Notes: Tough travel day for Texas

07/19/2006
TORONTO -- Rain, The Big Dig and international law should make for an interesting and weary day for the Rangers on Thursday.
Thursday was supposed to be a day off in Chicago. Instead the Rangers have to fly to Boston for a one-game makeup of a rainout from June. The game is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. CT at Fenway Park, where the Rangers have already had three rainouts in two separate trips there this year.
The Rangers are planning to spend Wednesday night in Toronto and leave their hotel at 8 a.m. ET Thursday. According to traveling secretary Chris Lyngos, the Rangers are hoping to take off by 9:30 and get to Boston by 10:30. It will take them 45 minutes to clear customs, at which point they will get on a bus and receive a police escort from the airport to Fenway Park.
They are hoping to be at Fenway two hours before the game if all goes well.
"I'll be glad when we are on the ground," manager Buck Showalter said.
The Rangers also have to deal with The Big Dig, the new central artery tunnel that goes through Boston and is the most direct route between Logan Airport and Fenway Park. A woman was killed driving through the tunnel last Saturday, causing mass controversy, some chaos and a number of delays.
That's why the Rangers have arranged for a police escort.
"They told me they aren't having any major problems," Lyngos said. "But having the escort is going to assure me of getting there on time."
After the game, the Rangers have to go back to the airport, hop on their private jet and head back across the country to Chicago. If all goes well, the Rangers are hoping to be in Chicago by 9:00 p.m. CT.
Only problem is, there is rain in the Boston forecast as Tropical Storm Beryl heads toward New England. A tropical storm warning has been posted for southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod.
It won't get there until Friday but there is a 30 percent chance of rain in the Boston area for Thursday afternoon.
Starting pitcher John Rheinecker, who didn't make the trip to Toronto because of a lost passport, flew to Boston on Wednesday and will meet the team Thursday.
This is the first time the Rangers have played three games in three different cities since July 29-31, 2001, when they played the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Arlington, then played one game in Baltimore before flying on to play the Yankees in New York.
Big Unit, followed by Moose: The Rangers are scheduled to face Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina and Jaret Wright during their three-game series with the New York Yankees that starts on Monday at Ameriquest Field in Arlington.
Johnson has made 31 starts in his career against the Rangers and is 15-5 with a 3.36 ERA in 206 1/3 innings. He has struck out 245 and only Roger Clemens, with 281, has struck out more in his career.
Among active pitchers, Johnson is tied for fourth for the most wins against the Rangers. Clemens has 18 wins against them while Bartolo Colon and Barry Zito have beaten them 16 times.
Mussina is 14-12 with a 3.81 ERA. The losses are second most among active pitchers. The Rangers have beaten Tim Wakefield 13 times.
Monday's game has been moved up to 6:05 p.m. CT so it can be shown nationally on ESPN. It will be shown locally by KDFI/Ch. 27. The Wednesday game is also a national ESPN broadcast but will be shown in North Texas on Fox Sports Net.
Laird starts vs. right-hander: Because of the travel schedule, backup catcher Gerald Laird got a rare start against a right-handed pitcher on Wednesday. With a day game on Thursday against the Red Sox and Curt Schilling, Laird was going to catch one of the two games.
Showalter chose Wednesday because Barajas is 2-for-6 off Schilling in his career.
Showalter said Laird will catch Friday with left-hander Mark Buehrle pitching for the White Sox and then Barajas on Saturday and Sunday.
Hillenbrand may interest Rangers: The Rangers will at least discuss the possibility of acquiring Toronto Blue Jays infielder Shea Hillenbrand, who was designated for assignment on Wednesday after getting into a dispute with manager John Gibbons.
Hillenbrand can play third and first base, but if the Rangers decide they are interested, it would be as a designated hitter and a bat off the bench. Hillenbrand is hitting .301 with 12 home runs and 39 RBIs. The Rangers initial reports are Hillenbrand is somebody who can hit good pitching, but they still want to do more homework on him.
Showalter on Ameriquest: Showalter was among the Rangers contingent who met with the ballpark consultants on Tuesday and said one thing hit him about Ameriquest Field in Arlington when watching the demonstrations.
"It's a great facility," Showalter said. "It's one of the best in baseball. It's a great place to coach, manage and play. The only thing we're trying to do is separate the facts and see if we can make it better for the fans.
"Every time I go in there, I think of what a great place it is. I get my dander up a little bit when they talk about the heat. It's summer. Baseball is played in the summer. It's hot everywhere. When I was with the Yankees I thought it was a great place and I still do."
Briefly: Michael Young entered Wednesday's game with a career batting average of .356 against the Blue Jays. Only Ichiro Suzuki (.370) has a higher average among active players. ... The Rangers went into Wednesday's game having gone five games without a home run. That's their longest such streak since June 13-19, 1995.

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

Millwood stars in Rangers' win

07/19/2006
TORONTO -- Everybody kept saying the Rangers practice that play in Spring Training.
But it's still quite a sight to watch a 31-year-old pitcher go sprawling onto the artificial turf while making a barehanded play on a squeeze bunt and throwing out the runner at home plate.
The next batter did double home two runs but that was the extent of the damage and the Rangers, coming off the field trailing after five innings, did not forget Kevin Millwood's defensive work.
"That's just him, laying it on the line," shortstop Michael Young said after the Rangers had rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre Wednesday.
"That was a great play. The guy gives it all he has. That was the turning point for us."
The Rangers needed a couple of innings to prove it but they finally broke through against Blue Jays starter Casey Janssen with four runs in the seventh inning for their second late-inning, come-from-behind victory over the Blue Jays.
In taking two of three from the Blue Jays, the Rangers moved back into second place in the American League West, one game behind the Oakland Athletics and a half-game ahead of the Los Angeles Angels.
"It's definitely a big win," said Millwood, after going seven innings to get the victory. "Taking two out of three from this ballclub is huge. It's not as easy as it seems."
The game was tied 1-1 going into the fifth when a pair of one-out singles by Eric Hinske and Aaron Hill put runners at the corners for John McDonald, the Blue Jays No. 9 hitter.
The Rangers sensed squeeze play.
"I had it in my mind they were going to squeeze with McDonald batting," Millwood said. "With first and third, they don't want to hit into a double play. I had it in the back of my mind and when I saw him square around, I was already prepared."
That was what impressed manager Buck Showalter the most.
"Astroturf helps the ball get to you but that's a play you have to think about beforehand," Showalter said.
Millwood was momentarily jarred by the play and needed a trip to the mound by trainer Jamie Reed for what they described as a back cramp. That may have been a factor in Reed Johnson lining a double to right-center, giving the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead.
But Millwood stayed in the game and Frank Catalanotto grounded out to end the inning. The Rangers left the field impressed by Millwood's defensive work and knowing they had overcome a two-run lead the night before.
"One of the keys to the game was Millwood keeping it a two-run game," said Showalter, the same compliment he gave Vicente Padilla the night before.
For the second straight night, the Rangers did rally, this time in the seventh inning against Janssen. Hank Blalock started this rally with a one-out single and then Mark DeRosa, fighting through a 1-for-13 skid, took a fastball and lofted it down the right-field line for a two-run home run.
"A huge, huge hit for us," Gary Matthews Jr. said.
"It's funny, this is the worst I've felt at the plate in a long time," DeRosa said. "My first at-bat, I swing and hit into a double play, my second at-bat, I pop up. The last time we faced Janssen in Arlington, we hit three home runs and had 10 hits and I was 0-for.
"He just left a pitch out over the plate and it carried. I got lucky."
The Rangers weren't quibbling and, with two out, Brad Wilkerson singled and Gerald Laird doubled into the left-field corner. Matthews came up next and he doubled to left to give the Rangers a 5-3 lead.
The Blue Jays tried to rally against Francisco Cordero in the eighth. Frank Catalanotto was hit by a pitch with two out and scored on Vernon Wells' double. Lyle Overbay then beat out an infield hit putting runners at the corners but Cordero got Greg Zaun on a fly to center to end the threat.
Bengie Molina led off the ninth with a single against closer Akinori Otsuka, but the Rangers turned a double play on Hinske's grounder with first baseman Mark Teixeira doing a terrific job of digging out the relay throw at first.
"We played a good defensive game tonight," Showalter said and he brought up a throw by Wilkerson from the deep left-field corner that cut down Hinske trying for a double in the second.
But the play of the game was by the pitcher. That one seemed to lift the Rangers more than anything.

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

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/

Rangers downed in makeup game

07/20/2006
BOSTON -- On a journey from Toronto to Chicago, it hardly makes geographical sense to have a layover in Boston. However, the Rangers had to play the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday to make up a game that had already been rained out twice.
With the rain refusing to make another appearance, the Rangers might have wished it had.
"We don't make excuses like that," Rangers third baseman Hank Blalock said. "We showed up [and] everybody felt fine. We can't use that as an excuse. It wasn't that big of a deal. It was about an hour flight over here. We got here in plenty of time to prepare for the game and we just got beat."
After two consecutive pitchers' duels in Fenway Park, the crowd of 36,489 witnessed a barrage of hits and a see-saw battle in the Red Sox's 6-4 win over the Rangers.
"I felt like our guys had a challenge today with one of the best pitchers in baseball, and kept battling back. They go ahead, 2-0, we jump back, 3-2, 4-4. We had a lot of players fill in today," Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. "Sometimes the game's not fair. [Curt] Schilling got the benefit of a lot of balls that were borderline out of the zone, so that's part of the challenge that you face here."
Texas southpaw John Rheinecker made his second start at Fenway this season against the big righty, Schilling.
In his last outing in Boston on June 10, Rheinecker received a no-decision against rookie Jon Lester, who made his Major League debut on that day. On Thursday, Rheinecker couldn't have gone against anyone more seasoned than the 19-year veteran with two World Series rings.
"You can kind of use the same refrain for his outings here lately," Showalter said. "There have been a lot of hard-hit balls. It's happened a lot. He had a tough lineup, all right-handed, to pitch to here. I thought we pitched pretty well out of the bullpen after the fact."
Rheinecker, who thought the Red Sox's at-bats were less successful, only lasted 3 2/3 innings, allowing four runs and eight hits in the loss, while Schilling allowed four runs over seven innings.
"The outer half of the strike zone wasn't there, that's for sure. ... [It] seemed like if I didn't throw it in the middle to away, it wasn't getting called," Rheinecker said. "Otherwise, I thought they were off-balance, for sure. They didn't really smoke any balls today."
The Red Sox struck early with two runs in the first inning. Mark Loretta and Kevin Youkilis singled before Manny Ramirez drove in a run with an RBI double. Jason Varitek brought in Youkilis with a groundout to first base.
The Rangers responded to the challenge only one inning later with three runs of their own. After singles by Hank Blalock and Kevin Mench, Brad Wilkerson hit an RBI double to left field that managed to stay fair by a few inches. Rod Barajas followed with a bloop single to right field that scored Mench and Wilkerson.
"We had that one inning where we scored a few runs and we pushed a few across," Rangers shortstop Michael Young said. "Against a guy like Schilling, you have to make sure you keep grinding and keep pounding away as the game goes on because he's one of those guys. He's going to pick up steam and get tougher in those tough situations later on in the game."
"As an offense, we normally take a lot of pride in making sure we have our best at-bats in those situations. He made his pitches when he had to. He's going to get those tough at-bats when you have to bear down and have your best at-bats."
After Mark DeRosa saved a run by nailing Loretta, pulling a "Jeremy Giambi" and not sliding, at the plate in the third inning, the right fielder allowed two runs to score on a fly ball hit by Wily Mo Pena that was misjudged and bounced off his glove to the ground.
Rheinecker left the game in the fourth inning in favor of sidearm reliever Wes Littleton, who worked out of a couple of tough situations in 1 1/3 innings, but did not allow a run.
"[I] definitely [threw] sinker [and] curveball pretty much all day -- mixing in a few changeups. [I] didn't really go in a lot," Rheinecker said.
The Rangers pulled even in the sixth inning, when Barajas hit a double that sent Mench motoring around third base and around the tag of Varitek at home.
Bryan Corey came on to pitch for Texas in the sixth and gave the lead right back. In a rare display of Red Sox small ball, Alex Gonzalez advanced to second on an Alex Cora sacrifice bunt and then was brought home just ahead of the Gary Matthews Jr. throw on a Loretta single.
The Red Sox added an insurance run in the seventh, when Matthews unnecessarily dove for a ball hit by Varitek that bounced nowhere near his glove and rolled past him to allow Ramirez to score from first.
In a game where the hitting was contagious and the bases were rarely vacant, the two teams could have easily surpassed their combined 10 runs and 23 hits, stranding a combined 16 runners on base.
One of the Rangers' better opportunities was taken, or rather snared, away from them in the third inning, when DeRosa came up with two men on and, according to Showalter, "Hit a ball right on the button that almost took Schilling's head off," but, instead it found its way into the hurler's glove.
Schilling faced another jam in the fifth inning with two men on and two out, but the ace was able to escape by striking out Blalock on three straight pitches.
"He threw really well," Blalock said. "He showed what a good pitcher he is. After we scored some runs on him, he settled down to put up some goose eggs. [He] pounded the strike zone and got us to chase when we shouldn't have."
For Rheinecker, this start may have been his last for awhile. Adam Eaton made his fourth, and likely his last, rehab start for Triple-A Oklahoma on Thursday, getting the win while allowing one run and three hits over four innings. Eaton may be called up to start for Texas on Tuesday.
"If they [Triple-A pitching coach Andy Hawkins and coach Mike Boulanger] feel like he's ready to make that step, we'll talk about it on the plane about how we can make room for him. I wouldn't say anybody's ... we haven't gotten that far with the decision," Showalter said.
The likely options are that Rheinecker would either work out of the bullpen or be sent down to Triple-A. On his future role with the team, Rheinecker said, "That's out of my hands."

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