Derek Holland (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Today, the game is early and comes on about 12:30 CT. It will be the final of the three-game series in Baltimore and the Rangers will look to continue the impressive run they had in the second game last night. The Rangers will have Derek Holland on the mound while the Orioles will counter with Jeremy Guthrie.

Pitching previews after the jump… (more…)

In tonight’s game the Rangers sent Rich Harden to the mound to face off against Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie.  Harden pitched one of his better games of the season pitching 5 1/3 innings giving up 8 hits, but only 2 runs with one walk keeping the Rangers in the game.

So Josh Hamilton steps up to the plate in the fourth inning and on a 2-0 counts hits a fly ball to center fielder Adam Jones.  The ball clears the fence but bounces back onto the field.  Jones secures the ball and throws in back into the infield and the umpire crew called it a double, although the television broadcast before reviewing it called it a home run and put the score at 2-2.

Even the broadcasters after viewing replays assumed that the Umpire crew would use the system instituted two seasons ago on fair/foul calls on home runs.  Umpire Doug Eddings told the umpire crew chief Dana DeMuththat he was a 100% sure that the ball did not clear the wall and nobody from the Rangers asked for a replay so Hamilton ended up ending the inning on second base no coming around to score.  So the official score was 2-1 with the Orioles leading the Rangers.

If the homered had been called like it should have been it would have been Hamilton’s second homer of the game off of Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie and the score would be tied.  Although the Rangers rallied in the seventh inning to lead the Orioles 3-2. 

The Rangers sent Chris Ray into to pitch the eighth inning and he blew the save.  At the beginning of the inning Luke Scott ground out to second baseman Ian Kinsler to first baseman Justin Smoak on the first pitch he saw.  Then catcher Matt Wieters singles on a 3-2 pitch to right fielder Nelson Cruz.

At this time there is a man on first with one out and center fielder Adam Jones stepped up to the plate and flies out to center fielder Julio Borbon for the second out of the inning.  First baseman Garrett Atkins walked to move Wieters to second base to place men on first and second with two outs.

There was then a coaching visit to the mound before Ceasar Izturis singles on a line drive to center field score Wieters and moving Atkins to third base.  After blowing the save and letting the game become tied Ray got Left Fielder Corey Patterson to fly out to Josh Hamilton to end the inning. 

In the bottom of the eighth inning Orioles relievers Koji Uehara and Cla Meredith worked around a single by Max Ramirez and a walk by Justin Smoak to get three outs and keep the game tied.  In the bottom of the eighth inning David Murphy pinch hit for Julio Borbon.  So he remained the game in the top of the 9th inning.

Josh Hamilton moved from left field to center field to replace Borbon and Murphy took Hamilton’s place in left field.  Frank Francisco enters in the ninth to attempt to keep the score tied and got one strikeout before giving up a walk and then ending the inning in a double play. 

In the bottom of the ninth inning with the score still tied at 3-3, third baseman Michael Young greets Cla Meredithwith a double on a strange play which the ball deflected off the glove of shortstop Ceasar Izturis to end up in center field.  Thanks to Young’s hustle he turned what should have been a single at the most if not a out into a double to put a man in scoring position.

Second baseman Ian Kinsler then walks on a 4-1 count before Designated Hitter Vladimir Guerrero flies out to center fielder Adam Jones.  Reliever Alberto Castillo replaces Cha Meredithand promptly walks Josh Hamilton on a 4-2 count to load the bases.  The Orioles then replace Castillo with reliever Jason Berken whose first pitch was ball to Nelson Cruz, before giving up a sacrifice fly to  to center fielder Adam Jones scoring Michael Young for the win. 

The Rangers could have lost the game due to bad call by the umpires, but umpires are only human and will make mistakes.  Umpire crew cheif Dana McDuth reported after the game after he had the opportunity to view the play that the call was wrong.

I don’t blame the umpires though, because nobody in a Rangers uniform asked about a replay and I am sure the umpires are hesitant to use it.  I know that the goal is to always be right, but MLB are constantly criticized for being long, so when the umpire Doug Eddings said he was a 100% sure about the call, in respect to game pace the it was ruled a double. 

You sometimes have to ask for calls or even push calls, I love it when catchers will point to the first or third baseman umpire on whether the batter actually went around or if it was a ball.  You have to ask for what you want and if you get turned down at least you asked, one swing being ruled a swing or one home run being ruled a double can affect the outcome of the game in turn affecting the division title.  The last two seasons American League Central has come down to a one game tie breaker, all teams play a 162 games nobody wants to play game 163, so one lose which should have been a win can mean a lot.

This again was a short series with it only being two games.  The Major League Schedule consists of 162 games a season, so in order to get all the games in and schedule days off for the teams, the schedule seems to be tricky.  In your division you play on average of 18 games against your division rivals, this changes depending on the number of teams in your division. 

The American League West only has 4 teams, although the National League Central has 6 teams in it.  Usually teams will make one trip to their respective teams outside of their division, so Texas plays the Orioles one series in Baltimore and then another series in Texas.

Commissioner Bud Selig introduced inter-league play in 1997.  This was the first time that the National League played the American League other than in the World Series.  Every year teams play another division in the opposite league, so the match up maybe A.L. West vs N.L. West, next year it would A.L West vs N.L. East.  Any how enough of how MLB scheduling works and onto the Rangers sweeping the Angels in two games.

Rangers starter C.J. Wilson only pitched into the first out of the fifth inning, giving up 7 hits, 7 earned runs and 1 walk.  Thankfully the bullpen saved a rookie start by Wilson, to not allow anymore runs and keeping the Rangers in the game.  Daren O’Day pitched into the six inning, when the Rangers took a one run lead over the Angels, so he picked up the win. 

Closer Neftali Feliz picked up his 11 save of the season, which is impressive considering he didn’t start the season as the closer.  Former closer turned middle-innings reliever Frank Francisco piched the eighth inning, allowing no hits with one strikeout.  The bullpen situation seems to be working well for the Rangers with Feliz-Francisco, so if its not broken, there is no need to fix it. 

The Ranger play a 2 game series with the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday-Thursday before starting the first interleague series against the Chicago Cubs.  The Cubs will be in town for a three game series over the weekend.  In Wednesday’s matchup the Rangers are sending Rich Harden (2-1 4.93 ERA) vs Baltimore’s starter Jeremy Guthrie (2-4 4.13 ERA).  The Ranger’s need to focus from this point forward on one game at a time equating to one series at a time.