The Texas Rangers begin a two-game series at Boston on April 17^th and the Rangers appear to be the team headed in the right direction for the moment. Texas leads the American League (and the AL West) with an 8-2 record while the Red Sox sit in last place in the AL East with a record of 4-6, but only two games out of first.

The Rangers are clicking on all cylinders heading into the matchup while the Red Sox are dealing with internal issues stemming from manager Bobby Valentine’s comments regarding Kevin Youkilis. Now the Red Sox players and Valentine are saying that apologies have been made and they’ve put it behind them but you still can’t help but wonder if that’s all true. Apparently Valentine has forgotten that he is no longer a commentator and can’t just openly criticize a player that way. It definitely affects team chemistry.

So what exactly can Rangers’ fans look forward to? You can surely expect some great pitching battles but I believe the Texas offense will be the deciding factor when all is said and done.

Game One, Tuesday, Colby Lewis (TEX) vs. Jon Lester (BOS)

Colby Lewis is 2-3 lifetime against the Red Sox and was absolutely disastrous against them last season posting a 1-2 record with an 8.22 ERA. In fact, in his worse start against Boston, he only lasted 3 1/3 innings allowing four runs on seven hits. He’s 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA so far in two starts this season and is a notably better pitcher on the road. He appears to be in a better groove this season and I expect him to go at least seven innings.

Key matchup: Lewis vs. Adrian Gonzalez who is 6-7 lifetime against him posting an .857 batting average with two home runs and no strikeouts.

He owns: Dustin Pedroia who is 3-14 with a .214 average.

Jon Lester is 3-1 with a 3.48 ERA against the Rangers over the past ten years. This season he is 0-1 with a 2.40 ERA but has also had the misfortune of losing pitcher’s duels with Justin Verlander and Ricky Romero.

Key matchup: Lester vs. Nelson Cruz who is hitting .500 (6-for-12) with one home run off of him.

He owns: Ian Kinsler who 3-19 with a .158 average, though two of his three hits have been home runs.

Expect a gritty pitcher’s duel in this game and if it comes down to a battle of bullpens then Texas will be the likely victor.

Game Two, Derek Holland (TEX) vs. Josh Beckett (BOS)

Derek Holland comes into the game with a 1-0 record and a 3.38 ERA. He is 2-1 lifetime against the Red Sox with a 2.95 ERA. Holland is still young and maturing into an eventual ace pitcher. I expect great things out of him this season as well as in this game.

Key matchup: Holland vs. Nick Punto who is hitting .429 against him (3-for-7).

He owns: Kevin Youkilis who is 0-6 against Holland with four strikeouts.

Josh Beckett is 1-1 with a 5.68 ERA so far this season but has managed to keep his WHIP low at 1.11. Beckett is 3-2 lifetime against the Rangers and doesn’t appear to have his stuff together so far this season though it is still early.

Key Matchup: Beckett vs. Josh Hamilton who is 6-for-14 with a .429 average and two home runs in his career versus him.

He owns: Adrian Beltre. Beltre is just 4-for-23 with a .174 average and 10 strikeouts.

I fully expect Derek Holland to dominate this game and to see Texas score at least seven runs in what will be a Rangers’ victory.

Until next time, I’ll see you in the cheap seats!

James Holland is a lifelong fan of baseball and his hometown Texas Rangers. He is also a contributing writer for shutdowninning.com and the senior writer/editor at clawandantlernation.com as well as a member of SABR. You can follow him on Twitter where he waxes poetic about all things baseball @SDIJamesHolland.

Sources:

http://texasrangers.com

http://bostonredsox.com

http://baseball-reference.com

http://baseball-almanac.com

The Texas Rangers got to enjoy their first off day of the season in Boston today. It was Patriot’s Day and the annual running of the Boston Marathon, but unfortunately all that was noteworthy in Beantown was the state of the Red Sox clubhouse.

While the Red Sox are once again experiencing issues that are better suited for a soap opera, the Rangers are playing some of the best baseball around. After sweeping their three game set with the Minnesota Twins, the Rangers now have an 8-2 record which is the best in the American League and only trail the Los Angeles Dodgers who have started the season better than anyone ever would have expected.

The Rangers enter the series with Josh Hamilton absolutely on fire. Hamilton has resembled the hitter that he was in 2010 when he won the AL MVP. If he can maintain anywhere near this production, he could be in line for not only another MVP trophy, but also a huge contract. Hamilton is hitting .390 with four home runs so far this season and has homered in his last two games. If there is a downside to Hamilton’s start it is that he has yet to take a walk this season. So far, he has done an excellent job of not getting beat with breaking stuff away, which killed him in 2011. He has gone after some of those pitches early in counts, but is laying off later in counts or driving the ball the other way. Regardless, his lack of patience could begin to catch up at some point, especially as advance scouts begin to return with more data as the season continues to progress.

While Hamilton along with Ian Kinsler and Michael Young have carried the Rangers offensively this year, the pitching staff has been the Rangers’ backbone. It is ten games into the season and not a single starting pitcher has lost a decision and every starter has lasted at least five innings for their first two times through the rotation. There have been a few issues with the rotation and most of them have been with Yu Darvish, but as a whole there is not much more that could have been asked out of them.

Colby Lewis will be on the mound for the first game in Boston. He enters with a 1-0 record, a 1.42 ERA and 15 strikeouts. It will be a matchup of opening day starters as he will be matched up against John Lester who is 0-1 with a 2.40 ERA.

On Wednesday, Derek Holland will take the mound and will bring in a 1-0 record and 3.38 ERA. He is coming off a start against the Mariners where he went 7 1/3 innings, allowing two runs and striking out eight. Holland will be matched up with Josh Beckett who had one of his worst starts of his career to start the season. He gave up five home runs to the Detroit Tigers and failed to make it out of the fifth inning and then followed that up with one of the most interesting starts of his career on Friday when he pitched eight innings and only struck out one batter.

The Rangers have also had a phenomenal bullpen so far this season and the good news is that Joe Nathan has finally joined the good end of that bullpen. He worked back-to-back scoreless outings in Minnesota over the weekend and looked much sharper in both of them. Alexi Ogando, Mike Adams and Robbie Ross have carried the bullpen and now they can hopefully begin to experience the same consistency from Nathan.

The Rangers will only be in Boston for two days, but hopefully they can continue to play good baseball and turn the baseball world’s attention away from the Red Sox clubhouse for at least a few days.

John Bowman is a lifelong baseball and Texas Rangers fan that loves to ponder the deeper aspects of the game. Some of his first baseball memories involve Arlington Stadium nachos, Charlie Hough’s knuckleball, dirt on Pete Incaviglia’s uniform and the voices of Mark Holtz and Eric Nadel as he fell asleep.

MINNEAPOLIS — Pitching, fielding, baserunning and timely hits. That all fell into place for the surging Texas Rangers this weekend.

Just like the fastball Glen Perkins left over the middle for Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton’s two-run homer in the eighth capped a three-run inning for the Rangers and set up Joe Nathan for the save against his former team in a 4-3 victory on Sunday over the Twins, their first series sweep in Minnesota since 1999.

“I’m not trying to do too much. It’s ‘do what the situation asks for,’” said Hamilton, who leads the American League with 16 hits and is tied at the top with four home runs.

Perkins (0-1) walked Ian Kinsler to start the eighth, and Elvis Andrus followed with a triple to bring the Rangers within one. Then Hamilton hit the first pitch he saw from Perkins an estimated 449 feet into the upper deck above right field.

“He’s locked in. He’s doing everything. He’s using all the fields. He’s not missing mistakes. He’s playing tremendous defense. We certainly needed that big hit he gave us today, and that’s what he’s been doing for us,” manager Ron Washington said.

Hamilton is 6 for 12 in his career with two homers and five RBIs against Perkins.

“That’s what they do when you make a mistake, and he did what he should’ve done with that,” Perkins said.

The Rangers won their fourth in a row and raised their AL-best record to 8-2. The Twins have the worst mark in the league at 2-7.

Robbie Ross (2-0) struck out three in relief of Neftali Feliz over two scoreless innings for his second win in as many days. Then Nathan pitched a perfect ninth for his third save in four tries with his new team.

“We’ve got an unbelievable team that can hit, get runs whenever it seems like they want to,” Ross said. “It’s pretty cool. It makes pitching a lot easier.”

The Twins stretched their lead to 3-1 after a triple by Denard Span — who is 10 for 18 in his last four games — and a single by Jamey Carroll. Joe Mauer walked, but Ross retired three in a row.

“We thought we had a pretty good opportunity there, but the kid made some pitches and got us out,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Then in the eighth, Span started with a single but Carroll popped his bunt attempt up and Mauer grounded into a double play.

It’s strange the direction that the baseball season takes you. When the Texas Rangers’ season began in 2012, the team named Colby Lewis their Opening Day starter, pretty much naming him their ace. I argued that Derek Holland deserved that role and was the best pitcher on the team. Yu Darvish came in with a lot of hype and people believe he can become the Rangers’ ace over time.

The best pitcher on the Texas Rangers’ team after almost two turns through the rotation is Matt Harrison.

Harrison, in his fifth year in the Rangers’ rotation, is playing the best ball of his entire career. His lifetime ERA is 4.36, and coming into the season, he only won 30 games in 62 starts over four seasons.

In his first two starts of 2012, he has a 0.64 ERA and is 2-0. In his first start, on April 8 against the Chicago White Sox, Harrison was brilliant. He threw six shutout innings, giving up four hits and two walks while striking out three batters. This was almost expected, following the best spring of his career, where Harrison finished four starts with a 1.69 ERA, giving up three runs over 16 innings.

In his second start, on April 14 against the Minnesota Twins, Harrison was just as dominant. The Rangers’ starter went eight innings, the longest of any starter for Texas in 2012 so far, and gave up seven hits and one run, while walking two and striking out four. He picked up his second win of the year and was more dominating than anyone could have dreamed.

There is always the chance that Neftali Feliz, another shutout pitcher for the Rangers this season, could trump Harrison, but that would be even more incredible. Who would have thought that the two best pitchers in Texas would be Matt Harrison and Neftali Feliz?

The questions heading into 2012 was surrounding pitching, a normal worry for Rangers’ fans. However, no starter has picked up a loss this year and the only two losses came at the hands of closer Joe Nathan. While this bliss won’t continue, enjoy it while you can. It’s something most Rangers’ fans are not used to.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Texas Rangers fan his entire life, watching the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate play for over 30 years. While Texas has moved their Triple-A team, Shawn still remains a loyal Rangers fan and awaits the year they finally win the big one.

Source: MLB.COM

Other articles by Shawn S. Lealos:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Joe Nathan signed his contract with the Texas Rangers way back in November. He reported to spring training with them in February and started the regular season as the closer for the two-time defending American League champions.

The transition from Twins leader to Rangers newcomer wasn’t complete until he arrived in the Twin Cities on Thursday night and checked into a hotel room instead of driving to his home in the Minneapolis suburbs.

”This is when it really hits you,” Nathan said from his locker in the visiting clubhouse at Target Field. ”This was such a huge part of my life, this place. It kind of becomes a reality that it’s over here.”

Nathan became a star here. He set records here. He started a family here. He loved it here, and even though he has moved on to a much better team with much higher expectations that gives the 37-year-old a more realistic shot at winning his first World Series, it’s clear he still misses Minnesota.

”When we landed, I definitely had the feeling that I missed this place,” he said. ”I miss being here, miss the guys, miss the fans. But I’m excited about being with this club, excited about being with the Rangers. I look forward to being here for the next three days. I look forward to being around these fans.”

After throwing five times in six days, including a warmup, before the day off on Thursday, Nathan was given one more day of rest in the Rangers’ 4-1 win over the Twins on Friday night.

Nathan was an unheralded reliever with the San Francisco Giants when he was thrown into the trade package that was sent to Minnesota for catcher A.J. Pierzynski in 2003. The deal also netted the Twins Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser, two starters who projected as much better prospects than that lanky Nathan.

The former college shortstop who didn’t start pitching until he was in the minor leagues turned out to be the real gem in that lopsided transaction. The Twins converted Nathan into a closer, and it didn’t take long for him to turn into one of the most dominant stoppers in the game. He saved 44 games in his first season in Minnesota, made four All-Star teams and set the franchise record with 260 saves in his seven seasons.

He emerged as a pillar in the clubhouse, and his fidgety demeanor and trademark lip-flapping exhale of a deep breath before big pitches on the mound became synonymous with the team’s scrappy success through the last decade.

”He did it for us a long time, took the ball and gave us everything he had,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. ”Great clubhouse guy, great presence in the community. Everything we like to see out of a baseball player, handled himself very well. Plus, he was pretty good when he got the ball in the ninth, too.”

Nathan saved a career-high 47 games in 2009. But his career took a turn the following spring when he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and missed the 2010 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He returned in 2011, but struggled in the early going and needed to be sent down for another rehab stint before reasserting himself as the team’s closer in the final three months of the season.

He went 11 for 12 in save situations after returning from his rehab assignment, restoring the faith of executives across the league that the 36-year-old still had something left in the tank.

That’s what the Rangers were banking on when they signed him to a two-year, $14.5 million contract in the offseason. They planned to convert Neftali Feliz into a starter and needed a veteran presence on the back end of the bullpen to solidify a group that has won the AL pennant the last two seasons before flaming out in the World Series.

It’s been a bit of a shaky start for Nathan in Texas. He has two saves, but is 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in four appearances. He gave up three runs in the ninth inning against Seattle on Wednesday and Michael Adams closed out their victory on Thursday. But Rangers manager Ron Washington said he is not concerned with the early struggles.

”We knew he wasn’t going to be perfect,” Washington said with a shrug.

No matter how long he stays with the Rangers, Nathan will always be keeping an eye on the Twins. Before the Twins moved out of the Metrodome, Nathan took some dirt from the mound and put it in a baggie as a keepsake. He did the same thing when Target Field opened. The dirt still has a special place at his home.

”I’m going to keep that,” Nathan said. ”That’s mine. It’s going to be mine forever.”

—

Follow Jon Krawczynski on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/APkrawczynski.

Two-time All-Star Robin Ventura will return to the baseball diamond for the first time since he retired back in 2004 — this time as the newly appointed manager of the Chicago White Sox.

He will make his managerial debut on April 6, when the White Sox travel to Arlington, Texas for their season opener against the two-time AL defending champion Texas Rangers.

Fortunately for Ventura, he won’t have too see clips of his brawl-starting fight with Rangers president and CEO Nolan Ryan.

The Rangers announced Friday that they will no longer show highlights of the infamous fight, as had been custom before every game in 2011, according to ESPN.

“I just thought this offseason that we didn’t need to be showing that anymore,” said Chuck Morgan, Texas’ public address announcer and in-game presentation guru. “I watched how St. Louis treated Stan the Man during the playoffs and that’s how we should treat Nolan as the face of the franchise. We’ll celebrate his no-hitters and other moments.”

Morgan added that they might show the clip “on the day it happened as part of the 40th anniversary moments,” but that would be the only time this season.

The fight, which happened during a Rangers-Whites Sox game in 1993, began after the 46-year-old Ryan beamed Ventura in the back with a pitch. Ventura then charged the mound, inciting a bench-clearing brawl between the two teams.

Ryan, a Hall of Famer with seven career no-hitters, has been in the Rangers’ front office since February 2008 after spending the last five years of his career in Texas. Ventura, meanwhile, was named manager of the White Sox this offseason after Ozzie Guillen left to manage the Miami Marlins. 

“I also don’t think it’s right for us on our Opening Day to show a fight, and then that whole weekend we’re going to treat Robin Ventura with respect,” Morgan said. “He’s the manager of the White Sox. We don’t need to do anything like that.”

To relive one of baseball’s most legendary brawls, check out the video below.