Athletics @ Rangers

[Molina00]

With an off day tomorrow the Rangers will head back to Texas kicking off a 10 game homestand playing host to the Oakland Athletics.

Projected Matchups
Game 1: Justin Duchscherer (4-3, 2.16 ERA) vs. Kevin Millwood (2-3, 4.88 ERA)
Game 2: Joe Blanton (3-6, 3.92 ERA) vs. Scott Feldman (1-2, 4.57 ERA
Game 3: TBA vs. Sidney Ponson (3-1, 3.63 ERA)

The Rangers are so far 4-2 against Oakland this year barely outscoring them 27-25.

[Molina00]

Guess I'll be playing catchup with this series here. Turned out to be a good series for Texas, at least for the May part of it.

The first game was all about pitching and timely hitting as Kevin Millwood outdueled former Ranger Justin Duchscherer in a 3-1 win. Millwood went 6 innings allowing just 1 run on 5 hits walking none and striking out 5. Tommy Boggs provided the offense doubling twice and driving in all three Ranger runs. The win pulled the Rangers to .500.

In game 2 the Rangers got the bats going scoring 8 runs on 14 hits against Oakland in an 8-4 win to improve to a winning 29-28 record on the season. I believe that was their first time above .500 since early April. Ponson struggled a little giving up 4 runs on 9 hits over 4 innings but improved to 4-1 on the season. Josh Hamilton also hit his 14th homerun of the year and drove in 3 runs giving him 61 RBI on the season in just 57 games.

Game 3 was a slugfest featuring a combined 21 runs scored and 5 homeruns hit. The Rangers ended up on the losing end however thanks to a 7th inning bullpen meltdown. After the Rangers scored five runs in the 6th to take a 7-4 lead, Oakland hammered the Ranger pen for nine runs in the 7th and went on to win the game 13-8 and drop the Rangers back to .500 for the season. Milton Bradley and Josh Hamilton each homered and combined for four runs scored and five RBI.

[hot_corner_gurl]

You guys definately have our number this season. You've won all three series that we've played against you. I wouldn't go to say that you outpitched us, but you guys can definately out hit us and props to you because you have one of the best lineups in the league. And it's a bummer that it doesn't get as much recognition as it should.