Rangers @ Orioles (July 13th-16th)

[Molina00]

Projected Matchups
Game 1: Vicente Padilla vs. Daniel Cabrera
Game 2: Kevin Millwood vs. Kris Benson
Game 3: John Rheinecker vs. Erik Bedard
Game 4: John Koronka vs. Rodrigo Lopez

Game 1 Matchup Notes
Padilla: Has been excellent over his last 6 starts going 3-1 with a stellar 3.07 ERA. He has struggled on the road this season however, going 2-3 with a 5.49 ERA. Padilla is 1-2 with a 6.17 ERA in 3 career appearances against the Orioles.

Cabrera: Danial has struggled this year posting a 5.15 ERA so far, and while he has potentially dominating stuff (88 K's in 80 innings) he suffers from severe control problems (70 walks in 80 innings). He has walked 5 or more batters in 9 of his 16 starts this year but dominated Texas the last time he faced them allowing just 1 run in 7 innings.

Game 2 Matchup Notes
Millwood: Has been hit hard in his last starts with an ERA near 11. He is an excellent 5-1 with a 3.00 ERA on the road this season though. In his only other start against Baltimore this year (in Texas), Kevin pitched a 4 hit complete game for the win.

Benson: Kris has had a mediocre first season with the Orioles so far posting a 4.79 ERA, although he does have 9 wins. He has been hit hard his last 3 starts going 1-2 and allowing 17 runs on 25 hits over 13 innings. This is his first start of the year against Texas.

Game 3 Matchup Notes
Rheinecker: John has been one of the Rangers more solid starters this year posting an ERA of 3.96 thus far. He has been hit hard in 3 starts on the road though posting an ERA of 5.09. He is currently 1-1 with a 2.77 ERA in 2 July starts. This will be his first career apperarance against the Orioles.

Bedard: Erik has been the ace of the Orioles staff having won 10 games with a respectable 4.28 ERA. He has been tough at home going 6-1 with a 3.10 ERA and has won his last 5 starts allowing just 5 runs on 17 hits over 35 innings.

Game 4 Matchup Notes
Koronka: Over his last 5 starts Koronka has bone 3-1 with an excellent 3.38 ERA and has pitched well on the road also going 3-1 with a 4.23 ERA. In his only other start against the Orioles this year, John allowed just 1 run on 6 hits over 8.1 innings.

Lopez: Rodrigo is basically fighting for survival right now. He has given up 17 runs on 26 hits over 15.1 innings in his last 3 starts, currently holds a 6.77 season ERA, and the lowest his ERA has been all year was 5.66 back on April 14th. He has actually pitched better at home than on the road winning 4 games with an ERA of 6.52. This is Lopez's first start of the year against the Rangers.

[Roy31]

What a game for the Mark! and a nice nice win. Looks like the All star break did wonders for him. He definately needed some rest.

[Molina00]

Now this is the Ranger attack I'm used to. It was a pretty tight game through the first 5 innings though. Texas scored a run in the first and the Orioles scored in the 3rd and it was tied at 1 going into the 6th when the floodgates opened. The Rangers broke out for 6 runs in the 6th thanks in part to a solo homerun from Mark Teixeira and a 2-out, 3-run shot by DeRo. Brad Wilkerson hit a 2-run shot in the 7th to give Texas a 9-1 lead, then Teixeira hit another homerun, a 2-run shot in the 8th to give the Rangers an 11-1 lead. In the 9th inning Rod Barajas hit a solo shot and Teixeira hit his 3rd homerun of the game, a 2-out 3-run homerun to give the Rangers a 15-1 victory.

This was easily Teixeira's best game of the year going 3 for 5 with 3 homeruns and 7 RBI. Mark DeRosa also went 4 for 4 with 3 runs scored and 3 RBI and Brad Wilkerson drove in 4. What was lost in the offensive attack is the fact that Vicente Padilla pitched a very good game allowing just 1 run on 4 hits over 7 innings to pick up his team leading 9th win.

Oakland beat the Redsox 5-4 in extra innings so the Rangers couldn't take the AL West lead, and they remain tied.

[Molina00]

It looks like the Rangers offense was totally dried up today after their 6 homer, 15 run outburst from yesterday. They only scored twice off a very good Kris Benson, but that turned out to be enough. In Kevin Millwood first game back since his slight injury, he pitched a very solid game allowing just 1 run on 4 hits over 6 innings to pick up his 9th win of the season to tie Vicente Padilla for the team lead. Kris Benson held the Rangers scorelss until the 4th inning when he gave up a leadoff single to Matthews followed by a double to DeRosa. Young and Teixeira followed with consecutive sac flies to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. That lead would hold up as Millwood did not allow a run until an Oriole sac fly in the 6th. That was the Orioles only run of the game and the Rangers won 2-1.

Kris Benson pitched a dominating game allowing just the 2 sac flies on 4 hits in a complete 9-inning loss.

At this moment, the A's are leading the Redsox 7-2 in the 7th inning so it looks like the Rangers will have to settle for staying tied with Oakland for the division lead.

[Molina00]

For the 2nd straight day the Rangers could get nothing going against the Orioles pitching. Today they only managed to get 1 run. I believe a 2-out single in the 6th by Ian Kinsler to drive it in, and it was an unearned run at that. The Orioles on the other hand, lit up the Ranger pitching for 8 runs, 7 of them coming in 3.1 innings of work off John Rheinecker. Kinsler and DeRosa each went 2 for 4 but that was it for the Ranger offense.

Jeff Conine was the big guy for the O's going 3 for 5 with 2 RBI and Erik Bedard picked up his 11th win as he dominated the Ranger hitters.

Boston is up to an early 5-0 lead over Oakland in the 3rd inning so hopefully they can hold on to win and the Rangers will remain tied for first.

[Molina00]

In-Game Report
Currently top of the 4th inning with the Orioles leading 2-0. Rodrigo Lopez has so far held the Rangers to just 3 singles (Matthews, Teixeira, and Blalock). In the first inning, Miguel Tejada hit a 2-out, 2-run homerun off of John Wasdin for the only runs of the game. Lopez has thrown 70 pitches in 4 innings so hopefully he will start to tire out in another inning or 2 and Texas can break out against him.

Edit: The Rangers have just been retired in the 4th so it is 2-0 going into the bottom of the 4th now.

[Molina00]

7th Inning In-Game Update
It's looking even worse now. The Orioles got 2 more runs off Wasdin in the 5th and now lead 4-0 in the bottom of the 7th. One of those runs was a Nick Markakis homerun. Rodrigo Lopez gave up singles to Matthews and Young before exiting the game with 5.2 scoreless innings. Matthews is now the offensive star for Texas going 2 for 3 with Young, Blalock, and Teixeira each 1 for 3.

[Molina00]

Texas down 4-0 in the top of the 9th.
Michael Young struck out with a full count to start the inning.
Mark Teixeira flies out to right for the 2nd out.
Hank Blalock flies out to left to end the game.

The Rangers finish with a 2-2 split of the 4 game series but fall half a game behind the Oakland A's who are currently in progress.

After beating the Orioles 15-1 in the first game of the series, the Orioles pitchers held the Rangers to just 3 runs combined over the last 3 games.