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By Peter Ellwood
“Big diff”. Remember when people used to say that? People used to talk so cray back in the day.
On to the subject at hand, run differential. As you may know, because you’ve seen it tweeted, re-tweeted, or written about countless times in the 2012 baseball season, the Texas Rangers are really good at run differential. In fact, they’re better than all other teams at run differential. They’re even almost better than all other AL teams with a positive run differential combined. If you don’t know, run differential is very simply derived by subtracting the runs scored against a team from the runs scored for a team. In short and sweet terms, you have a high (good) run differential if you score a lot and don’t give up very many runs. The Rangers score a lot (#1 in MLB), and don’t give up very many runs (tied for #4 in MLB).
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By Ben Wertz
The Texas Rangers found their offensive groove once again this weekend against the Toronto Blue Jays and it all culminated with one big inning on Sunday afternoon. The Rangers put together a seven run second inning against Toronto starter Kyle Drabek as they routed the Blue Jays 12-6 to complete the three-game sweep.
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By Chris Kautz
I've been going to Ranger games since my parents first took me to old Arlington Stadium in the mid 80s, and I've been attending games at the Ballpark in Arlington since it opened in 1994. Over the years, I've been to a few sellout games. I've been to opening day games, Yankee and Red Sox games, Fourth of July games, and playoff games. It's not unusual for any team, even a losing one, to sell out those types of games. Until recently, those were the only games the Rangers sold out.
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By Peter Ellwood
During the TV broadcast of the Rangers-Mariners game on Monday night this week, the Rangers TV crew was talking about Felix Hernandez and a part of his pitching philosophy. Getting to learn more about the way the mind works of one of today’s greatest pitchers is always interesting, but one tidbit in particular grabbed my attention. Tom Grieve made the declaration that Hernandez doesn’t worry as much about throwing first-pitch strikes as he does making sure he throws a strike on one of the first two pitches.
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By Ben Wertz
Finishing up a stretch playing 20 games in 20 days with the only “off day” being a rainout followed by a doubleheader, the Texas Rangers looked a little bit drained on Wednesday afternoon in Seattle. Ex-Ranger Kevin Millwood pitched six shutout innings and five others combined to lead the Mariners to a 5-3 victory over the Rangers in the rubber game of the series.
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By Chris Kautz
If you've followed the Rangers for any length of time, you probably know exactly who Eric Nadel is. Just in case, he's the long time radio voice of the team and the newest member of the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame. I recently had the opportunity to ask him a few questions.
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by Ben Wertz
After three consecutive poor outings, Colby Lewis was due for a good start. Little did the Rangers know, he would deliver while on the mound and at the plate. Lewis pitching eight innings of one-run baseball on Sunday afternoon and also delivered two hits at the dish as the Rangers beat the Astros 6-1 to take the rubber game of the three-game series.
The Rangers jumped on Houston starter Jordan Lyles early with a five spot in the top of the first inning. Consecutive singles by Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus to begin the game preceded a Josh Hamilton sacrifice fly to make it 1-0. Later in the inning, the bases were loaded for Nelson Cruz who delivered a two-RBI single to make it 3-0. With two outs, Yorvit Torrealba was hit by a pitch, which allowed Lewis to come to the plate with the bases loaded. Sure enough, Colby helped out his own cause before he even stepped foot on the mound as he singled to center, driving in two, and giving Texas a 5-0 lead.
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by Ben Wertz
The Rangers drew first blood with their future AL West rivals on Friday night as they took game one of the Lone Star Series series by a score of 4-1. Michael Young snapped a 5-41 slump with two hits and an RBI and the Rangers’ pitching staff limited the Astros to just four hits in the first game of three down in Houston.
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By James Holland
A little over a year ago I abandoned my ten-year long pursuit of making it in Hollywood as a screenwriter. I took my passion for writing and combined it with my love of baseball and became a sports writer. It’s still early but the success continues to grow. When I started my articles for Yahoo Sports were read by an average of 1,200 readers per day. Now those numbers have jumped to over 7,000 readers and I have joined the great guys here at Shutdown Inning.
