Still Best in the West

Interesting little stretch that the Rangers are going through right now.

After being swept by the Tigers, the Rangers went on the road and swept the Astros.

Some things of note about that series.

Kid Miracle (Derek Holland) got his first major league start against the Astros in the first game of the series. He really was excellent for 5 and two thirds, but he just had a problem with the next three hitters. Two fluky singles and then he left on hanging to Berkman.

Should have been a shoutout, but instead it was a 3 run day. Rangers were up 5-0 before the three run homer and the bullpen gave it up. Ended out having to finish it in extra innings thanks to Nelly Cruz's solo shot to right field.

Really wish Holland would have gotten the victory, but I like what he showed. He had a really nice fastball and his changeup was nice. He desperately needs a strong third pitch though. More on that later.

Frankie came back for that same game and got the save.

Scott Feldman put his 2-0 record up against the Astros in a Saturday game the next day. A very odd start to that game when Miggy Tejada was credited with a home run that didn't appear to be a home run. It looked to bounce off the top of the wall, but even after review was ruled a homer.

Feldman was good though. Again. He ended out dropping his ERA 4.04 after going 6.2 innings allowing just three runs. The second victory of the sweep brought his record to 3-0.

Nelly Cruz continued swinging the bat well that game going 2-4 with 4 RBI and 2 home runs.

And big hand for B-Mac! Brandon McCarthy with the first complete game of his career, scattering nine hits and allowing no runs. McCarthy looks MUCH better in his last few starts than he ever has as a Texas Ranger. Struck out 6 and thankfully only walked 1.

Big sweep and then the Yankees. Lost two out of three.

The first game I was in attendance for all of 4 innings. It was an ugly 6-0 game at that point, the Rangers couldn't hit anything, and it was hot. Really hot. I left early.

Matt Harrison got shelled and the Ranger bats could do nothing. Nelly Cruz hit a 9th inning homer (Continuing his hot streak) to end the shutout, but 11-1 is bad. Bleh.

With as good as New York is playing, I was happy to even get 1, which was Tuesday night's game. Kevin Millwood was on the hill and had his shortest outing of the year.

He had been hit in the finger with a baseball in the second (I think) inning of the game. I wonder if that messed with him at all. 5.2 innings, 9 hits, 4 walks, 3 runs.

He left in a 3-3 game and the Rangers went on to score 4 unanswered. Big 7-3 win for the Rangers. Frankie Francisco came in the game in the ninth, another scoreless outing. That's 29 consecutive innings without allowing a run. Simply amazing.

And me being the jinx that I am, I went to Wednesday night's game. Rangers lose 9-2.

Two cool things coming out of the evening.

1) I met Larry Brown, former Cowboys corner, in left field. I shook his hand, told him thank you for Super Bowl 30 and got him to sign some stuff. Best part of a rather lame evening.

2) I mentioned a little bit ago that Holland was working on another pitch. It's a curve. I had heard he was trying it out, but I didn't expect to see it in game.

Sure enough, there he was throwing it. Small sample size, as he only threw it three times that I could tell, but the first two times I saw it, it had one hell of a break to it. I mean a really, nasty, sharp cut. Looked like a 12-6 curve, but I was in the bleachers. Either way, I'm really hoping Maddux helps him out with it, because it looked to have real potential.

Two other quick notes in this very fast edition of the blog (Not much time, just wanted to update since it had been a couple days)

Feliz pitched in OKC again on Tuesday. Not a great outing. 3.2 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. Obvious control issues. Neftali needs to work on that.

The other note is a quick, but thoroughly interesting one.

The Rangers appear to be poised to sign a latin ball player by the name of Guillermo Pimentel.

Per Lone Star Ball...

Pimentel's tools had some international scouts giddy... He has a smooth stroke from the left side with plenty of leverage and enough raw power to launch balls over the wall... From looking at the video, you may see a resemblance in hitting mechanics to a young Barry Bonds. Again, we're talking tools and profile, not overall projection, but given the position, height, and skill set, that isn't a bad parallel to draw...

Young Barry Bonds? Exciting comparison.

Talk to you later, Dallas sports fans!

Rangers Limp Out of Detroit

Just some quick thoughts for today.

Rangers were swept in Detroit and now move on to Houston.

Disappointing series, especially yesterday when Millwood was simply left in the game too long and Michael Young wasn't able to come up with the ninth inning RBI with a man on third. 4-3 loss and a hard one to swallow.

More bad news on the injury front...Vicente Padilla, who's pitching really well right now, is headed to the DL. One interesting thing to come from this, is that Derek Holland will be getting his first start in his young career. Kid Miracle will debut in a big hitters park...just missed Detroit's roomy 26,341 foot outfield.

I'll be extremely interested to see what he can do.

Also, some other notes...

Neftali Feliz went 6 innings for OKC and gave up 1 run while striking out 4. Not a bad outing for Feliz...we may see him soon.

Angels took two out of three from Seattle and now close the gap between themselves and the Rangers to 2 games.

Jake Peavy is on the trade block and while he wants to stay in the National League, I think Texas has to at least place a phone call. Remember me mentioning a possible trade involving Kris Davis? This may be the deal that you can justify moving Davis out of town and bringing Smoak up to the Majors.

That's all for today. I'll update you Monday...possibly sometime over the weekend.

Update on the FIRST PLACE Texas Rangers

OK, dear reader, let's get caught up on the Rangers.



Sunday afternoon was a nice day for Rangers pitchers. Scott Feldman turned out another excellent pitching performance on Sunday when he went 6 innings, allowing 4 hits, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts and a big goose egg on the scoreboard.

Unfortunately for Scott Feldman, the Rangers offense had similar numbers through 6 to the ones that he allowed. 7th inning, with Jennings in for Feldman, the Rangers finally got on the scoreboard with a sac fly from David Murphy off the nearly unhittable Jered Weaver.

With Jennings, Guardado, and O'Day keeping thing quiet on the pitching side, the Rangers were able to tack on a couple more runs with RBI doubles from Kinsler and Byrd.

SWEEP! The Rangers swept the Angels and moved a full 4½ games ahead of LA.

One disappointing note from the game is that Josh Hamilton injured his groin on a superb, run-saving, wall-climbing grab in Right-Center. He finished the inning, but would come out after that. Not considered too serious, but the Rangers aren't completely sure when he'll be back for good.

Following the sweep, the Rangers had a day off and then it was time to take on the Tigers in Detroit. Site of a lot of Rangers trouble in recent history. That most recent of history was early April when the Rangers were swept out of Comerica.

Tuesday wasn't exactly a great showing either.

After Michael Young hit a two-out first inning double, the Rangers' bats fell silent. They didn't even manage to get a hit for the rest of the game. From the second inning on, Dontrelle Willis, Brandon Lyon, Bobby Seay, Joel Zumaya, and Fernando Rodney combined for a no-hitter. Wasted in all of this was Brandon McCarthy's best effort of the season. 7 innings, 4 runs allowed. That's where the score would end up. 4-3 Detroit.

Looking to bounce back and find some luck in Detroit, the Rangers led by Matt Harrison faced off against Tigers' ace Justin Verlander.

Not much success once more.

Despite a triple play turned by Kinsler and Andrus, and Harrison pitching solidly, the Rangers still trailed 1-0 heading into the 5th. In fact, through 4, Verlander has a perfect game.

After scratching together something that sort of resembled an offensive output, the Rangers tied it up at 1.

That wasn't enough though. One inning later, the Rangers allowed two home runs and 4 runs to fall behind 4 with 3 innings to play. That is not a position the Rangers want to be in when playing at a pitchers park like Comerica and a team they've struggled against like Detroit.

Texas would try their hardest in spite of that.

Heading into the 8th, the Rangers trailed by 3, thanks to a 7th inning homer from Nelson Cruz. Murphy, Young, and Blalock all three reached to start the 8th. Bases loaded, no one out, Byrd, Cruz, and Davis coming up. Perfect setup, eh? Nope.

After Byrd grounded into a fielder's choice (Blalock out at second, Murphy scoring) Cruz and Davis struck out. There is no excuse for scoring just one run when you load the bases with nobody out.

The 9th inning would see similar failures, going 1-2-3 and losing the game 5-3. The second out of that ninth inning was a pinch hit appearance by Josh Hamilton. Popped out to shallow right-center. It's good that he showed up, bad that the Rangers let a couple of opportunities slip away.

The Rangers need to get Francisco and Hamilton back and get over this mental hurdle they have in Detroit.

Additionally, as a random note, I was discussing the possibility of some moves by the Rangers with another user on Twitter the other day. With Justin Smoak coming up fast through the minors and Chris Davis struggling at the plate as much as he is with his boom or bust style hitting, don't you have to consider moving Chris Davis for some pitching?

Texas could really use a dominant bullpen arm. Middle reliever. Or, just a reliable number 3 starter. I'd be willing to part with Davis for such a pitcher. Something to think about.

Millwood is on the hill this afternoon at 12:05 and the Rangers look to avoid the sweep and end their 10 game losing streak in Detroit. Angels loom 3 games back.

And the Hits Just Keep on Coming

The "Hello Win Column!" sign that flashes after every Rangers home win is becoming a regular occurrence in Arlington.

Rangers headed into Friday night with a 1½ game lead over the Angels, perennial contenders in the AL West.

It seemed like another breeze victory for the Rangers. Kinsler had homered twice, Andruw Jones had pounded a two run home run, and while the Angels were churning out hits, they weren't able to capitalize against Millwood and Holland for the most part. When the Rangers came up to bat in the bottom of the 8th, their 8-3 lead seemed like a sure victory. But Josh Hamilton decided to make sure they won the game when he absolutely crushed a pitch into the upper deck in right field. 468 feet, the second longest home run in the 15 year history of the ballpark. It was a two run shot and the Rangers led 10-3.

Holland came back for his third inning of work and got Kendrick to ground out and Quinlan to fly out. 2 outs, 7 run lead, no problem, right? Wrong. Oh so wrong.

Something odd happened in that ninth inning. Figgins, facing 2 outs and 2 strikes, singled. Erick Aybar, facing the game's final strike, doubled and moved Figgins to third. Abreu came up, and like the previous two hitters, faced the final strike of the game and was able to double them both home. 10-5, Abreu at second.

Holland walked the next batter on 5 pitches. In came Darren O'Day. O'Day faced Kendry Morales and left a 1-1 pitch hanging. Morales blasted the ball to center field and cut the lead to 10-8. Uh-oh.

For the fourth time in the inning, an Angels hitter faced the final strike of the game, but Mike Napoli was able to get a single off of O'Day.

In comes CJ Wilson. Yikes. The game is really over now, and not in a good way.

Wilson walked Juan Rivera. Really!? It was 10-3, 2 outs, 2 strikes on Chone Figgins, and now the go-ahead run in Howie Kendrick was coming up. The Rangers escape though when Ian Kinsler made a nice backhanded scoop and pitched for the force out to Andrus on second, ending the game, 10-8.

This was not a happy win though. The team seemed very subdued when it was done and very disappointed. They should be. Josh Hamilton's batting practice home run in the 8th inning was supposed to be something to marvel at for fun...not supposed to be the game winning hit.

Rangers win, but it may have been the least enthusiastic win the team has ever gotten. They know they almost blew it and maybe should have blown it the way they played in the 9th.

Would it mess with their heads on Saturday when they'd be featured on national television?

This game was odd. Both teams scored a run in the first inning, and yet neither team had a hit. John Lackey, back pitching for the first time all season, was tossed after two pitches. He threw behind Kinsler with the first pitch and drilled him in the ribs with the second pitch. It's obvious what Lackey was doing, he was just hoping that the umpire would not toss him out and buy the excuse that he hadn't pitched in forever and thus didn't have proper control over his pitches. Yeah right.

Padilla actually struggled for a lot of the day, but he toughed through it. He went 8 innings today, allowing three runs and 10 hits. He also walked 3. Not great stuff, but gutsy stuff for sure.

And the Rangers played small ball for the afternoon. They had 5 runs on 8 hits and 4 walks, but only one of those hits went for extra bases and that was a double in the 8th by Nelly Cruz that didn't knock in a run or lead to a run being scored.

All of their runs today were off of singles and sac fly's.

Rangers led 5-3 going into the 9th and CJ Wilson was brought in to close it out. He did, thank goodness.

Rangers win! That's 6 in a row now! 13-6 at home, 3½ ahead of the Angels, 5½ ahead of the Mariners and a full 7½ ahead of the A's. WOW! If the Rangers are able to get the sweep tomorrow night, that would put them in complete control of the division very early in the season.

An exciting time to be a Rangers fan. Also a bit of a depressing time as news comes out that Frankie Francisco is going on the DL. The move is retroactive to the 7th of May, so he'll be off the DL on May 22nd.

All reports say it shouldn't be too big a deal and he should be ready on the 22nd.

Jered Weaver against Scott Feldman at 1:05 on Sunday. The Rangers go for their first sweep of the Angels since September 2007.

Mavs Season Ends, Rangers Sweep Mariners

Well, you could see it coming. After using so much of their energy on Monday and dealing with the crushing defeat of Saturday, you just had to no there wasn't much left in the tank.



Dallas really didn't play an awful game. They had some defensive issues, but mostly, this was just Denver taking it to the Mavericks. They were down for most of the game by 8-12 points. Never really more than that, never really less than that.

Dallas would make a 3, then Denver would make a shot and hit the free throw that would follow the whistle. Dallas would hit a nice 18 foot jumper, Melo would hit a fall-a-way jumper with the shot clock buzzing.

Too much Melo. Too much of that punk JR Smith. Too much Chauncey Billups.

It wasn't for lack of trying on Dallas' end. Jason Kidd caught fire from 3 in the third quarter knocking down 3 in the span of 3 or 4 minutes. But even in that, Dallas couldn't get the defecit down to anything smaller than 7.

Dirk also toughed things out again with 32 points and 10 rebounds. Sad that his Herculean effort over these 5 games was wasted. People should recognize just how unbelievable a series he had.

34.4 points per game, 11.6 rebounds, 4 assists, a block a game, 53.4 percent shooting and 91.9 percent from the free throw line. If those numbers were put up in a 7 game series in the Western Conference Finals, Dirk would be labeled a playoff monster. He is one, but can't fully be recognized as such considering they lost in 5 games in the semi-finals.

Time for the off season now. You will undoubtedly hear the names Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Bosh and Chris Paul a LOT this off season. Mavericks are rumored to be interested in all 3. Shouldn't be a dull moment this summer.

Also, Dallas has a first round draft pick again. Their first since the 2006 draft. Hopefully that will result in getting a nice, athletic, 3pt artist shooting guard.

I'll have some off season thoughts and possibilities in the coming weeks. Until then, cheer like crazy for the Rockets to take out the Lakers and Thuggets.

Now on to the red hot Texas Rangers.



Starting out we had Thursday's return of both Josh Hamilton and Michael Young.

Started out as a tough pitcher's duel. Going into the bottom of the 7th, it was 1-1. Feldman had really done a good job in his 6 and a third innings of pitching. I'm really becoming impressed with Feldman. This is 3 really strong outings in a row.

This good pitching thing is becoming quite the nasty habit for our Rangers, isn't it?

Well, after almost no offense, the Rangers exploded in the 7th inning when Mariners reliever Mark Lowe came on. With one out, following a Michael Young single, Josh Hamilton was back. An opposite field fly ball JUST snuck over the left field scoreboard. 3-1 lead. Hamilton received high fives all around. But the Rangers weren't done.

After Andruw Jones and Marlon Byrd reached, the Rangers scored on 4 consecutive at-bats.

A Cruz sac fly, Davis reaching on an error, Salty double to right and an Andrus single had the Rangers rolling, up 7-1.

That's the way it would stay thanks to the once more solid work of the bullpen. Holland went an inning and two thirds and Guardado closed out the game in the ninth. Neither Holland or Eddie allowed a baserunner.

More good news came later in the evening when the Angels lost to Boston, allowing Texas to extend their division lead to a game and a half over the Angels.

Wednesday night it was Brandon McCarthy on the hill. He's really the only Rangers starter who has yet to find a groove. McCarthy put them in a hole early when he gave up a solo home run to Adrian Beltre in the second inning.

It got worse from there as the Ranger bats were unable to awaken against Jarrod Washburn through 3 innings. In the 4th, B-Mac allowed a two run shot to Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima. 3-0 headed to the bottom half of the 4th.

Texas got one of them back when Kris Davis singled home Josh Hamilton. Unfortunately, Texas left the bases loaded and still trailed 3-1.

Hamilton continued his come back in the 5th inning when he hit a game tying two run shot to the second deck in right. Josh Hamilton for the second night in a row was responsible for the very important second and third runs.

Enter Brandon McCarthy. He ONCE AGAIN allowed a home run. A solo shot to Russell Branyan the very inning after Hamilton had tied it up. 4-3 Seattle.

But if there's anything we've learned about this Rangers team, it's that they refuse to give up. After Marlon Byrd led off the inning with a single, Davis and Salty struck out back to back and left it up to Elvis Andrus. Andrus has been playing far and away his best baseball, offensively and defensively, in the last week or so. He kept it up with a two out triple to right-center, scoring Byrd and tying the game up. It's Andrus' third triple of the season.

McCarthy got through the 7th without any more damage. His first 7 inning outing since being acquired in the awful deal that sent John Danks to Chicago.

It would stay 4-4 all the way through the 9th and into extra innings. CJ Wilson was brought in to pitch the 10th inning. Yay? I think Texas fans are just about tired of watching Wilson blow game after game...I know I am.

Well, he did nothing to change that Wednesday as he ended out allowing a 1 out RBI double to Wladimir Balentien. That's all he'd give up, but it still led to a 5-4 Mariners lead heading into the bottom of the 11th.

Brandon Morrow came on in the 11th. He's the last kind of pitcher you want to see late in a ball game when you're fatigued. Morrow consistently throws 98-99 mph and can sometimes touch 100 on the radar gun.

No problem for Michael Young as he snuck a single into right field. Josh Hamilton followed by drawing a walk on an at-bat that seemed to last about 30 minutes.

After an Andruw Jones fly out, Hank Blalock came up and whacked a fastball into deep right-center. It fell and Hamilton and Young came home. Rangers win!

Then we come to Thursday. An afternoon for the Rangers, and a nice crowd considering it was a middle of the week day game. 21,000 turned out. I guess word is getting out that this Texas Rangers team is pretty good.

Felix Hernandez, aka King Felix, was on the mound for Seattle. Matt Harrison and his 19 consecutive scoreless innings were on the hill for Texas. It was a pitcher's duel as you would expect.

Harrison's scoreless streak ended at 22 and two thirds as he allowed a 1 out RBI groundout to Branyan. It was followed by an RBI double from Balentien.

He would escape any more trouble, but trailing 2-0.

It would stay that way until the 9th inning. Morrow was called on again, and again Hank Blalock burned him. Hammer tattooed a fastball to the upper deck in right field cutting the lead to 2-1.

After Nelson Cruz popped out, David Murphy was able to overcome his hitting woes and double to right. Next up was Kris Davis. Davis, in the clutch, delivered. He smoke a ball to the bleachers in right-center and got the walk off win, 3-2.

Thanks to that home run and going an entire game without striking out, I've decided to drop the K for now. He will now be known as Chris Davis again!

The Angels won both of their games after losing the first to Boston. Texas is still a game and a half up on the Angels and they get them for three this weekend. At best, Texas can be up 4 and a half games when it's over. At worst, Texas can be in a reverse position and be down a game and a half when it's all done.

Millwood will pitch Friday night for the first place Rangers.

Also, in other news, Neftali Feliz made his return to the hill for Oklahome City. No problems this time around. The control issues were not there as he went 5 innings, allowing 1 run, 1 hit, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts! That's what the Rangers like to see!

Hopefully I'll be blogging about a big Rangers victory on Saturday. We shall see!

Mavs Get Jobbed, Come Back Angry

Spent the weekend away as I usually will. Let's get caught up on your Mavericks and Rangers games.

First up is the Mavs. I don't want to talk too much about the Mavericks game 3. It really comes down to a final few moments. The rest of the game is background noise with the way it ended.



Here's the deal. 6 seconds left, Antoine Wright is instructed to intentionally foul the ball handler when some time runs off so that the Nuggets have ball out of bounds with a shorter amount of time left, thus not giving them time to give a good look.

Wright bumps Melo once. No call. That one was iffy though.

Wright waits for him to turn the corner and when he does, he basically karate chops Melo's arm. No call. Wright had already stopped on the play and it gave Melo an open look at the 3 ball.

Should Wright have quit on the play? No. Should he have thrown his hands up as if to say "I didn't foul"? No.

Is that relevant to whether or not the whistle should have been blown? NO! It's not! All silly arguments aside about what Wright should have done, the fact is the referee messed up. The league office said as much.

That call really deflated the Mavericks. As you can see in the video, things got quite testy after the game was over. It set up what was inevitably going to be a nasty game Monday.

I think the thing I was most frustrated with outside of the foul was the inability to get a good look on the final shot. There's 1 second left...in basketball, that's enough time to catch, spin and shoot. The fact that we didn't get that, is pretty annoying. Poor coaching and execution.

Down 3-0, I completely expected the Mavericks to fold like a lawn chair tonight and just allow the season to end.



Color me surprised. They showed the fight I've asked of them for the entire series.

The Mavericks allowed the Nuggets to shoot over 70 percent in the first quarter and allowed a horrendous 5 of 6 from 3 point land. That's simply not acceptable.

The Nuggets also were able to extend their lead to as much as 14 in the second quarter when they were up 49-35. It appeared that the season was over.

Not so fast says Dirk Nowitzki. Having not led since an early 6-5 first quarter lead, the Mavericks clawed back from an 8 point fourth quarter deficit to tie the ball game multiple times. They weren't able to get in front though until there was a little over a minute left in the game and Dirk knocked down one of the highest arcing shots you'll ever see in your life to give Dallas a 112-110 lead. It's a lead they would not give back unlike Saturday.

Dirk scored 19 of his 44 in the fourth quarter while going 4 of 5 from the floor and 11 of 11 at the line. He was simply spectacular this evening. Putting all the turmoil of his personal life behind him to just go out and play basketball.

A few players have failed to show up in this series. Dirk Nowitzki is certainly not one of them.

He's averaged an outstanding 35 points and 12 boards a game in this draining four game series.

Josh Howard should also be commended for his job in this game. No, he wasn't the normal Josh Howard, but on two bad ankle, Howard managed to overcome an absolutely awful start and finish with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Howard went 6 of 12 after his troubling start and made two crucial free throws in the final minute to extend the Mavericks lead to 116-112.

Aside from the actual play in-game, there were some very tense moments. 7 technicals and 2 flagrants were called and Carmelo Anthony's girlfriend had to be removed from the arena due to unruly fans shouting insults and throwing things at her. Kenyon Martin's mother also needed extra security after a controversy erupted in which Mark Cuban told her that her son was a thug. Fans also were shouting at her and Art Gracia of NBA.com reported that K-Mart had to be restrained by teammates when he saw the verbal berating his mother was receiving.

I imagine the Mavericks will lose on Wednesday night in Denver. It will be an ugly, hostile game and crowd. But for one more night, Dirk got to carry his team. Hopefully next season will be his year, because the man deserves a title.

If Dallas, by some miracle, is able to pull out a win in Denver, I don't think they lose game 6. The crowd was too rowdy and volatile for the Mavs not to feed off of it and take the momentum from back to back wins only to lose game 6 to a team they hate. That's not happening.

If it were to get to game 7...who knows. It's all a dream though. I imagine the Nuggets take care of business on Wednesday night by double digits.



DAL 119, DEN 117

Now, briefly, let's discuss what the Rangers have done recently.

When we last left you, the Rangers were 15-12, on a 5 game winning streak and had taken control of the AL West.

5 days later, the Rangers are still in first place...barely.

A half game ahead of the Angels, 1 and a half over the Mariners and a full 5 on the A's.

Texas split their last 4 games since we left, losing 9-4 in the finale against Oakland and taking 2 out of 3 from the White Sox, 6-0, 2-3 and 7-1.

This pitching is starting to pick up and that's very encouraging. Also, Josh Hamilton and Michael Young should both be back in the lineup Tuesday as the Rangers kick off an absolutely VITAL 6 game homestand against the Mariners and Angels.

I could see Texas sweeping Seattle and taking 2 out of 3 from Los Angeles. If that were to happen, take into consideration that the Angels are playing Boston for three games before they swing into Texas. Obviously Rangers fans would like a sweep, but could you imagine if Boston were to take two out of three from LA and than we were to go 5-1 in that quick homestand?

Let's play out the other games for fun just so we could see what the standings have a potential of looking like after these two series'.

Seattle would get Boston at home. Let's say Boston 2 out of 3. Oakland, while the division is playing itself, gets Kansas City for two on the road and Detroit for 3 on the road. I think the struggling A's are lucky to win 2. I'll predict 1-4.

The standings have the realistic potential to look a little something like this when we wake up next Monday...

* Texas 22-15
* Los Angeles 18-18
* Seattle 17-21
* Oakland 12-22

Obviously a lot of things would have to fall exactly as I want, but it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that the Rangers are 4 games up in the AL West come next Monday morning.

Let's hope...let's hope...

Mavs in 0-2 Hole, Rangers Lead AL West

Rangers are on a roll! 5 in a row for the Texas boys. Let's get caught up on these last two games.

The Rangers looked to sweep a two game series against the AL West leading Mariners and close within a half game of the top spot.

Vicente Padilla did all he could to make sure that happened. Padilla went 8 strong innings allowing only 1 hit and 1 unearned run. During that 8 inning span, the Rangers tagged Erik Bedard and Mark Lowe for 9 hits, but frustratingly so only had 1 run.

9 innings of baseball and it was still 1-1.

Going into the 10th inning, Texas started to capitalize on their opportunities. After Andrus and Young flied out to right to begin the 10th, Jones, Blalock, Byrd and Cruz hit 4 consecutive singles to extend the lead to 3-1. After Chris Davis walked, Jarrod Saltalamacchia (Who has been fantastic at the plate lately) smashed a grand slam to righ-center giving Texas a 7-1 lead.

They would hold on to that lead after giving up a 10th inning run, giving them a 7-2 win.

Padilla's performance was especially comforting as it was the 7th consecutive really solid outing by a Rangers starting pitcher.



Rangers went up against the A's this past evening going into the game knowing that if they won, they'd be in first place as the Mariners were thumped by Kansas City.

Elvis Andrus did his part early. Andrus socked one that left no doubt into the empty left field stands to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. He also made some nice defensive plays...something he's been doing more and more of lately.

Scott Feldman had his second straight solid outing and ended out getting the win this time around in a 3-2 Rangers victory.

Andrus (Obviously) Feldman and Holland all deserve major credit in this game.

Holland came into the game in the 7th inning and pitched two scoreless frames to set up Frankie Francisco for the close (Who once more tried to make the game more interesting then it needed to be)

Holland allowed 1 hit, but kept his count low for two innings (16) and threw 13 strikes. Holland also had a 2-1 ratio of ground ball outs to fly ball outs. That's something a Rangers pitcher HAS to do in Arlington where the ball zooms out of the park on most nights.

Holland has now pitched 8.1 innings and has only allowed 2 runs. His ERA rests at a nice 2.16

Your Texas Rangers are in first place and they've done it without Josh Hamilton. Wow.

Now on to the Mavericks who once again folded like a gymnasium chair in the fourth quarter.



This Mavericks team can't go far without Josh Howard. They were without Josh Howard for all but 6 minutes on Tuesday night and they were still in striking distance after 3 quarters. They trailed by just a possession early in the 4th and actually held the lead late in the 3rd.

Stop me if this sounds familiar.

Denver played the game out just like it was game 1. The Nuggets went on another ridiculous run in the 4th quarter starting things off by outscoring the over-matched Dallas Mavericks 16-2. Yikes.

Rick Carlisle really deserves some heat for starting the 4th quarter of a playoff game on the road well within their grasp with the lineup of Singleton, Bass, Kidd, Barea and Wright. REALLY!? That may be the most inept scoring offense the Mavericks could possibly put out there and he put it out there in a high scoring game.

Dirk once again gave it his absolute all. Fighting for every bucket and turning in a 35 point, 9 rebound, 4 assist performance. It simply wasn't enough when no one else was putting up respectable numbers.

Howard was out halfway through the first quarter, but shot 0-3 in the game. Jet found his stroke a bit in the 3rd quarter, but had another rough night shooting from the field going 7-18. Part of that may be due to the report that Jet jammed his left index finger in the first quarter. That's actually better news than originally thought as the Mavs were thinking Terry had broken his finger.

Jason Kidd went 1 for 6. Another bad night for him, although he kept his turnovers down.

Ryan Hollins had a nice little outing as he shot 4 of 4 from the field and had 4 rebounds in limited time. Why was his time limited you ask? That happens when you average a foul more than every 3 minutes like Hollins did. He has the ability to be a factor for the Mavs, but he gets into foul trouble too quickly.

*sigh* Where can the Mavericks go from here?

DEN 117, DAL 105



Game 3 is Saturday afternoon and make no mistake...both Games 3 and 4 are must win games. If Dallas loses even one of them, they shouldn't even bother going back to Denver.

Dallas needs to slow these games down and start getting nasty. It's their only shot.

Rangers Above .500 and Mavs Lose Game 1

A little behind, so let's get caught up starting with the Rangers.



Boy have the Rangers looked good these last few games as they've knocked out three consecutive wins.

The second of the three was Sunday night at the Ballpark on ESPN. A rare national appearance by the Rangers. They decided to make the most of it.

The Rangers staff gave up some hits, but for the most part, they were solid. Matt Harrison went 5 strong innings without giving up a run and all they allowed was a 7th inning sac fly in a 5-1 win.

I was most pleased that the bats didn't have to rely completely on the long ball in this game. Yes, Kinsler hit a homer to lead off the first, but the other 4 runs came on solid hitting against John Danks, who is a very good pitcher. The Rangers were able to get 10 hits and 5 runs off of Danks in just over 5 innings. Really some opportunistic play from the Rangers lineup. Andrus had a 2 hit game and continued to raise his average which was at .274 after the game. If he continues to grow with his glove and stays hitting around .275, he'll be a huge success.

Now for tonight in which Texas ace Kevin Millwood took the hill against the AL West leading Seattle Mariners. Millwood entered the game with 5 straight 7+ inning outings. He would continue the streak tonight in a solid 6-5 victory.

An odd win, however. There were also some really shaky moments from the Rangers' two best pitchers, Francisco and Millwood.

After extending an early lead to 4-0 thanks to a Michael Young 5th inning home run, his 7th of the season, Millwood came into the 5th having set down all 12 Mariners batters. He gave up a leadoff home run in the 5th and then proceeded to allow a single, double, 3-run homer and a triple before finally leaving the ending having tied the game at 4.

Wash stuck with Millwood.

Chris Davis sent a two-run shot into the right field stands the very next inning to make it 6-4. Millwood entered the 7th inning with the 6-4 lead and Millwood once more flirted with trouble giving up a run off of an Ichiro fielder's choice and then facing a man in scoring position with Chavez at the plate. Chavez grounded out to short and Millwood worked out of the jam once more.

For the rest of the way, the bats fell asleep a bit and the combo of Francisco, Wilson and Millwood kept the Mariners at bay.

One scare came in the ninth inning when with two outs, Francisco allowed a single, a walk and was now facing .300 hitter Ichiro Suzuki. Frankie was able to get out of the jam though by having Suzuki fly out to center.

If the Rangers can sweep the short two game series tomorrow evening, that will pull them to a half game out of the division lead. If Hamilton can come back strong and some of the pitchers can find their stride a bit, the Rangers could really contend in the AL West.

Now on to those Mavericks. Yikes.



There were plenty of problems in this game for the Mavericks. If they can limit just one or two of the problems they had in this game, Dallas could win this game. All the talk of Denver "Dominating" has been a little ridiculous to me. This was a 2 point game in the 4th quarter. It just blew up from there.

DEN 109, DAL 95

Numerous issues in this game, and here they are.

- Josh Howard hurting his good ankle. Good and ankle in the same sentence in context to Josh Howard is kind of ironic, but he hurt his right ankle which is his better ankle in the second quarter while Dallas led. He went back to the locker room and was on the bench for a good amount of time and wasn't playing at a consistent level when he came back. That's worrisome. Dallas has no shot in this series if Howard can't produce. There are not enough weapons to hang with Denver if Howard isn't playing at the top of his game. J-Ho did play 33 minutes, but they were largely ineffective from the time he returned into the ball game. Josh Howard took 5 shots the rest of the ball game after returning from his ankle injury, shooting 2 of 5 the rest of the way after starting 5 of 11.

Howard needs to be at the very least serviceable for Dallas to contend.

- Jason Kidd was downright awful with his ball control. His shot was falling nicely there in the third quarter, but his passing was just horrendous as was his dribble/ball control. Jason Kidd had his worst game of this decade when it came to his assist to turnover ratio. From every stat I've looked through, this was the only time this decade that Kidd had twice as many turnovers as he did assists. 8 turnovers and 4 assists. It felt like he turned the ball over 12 times. That HAS to stop. It's what fueled the Denver run in the 4th. Dallas had 8 of their 20 turnovers come in the 4th quarter. Unacceptable. That starts with Kidd and needs to be remedied.

- Foul discrepancy. As a Mavericks fan who witnessed the most heart breaking display of fixed officiating in NBA history (The 2006 NBA Finals) I'm hyper-sensitive to refs. I didn't want Dallas to get more calls in Game 1...I wanted to see less fouls called. Chippy foul, after chippy foul, after chippy foul was called against the Mavs. Dallas ended out shooting 13 free throws and Denver shot 36. Either let them play on both ends or call it tough on both ends. Don't be inconsistent. The refs were inconsistent on Sunday. It's like I said on the Twitter feed: if they're going to whistle you for the foul anyway, earn the damn thing. Plant them on their heads every time they get in the paint. If the referees won't let you breathe without blowing the whistle, make it so Denver won't want to get inside of there.

- Not enough penetration for Dallas. It may have been due to the fact that the refs weren't giving them foul calls, but Dallas needs to drive more if for no other reason than to kick out to the perimeter so that Dirk or Jet or anyone can do something off the dish. Whether that be spot up or pump and move inside. I need to see something.

Other general issues were Dallas' inability to adjust to Chris Andersen. All of them need to make a note (One that should have been made well before game 1) that you DO NOT hang in the air when Chris Andersen is around. I'm talking to you Jason Terry. Get off a quicker shot. Don't let Andersen get up behind you.

Also, Dirk cooled off EXTREMELY after starting a blistering 6 for 6 in the first 6 minutes of the game. 6 for 16 the rest of the way. 28 points, 10 rebounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmgtzCkLNkI

Game 2 is tonight. After Houston beat the LA Kobe's in Los Angeles last night, that gave me some real hope if Dallas is able to get out of the second round. The Mavericks can hang with Houston. I'm not sure they can hang with the Kobe's. If Dallas can get their act together and win, they would beat Houston, in my opinion. So cheer for the Rockets just like you did for the Spurs. We've seen Dallas handle Houston. We haven't seen them handle LA.

Lose One, Win One...Mavs/Nuggets

Let's start with the Rangers. Then we'll get to the Mavericks and their Sunday match-up against the Nuggets.

First off we have Friday night's game which I was in attendance for. The rain decided to hold off and let us go ahead and play ball. Scott Feldman looked REALLY good for most of the time he was in there. I recall looking up at his pitch count sometime in the 5th or 6th and seeing he had thrown 40 strikes to 17 balls. That is just a ridiculously good strike to ball ratio. His location was really good most the night.

Kinsler led off the game with another home run and the Rangers added two more in the third to give them a 3-0 lead. Feldman had only allowed 1 hit through 5 and 2/3 and the Rangers still maintained their 3-0 lead. Then it just fell apart.

Feldman quickly retired the first two hitters of the 6th. Then Getz hit a bloop single to right that Nelly Cruz just couldn't get over to in time. Then Fields hit one between Kinsler and Andrus to center to put runners on first and second. Then Feldman walked Carlos Quentin.

Now, instead of an easy 6th and a 3-0 lead, you're looking at bases loaded, two out for Jim Thome. Call to the bullpen and in comes Kid Miracle, Derek Holland.

After getting Thome to swing and miss at some high heat, Holland left a fastball a little too high. Thome missed a grand slam to left by about 18 inches. Instead, it was a three run double. All charged to Feldman, who I felt bad for. He really was pitching well and it just all fell apart in the 6th.

Rangers were able to get out without giving up anymore runs in the inning, but it was 3-3.

The most critical moment in the game came in the 7th inning. Two out Podsednik on with Getz at the plate, Holland picks off Podsednik at first base. Or so we thought...for the second time in the game, the Rangers were called for a balk and Podsednik went to second. Moments later, Getz tripled to the gap in right center and brought Scott Podsednik home. 4-3 lead, and it would stay that way for the remainder of the game. Rangers lose.

Two things are tough to take about this game, other than what's already been mentioned. First up is the fact that Andruw Jones JUST missed a two run go ahead home run in the 8th inning. With Michael Young at second, Andruw just barely got under a pitch and lifted it to the deepest part of the ballpark where it died just before the warning track. Young tagged to third, but Blalock grounded out right after that. Missed opportunity there.

The other thing that's hard for me to accept is the 9th inning decision by Ron Washington to pinch hit for Elvis Andrus. Now, granted, Andrus isn't the best bat in the lineup, but he had smoked a triple earlier in the game and with two outs, a man on first and just praying you can get to Kinsler who's on deck, I don't understand how you can justify bringing in David Murphy who may be the coldest hitter in the major leagues right now. He dribbled out to the pitcher who threw on to first and ended the game. Awful decision.

Now for tonight's marathon of a game that was delayed and then stopped twice by rain.

Brandon McCarthy had a nice outing. 5 innings, 3 hits, 1 earned run and 3 strikeouts. He only threw 68 pitches before Luis Mendoza was brought in with a 9-1 lead which he tried to give back.

Hank Blalock started the scoring off with a three run home run in the third inning and the Rangers exploded for 6 runs in the 4th, an inning in which they hit 5 doubles. Blalock himself picked up another RBI that inning and finished with 4 RBIs for the game.

Mendoza loaded up the bases in the 6th after coming in for B-Mac and gave up a grand slam to A.J. Pierzynski. 9-5 game.

After failing to score in the bottom half of the inning, Guardado came in for the Rangers in the 7th. Honestly, it's time for Eddie Guardado to retire. His ERA after allowing an RBI double in the 7th tonight is now a disgusting 10.12. Darren O'Day (Who has been really solid since coming over) came in to relieve Guardado and got out of a two out, two in scoring position jam.

The game was 9-6 after that and it stayed that way until the end.

Frankie Francisco appeared again tonight and threw a total of 13 pitches, 11 for strikes. His ERA after 11.2 innings still sits at 0.00...unbelieveable. Francisco has been simply dominant all year.

Rangers now sit at 11-12 and are in 2nd place, 2 and a half back from the division leading Mariners, who are 14-10.

If the bullpen can just work out some of their kinks and Hamilton comes back playing like Rangers fans know he can, there is no reason they can't compete for the division, ESPECIALLY with the way the Angels have played so far.

Now on to the Mavs.



Mavericks were swept during the season series, losing 3 of the 4 games by 3 points or less. It's not like the Nuggets are completely out of the Mavericks league. I do think the Nuggets are a better basketball team, though.

Dallas is finally healthy and playing their best basketball of the season, but the same is to be said about the Nuggets. Something has to give. One team has to break.

Quick look at the matchups...

POINT GUARD

Chauncey Billups for the Nuggets and Jason Kidd for the Mavericks. People love to criticize Jason Kidd and his knees for the way he's played defensively against some of the top point guards in the league the last year and a half. People point to what Parker did in the San Antonio series, what Deron Williams has done against them recently and the way Chris Paul consistently destroys the Mavs. People will say that automatically means Chauncey Billups will have success against the Mavericks. That's not the truth and I don't think Billups does a whole lot against Dallas in this series.

The difference between what Kidd did against those three point guards and what he'll see with Billups is that Williams, Parker and Paul may be the three quickest point guards in the league. Kidd's knee's aren't as good as they used to be and it's why he struggles against the quick point guards. It really is a liability. But Billups isn't the fastest point guard around. Kidd can hang with his quickness and the thing that should most trouble Nuggets fans is that Kidd can hang with his speed while still having a considerable size advantage on Billups. Billups is 6'3, 202 and Kidd is 6'4 (Bordering on 6'5) 210 pounds. Kidd will make things difficult on the perimiter for Billups and I don't think Chauncey's court vision is good enough to take advantage of the passing lanes that may be afforded from Kidd's press D.

A lot of people think this is a matchup in favor of Billups, but I really don't think so. Watch this matchup closely. Billups is a good defender, so I don't expect clean looks at the basket for Kidd, but what the Mavericks need from him most is to find shots for Dirk and it's something he can do even with Billups' solid D.

Billups will still score some points, and he'll average more than Kidd this series, but I expect Kidd to have a definitively better series than Billups.

EDGE: Dallas

SHOOTING GUARD

This is sort of an odd matchup. It's not clear who will be starting at Shooting Guard for Dallas in this series (Wright or Barea...probably Barea to make up for Denver's athleticism) but it doesn't really matter who's starting for either team, because it's both team's backup shooting guards that get most the minutes at the spot.

Dahntay Jones is the starting SG for Denver. He's not someone that will do a whole lot of damage to you on either end of the floor. If Barea does indeed start, I could see Barea having success since Jones or Billups will guard him. Billups is good defensively, but Barea has a significant speed advantage over him and if Jones were to guard him, Barea would blow right by him into the paint about every time down the floor. Once he gets inside, he needs to be careful of Denver's shot blocking ability with Nene, Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen. If Barea can get inside, Mavericks fans need to hope he looks for the kickout to which ever teammate benefits from Denver collapsing on Barea in the paint. This would probably be Howard. If Barea keeps an eye out for Howard, Dallas can have success here.

But as I said, this is more the bench player's position. 6th man of the year Jason Terry plays more than 30 minutes a game and Nuggets' 6th man J.R. Smith plays about the same amount. Mavericks fans know all about Terry and what he can do with his mid-range game and when he gets hot from 3. Mavericks fans also may know what Smith can do as he has torched the Mavericks in the past from downtown. Smith can get on a roll and when he does, it's major trouble for any perimiter defense. There have been 10 games this season where J.R. Smith has hit at least 5 3-pointers in a game, including his season high 11 of 18 3-point shooting against the Kings in the second to last game of the season. Smith scored 45 points in less than 30 minutes of play.

Dallas actually did a decent job defending J.R. Smith's 3-point shooting this season, thanks mainly to Antoine Wright who will probably be guarding him when both are on the floor. Smith shot 39 percent from beyond the arc for the season, but in 4 games against the Mavericks he shot 35% (6 of 17). Smith did light it up a bit the last time he played Dallas when he made 4 of 7 three pointers.

The Mavericks have given Smith some considerable trouble causing his worst game of the season (The game in which he elbowed Antoine Wright and drew the ire of Mavs owner Mark Cuban) when he went 1 for 14 against Dallas in a 99-97 January victory.

Jason Terry is due for a breakout game and it's hard to think that J.R. Smith will be held down too much this series. I think this one is pretty much a push.

EDGE: Push

SMALL FORWARD

I would love to give Dallas the edge in this one with the way Josh Howard has been playing, but Carmelo Anthony is simply better.

Anthony had one of his best all-around seasons as a pro. His scoring was a bit down, but his rebound and assist totals were above his career average, he was averaging a steal a game, he kept his turnovers down and improved his three point shooting having his best percentage shooting from beyond the arc. Anthony stepped up his game in the New Orleans series as he raised his field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, assist average, points per game, steals per game and blocks per game from the regular season. With the three point shot being more involved in Melo's game, he's now able to draw attention away from the basket and dribble off the fake for more points in the paint.

Josh Howard is also playing some of the best basketball of his career, but he's still got a bit of a gimpy ankle, which he admits needs surgery after the season is over. He didn't really play at 100 percent in the two games he played against the Nuggets this year and while he's more healthy, I'm not sure he's healthy enough to guard Anthony and the penetration he poses to the defense. Carmelo could very easily average over 30 points a game if Howard is the one defending him.

I still expect Howard to perform on offense, but don't expect him to outperform Melo.

EDGE: Denver

POWER FORWARD

Such an interesting matchup. Kenyon Martin has always been a good defensive player, but he's stepped it up in recent months and has become a legitimate stopper. Martin's best contributions are not on the offensive end, so don't focus in on his 10 point a game playoff average. He's not out there to lead the team in scoring. He's out there to violently defend the opposing power forward. George Karl swears up and down that he will not double team Dirk Nowitzki. It'll (Allegedly) be K-Mart 1-on-1 with Dirk. Expect Kenyon to get super physical with Dirk...taking the same approach as the Rockets did a few years back in their first round series with Dallas.

In fact, there is a quote out from Martin in which he says he will "Hold him, grab him, push him, whatever you can do." to make up for the fact he is smaller than Dirk.

K-Mart has some shotty knees. That's a well documented fact. One of the things that has always given Dirk the ability to be a tough cover is that he's too quick for the big men and too tall for the small forwards teams put on him to match his agility. Well, in this case, Dirk has both advantages over Martin. Dirk is a good 3 or 4 inches taller than Kenyon and with K-Mart's bum knees and large size, Dirk can easily take him off the dribble. The area where he may have trouble with Martin is banging in the post. I think you'll see a lot of Dirk facing Kenyon Martin up. He'll stand at the top of the key and either shoot it over his head, or drive by him for a layup and attempt at getting to the line.

Just like I expect Melo to dominate over Josh Howard, I expect exactly the same sort of performance from Dirk.

EDGE: Dallas

CENTER

This is probably the least interesting matchup of the 5. Erick Dampier against Nene Hilario.

Now, I really should be fair to Erick Dampier who played good basketball in the first round. Quite possibly the best round of playoff basketball he's ever played. He averaged 8.4 points (2.7 above his season average) 8.4 rebounds (1.3 above his season average) shot 68% from the field (3% higher than his season average) and 66% from the line (Once more, 3% higher than his season average)

Dampier provided solid defense and was good on the boards. It was also nice to see him get authoritative and dunk the basketball in traffic more often. Dampier played inspired basketball against San Antonio and if he can keep it up against Nene, the Mavericks have a much better chance of winning this series.

Nene had a very good season this year. He set career highs in rebounds per game, points per game, free throw percentage and field goal percentage. He passed those numbers with ease too. Nene is also an effective defensive player.

It's encouraging that Dampier played so well last round and it can give you hope that he can at least equalize Nene especially since he was so underwhelming against New Orleans.

Tough to say here, but I'll give Denver the slight edge. Damp will make it close though as he, like just about every Maverick, is playing his best ball of the season.

EDGE: Denver

Matchups all are pretty close. Here's some numbers from the regular season and playoffs...

DALLAS

Season Leaders

Record: 50-32, 6th seed in Western Conference
Averages: 101.7 ppg scored, 99.8 ppg allowed (+1.9)
Points: Dirk Nowitzki - 25.9 (30.0 vs Denver)
Rebounds: Dirk Nowitzki - 8.4 (11.2 vs Denver)
Assists: Jason Kidd - 8.7 (7.0 vs Denver)
Steals: Jason Kidd - 2.0 (0.3 vs Denver)
Blocks: Erick Dampier - 1.2 (1.5 vs Denver)

Playoff Leaders

Record: 4-1 (Beat #3 Spurs, 4-1)
Averages: 96.4 ppg scored, 90.4 ppg allowed (+6.0)
Points: Dirk Nowitzki - 19.2
Rebounds: Dirk Nowitzki - 8.6
Assists: Jason Kidd - 5.6
Steals: Jason Kidd - 2.4
Blocks: Erick Dampier - 1.4

DENVER

Season Leaders

Record: 54-28, 2nd seed in Western Conference
Averages: 104.3 ppg scored, 100.9 ppg allowed (+3.4)
Points: Carmelo Anthony - 22.8 (31.3 vs Dallas)
Rebounds: Nene - 7.8 (7.3 vs Dallas)
Assists: Chauncey Billups - 6.4 (6.0 vs Dallas)
Steals: Kenyon Martin - 1.5 (1.5 vs Dallas)
Blocks: Chris Andersen - 2.5 (1.5 vs Dallas)

Playoff Leaders

Record: 4-1 (Beat # 7 Hornets, 4-1)
Averages: 108.4 ppg scored, 84.2 ppg allowed (+24.2)
Points: Carmelo Anthony - 24.0
Rebounds: Nene - 7.8
Assists: Chauncey Billups - 7.4
Steals: Carmelo Anthony - 1.8
Blocks: Chris Andersen - 1.8

Prediction for the series?

I don't know what to pick. It's such a difficult call because they're both playing so well right now.

I'll be a homer and I'll say the Mavericks win games 1, 3, 4 and 6. Mavericks 4 games to 2.

What are your thoughts on the series? Let me know...drop a line in the comments section.