MVN - Most Valuable Network

Quality Defense, Pitching Spark Rangers To 5-2 Win

Just nineteen days ago, the rapidly fading season of the utterly hapless Texas Rangers - who were coming fresh off a disastrous 2-7 road trip that had sent their 2008 record plummeting to 7-16, burying them a full seven games behind the first-place Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - appeared to be beyond saving.

So, too, did Ron Washington’s job. In fact, if we are to take Kevin Sherrington’s Tuesday column in the Dallas Morning News as gospel, at least two high-ranking members of the Rangers’ organizational hierarchy were fully prepared to cut ties with the first-time manager after that unforgettably horrific seven-game skid.

I believe most of us have a pretty fair idea whom Sherrington is referring to.

We may never know just how close Ron came to losing his job - or, for that matter, just how close the Rangers came to employing a highly controversial contingency plan that would have allegedly prompted the appointment of one of Don Baylor, Mike Hargrove, Jim Tracy or Jackie Moore as Washington’s successor.

But you know what? That’s just fine by me.

Because the Texas Rangers, as unbelievable as the notion may sound, now rest on the cusp of the .500 threshold. They’ll go into Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against the Seattle Mariners armed with the opportunity to again reach it for the first time since April 11th, when the club was still 5-5, spring optimism still reigned supreme and the ceiling hadn’t yet caved in.

And no matter which way you bend it, that’s a far more palatable outcome to savor than if the Rangers had continued their downward slide into irrelevance and had consequently been placed under the command of a new field lieutenant (something more than a few vocal fans continue to openly clamor for), but had no chance of possibly rebounding to salvage the season.

Save for Josh Rupe’s unnecessary sixth-inning mound misadventures that helped the Mariners knot the game at two runs apiece after starter Kason Gabbard was forced to depart early due to an 85-pitch limit, the Rangers’ pitching was positively fantastic through the first eight innings of Tuesday evening’s contest, yielding just a pair of runs on seven hits and three walks.

The defense was even better. Between Ian Kinsler’s remarkable fifth-inning diving stop and bullet throw to nip the speedy Ichiro Suzuki at first base, David Murphy’s seventh-inning lunging catch to deny Miguel Cairo of a cheap bloop single, and Josh Hamilton’s extraordinary eighth-inning leaping grab at the top of the center field wall to rob Kenji Johjima of a potential game-tying extra-base hit, the Rangers produced an entire week’s worth of defensive highlights in one night.

And the lineup, despite being minus Milton Bradley’s intimidating offensive presence, methodically scrapped out five runs on just seven hits, thanks in large part to some timely defensive blunders on the part of a poor Mariners defensive unit that ranks near the bottom of the league in several vital statistical categories. Catcher Gerald Laird wound up reaching base three times courtesy of two hits and a walk, going on to score all three times.

With closer C.J. Wilson unavailable after having tossed 75 pitches in three appearances over the last four days, veteran southpaw Eddie Guardado assumed spot closing duties - and, in the process, perhaps not so gently reminded everybody that he’s not quite finished yet. Guardado may not have topped 88 MPH on the radar gun once, but he required just nine pitches (all nine of which were strikes) to nail down his first save since August 12th, 2006.

Quality, fundamentally sound baseball is so much fun to watch. It’s even more fun when you’re still in contention, as the Rangers now are (albeit somewhat marginally) in looming just four games behind the first-place Angels.

Recall that Josh Hamilton’s Monday evening moonshot against left-hander Erik Bedard, which carried beyond the right-center field bleachers at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and bounced onto the concourse towards the center field office building, traveled an announced 447 feet.

Now, take this under consideration: according to the fantastic Hit Tracker Online, which specializes in unbiased measurement of the almighty home run, Hamilton’s mammoth blast would have traveled an estimated 467 feet if the ball’s flight had “continued uninterrupted all the way down to field level.” That’s the second-longest “true distance” home run of the 2008 season.

Going into Tuesday, the Rangers possessed the second-highest batting average (.268), on-base percentage (.346), slugging percentage (.432), pitches seen per plate appearance (3.91) and EqA (.279) totals in the American League. That’s despite leading the league in sacrifice hits (16).

Their lone significant Achilles’ heel? A batting average with runners in scoring position (.238) that was third-worst in the Junior Circuit, ahead of, ironically, only Seattle (.237) and Toronto (.209). And after beginning the season with five victories in six contests against Texas, the Mariners and Blue Jays have now collectively won just one game in their last eight bouts with the Rangers.

Revenge is sweet. Winning is sweeter.

FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal intimates that top shortstop prospect Elvis Andrus (currently hitting .271/.327/.313 in 144 AB at Double-A Frisco) could force big league incumbent Michael Young to second or third base as early as next spring, with Hank Blalock either being shifted to first base or dealt in the coming months, or Ian Kinsler being moved to a corner outfield spot (most probably left field) to accommodate the positional transition.

Rosenthal, additionally, quotes an unnamed scout who has witnessed Andrus in action:

“Nothing will intimidate him,” the scout says. “He has a great amount of confidence. He would approach it the same way at the big-league level as he would at Double A or Triple A.

“Of course, you’ll see better arms and better stuff in the big leagues. But he has always had good strike-zone command and good pitch recognition. It will serve him well, probably even better at the major-league level. The strike zone is tighter. And the pitchers, to some degree, are more predictable than they are at Double A.”

Realistically speaking, I don’t foresee such a dramatic infield upheaval taking place until late 2009 or early 2010. As amped as we all are about Andrus’s otherworldly defensive capabilities, his highly projectable 19-year-old frame has yet to completely fill out, and aggressively promoting a player whose offense has only partially developed - thereby setting his service time and options clocks into motion prematurely - doesn’t benefit anybody.

Make no mistake about it, Young will be moved from his current stead at some point in the not so distant future. But I’ll be absolutely floored if it happens within the next 12 months.

Class-A Clinton right-hander Neftali Feliz (5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K), High-A Bakersfield flamethrower Kasey Kiker (7 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K) and Double-A southpaw Matt Harrison (5.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) combined to throw 17.2 innings of three-run baseball on Tuesday, collectively surrendering just nine hits and three walks while notching 12 strikeouts.

Awesome.

Back on the evening of April 25th, I submitted the following just minutes after it seemed that Ron Washington had possibly managed his final game in a Rangers uniform:

It’s going to take more than one fantastic late-inning finish to keep the flame fueling the Ron Washington era lit.

Indeed, it has. Funny what an wholly unforeseen 13-5 run in the standings can do to reverse fan, clubhouse and organizational sentiment.

Quick Hits: With Tuesday evening’s 5-2 victory, Texas clinched their sixth consecutive series win; they haven’t accomplished that feat since 1999, which marked the last time the Rangers claimed a division title…third baseman Hank Blalock (partially torn left hamstring), outfielder Marlon Byrd (left knee inflammation) and designated hitter Milton Bradley (strained right shoulder) could all return to the Rangers’ lineup in time for Friday’s “Lone Star Series” opener against the state-rival Houston Astros.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 1:21 am and is filed under The Season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.