MLB Team Report – Texas Rangers – INSIDE PITCH
The schedule gets decidedly harder.
With the AL split very decidedly into haves and have-nots this season, the Rangers go from 10 games against the less fortunate into a stretch against expected contenders.
The Rangers, who had the second-best record in the AL last season, play 12 games against the other four teams that comprised the AL’s top five in 2011. All four are expected contenders in 2012.
The Rangers open the stretch with two games in Boston, a place that has never been easy for them, then go to Detroit, which was a house of horrors until last year’s AL Championship Series.
Then the next homestand is comprised of three games against the New York Yankees and three more against Tampa Bay.
“Look at my knees,” manager Ron Washington said, while pushing back from his desk. “You see them shaking?”
They most certainly were not.
“It’s what is on the schedule,” Washington said. “We are not going to get scared because it’s Boston or Detroit or New York or Tampa Bay. We play all the teams.”
A year ago, the Rangers were 16-21 against that quartet. During the regular season. In the playoffs it was a different story. The Rangers went 7-3 against Tampa Bay and Detroit.
And because the league is so definitively divided between contending teams and rebuilding teams, this won’t be the last time the Rangers face a daunting stretch of opponents.
From July 20 until Aug. 16, the Rangers play 20-of-26 games against the Los Angeles Angels (seven), Boston (six), Detroit (three) and New York (four).
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MLB Team Report – Texas Rangers – NOTES, QUOTES
–OF Josh Hamilton, who hit a two home runs over the weekend, including a two-run shot in the eighth inning that proved to be the game-winner, was considered for the AL Player of the Week award that went to Josh Willingham of Minnesota. Hamilton hit .366 for the week. DH-1B Michael Young also received some consideration, according to MLB, after batting .414 with a home run and eight RBIs.
–RHP Colby Lewis faces one of his arch-nemesis on Tuesday, Adrian Gonzalez of Boston. Gonzalez is 6-for-7 with two home runs and a walk in eight plate appearances against Lewis. In three starts at Fenway Park since the beginning of 2010, when he returned from Japan, Lewis has not lasted six innings any time.
–1B Mitch Moreland is expected back with the Rangers after undergoing a root canal procedure in Dallas on Monday. Moreland has not played since Friday because of continuing pain from an abscessed tooth.
–The Rangers are expected to make a decision on Tuesday whether to move RHP Yu Darvish’s next start up a day so that they can put some room between him and RHP Neftali Feliz. If they do, Darvish would pitch Thursday in Detroit with LHP Matt Harrison pushed back to Friday. Feliz would remain on schedule to pitch Saturday. That might allow for the bullpen to be better set up to support both Darvish and Feliz if they struggle with pitch counts.
–The Rangers, one of the most aggressive teams in the AL, have not stolen many bases in the first 10 games of the season. The team has run only seven times. OF David Murphy, 3B Adrian Beltre, 2B Ian Kinsler and C Yorvit Torrealba each have one stolen base. Kinsler, who had a 30-30 season last year, also got off to a relatively slow start in 2011. He had only one steal through his first 19 games.
BY THE NUMBERS: 0 — Inherited runners allowed to score by the Rangers’ bullpen. The New York Yankees were the only other team to enter the week with a bullpen that had not allowed an inherited runner to score.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “It’s unbelievable. It’s almost like it’s too deep. We’ve got two or three guys who can close. We’ve got two or three guys who can pitch the eighth or the seventh. The guys in the bullpen feel confident in everybody who goes out there right now.” — RHP Mike Adams, on the depth of the Rangers’ bullpen, which leads the AL with a 2.03 ERA and a .245 OBP.
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MLB Team Report – Texas Rangers – ROSTER REPORT
MEDICAL WATCH:
–RHP Yoshinori Tateyama (back stiffness) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 30. He was activated from the DL on April 14 after two rehab outings for Class AAA Round Rock and was immediately optioned to the same team.
ROTATION:
RHP Colby Lewis
LHP Derek Holland
LHP Matt Harrison
RHP Yu Darvish
RHP Neftali Feliz
BULLPEN:
RHP Joe Nathan (Closer)
RHP Alexi Ogando
RHP Mike Adams
RHP Scott Feldman
LHP Robbie Ross
RHP Koji Uehara
RHP Mark Lowe
CATCHERS:
Mike Napoli
Yorvit Torrealba
INFIELDERS:
1B Mitch Moreland
2B Ian Kinsler
SS Elvis Andrus
3B Adrian Beltre
INF Brandon Snyder
INF Alberto Gonzalez
INF Michael Young
OUTFIELDERS:
LF David Murphy
CF Josh Hamilton
RF Nelson Cruz
OF Craig Gentry
