The Texas Rangers Gift to the American League

Adrian Beltre is one of the few Rangers who can still intimidate the opposition

Texas is a big, brash, bold, braggadocios state. Apparently they are benevolent now as well. At least when it comes to the American League wild card race.

The Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays began a series Monday evening in Florida.  The two teams entered play tied for the two wild card positions. However, the two are headed in two different directions. The Rays have won four of five after they took the first game of the series 6-2. Texas has dropped seven straight and 10 of 11.

The Rangers represented the American League in the World Series in 2010 and 2011, and made it to the wild card game last year, where they lost to the Baltimore Orioles. Texas got off to a good start in 2013 and led the AL West by seven games after 41 contests. Since then the Rangers have been a .500 team over their last 108 games (54-54). and entered Monday's play 6.5 games behind the first place Oakland A's.

Texas' poor play has enabled the Yankees, KC Royals, Orioles, and Cleveland Indians to all remain in the hunt for a wild card spot. There have been a number of reasons for the Rangers' demise. Injuries - Matt Harrison was lost for the year after just two starts, endured two back surgeries within nine days of each other in May and recently underwent surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. (Debilitating compression is relieved through removal of a rib and surrounding tissue.) The left-hander won 18 games in 2012.

Colby Lewis missed the entire season after undergoing elbow surgery in July, 2012. Then last month he had a hip resurfacing procedure to avoid complete hip replacement. Neftali Feliz was recently activated after he completed rehab from last season's Tommy John surgery. He's still not at full strength and has to be used cautiously. Swing man Alexi Ogando has been on the disabled list three times with shoulder inflammation and bicep tendinitis. #2 starter Derek Holland is healthy as far as anyone can tell, but has been awful in September with three losses and an ERA above 8.

Inept offense - The lineuptook a big hit when Josh Hamilton left for LA as a free agent after last season's 43 home runs and 128 RBI. He's struggled mightily with the Angels (.734 OPS, 20 HR, 68 RBI), but those numbers may have been different had he stayed in Arlington. Free agent acquisition Lance Berkman has played just 71 games due to injuries.

Nelson Cruz had 27 HR and 76 RBI when he was suspended for the remainder of the season for violation of the league's substance abuse policy.  Though he has 40 stolen bases, Elvis Andrus took a step back offensively (.652 OPS). Ian Kinsler started the year like a house afire - .919 OPS 5 HR 16 RBI in April - but he's hit just .256 since then with 6 HR and has been caught eight times in 19 stolen base attempts.

The Rangers were also counting on rookie Jurickson Profar to make a major contribution, but the top prospect has only produced a slash line .237/.310/.330 and has been thrown out on four of six stolen base attempts.

The combination of all the above have spelled disaster for Texas and it will come as no shock if the Rangers continue to slide right out of a playoff spot and into an early vacation.

Yankees Live to Fight Another Day

CC Sabathia wasn't as sharp as he is capable of being, but he was a lot sharper than he was in game 1 of the ALCS. The Yankees gave him run support just as they did in the series opener and forced a game 6 with a 7-2 win over the Texas Rangers this afternoon.

Unlike the earlier games in the series the Yankees came up with some big hits when they needed them. They also got some help from some sloppy Texas play and C.J. Wilson who wasn't nearly as good as he was in game 1.

Sabathia gave up three hits in the first two innings, but with the help of a double play, the game was scoreless in the bottom of the 2nd inning. That's when Wilson's troubles began. He walked the lead off man Alex Rodriguez and one batter later issued a free pass to Lance Berkman. Jorge Posada singled through the right side to plate Rodriguez, who went in standing just ahead of catcher Matt Treanor's tag.

Curtis Granderson then dropped one in front of Jeff Francoeur in right to score Berkman and Posada followed when Francoeur's throw ricocheted off the outstretched glove of third baseman Michael Young. Wilson backed up the play and had a shot at Posada at the plate, but threw over the head of Treanor for a 3-0 Yankees lead.

The Yankees brought out the big guns an inning later; Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano hit back to back home runs for a comfortable 5-0 lead. It was Cano's fourth home run of the series, tying him with Hamilton for the LCS high.

Sabathia bent, but never broke. He gave up a solo home run to Treanor in the 5th and ran into trouble in the 6th when he gave up three straight singles. But after Treanor's ground out produced a second run, Sabathia froze Mitch Moreland with a strike three breaking pitch to end the inning.

The Yankees got one of the runs back on a sac fly by Berkman in the 5th and added another in the 8th on a Granderson solo home run.

Joe Girardi, highly criticized here earlier today, didn't have to make too many decisions in this one. The lineup worked out for the most part, he had his ace on the mound and then he went to a Kerry Wood-Mariano Rivera duo for the 7th through 9th innings. It was just a matter of determining who would get how many outs.

As it turned out Woods was the two inning man, pitching a very effective 7th and 8th innings. His work included picking Elvis Andrus off of second base to quash any possible rally in the 7th inning. Rivera, working for the first time since game 1, allowed a two out single to Moreland, but retired Andrus on a foul out to earn his second save of the series.

On to Texas for a Phil Hughes-Colby Lewis rematch on Friday night.

Notes

As expected, Mark Teixeira was removed from the roster with a badly strained hamstring. Infielder Eduardo Nunez took his place. Should the Yankees advance to the World Series, Teixeira would not be eligible to play even if he miraculously recovered.

The Yankees nearly lost another first baseman when Berkman slipped on the warning track chasing a foul ball. His feet went out from under and he slammed down hard on the firm surface. He got the wind knocked out of him and stayed down for several minutes. Though he's sure to be sore on Thursday he was able to continue for the rest of the game...with a better pair of shoes.

Fired Up Yankees Crush Rangers

Don’t Mess with Tex

June 3rd, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

Filed Under: Yankees

Tags: a.j. burnett • Derek Holland • Elvis Andrus • errorless streak ends • hideki matsui • Jorge Posada • Mark Teixiera • Nelson Cruz • Vincenet Padilla • Yankees 6/2 recap • Yankees vs. Rangers

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Texas	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0		3	8	0
NY Yankees	0	2	0	7	0	3	0	0	X		12	13	1

WP - Burnett (4-2) LP - Padilla (3-3)

The Yankees were playing a relatively flat game last night against the Texas Rangers last night and weren’t having much success off Rangers’ starter Vincent Padilla. Then with two men aboard in the 4th and the game tied 3-3, Padilla hit Mark Teixiera for the second time in the game.

An angry Teixeira, yelled some choice expletives at Padilla and implored him to throw the ball over the plate. With the bases loaded and one out, the next batter, Alex Rodriguez, hit a potential double play grounder to second baseman Ian Kinsler. Kinsler flipped to shortstop Elvis Andrus, but a fired up Teixeira took him out with a good hard, clean slide. Andrus couldn’t get enough on his throw to first base to complete the double play, enabling Derek Jeter to score the go ahead run and the 1,500th run of his major league career. The Yankees then stepped on the Rangers’ necks and won a 12-3 laugher in the first of the three game series.

A.J. Burnett battled his way through seven innings to earn his second straight victory and his fourth of the season. Staked to a 2-0 lead, he gave up a mammoth 3-run home to Nelson Cruz in the 3rd inning to put Texas ahead. But after the Yankees took the lead back, he settled down and limited the Rangers to two base hits over his final three innings. He also backed up his teammates by knocking down Cruz with a pitch up and in. Teixeira appreciated Burnett’s actions and was still fuming about Padilla after the game.

“There’s really no reason for it in baseball. You know, if you can’t get a guy out, don’t hit him. You know, if you don’t want to pitch to a guy, then, you know, put four fingers out there and walk him,” Teixeira said. “And, unfortunately, when I was a teammate, it happened a lot where he would hit guys, and the 3-4 hitters, those are the guys that got hit for retaliation, and I got hit plenty of times.”

Courtesy of Assoicated Press

Padilla faced only one hitter, Robinson Cano, after Teixiera’s take out, and allowed an RBI single. Derek Holland was greeted just as rudely by Jorge Posada with an RBI single of his own and Hideki Matsui broke the game open with a 3-run home run. Posada would later put an exclamation point on the evening with a 3-run home run into the upper deck in right in the 6th.

Game Notes

The Yankees errorless streak ended at 18 games when Andrus attempted to steal second base and Jorge Posada’s throw sailed high over the glove of Robinson Cano and into center field.

It was another memorable night in the career of Derek Jeter. The 1,500th run made him just the fourth player, along with Honus Wagner, Bill Dahlen, and Cal Ripken, to accomplish the feat while playing 1,500 games at shortstop. Jeter extended his hitting streak to 16 games and his 3-hit game was the seventh straight multi-hit game during the streak, matching his career high.

Mark Teixeira’s hittting streak came to an end at 15 games.

Andy Pettitte’s (5-1, 4.10) back feels good so he’ll make his scheduled start tonight against the Rangers Scott Feldman (4-0, 3.91). Game time is 7:05 p.m. ET.

AL '09 Rookie Preview - AL West

It's hump day, which means it's the first Spring Training game for the Yankees. Unfortunately it's neither on radio nor TV (not sure about MLBTV). It also means we continue our look at the American League rookie of the year candidates, this time focusing on the AL West.

Angels

Another team filled with the veterans, the Angels don't have too many openings on their roster. But they have been a team that isn't afraid to give a youngster a chance (just look at how they turned K-Rod loose on the AL).

Kendry Morales and Brandon Wood no longer have rookie status, but have a shot to win the corner infield spots. The number 5 spot in the rotation is the only area that a rookie has a real shot of staking a claim to. Nick Adenhart was up for a cup of coffee last season and looked over matched, but he'll get a chance this spring to be in the rotation. He struggled at Triple-A as well in '08, but put up solid numbers in the past, and at just 22 years of age, is still considered a prized prospect.

Athletics

The team traded away outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, first baseman Daric Barton is injured at the moment, brought in veterans Jason Giambi and Matt Holliday, and although Billy Beane will always play kids, there are just no openings in the lineup this season.

That could change though if a starting pitcher struggles, and left-hander Brett Anderson (ranked as the 7th best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America) continues to emerge. For now, Anderson will start the season at Triple-A Sacramento after going 11-5 last season with 118 strikeouts in 105 innings pitched.

Rangers

Texas moved Michael Young to third base in order to give the starting shortstop job to Elvis Andrus. The 20-yr old has been in the organization since he was 16 years old and has never played above Double-A. But the numbers he put up in 118 games - .295 average, 65 RBI, and 53 steals - for the Frisco Rough Riders, caught the organization's attention. They also brought in veteran Omar Vizquel to tutor him.

Andrus will have a legitimate shot to win the AL Rookie of the Year. He won't be alone though. With the departure of Gerald Laird, Taylor Teagarden will battle Jarrod Saltalamacchia for the starting catching position.

Teagarden wow the Rangers front office last season, when he hit 6 home runs and drove in 17 runs in just 47 at-bats. (Can you imagine if Teagarden, Saltalamacchia, Chris Davis, and Nelson Cruz all lived up to their power potential?).

Mariners

The Mariners are another team loaded with veterans (and looking very mediocre). They're also a team that doesn't have any rookies ready to step in to a starting position on the near horizon.


Ranking the AL Central ROY Prospects

1. Elvis Andrus
2. Taylor Teagarden
3. Brett Anderson
4. Nick Adenhart

Michael Young will NOT Replace Robinson Cano

Okay, those of you throwing that crazy idea out there of trading for Michael Young and playing him at second base, can stop now. Young has agreed to play third base for the Rangers and has retracted his request to be traded.

Some Yankees fans, those who need an all-star at every position, were hoping the Yankees would deal for Young, enabling them to either move Cano to center field or trade him for pitching or a star center fielder.

Elvis is in the building - Young's spot at shortstop will be taken by 20-yr old rookie Elvis Andrus, who was acquired in 2007 as part of the Mark Teixeira deal with the Braves. He hit .295 last season at Double-A Frisco, with a .350 on-base percentage, and 54 stolen bases, and is considered a stellar defender. He also got a glimpse of Yankee Stadium in it's final season as a participant in the Futures game.

Young know his transition will be tough, but knows it will be even tougher for the rookie.

"Elvis is a good kid," Young said. "There were a couple of things about this that were tough. One is, the fans shouldn't have to choose between the club and a player. We're all working for the same thing. That's the last thing I wanted to happen.

"It's also tough for Elvis. He's a good kid. I met him last year in Spring Training and really like him. I want to be there for him and do everything I can to help him.