Harrison continues dominance on the road

If the season ended today, you’d be hard pressed to argue against Matt Harrison as the Game 1 starter of any post-season series.  Colby Lewis has better numbers on the full season in terms of ERA and WHIP, but Harrison has been absolutely lights-out as of late, going 5-0 in the last 30 days (6 starts) with a 1.43 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP.

To be fair, Lewis puts up a good fight over the last 30 days as well with a lower WHIP, more strikeouts and less walks.

Possibly even more astounding, after last night’s win over the Padres in San Diego, Harrison is now 7-1 on the road for the 2012 season with a 3.29 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP.

Harrison’s performance wasn’t without it’s brief bouts of trouble, but he found his comfort zone after escaping a tough first inning in which he gave up the Padres only run of the game.

“It was definitely a battle from the get-go: first inning, three leadoff hits — fortunately I was able to make some pitches and get out of that,” Harrison said. “By the third or fourth I was starting to find a rhythm, find my release point a little better.”

Harrison’s strong performance was needed last night, as the Rangers bats were silenced by Jason Marquis, who surrendered both of the Rangers runs in the first inning via a David Murphy 2-run single.

Mark Lowe, Mike Adams and Joe Nathan shut down the Padres in the 7th, 8th and 9th respectively to secure the win.

Bottom line – Rangers were out-hit last night, and one could argue that they were even out-pitched as they were held to only two hits over the final seven innings, but they got the win.  Feels good doesn’t it?

Quick Hits

• Roy Oswalt could join the Rangers as early as Friday.  President Nolan spoke with ESPN Radio yesterday and said:
  • “If the group feels like they would like him to start this weekend against Colorado, I would be comfortable with that,” Ryan said.
  • Click here for more details from that interview.
• Josh Hamilton came in last in last night’s game as a defensive substitution and is expected to start tonight in game two of the series in San Diego.
• Rangers are currently 4th in the ESPN MLB Power Rankings.
• Rangers are currently 1st in the Baseball Do MLB Power Rankings…sorry, no link.
• All-Star Voting Updates
  • Nelson Cruz has slipped to 5th in the All-Star OF voting as Adam Jones and Jose Bautista have both passed him.
  • Ian Kinsler leads Robinson Cano by only 15,000 votes at 2B.
  • Mitch Moreland has more votes in Albert Pujols at 1B.  This makes me smile.
• Scott Feldman (0-6, 6.50 ERA) and former Rangers prospect and more importantly, the chip that landed Josh Hamilton, Edison Volquez (3-6, 3.70 ERA) face off tonight in game 2 of the series.
  • Feldman has done little to inspire Rangers fans lately, so here’s hoping he can string something together against one of the worst teams in MLB.
  • Volquez is quietly resurrecting his career in San Diego after showing flashing of brilliance in a tumultuous stint in Cincinnati.

Quality start by Lewis down the drain

Nobody is as eager to see the dominance of the Rangers offense return as Colby Lewis.  For the second straight outing and the third time in his last five starts, Colby Lewis has pitched well….well enough to win…but has taken the “L” due to a lack of run support.  Last night was the worst of them, as the Rangers offense was shut out by 39 year old Bartolo Colon and Oakland closer Brian Fuentes.

“That was an amazing pitching performance and we wasted it because we couldn’t put any runs on the board,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “We still have some guys who are not playing up to their offensive capability right now. We’re a little inconsistent on the offensive side. We’ve got to keep grinding it out and we’ll get it together. There are nights we put it together and nights where we don’t put it together. I guess you could say we’re inconsistent.”

Lewis pitched 8 innings, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits, while striking 3 and walking none (throwing 101 pitches), but the game was essentially over in the bottom of the 2nd when Brandon Inge drove in Yoenis Cespedes – the game winning run.  The Rangers bats were shut down by Colon who scattered 5 hits over 8 innings of work before handing the ball off to Fuentes to wrap up the win.

“You hate to not give a guy credit when he does that well, but you’d think as good as our offense is, we’d get something done,” outfielder David Murphy said. “He didn’t try to trick us. He threw all fastballs. He changed locations, so he mixed it up in that regard, but he beat us by throwing fastballs. Obviously we didn’t have a great night offensively.”

Get the Split with Yu

Darvish (7-3, 3.21 ERA) takes the mound today for the series finale in Oakland.  He beat the A’s last time he faced them (May 16th), 4-1.

The A’s will counter with former Ranger Brandon McCarthy (4-3, 2.95 ERA) who has a career record of 1-4 against the Rangers, but looked good in his last start (against Royals) after a stint on the DL.

“He feels good,” Melvin said. “We’re trying to take care of him as far as pitch counts, trying not to overdo it. We feel like the 15-day DL was something that probably stemmed the tide a little bit. We monitor him each and every time — his bullpens, his games. To this point he feels good.”

2:35pm first pitch.

Quick Hits

• After some early season bumps, Joe Nathan has settled in and has been nothing short of dominant lately.  From Jon Star (MLB.com):

Nathan has retired 27 of the last 31 batters he’s faced, leading to 10 consecutive shutout innings. He has struck out 13 hitters in that span, and his 28-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio is a Major League-best among all relievers. Nathan has surrendered just one earned run over his last 19 2/3 innings.

• Also from Star:

The Rangers are the only team to boast three players with a qualifying batting average above .300 — Josh Hamilton (.343), Elvis Andrus (.303) and Adrian Beltre (.301).

• Derek Holland to the DL
• Field Trip - an amazing burger, a great seat in the Lexus Club, a sweet T-Shirt and Reckless Kelly await…