D

From the Rangers Clubhouse: Sickly Silence and Dejected Acceptance of Losing AL West

ANAHEIM, Calif. – It was quiet enough in the Rangers clubhouse beneath Angel Stadium to hear the celebration across the hall.

While the Los Angeles Angels were celebrating their third consecutive AL West title, the Rangers were dealing with being the vanquished contenders. It’s not a role many of them are used to because the Rangers haven’t been in playoff races this late in a season in a long time.

“This is not a good feeling,” said 3B Michael Young, who returned from four weeks of dealing with a strained hamstring to have a pair of hits in Monday’s 11-0 loss. “Right now, I don’t care about the future or how our team shapes up for next year. It’s about winning or going home. We did not get it done. And that is really an unpleasant feeling. The Angels deserve a lot of credit for overcoming a lot of adversity and doing what it took to win. From our side, we’ve got to get better. It’s as simple as that.”

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Post-Game Show: A’s 9, Rangers 0

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

Story of the Game
RHP Scott Feldman, searching for his 17th win and his eighth in a row, took a one-hit shutout to the sixth inning Monday, then ran smack into a brick wall.

The Rangers tired lineup, which sat through four rain delays in the previous eight day, hit the wall much earlier.

It combined for one ugly loss that eliminated any remaining margin for error on the nine-game homestand against AL West opponents. The loss was the Rangers third in four games on the homestand and dropped them 4.5 games back of Boston in the AL wild card. They remained six back of Los Angeles in the AL West with 19 games remaining.

After allowing just one hit through the first five innings, Feldman retired just four more hitters. The first run scored on a swinging bunt but Feldman complicated matters by allowing consecutive two-out doubles to Ryan Sweeney and Kurt Suzuki before escaping the inning. He couldn’t escape the seventh, however. He loaded the bases before being removed with one out. RHP Jason Grilli allowed all three inherited runners to score.

Offensively, the Rangers did nothing against Tomko. The journeyman – he’s with his ninth major league team in 13 seasons – pitched the second shutout of his career. He allowed just five hits. Tomko took advantage of a Rangers lineup that looked tired and lacking in energy.

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Post-Game(s) Show: Rangers 7-2, Mariners 5-0

• Game 1 box • Game 2 box • A.L. West standings • A.L. wild-card standings

Story of the Game

Doubleheaders are funny animals. Seven runs got the Red Sox a Sunday sweep of the Rays. Seven runs got the Rangers a convincing Game 1 win over Seattle, which was negated a few hours later by Felix Hernandez.

A win on Sunday night would have given the Rangers four sweeps of twin bills this season, unheard of. Instead, they’ll welcome Oakland to town on Monday night trailing Boston by four in the wild-card race and Los Angeles by six in the West.

Rookie Tommy Hunter, who started the year at Triple-A Oklahoma, threw his first major league complete game in the opener and has the personality to say he “finally” got it. Rookie Derek Holland took baby steps in the second game, better than his most recent starts but not good enough to beat Hernandez. “He competed very well,” manager Ron Washington said. “The opponent was just better.”

Scott Feldman will go his 17th win on Monday night, followed by Brandon McCarthy and probably Dustin Nippert. After Thursday’s off day, it remains to be seen if Kevin Millwood takes his regular turn on Friday against the Angels’ Scott Kazmir after another shaky performance on Saturday night.

If Millwood doesn’t start Friday, would Hunter go since it would be his regular day after the off day? Said Washington: “I haven’t talked to Mike [Maddux] about that yet.”

Millwood threw a bullpen session on Sunday instead of his usual post-start regime of long toss. ”Just working on a few mechanical things,” he said. “Just trying to get where it’s more consistent. You always tweak with your mechanics a little bit. My stuff’s not been the problem. It’s just consistently throwing it where I want to.”

Winner of eight games before the All-Star break, Millwood has won only twice since. On Saturday night, he didn’t make it out of the fourth inning. He said he’s not discouraged: “You have times in the year when things don’t go so well. You just try to figure ‘em out. This is just one of those times.”

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Post-Game Show: Rangers 10, Indians 0

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

Story of the Game
RHP Scott Feldman continues to surge towards one of the greatest seasons by a Rangers starter ever.

Feldman pitched seven shutout innings – he’s allowed just one run in 26.1 innings over his last four starts, all with C Ivan Rodriguez – to improve to 16-4. It tied him for the AL lead in wins and was his eighth consecutive road victory. Feldman, who began the year in the bullpen, is now 12-1 on the road this season. No Ranger pitcher had ever won 12 road games in a season.  Feldman should still have two more road starts remaining. With wins in both of them, he’d tie Claude Osteen (Los Angeles, 1972), Jim Palmer (Baltimore, 1973), Phil Niekro (Atlanta, 1982) and Scott McGregor (Baltimore, 1983) for the most road wins by any pitcher since the divisional era began 40 years ago.

Feldman began the year with a sinker and a cut-fastball, but has grown more and more confidence in his offspeed pitches with each start this season. Recently, he’s used his changeup and sinker to help start piling up strikeouts. In his last four starts, Feldman has allowed just 17 hits and one run, while piling up 20 strikeouts to 10 walks. His seven shutout innings lowered his season ERA to 3.46; it is 3.10 as a starter.

Feldman got five first inning runs of support and never really struggled.

The win moved the Rangers, at least temporarily to within 1.5 games of Boston in the AL wild card hunt. The Red Sox play Baltimore Wednesday night. The Los Angeles Angels, who play Seattle Wednesday night, currently lead the AL West by four games.  The win improved the Rangers to 79-60. It’s the most games they have been above .500 in a season since winning the AL West with a franchise record 95 wins in 1999.

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Post-Game Show: Rangers 6, Blue Jays 4

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

Story of the Game
The Rangers finished up a very brief homestand by gaining ground in both AL playoff races for a second straight day. After RHP Tommy Hunter rebounded from a rough first inning, the Rangers provided him with six runs over the next five innings. SS Elvis Andrus’ two-run homer in the fifth, which followed a leadoff walk by DH Julio Borbon gave the Rangers their first lead. RF Nelson Cruz then led off the sixth with his 30th home run of the season and the Rangers scratched out another run formed by a pair of walks to LF David Murphy and C Ivan Rodriguez.

The bullpen duo of LHP C.J. Wilson and RHP Frank Francisco allowed one baserunner over two efficient innings to close out the game. Both were pitching for the second consecutive day. Wilson had pitched two-thirds of an inning in Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader win, while Francisco, who got the final two outs Wednesday for his 22nd save, pitched in both ends of the doubleheader.

“Every game has to be won,” Wilson said. “We didn’t get over-worked in the early part of the season, so there is a lot left in our arms.”

The Rangers picked up 2.5 games in the AL West over the final two days of the series and now trail Los Angeles, by 3.5 games. The Rangers picked up 1.5 games on Boston Tuesday and Wednesday and trail in the wild card race by 2.5 games.

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Post-Game(s) Show: Rangers 5-5, Blue Jays 2-2

D-tails
Game 1 Box; Game 2 Box, AL West Standings, AL Wild Card Standings

Story of the Day
RHPs Dustin Nippert and Brandon McCarthy, both fighting for the final spot in the Rangers rotation, each gave the club an impressive quality start to allow the Rangers to sweep a doubleheader from Toronto and gain ground in both the AL West and wild card races. The Rangers won both games against left-handed starters after going 4-8 against lefties since the first of August.

Nippert kept the Blue Jays off balance for six innings in Game 1 while the Rangers built a slim lead. In Game 2, McCarthy unveiled new smoother mechanics after missing most of the last three months while recovering from a stress fracture in his right scapula. He lasted 6.1 innings and got the benefit of a pair of homers from CF Josh Hamilton to stake him to a 5-0 lead. In both games, RHP Frank Francisco came on to close out the game.

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Nippert Wins; McCarthy Goes for Rangers Sweep

ARLINGTON - Dustin Nippert stated his case for retaining the No. 5 slot in the Rangers’ starting rotation in Texas’ 5-2 victory over Toronto in the first half of Tuesday’s doubleheader. Next up, Brandon McCarthy, making his first start since leaving the rotation in early June for the disabled list.

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Post-Game Show: Blue Jays 18, Rangers 10

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

Story of the Game
The Rangers returned home Monday night and presented the “crowd” of 16,675 fans with a little bit of everything: A terrible start by popular rookie LHP Derek Holland, a stirring comeback by the offense and a deflating ninth-inning meltdown by the bullpen that killed any chance of a comeback for the ages.

Holland couldn’t command any of his pitches and allowed five runs in the first. He was gone four batters into the fourth after allowing a grand slam to Adam Lind that gave Toronto a 10-0 lead. The Blue Jays extended it to 11-0 on Rod Barajas’ second homer of the game in the fifth.

Then the Rangers hitters went to work. A seven-run fifth inning was capped by OF Nelson Cruz’s three-run homer, his 29th homer of the season. The Rangers scored in each of the next two innings to cut the lead to 11-10, but they couldn’t get the tying run home. Toronto reeled off seven more runs in the ninth against RHPs Jason Grilli and Pedro Strop.

Said Holland: “I’m just going to forget about this one. I’ve got to get ready for my next start. I couldn’t command or establish any of my pitches. I kept trying to attack the zone, but nothing worked. I was very poor. It was just an all-around bad outing.”

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Post-Game Show Post-Script

Yes, it was quite a dinner. And a lot of thinking. But after six hours, I’m ready to discuss the things that left me wondering after the Rangers 5-3 loss to Minnesota today. Let’s tackle them one by one.

• C.J. Wilson: First reaction was that he got too cute with the slider in the eighth. Threw it at 2-and-2 to Justin Morneau and missed with the only one in that at-bat, then missed with a fastball for a walk. Threw it 0-and-2 to Jason Kubel after he’d taken a pair of strikes; first thought was Kubel was looking for something offspeed. But he also threw it for a strikeout to Michael Cuddyer. In general I think Wilson’s fastball is so good and so unusual (guys just don’t see many power lefties) and, for the most part, his most controllable pitch that I don’t think he needs to throw anything else until someone proves they can hit it. I’ve run the “cuteness” question by others and had mixed answers. The bottom line is it’s a “damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t” situation. If he gets beat on the fastball, the first question out of everybody’s mouth is “why didn’t you so him something else?” If he gets beat on something else, it’s “Why did you get beat with anything other than your best pitch?” Ultimately, it comes down to whether you trust Wilson with the game on the line or not. Statistically speaking, he’s done a great job this year, but I think there are plenty of observers who remember some of the meltdowns last year and whenever he takes the mound, that’s the first thought that runs though minds.

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Post-Game Show Pre-Empted

In lieu of the tradtional post-game report, today’s 5-3 loss to the Twins was full of interesting late-inning decisions, so I thought we’d open up a discussion thread on the topic. You discuss. I’m going to grab some dinner. I’ll be back shortly with my thoughts on these issues:

• Does C.J. Wilson get too “cute” with his pitch selection in tight games?

• Should Chris Davis have been at first base for Hank Blalock in the bottom of the eighth, even though that spot in the order was due up in the top of the ninth?

• Should the Rangers have used a pinch hitter – either David Murphy, Omar Vizquel or the aforementioned Chris Davis – for either rookie Elvis Andrus or Julio Borbon in the eighth?

• Should Darren O’Day have been up and ready to go in case either of the left-handed duo of Justin Morneau or Jason Kubel reached base in the eighth against Wilson?

Well, get those fingers flying. I’ll have my answers after a bit.

Post-Game Show: Rangers 3, Twins 0

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

Story of the Game
If the Rangers do make the playoffs, who better to start Game 1, which will almost certainly be on the road, than RHP Scott Feldman?

The road warrior kept building a strong case for himself on Saturday with 5.2 scoreless innings against Minnesota on a night when he lacked great command. Thanks to a pair of double play grounders and some plucky pitching, Feldman won for the sixth consecutive time on the road. Each of the last three wins has followed a Ranger defeat. For the year he’s 10-1 in 12 road starts (the team won his only no decision) with a 2.75 road ERA.

And regardless of location, Feldman’s numbers are looking prettier and prettier. He’s now 14-4 with a 3.72 ERA for the season, though it’s 3.33 ERA as a starter.

Feldman got out of first inning trouble by getting AL batting leader Joe Mauer to bounce into a double play. In the second, after two runners reached base with one out, Feldman got Brendan Harris to ground into another double play. And though he didn’t have a 1-2-3 inning, when he turned the game over to the bullpen with two outs in the sixth, Feldman was working on a shutout.

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Post-Game Show: Twins 3, Rangers 2

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

Story of the Game
The Rangers came up just short- about a foot, to be exact – in a comeback bid against Minnesota on Friday.

RHP Tommy Hunter fell down 3-0 in the first inning, but didn’t allow Minnesota anything else to get the Rangers back into the game. Texas trailed 3-1 going to the ninth, but with two outs, as has often been the case on their current road trip, they rallied. DH Ivan Rodriguez doubled into the right field corner off All-Star closer Joe Nathan. LF David Murphy followed with a high drive that hit about 22-feet up on the 23-foot plastic sheet that serves as the right field wall. It went instead for a run-scoring double, rather than a game-tying homer. After pinch hitter Hank Blalock took a walk, 1B Chris Davis worked the count full against Nathan. He took the full-count pitch, which appeared to be off the plate and low, but was called for a game-ending third strike.

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Post-Game Show: Yankees 9, Rangers 2

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

Story of the Game
NEW YORK - For the second straight night, the Rangers dug themselves a four-run hole and for the second straight night they appeared to be digging out of it.

Until the seventh inning.

LHP Derek Holland, who had allowed a pair of homers in the first six innings, went to the mound to start the seventh trailing 4-2, but didn’t get an out. And then RHP Jason Jennings couldn’t stop a rally from turning big. Holland allowed a leadoff double to Robinson Cano after 3B Michael Young lost a foul pop along the third base rail. After Cano, LF Jerry Hairston Jr. worked his way to a 12-pitch walk to force Holland’s exit from the game. Jennings muffed a sacrifice bunt attempt by Melky Cabrera to load the bases and then allowed three consecutive run-scoring hits.  What had been another tight game was quickly a Yankee romp.

“Well, they are an explosive team and we already knew that,” manager Ron Washington said. “We had some chances against [Andy] Pettitte, but every time he got into trouble, he was able to get out of it. It’s why he is who he is. All you can do is put this game away and look towards tomorrow.”

The loss combined with Boston’s 3-2 walk-off win over Chicago on David Ortiz’s homer puts the Rangers 2.5 games back in the AL wild card race.

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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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Post-Game Show: Rangers 4, Rays 0

ALERT: If you want to use this as a pseudo-depot for Yanks-Red Sox, I’m around and watching. I’ll drop by occasionally to chat.

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

Story of the Game
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Asked about the performance of Rangers RHP Scott Feldman, Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon quickly responded Sunday: “It was the best game pitched against us all year.”

That is not faint praise, considering Chicago’s Mark Buehrle tossed a perfect game againt the Rays.

After being reminded of the perfect game, Maddon did alter his praise, but only slightly. After watching Feldman turn the Rays into a biology project – Feldman disected them – who could blame him? Feldman continually got ahead of Tampa Bay hitters and was confident to use his curve ball more and more. It resulted in 11 strikeouts in seven innings, the most by a Rangers starter in a decade. Feldman allowed just four hits, all singles.  The mix of pitches also allowed him to be more efficient.

“You can’t just throw all fastballs,” Feldman said. “I’ve been trying to keep a little bit better of a mix. I have more confidence in the curve ball. That makes a big difference. And Pudge [Rodriguez] had confidence in it, too. He called for it and he showed me he had confidence in me. I just tried to keep them off balance.”

The curve has made him appear to be a different pitcher – one who doesn’t have to rely only on ground balls. Over the last month, Feldman has averaged 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings. In his first 18 starts this season, he averaged only 4.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

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