Kevin Millwood, Vincete Padilla, Scott Feldman, Matt Harrison and Brandon McCarthy, these are the 5 staters that Ron Washington hopes to start off the season with. How confident am I that this is actually the opening day rotation? Well, Padilla, Feldman and Harrison would seem a safe bet and IF Millwood is healthy he is a no brainer. So that leaves us with the often injured and overall fairly unimpressive Brandon McCarthy. Should he falter the Rangers have a few options.

Kason Gabbard and Lulis Mendoza (netiher of whom could hold a spot last year) may get another try. Tommy Hunter also could get a more extended look.  My money is on Dustin Nippert. Nippert got into some games last year with the Rangers and was just ok, but he did show some flashes.

Could Neftali Feliz or Derek Holland actually make the rotation to start the year? It is not likely, but stranger things have happened.

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Kason Gabbard sure got roughed up on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays.  Gabbard only lasted 4 1/3 innings before getting pulled out of the game.  Gabbard gave up five hits, five runs, and six walks in the game.  Terrible control by Gabbard today as he put the Rangers in a big hole early in the game.

Milton Bradley led the Rangers with two rbi which came in the fourth inning on a two run single.  The Rangers did not score another run in the game until the ninth inning when they were able to push across one run on a Frank Catalanotto single.

Next up for the Rangers is a three game weekend series with the Oakland Athletics.  The Rangers need to get something going as they are five games out of the division pending tonights action.

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The Texas Rangers have the Seattle Mariners number right now as they have beat the Mariners the first two times in their three game series.  On Tuesday night, the Mariners commited four errors and the Rangers took advantage of them as they beat the Mariners 5-2.

Kason Gabbard pitched 5 1/3 innings to start the game for the Rangers.  He allowed five hits and two runs as he got the no decision in the game.  Josh Rupe got the win as he pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief after Gabbard left the game. Ruper is now 2-1 on the season.  Eddie Guardado picked up his first save of the season as he closed out the Mariners in the ninth inning.

Ramon Vazquez led the Rangers with two rbi.  Vasquez had a sac fly in the sixth inning and then a rbi single in the eighth inning.  Gerald Laird had a rbi single in the second inning and Ian Kinsler had a sac fly in the eighth inning as well. 

The Rangers will go for the three game sweep when they play the Mariners in an afternoon game on Wednesday.  Rangers Blog

The Texas Rangers lost to the Boston Red Sox on Monday afternoon with a score of 8-3.  Going up against the pitching of Clay Buchholz and the rest of the Boston bullpen, the Rangers struck out 10 times and were only able to get three runs.

Michael Young and Josh Hamilton each had a pair of doubles with Gerald Laird and David Murphy each picking up a double.  Laird was able to pick up his 10th RBI of the year and Hamilton picked up his 19th RBI.  

Kason Gabbard was the opening pitcher for the Rangers throwing for only two innings before coming out giving up no hits and three walks.  Gabbard hurt his back when he was pitching to Kevin Youkilis in the second inning.

Dustin Nippert was brought in for 2.1 innings and picked up the loss putting him at 1-2 for the year after allowing nine hits and eight runs.  Franklyn German and Joaquin Benoit were brought in to finish the game..  All together the Rangers bullpen gave up 12 hits, eight runs, and eight walks.

Tonight the Texas Rangers will take on the Tiger in Detroit for the first of a three game series.

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The Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays played fourteen innings of baseball on Wednesday night and it was the Rangers whoe came out on top with a 7-5 victory.  The Rangers scored on a wild pitch and a single in the 14th inning to score the go ahead runs.

Jason Botts had three RBI to lead the Rangers.  Botts hit a solo home run in the fourth inning and then a two run double in the sixth inning.  Josh Hamilton had two RBI and Frank Catalanotto chipped in with one RBI.

Dustin Nippert picked up the win for the Rangers and C.J. Wilson picked up his fourth save of the season.  Rangers starting pitcher Kason Gabbard pitched six innings and only allowed two earned runs and seven hits.

The only reason the game went into extra innings was because the Blue Jays score three runs in the bottom of the eigth inning off of Joaquin Benoit.

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The Texas Rangers completed a double header sweep by beating the Baltimore Orioles by the score of 5-4 in the second game.  We had blogged about the first game earlier so please read that post if you missed the first game.

In the second game, Jamey Wright picked up the win as he pitched in relief of Kason Gabbard who started the game but had to leave after only pitching 5.2 innings.  Wright did give up one earned run but was still able to pick up the win.  C.J. Wilson pitched the final inning to pick up his third save of the season.

At the plate for the Rangers, Michael Young got them going in the 1st inning with a solo home run.  Milton Bradley led the team with two RBI’s.  Ian Kinsler and David Murphy also had one RBI each.

The Rangers record now stands at 5-4 after the double header sweep of the Orioles.

The Texas Rangers picked up a nice road victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.  The 11-6 pounding gave the Rangers a 2-2 record on the season so far.

Kason Gabbard threw seven shutout innings for the Rangers, and had the Angeles batters thinking what in the hell pitch he was going to throw next.  Gabbard gave up seven hits, struck out four and walked two to earn the victory.

The big hit for the Rangers was a grandslam by Ben Broussard in the fourth inning.  That was kind of a dagger in the heart of the Angeles the way Gabbard was throwing the ball.

Josh Hamilton chipped in with three RBI while Ian Kinsler contributed with two RBI.  Michael Young also had one RBI for the Rangers.  It was a great showing by the Rangers as a lot of different players contributed in the butt kicking of the Angels.

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