September baseball is different than any other month. Suddenly, every inning matters. There is no margin of error, no patience for auditions, no room for failure. Runs need to be driven in, not left on. Batters need to be retired, not allowed to do damage. The Rangers haven’t been […]
Dave Magadan has to feel pretty good about the offensive turnarounds he has seen from three of his key players. Shin-Soo Choo was left for dead the first half of the season, really the entire year and a half he has been a Texas Ranger. He wasn’t getting at-bats against […]
The Rangers sweep of Baltimore had a lot of ramifications, not the least of which it featured a totally dominating Derek Holland’s complete-game, eleven-strike-out, no-walk, three-hit shutout. It was the Rangers third complete game of the year, Chi Chi Gonzalez and Colby Lewis having the other two. In the […]
Talk about lucking into a situation. The Rangers depleted their catching depth at the trade deadline. Between trades and injuries, they were left with the cupboard bare. So, in a desperation move, because somebody had to catch, they got two anybodies. They recalled Chris Gimenez and made a minor […]
The Rangers acquired Cole Hamels for one reason: Games like this. Coming off a series loss in Toronto where the starting pitching was bush league, generous to a fault and unable to hold any kind of lead, the Rangers needed Hamels to be good. He was very good. Eight […]
It’s ironic that the Little League World Series is going on. The Rangers won yesterday only because of a Little League home run. With two on and a tenuous 1-0 lead in the seventh, Delino DeShields hit a harmless slow ground ball single to Jose Bautista in right that would […]
Last night’s game reminded me of a scene in a movie when the wimpy kid is tired of being pushed around by the jock and has finally worked up enough courage to say enough is enough and dares to take him on, even though it’s the most foolish […]
The two best teams with the top two best offenses in the American League since the All-Start break squared off last night at the Ballpark. One with a pitcher, Mark Buehrle, who works the fastest, often getting in a game in just over two hours. One with a pitcher, Derek Holland, […]
Mitch Moreland is having his best season by far. With 66 RBIs, he has already surpassed his career best 60 RBIs from 2013, and there are still 39 games left. He’s just 18 hits away from his career best 120 in 2011, and already has the second-most HRs in […]
It wasn’t always pretty, but Cole Hamels limited the Detroit Tigers to two earned runs in six innings to walk away with his first victory as a Texas Ranger, as Texas won three of four from Detroit. On June 17 the Rangers beat the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw 5-3 in a game Joey […]