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.
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