned Saturday from Lester’s dominant 8-1 two-hit, complete game win over the Rangers.

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About Last Night: Eddie Guardado’s Reach Extends Past Eighth Inning Of Rangers 5-1 Win Over Boston

D-tails: Rangers 5, Red Sox 1
• Boxscore, Standings, Depot Live Game Blog
• Notes: Hicks says its “business as usual”

BOSTON – There are two types of contributions players can make to help a team on a daily basis.

There are things that help win games and there are things that help define seasons.

The Rangers got plenty of the former Friday night in ending their eight-game losing streak at Fenway Park with a 5-1 win over Boston. And they got one big example of the latter during and after the game from Eddie Guardado.

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