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As much as I dislike playing the Toronto Blue Jays or Tampa Bay Rays, because they perpetually play the Texas Rangers tough, no matter the circumstances, I feel the opposite about the Baltimore Orioles.
No matter how good the Orioles get or how bad the Rangers get, I will say with some certainty that the Rangers will hold there own. Maybe it's the curse of Johnny Oates. Or David Segui. Just something about the Orioles that the Rangers can always beat.
Down on their luck, the Rangers swooped into town and won the first game of a four-game set 14-3. Not quite 30-3, but you take it.
It didn't help matters that the Orioles were probably pretty beat from the 17-inning affair Sunday and that they essentially had no bullpen, but that's hardly the Rangers' problems, who've been on the road for two weeks.
It starts with the start. Matt Harrison was fantastic for five innings as the Rangers built a lead and then closed it out with seven really nice innings. He kept the ball, for the most part down, and it as a relief to see him back throwing a lot of strikes, locating and forcing contact. How bad were his two starts? Despite the start of the year and last night, his ERA is still sitting at 5.11.
Otherwise, it was about the offense. Whatever runs Harrison gave up were probably more due to pitching with a gigantic lead in the late innings than anything Harrison did or did not do.
Every Rangers starter -- including Adrian Beltre at designated hitter -- got a hit. Every starter except -- maybe, ironically -- Craig Gentry scored a run.
The Nos. 5-9 hitters: 12-23 - 9 runs - 10 RBI.
Included in that group is Brandon Snyder, who had a 3-run homer and a pair of RBI singles. He was playing third base. It will always be awesome to have a guy that can come off the bench and get a hit or two.
Also featured was Nelson Cruz, who's sucked for a full month now and hasn't homered since April 17. He did not homer last night, but three hits and a walk helps a lot.
However, I'm not taking another step without acknowledging probably the team's best hitter for the last two weeks and, arguably, one of the top two or four hitters on the entire team. I'm talking Elvis Andrus.
The muscle he added in the off-season looks to be paying off. He's gotten on base in 25 straight games and has a mini 7-game hit streak. He's hit six doubles in his last 10 games (two last night) and he's learning to muscle inside pitches into the outfield. He's hitting .480 in May and his average is up to .312.
Also worth noting that the bullpen's strikeout/walk ratio keeps getting better with two pristine innings from Alexi Ogando and Mark Lowe. It stands at a remarkable 72-7. Gaudy.
Ogando was brilliant, but that's becoming old hat around here. Ogando was brilliant last year, he was brilliant the year before and he's bound to be brilliant this year. I don't take him for granted, I just keep high expectations.
Lowe is the surprise, of sorts. Amazingly, he struck out the side last night on 11 pitches. Yeah, maybe some give-up on the Orioles' part, but it still happened. Never a huge walk guy, Lowe's struggled with keeping the ball out of the middle of the strike zone and up. He's allowed just six hits this year in nine innings. Just one run off his lone home run allowed.
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