Notes: Club has 'long road' ahead

07/20/2006
BOSTON -- Like Odysseus' return to Ithaca, it seems like the Rangers will be forced to make countless stops before they return to Arlington. When completed, their odyssey will have taken them through four cities to play a season-long road trip of 11 games in 11 days.
After playing in Baltimore and Toronto, the Rangers will play Thursday in Boston before heading to Chicago for a three-game series with the White Sox. It is the first time that the Rangers will play three games in three different cities since 2001, when they played in Tampa Bay, Baltimore and New York. The Rangers are 4-3 on the trip so far.
The Rangers will play the Red Sox at Fenway Park for one game to make up a rainout on May 14. In Texas' previous two trips to Boston, three games have been rained out, but Thursday's affair should go off without a hitch. However, if it did rain, Rangers manager Buck Showalter said, "It would be apropos."
The Rangers left their team hotel in Toronto at 8 a.m. and arrived in Boston to an empty visitors' clubhouse at 11:30 a.m. There they sat until their uniforms arrived 15 minutes later.
"It was pretty entertaining and everybody's pretty upbeat. We had a Boston escort and went through customs. All the foreign players had little extra stuff to go through. We won last night so that made some more happy faces in the lobby," Showalter said. The sleep-deprived skipper added, "I could use a Red Bull."
The team will immediately head to Chicago following Thursday's game.
"It's just one of those things where you just have to kind of do it. It's kind of a tough schedule, but everyone's pretty excited coming in here. We're all professionals, so once 2 [p.m.] hits, we should be ready to go," third baseman Hank Blalock said.
The effects of travel, while potentially straining on the body, has had no effect on their sense of humor. Blalock jokingly changed his position in the lineup from third base to designated hitter, demonstrating how, even in jest, the effects of excess travel can be rather tiring.
However, in the world of dry-erase boards, his "status" as DH lasted only seconds longer than the laughs.
Even Thursday's starter for Texas, left-hander John Rheinecker, has been impacted by this hectic schedule.
"It was good to see Rheinecker in front of his locker. He lost his passport and had to go back to Dallas from Baltimore. We couldn't take him to Canada, so it was the first time we've seen him in three or four days," Showalter said.
Quite a pair: In Wednesday's start against Toronto, Kevin Millwood earned the win, but also may have been injured. He will be checked by team trainers on Wednesday, but it does not appear he will miss his next start.
"[He was] throwing the ball to home plate on a squeeze play. He jammed his ... he felt a spasm [or] cramp, back behind his rib cage. We'll check on it today," Showalter said.
Kevin Millwood joined teammate Vincente Padilla as the only 10-game winners on the team. It was the first time that the team had a pair of 10-game winners before July 20 since 2000, when it was done by Kenny Rogers and Rick Helling. Texas is one of only five teams to have at least two pitchers with 10 wins this season.
One more time: Adam Eaton, who has missed the entire season, will make a rehab start Thursday for Triple-A Oklahoma at Iowa, and it will likely be his final start before returning to Texas. In three rehab starts, Eaton has no record, with a 1.08 ERA.
Almost there: Mark DeRosa is batting .332 heading into Thursday, which would rank him fourth in batting average in the American League if he had enough at-bats to qualify. However, he missed three weeks in April due to a foot injury. He should be able to qualify sometime this week, as he has 293 at-bats and would have needed 295 at-bats to qualify Thursday.

Source: http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/