Battle for the Silver Boot: Houston Astros @ Texas Rangers (6/30-7/2)

[Molina00]

Projected Matchups
Game 1: Roy Oswalt vs. Vicente Padilla
Game 2: Taylor Buchholz vs. John Wasdin
Game 3: Wandy Rodriguez vs. Kevin Millwood

Game 1 Matchup Notes
Oswalt: Against the Rangers in his career, Oswalt has gone 4-1 with a 3.35 ERA. He pitched well in his last start against the Whitesox allowing just 2 runs on 5 hits over 7 innings. In his May 19th start against Texas he allowed 3 runs on 11 hits over 6.1 innings in a no-decision.

Padilla: Has gone 1-1 with a 3.42 ERA over his last 4 starts and is sporting a solid 4.18 ERA at the Ballpark in Arlington. Currently 0-4 with a 5.68 ERA in his career against the Astros, this will be his first start against the Astros this year.

Game 2 Matchup Notes
Buchholz: Taylor will be facing Texas on an extra day of rest and in his career he has gone 3-0 with a 2.60 ERA when he has had an extra day between starts. Buchholz dominated the Rangers on May 21st pitching a 5 hit shutout against them.

Wasdin: John will be making only his 2nd start of the season. In his first start on June 11th, against the Redsox, he allowed 3 runs on 6 hits over 5.1 innings. If he can allow just 3 runs again the Rangers might have a chance to pull this one out.

Game 3 Matchup Notes
Rodriguez: Wandy has had a pretty tough time lately. In 6 June starts he has allowed 26 runs in 33 innings and posted a 2-3 record. This will be Rodriguez's first start of the season against Texas, and probably the Rangers best chance to get a win.

Millwood: Kevin has gone 5-1 with a 3.94 ERA over his last 9 starts and is 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in his last 3 home starts in Texas. He is 5-2 lifetime with a 2.60 ERA against the Astros. In his only other start against Houston this year, Millwood gave up 4 hits and struck out 6 in 7 scoreless innings for win.

Battle for the Boot: Current Standings
The Astros won 2 of the 3 games in Houston outscoring the Rangers 10-9. Texas needs to either sweep the series in Arlington or win 2 out of 3 for a tie and outscore the Astros by 2 in order to win the Silver Boot.

[Molina00]

The Rangers are off to a hot start in the battle for the boot, thanks to a homerun from Ian Kinsler, an awesome pitching performance from Vicente Padilla, and some late inning control problems from Roy Oswalt.

Padilla allowed only one run, coming in the 2nd inning, on 4 hits over 8 innings basically dominating the Astros offense. Ian Kinsler hit his 6th homerun of the year to tie the game in the 2nd. Five innings later Oswalt walked in the go-ahead run for Texas taking a 2-1 lead. The Rangers added 1 more run in the 8th and went on to take the series opener 3-1.

Padilla improved to 7-5 this year and Otsuka nailed down his 16th save and lowered his ERA to 2.31

AL West Note: The Athletics finally lost a game enabling the Rangers to finally gain some ground in the AL West. They are now 1.5 game back and have moved back into 2nd, half a game ahead of the Mariners.

[Molina00]

Game 2 just went final, and it was a good one. It started out a pitcher's duel with the Astros leading 2-0 after 6 innings. One of the runs courtesy of former Ranger Mike Lamb's homerun. The Astros broke out for 3 runs in the 7th then added 2 more in the 9th to win the game 7-0. Taylor Buchholz went 7 innings for the win making him 2-0 with 16 scoreless innings in 2 starts against Texas this year. The Rangers only managed 3 hits the entire game. The only upside for Texas was an incredible leaping catch at the centerfield wall by Gary Matthews Jr. the Astros of another homerun.

[General]

I love Taylor Buchholz.

[Molina00]

Millwood got bumped out early, due to a strained biceps tendon, but was in long enough for the Astros to put the game out of reach. Millwood got shelled for 6 runs on 9 hits over 3.1 innings and took the loss falling to 8-5 on the season. Matthews was the top hitter for Texas going 4 for 5 with 2 RBI raising his BA to .334. Ian Kinsler also contributed 3 hits, all 3 of them being doubles. Matthews also doubled twice and Laird hit his 10th double of the year. Texas got 5 runs in 5+ innings off Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez but that would be it as the Houston bullpen shut down the Ranger bats for the final 3.2 innings.

The Rangers have now lost the silver boot to the Astros and have falling to an even .500 record on the season, but are still just 1.5 games behind the A's for the division lead.