Yu Darvish (12-9, 4.51 ERA) took the mound for Texas after sitting out his last start with a tight quad. He took on Rays pitcher James Shields (12-7, 4.01 ERA).

It was the first start against the Rays for Darvish and he had a stellar outing. Yu’s final line was sparkling and showed real progress for the right-hander: 7 IP, 6 hits, 2 walks, 10 k’s.

Shields took the loss, but kept Texas out of rhythm with his devastating change up. He also went seven innings, allowing three hits, walking two and striking out eight batters.

Tonights game was just another reason why Texas is so good. Derek Holland got roughed up last night, but the Rangers offense responded against one of the best pitchers in the AL in David Price. Tonight, Shields was pitching well, but one mistake did him in and the Rays offense never got going. Hard-luck loser, indeed.

Aug 28, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher

Pitching Out Of Jams: Darvish showed a veteran-like mentality in the second inning when he gave up a leadoff walk to Ben Zobrist and a double by Luke Scott to put runners on second and third with none out. He struck out Carlos Pena on a 3-2 fastball, got Ryan Roberts to fly softly to center field and induced a ground ball from Jose Lobaton to get out of the inning unscathed. Darvish may walk a lot of hitters, but he can certainly pitch out of jams. A lot of pitchers would be lucky to only give up a run there, so you have to give Yu credit.

Yu Swing, Yu Miss: Darvish notched his major league-leading 8th game with double-digit strikeouts, striking out 10 through seven shutout innings. It helped that the Rays had never faced the rookie from Japan before and therefore didn’t know what kind of movement his pitches had. They learned that answer quickly: Nasty movement. Darvish struck out at least a batter every inning and the combination of his slider and curveball had Tampa Bay swinging away in vain all night.

Clutch Kinsler: Ian Kinsler led off the fourth inning with his 16th homer of the year. Kinsler deposited the full count pitch from Shields into the left field seats to give the Rangers the only run of the game for either team. It was the fifth long ball of the month for Kinsler, the most he has had since April.

Moreland Saves Shutout: In the top of the eighth inning, the Rays had a runner on second with two outs. Zobrist hit a sharp grounder toward Mitch Moreland who backhanded it on a slide and then ran to the bag to record the final out himself. It saved the tying run from scoring and was just an all-around great play by the Rangers first baseman.

Golden Sombrero For Pena: Pena struck out on all four of his at-bats in the game, three times against Darvish and then the last one on a pitch low and away from closer Joe Nathan in the ninth. Pena’s averaged dropped to .190 which is a low for any regular player in the American League.

First Time Success, Rookie Record: With the win, Darvish improved to 9-3 against teams whom he was facing for the first time and he also collected his 13th win of the season, which is a Rangers rookie record.

Texas will try to sweep Tampa Bay tomorrow to finish off this ten-game homestand.

Matt Harrison (15-7, 3.04 ERA) will take on Alex Cobb ( 8-8, 4.32 ERA).

The game will be played at 6:05 p.m. to relieve some of the traffic issues that will be caused by the Dallas Cowboys playing their final preseason game across the street in Cowboys Stadium.

Derek Holland was solid for Texas, going seven strong and utilizing command all of his pitches by striking out five and walking only a pair. He allowed three runs on five hits. Holland’s slider was most effective, producing some ugly swings from the Orioles and keeping their hitters off balance.

Aug 22, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers third baseman

Orioles Pitcher Tommy Hunter had a very poor outing, going only three innings and allowing eight runs (all earned) on eight hits, walking two and striking out none.

But the night was about Beltre.

Getting the early lead: Beltre led off the second pitch of the second inning with a line drive shot off of Hunter (423 feet) to give the Rangers the early 1-0 advantage.

Defense at its finest: Texas made some spectacular plays in this game. In the first inning, Moreland dove to his right to snag a sharp grounder to take away a hit from Adam Jones and then underhanded it to Holland at the bag for the out. Beltre was his usual vacuum-like self, making a handful of plays that we have become accustomed to seeing. Matt Wieters hit a bouncer to second base that Beltre had to track down in a hurry to cut off and throw him out in the second inning. His most impressive play, though, was a ball hit by Robert Andino that looked routine, but took a wicked hop and required an acrobatic barehand by Beltre and a bullet throw to first for the out.

Fourth inning to remember: Josh Hamilton led off the inning with a screaming single to center field and then Beltre was up again trying to repeat what he did his first time at the plate, and sure enough, the second pitch he saw from Hunter was blasted to left field (390 feet) to give Texas a 3-1 lead and Beltre his second home run of the night.

Two batters later, David Murphy laced an RBI double down the right field line for a 4-1 advantage. A walk by catcher Geovany Soto loaded the bases and brought up Moreland. And just like Beltre, on the second pitch he saw, he crushed it to right field  for his first grand slam (382 feet) and an 8-1 lead for the home team. Texas still wasn’t done. After Ian Kinsler singled, Hunter was pulled and Kevin Gregg got Elvis Andrus to ground into a double play, but walked Hamilton in a scrappy 11-pitch at bat by the slugger. That brought up Adrian Beltre for the second time in the inning, and on an 0-2 pitch, Beltre smashed his third homer of the night (410 feet) to center field. It completed a nine-run inning for Texas and gave them a 10-1 advantage.

Aug 22, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers third baseman

Beltre in rare company: With his three blasts, Beltre became the second Rangers player ever to hit two homers in the same inning and (according to ESPN) became just the fifth player in ML history to hit three homers in the regular season and postseason–the slugger did it in Game 4 of the ALDS last year in Tampa against the Rays.

It was the type of game that makes watching the Rangers on a daily basis such a treat, these outbursts of scoring have been rare in the past few months, but it is only fitting that on the fifth anniversary of the most runs scored in a game in MLB history, the Rangers offense was crushing the ball.

Texas will host the Minnesota Twins in the first of a four-game series on Thursday.

Roy Oswalt (4-2, 6.04 ERA) will be filling in for Yu Darvish, who is skipping his start with a tight quad. He takes on LHP Scott Diamond (10-5, 2.95 ERA).

You know, that one with the boss who drives you absolutely insane and doesn’t listen to what you have to say no matter how insightful you may think your opinions may be. What do you do, though? Do you give your boss a piece of your mind? Do you try to turn all the other co-workers against him/her? Do you quit putting forth your best effort on the work assigned to you hoping your superior will notice how disgruntled you are?

No.

You do your job because everybody knows how difficult it is to find a job in this economy and you don’t want to be the one who gets canned and is out on the street.

Enter 34-year-old Rangers pitcher Roy Oswalt.

Acquired by the Rangers on May 29th, Oswalt had made a full comeback from back inflammation that landed him on the disabled list twice with the Philadelphia Phillies and affected his performances in 2011. He was 9-10 with a 3.69 ERA in 23 starts last year, a far cry from his 1.74 ERA in 2010 in 13 starts. Most of the baseball world -including myself- viewed this acquisition as a huge opportunity to bolster a pitching rotation that had been ravaged by injuries and was looking for some continuity. Former closer-turned-starter Neftali Feliz was already on the DL for a sprained elbow -later it was revealed Feliz would need Tommy John surgery- and in his place, long-reliever Scott Feldman had taken up his rotation spot.

However, after Feldman’s ERA was hovering around 6.00, the Rangers decided it would be in the clubs best interest to give Oswalt a shot in the rotation. He debuted on June 22, which happened to be my birthday and a game I was in attendance for. To be honest, Oswalt looked pretty good. He was facing a potent Colorado Rockies offense and held them down. His final line was 6.2 Ip, 9H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO’s. Using a combination of an Eephus-esque curveball and pinpoint command, Oswalt got the win in his first start as a Ranger. It was a good step and everybody was optimistic that this would be one of those patented Ranger front office moves that would only help Texas on its quest for a third consecutive World Series berth.

24 ER, 26.6 IP in five starts after that.

Wow, NOBODY expected things to drop off that quickly. Granted, he faced teams like the Tigers and Angels in that stretch, but it became apparent that Oswalt was no longer a starting-caliber pitcher. He was moved into the long-reliever role and replaced by the very man whose spot he originally took in the rotation, Scott Feldman. Let’s move ahead in the story to Aug 5th when the Rangers were on the road playing the Kansas City Royals. Derek Holland had been replaced to start the seventh inning by Oswalt in a 6-6  game. Oswalt looked fantastic in his appearance. He went two innings, striking out four and allowing no one to reach base.

August 5, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Roy Oswalt (44) delivers a pitch against the Kansas City Royals during the seventh inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

Here is where the “Wheel of Controversy” began its rotation. Rangers manager Ron Washington apparently attempted to bring Oswalt out for a third inning with the game still tied and not wanting to use weapons such as Robbie Ross or Mike Adams against the bottom of the order. Oswalt refused to come in.  According to Wash after the game, Roy simply said he’d had enough and that he was done.

Enter yesterdays game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Oswalt got the start because of supposed passport problems for pitcher Ryan Dempster (odd, since Dempster is Canadian)  which prevented him from even making the trip with the team. Oswalt was cruising through the first two innings before a walk with one out in the third to Blue Jays center fielder, Anthony Gose. Gose promptly stole second and then was advanced to third because of a balk by Oswalt before eventually scoring on a base hit. The following inning, Oswalt hit Edward Encarnacion with a breaking ball on the first pitch of the inning and then advanced him to second base on another balk.

When is the last time you have seen a pitcher balk in consecutive innings?

That is not something I had ever seen and indicated to me that Oswalt may not be as focused as he needed to be. Roy got out of that inning unscathed, but allowed a leadoff single in the fifth. After a sacrifice and a pop-up bunt attempt, I was astounded to see Wash making his slow walk out to the dugout, and as emphatically as I had ever seen him, make the usual tap on the arm to bring in a new pitcher. The camera was zoomed in on Oswalt as Wash took the ball from his glove and he did NOT look happy and barely even acknowledged his skipper before walking back to the dugout and sitting on the side of the bench away from his teammates.

Now, obviously, Roy wasn’t overjoyed to be pulled from the game with two outs in the fifth inning, but even worse was that he was also one out away from qualifying for a win in a game that he had pitched well in so far. You can make the case that the batter for the Jays, Colby Rasmus, had Oswalt’s number in his career (5-10 lifetime against him) and that Washington wanted to go with the lefty-lefty matchup out of the pen with Robbie Ross, but all I could think about was that Royals game and Oswalt saying that he was “done” and refusing to go out for that third inning. It seemed like Wash getting a little bit of revenge by saying “you can’t get the win” before cackling maniacally like a cliche villain in a James Bond movie. The whole thing had a very vindictive feel to it.

No team wants a conflict between a manager and a player to be brought to the forefront, Wash said after the the game that Oswalt was “out of gas,” but out of gas after 62 pitches in a game he was cruising through? Doubtful.

July 3, 2012; Chicago, IL, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Roy Oswalt (44) is removed from the game by manager Ron Washington (38) during the fifth inning against the Chicago White Sox at US Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

This is all just one man’s opinion. I am far from a deity who can foresee these things before they happen, but from the perspective of this viewer: Oswalt is a disgruntled employee who isn’t locked in on his job.

The Rangers don’t need this. Anything that could be considered a complication/distraction to the team is bad news.

They have plenty of pitchers who stepped up during the early, injury-ravaged summer months. Martin Perez is a future star, he would be a more than serviceable long-reliever for Texas come post-season time and showed his talents in a few starts for the Rangers.

In this situation, the manager of the back-to-back AL Champions is going to get the benefit of the doubt over the veteran pitcher brought on mid-season.

It isn’t that I don’t like Oswalt, I just do not believe he is in it for the long haul and that he is truly buying in to the team’s way of doing things. You have to put TEAM first always, this is a matter between ego vs ability and Oswalt’s ability is just not what it used to be despite his belief that it is. He can be a valuable bullpen piece for the Rangers, but he has to accept his role and do whatever it takes to win.

If not, Oswalt may want to pack his bags because Texas will not be the place for him.