Braves @ Rangers (June 17th-19th)

[Molina00]

The Rangers kicked off the series against the Braves with a win thanks to a great pitching performance, (yes you heard right, a great pitching performance) from Vicente Padilla and some homerun power.

Padilla went 6 innings allowing just 2 runs (only 1 earned) on only 2 hits as he improved to 9-3 on the season and lowered his ERA to 3.73. The Rangers lead 6-0 going into the 6th when the Braves finally got on the board putting 2 runs across against Padilla, which spelled the end of his night. The Rangers added one more insurance run in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-2 lead. The Braves mounted another rally in the 8th scoring 3 runs off Eddie Guardado to make it a 7-5 game, but C.J. Wilson shut down the Atlanta offense in the 9th for his 14th save of the season and the Rangers won the opener 7-5.

Josh Hamilton hit a 2-out, 2-run homerun in the first inning against Tim Hudson, his 19th blast of the year.

Vicente Padilla is currently on pace to win 20 games this year. If he makes it he would be the Rangers first 20 game winner since Rick Helling did it back in 1998.

[Molina00]

As has been the trend this year when the Rangers reach the .500 mark, they lose th next day. Yesterday was no different. In a 7-5 win to reach .500 on Tuesday, they fell back down in a 5-2 loss in yesterday's game.

Eric Hurley made the 2nd start of his big league career, and had nother solid outing going 5 innings and giving 2 runs on 5 hits and striking out 5 Atlanta batters. He left the game in line for a loss however with the Rangers trailing 2-1. Texas tied it up with a 6th inning run with no more scoring until the 9th inning. With the game tied at 2, C.J. Wilson took the mound for Texas, and it did not go well. Wilson gave up 2 hits, a walk, and committed an error which resulted in three Atlanta runs giving the Braves a 5-2 lead. The Rangers failed to score in the 9th and went down by that score.

Game Note: Chipper Jones went 2 for 5 maintaining his .400 batting average for the year and hit his 16th homerun against Hurley.

[Kingdom]

Mike Gonzalez is back. I don't have lofty expectations for him just yet, considering what he is coming off of. But if we can get him and Soriano on track with Jeff Bennett, the end of games are slightly more encouraging. Just not really sure what the hell will start the games.

[Molina00]

The Rangers got back to .500 with a 5-4 win in yesterday's game and won the series against the Braves 2-1.

Scott Feldman started for Texas and pitched very well giving up just 2 runs in 5 hits over 7 innings. He didn't figure into the decision however an C.J. Wilson gave up 2 runs in the 9th to allow the Braves to tie the game at 4. Michael Young played hero in the bottom of the 9th with a walk-off run scoring single to give the Rangers a 5-4 victory.

In the top of the first inning Josh Hamilton showed that he isn't all bat. I think it was Chipper Jones who hit a fly ball to rightfield, Hamilton made a half sliding-half diving catch for the out then gunned down Ramon Vazquez trying to advance to third for the outfield assist.