The Weakest Link, Cruzzin' (respect the pun), and "The Shankees"

After being swept by the Detroit Tigers a second time this year, and a somewhat dramatic first game win (see previous entry), the Rangers took care of Houston with relatively no setbacks. If I didn't know any better I'd think Ron Washington's done this before. He played every move perfectly, putting Blalock at third, giving Kinsler a day off, giving C.J. the save oppurtunity, letting Michael contribute in the finale, etc. The second and final game of the series was every bit as exciting as the first. Scott Feldman tossed a quality start holding Houston to 1 run until the seventh, when Geoff Blum turned on an elevated fastball to make the score 6-3 Texas. Wash then had Darren O'Day finish off the inning in relief. From that point the score would not change. C.J. Wilson rather then San Frankie pitched the ninth, Wash might not have wanted Frankie to pitch 2 nights in a row coming off an injury. Nevertheless, Wild Thing shut them down. Coming off a regrouping day on the bench Ian Kinsler, along with Josh Hamilton and Jarrod Saltalamacchia homered in the first 4 innings to give Texas an early lead. Great defense especially by Elvis Andrus and Chris Davis, helped the Rangers shut out the Astros, and win the first sweep in Lone Star Series history.

The finale of the Series put an exclamation point on the sweep. The Texas starter Brandon McCarthy is considered by some to have the minimum amount of stamina required to be a starting pitcher, and the underachiever within the rotation. Before today he was averaging not much much over 5 innings per start, not part of the Nolan Ryan master plan. Tonight things were different, despite giving up 9 hits, and striking 6 out, McCarthy threw only 124 pitches, over the 9 efficient innings he tossed. He gave up only one walk in his first Major League shutout. I'll do my best not to raise my expectations to high on McCarthy, after only one great outing, but this is the best I've seen him pitch, since 2007 when I watched him, from the leftfield bleachers, win 3-1 at Cleveland.

Nelson Cruz has factored into this series more than anyone else who took the field. After his descisive homerun in the opener. He had 2 homeruns supplying all the runs we would need in game 2, carrying us to another win. He was quieter in the finale but went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Altogether he carried the ofense this whole series, and were it not for him we might've lost the series. He is finally able to be a full time Major Leaguer, just wait 'til he can hit the outside pitch.

And finally, up next we're playing a baseball team that needs (and gets) no introduction. They are one of my least favorite teams, as well one of the hottest teams in baseball, but they did lose a game today, despite making another late inning comeback. It is for that reason that their newest negative reference name is the New York Shankees. Also my mom thinks that the Ranger infielders particularly (Elvis Andrus) deliberately throw the ball short to first only in the interest of getting another chance to watch Chris Davis make a spectacular stretch, split, and scoop. Personally, I think Davis is just practicing to show Teixeira how it's done.