Texas Rangers

The Rangers 1-0 loss to the Oakland A’s on Tuesday night, with Yu Darvish on the mound, earned a season-high 6.9 rating for Fox Sports Southwest. That translates into 178,600 homes. That pushed the average rating for Darvish’s 10 starts on FSSW, KTXA (Channel 21) and ESPN to 5.7 (147,516 homes). Average rating for the 37 games Darvish has watched from the dugout: 4.7 (121,636). The gap between Darvish starts and other starts has widened as the season has progressed. Some … [visit site to read more]

SEATTLE – Texas Rangers 1B Mitch Moreland, who leads the team in on-base-plus slugging percentage for May, is getting a rare bump to the top half of the Rangers lineup Friday against Seattle LHP Joe Saunders. Moreland will hit in the No. 2 spot with OF David Murphy sitting the game out. It is his just Moreland’s sixth-ever start in a spot in the top third of the lineup. Moreland last batted second on August 26, 2012 against Minnesota. He went 2-for-4 in a 6-5 Rangers loss. … [visit site to read more]

A left-handed starter, the first the Rangers have faced in 12 games, has caused manager Ron Washington to alter the Rangers' lineup. With Ian Kinsler unavailable to bat first and Elvis Andrus sliding up a spot to fill that vacancy, Mitch Moreland will bat second against Mariners lefty Joe Saunders. It's Moreland's fifth career start there and second this season. He went 2 for 4 the first time. Rangers lineup vs. LHP Joe Saunders: Elvis Andrus, ss; Mitch Moreland, 1b; Lance Berkman, dh; Adrian Beltre, 3b; Nelson Cruz, rf; A.J. Pierzynski, c; Jeff Baker, lf; Craig Gentry, cf; Jurickson Profar, 2b. Mariners lineup vs. RHP Justin Grimm: Michael Saunders, cf; Dustin Ackley, 2b; Kyle Seager, 3b; Kendrys Morales, dh; Michael Morse, rf; Raul Ibanez, lf; Justin Smoak, 1b; Jesus Sucre, c; Brendan Ryan, ss. -- Jeff Wilson

Texas Rangers 3B prospect Mike Olt has was cleared to return to the field Friday after missing a month with vision problems. After a battery of tests Olt was given medication and eye drops that have improved his condition. He headed to the Rangers training complex in Surprise, Ariz. Friday. He will work up to game action, then return to Triple-A Round Rock. No exact timetable has been … [visit site to read more]

Series Schedule: Friday, May 24 9:10: LHP Joe Saunders vs. RHP Justin Grimm Saturday, May 25 9:10: RHP Felix Hernandez vs. LHP Derek Holland Sunday, May 26 3:10: RHP Hisashi Iwakuma vs. RHP Nick Tepesch The Rangers are following up a 4-3 homestand, wherein they lost a home series for only the second time in 2013, by heading to Seattle to begin a five game road trip that concludes with a scheduled doubleheader against their newest Interleague rival, the Arizona Diamondbacks. The early season schedule has been filled with bizarre twists and turns but nothing is as strange as seeing a late-May 30 win Rangers team starting someone named Ross Wolf. It's worth noting that in the series the Rangers lost, to the Oakland A's, the Rangers started Josh Lindblom and Wolf. To say the pitching staff has faced its share of injuries is like saying Mitch Moreland (new positional player team leader in fWAR) has been a bit of a surprise. It's an understatement. But no one is going to cry for the Texas Rangers. In fact, the Rangers winning a game where Wolf and Neal Cotts combined to throw seven innings of one-run ball probably just makes teams want to cry themselves. In past years, the Wolfs and Lindbloms of the world would be getting 20 starts from here on out to see if they could stick as major leaguers and just get the Rangers through a season. Now, even the cannon fodder hits the target. In this weekend series against the Mariners, the Rangers have Justin Grimm, Derek Holland, and Nick Tepesch going. It's humorous to me that Grimm and Tepesch are a new sort of normal. If you were to have stated in February that getting Tepesch back from a blister would feel like a win, you'd have gotten sideways looks; maybe even in Round Rock. If you were to have stated even in mid-April that you were looking forward to a start from Grimm, you were probably Justin Grimm's parents. But this is it. This is the sort of depth that Jon Daniels and the Rangers have been preaching for and attempting to amass. These are the sort of pitchers that the Rangers couldn't find for the life of them last season (and in some cases, like Grimm, it was pitchers who just weren't quite ready) when they turned to the likes of Roy Oswalt. Without Colby Lewis, Alexi Ogando, Matt Harrison, and Martin Perez, the patchwork has done a remarkable job. Here's a breakdown of the pitching match-ups against one of the contributing factors for depression in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Mariners: Justin Grimm: 3-3, 8.03 K/9, 3.12 BB/9, .317 BABIP, 76.9% LOB, 3.98 FIP, 3.96 xFIP, 0.7 WAR - Last three starts: 12 runs allowed in 16.2 innings Joe Saunders: 3-4, 3.76 K/9, 3.42 BB/9, .310 BABIP, 68.2% LOB, 5.15 FIP, 4.81 xFIP, -0.2 WAR - Last three appearances: 12 runs allowed in 16.2 innings Advantage: This will be Justin Grimm's third crack at the Seattle Mariners this season. In his season debut on April 11, Grimm allowed 2 runs in four innings at Safeco in a game where the Rangers beat Felix Hernandez. Ten days later, at The Ballpark, Grimm went six innings, allowed a run, struck out nine Mariners and picked up his first win of the season. This will be Joe Saunders' third crack at the Texas Rangers this season. On April 13, Saunders went seven shutout innings at Safeco to harken back to the gruesome October Wild Card start. On April 19, however, the Rangers finally did to Saunders what they should have done all along; Saunders allowed 7 runs in 4 2/3 innings at The Ballpark to expel the nasty ghosts of Saunders dominance. Of course, it's no surprise then to find out that Grimm has pitched better at The Ballpark (home FIP: 2.58, road FIP: 5.28) and Joe Saunders has pitched markedly better at Safeco Field (home FIP: 3.18, road FIP: 7.46). Perhaps this match-up favors Seattle given the ballpark it will be played in, but I still can't ever accept Joe Saunders being better than anyone. Derek Holland: 3-2, 8.10 K/9, 2.10 BB/9, .304 BABIP, 73.0% LOB, 2.80 FIP, 3.30 xFI

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The Rangers and Seattle Mariners open a three-game series Friday night with right-hander Justin Grimm taking on left-hander Joe Saunders at 9:10 p.m. on Ch. 21, ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM and ESPN Deportes Dallas 1540 AM. Grimm (3-3, 4.02): Grimm makes his eighth start of the season. ... He rebounded with a strong outing last Saturday against Detroit, ending a three-game losing streak with a 7-2 victory over the Tigers. ... Grimm allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings, walking only one.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- It's Friday and that means our weekly stock report. Let's take a look at who's trending up and who's trending down in Texas: STOCK UP Journeymen: Ross Wolf and Neal Cotts hadn't pitched in the big leagues for a combined seven years before this week. Wolf won his first major league game Wednesday while Cotts continued his tear with two shutout innings to help Wolf get the win. David Murphy: Murphy has come alive batting second in the lineup, going 5-for-18 in five starts.

The Juice returns for season No. 6! It’s almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more. This is more like what this year’s Los Angeles Angels were expecting. Thursday night the Angels won their fifth in a row, downing the Kansas City Royals 5-4 thanks to home runs from Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Mark Trumbo and Chris Ianetta. The win pulled the Angels even with the Seattle Mariners for third place in the AL West and gave roughed-up pitcher Joe Blanton his first win of the season in nine starts. The Angels are now 20-27 and the highest they’ve been in the standings since April 27. It’s not proof that everything is right in Anaheim, but it’s a promising sign that things are getting better. The most impressive moment for the Angels came early: Trout’s first inning home run traveled 463 feet, the longest of his career, the third longest this week and 11th longest of the season, according to Home Run Tracker . View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Texas Rangers News

Happy Friday, everybody... Drew Davison has a story on Justin Grimm, and how he's gone from disappointment at University of Georgia to major league starting pitcher (who also rooms with Robbie Ross). Master Tesfatsion has a story at the Rangers' website about Leonys Martin, who the team is pushing to play more fundamental ball and less "Latin style." Evan Grant has a story on how the Rangers' farm system is paying dividends in terms of providing pitching depth that is helping the Rangers thrive in the early months of this season, despite missing key pitchers. Davison has a story on Jose Canseco, who is going to be a player/coach for the Fort Worth Cats on their current eight game homestand. Anthony Andro also has a story on Canseco and his return to the Metroplex. The S-T's notes talk about Nick Tepesch's blister, Colby Lewis's bullpen session, Derek Lowe's release, and Mark Teahen being signed.