Photo credit: Fantasyknucleheads.com

The Rangers and Matt Harrison have agreed to a five year, $55 million contract with an option for a sixth year. The 2018 is an option that can possibly vest.

“Harrison gets a $1 million signing bonus and annual salaries worth $5 million, $8 million, $13 million, $13 million and $13 million. The club option is $13.25 million but can escalate to $15.75 million. The club holds the option, with a $2 million buyout, but it becomes a vesting option if Harrison works 200 innings in each of the final three years of the deal.” [via Jeff Wilson, Fort Worth-Star Telegram]

The left-hander posted an ERA of 3.29 in 2012 for the Rangers, in 213.1 innings pitched over 32 starts. He has been an important part in the rotation, pitching 185.1 innings in 2011. Drafted by Atlanta he was traded to Texas as part of the Mark Teixeira-trade that sent the first baseman to the Braves.

The extension will buy out 3 years of his free agency. The Rangers now have Harrison, Darvish, Holland signed thru ’17, Holland ’18, Ogando ’16. This is what Jon Daniels and company call ”sticking to the plan.”

Last offseason the Rangers also inked Ian Kinsler to an extension thru ’17, as the club continues to identify it’s core moving forward.

Wow…I can tell you right now. I will be a wreck for at least the next month. Post season is an extremely emotional time for me and we’re not even there yet!  It’s time to break out the lucky sweatshirt…That was one hell of a game.

What I can say is that it’s definitely going to be an interesting week with the A’s and Angels in town. We’ve got a Pennant Race people! I’m not sure what Billy Beane put in the  A’s Cheerios after the All Star Break but they will not lose. They have pitched well, hit well, beat some of the best teams in the game repeatedly and it doesn’t look they are going to slow down anytime soon.

Hence the reason I was extremely worried going into this series. The Rangers were 4 games up at the beginning of the game tonight and that is not nearly enough distance for me to be comfortable. Holland took the mound for the Rangers against the young pitcher Straily.

Holland didn’t have great stuff tonight. He had trouble commanding his fastball and struggled to get ahead of batters. He worked from behind in the count for much of his outing, which is never a good thing. He lasted three innings, giving up 3 runs, 4 hits and 2 walks.

In the top of the 2nd, Holland hung one out over the plate and Donaldson made him pay when he jacked one out giving the A’s a 2-0 lead.

Mini Rant: As much as I love our announcers, it always seems like they speak at the worst times…”Derek Holland hasn’t given up a homerun to the A’s in the last 8…..CRUSH…Homerun A’s”. Tom Grieve, I love you, but I am also extremely superstitious…STOP IT.  

In the bottom of the 2nd the Rangers got a run on a bloop single by Moreland that scored Young…Whoo on the board. BUT, the A’s weren’t done… Cesepedes added another jack to the A’s board in the 3rd…Hamilton homered in the 5th…A’s scored in the 6th..Back and forth.

I was started to get really worried going into the 7th when the Rangers had 2 outs and Josh Hamilton at the plate. Why was I worried with Hamilton at the plate? I told you the end of the season is very emotional for me! The Rangers came through for me (they decided they didn’t want to give me a heart attack at the ripe old age of 29)…Hamilton walked and Beltre crushed one to center to tie up the game. (Atta boy Beltre! It’s about time someone stepped up!)

Nathan took care of the top of the 9th with a little help from Napoli…a strikeout/thrown out stealing double play was kind of awesome. In the bottom of the 9th Mitch led off with a single up the middle followed by a single by Kinsler and a sac bunt from Elvis. After an intentional walk to Hamilton Beltre came up to try and get the win…Boom single up the middle.

Adrian Beltre is my hero. Suck it A’s!

FINAL: Rangers 5, Athletics 4

END OF GAME NOTES:

• I still sing the ‘Pitcher Has a Big Butt’ Song when Oswalt pitches. It just makes me laugh.
• Koji looked good tonight. I wasn’t ready for that.
• Apparently everyone at the game tonight got tacos because Hamilton hit a home run. I like tacos. Someone bring me some.
• Seriously Beltre is my hero. The End.

Let’s get this straight…I really hate West Coast games. It’s almost impossible for me to stay up late, watch the game, and be functional at work in the mornings. Even though the Rangers and Angels have always had a good rivalry and today was a huge game with Holland and CJ Wilson on the mound, the Angels just didn’t seem like they could get people in the seats.

I’m pretty sure there should be a rule. If you don’t have a certain number of fans at a game the other team can push the game up to accommodate their fans. Sounds like a good idea to me!

Anyways…the game. I’ve been doing a happy dance over that game last night. Why? Holland took on CJ Wilson. That was fun to watch. Holland looked great last night. It looks like he’s settling in to his post season awesomeness. He pitched 7, gave up 2 runs and 6 hits.

CJ on the other hand only went 2 and 2/3 innings. Excuse me….BWAHAHAHA. Sorry, I’m done. The Rangers loaded the bases in the first but couldn’t get anything out of it…You could tell though it was only a matter of time before they started to hit the ball.

In the top of the 3rd Elvis started us off with a triple and then after Young and Napoli doubles the Rangers were on the board 3-0. Bye, Bye CJ!!!

The Rangers added a couple more in the 8th off a Nelly double and a Geovany Soto bomb to make the score 6-2…That’s how you do it boys. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Pretty simple right?

FINAL: Rangers 6, Angels 2

END OF GAME NOTES:

• Hamilton was still out with the snot rocket problem…Young did a good job of filling the 3 hole though. 5 AB, 2 runs, 2 hits, and 1 RBI…Not bad Mikey, not bad.
• Can I tell you how happy I am Holland beat CJ? Happy dances all around!
• Oakland lost again to the Tigers last night! Whoohoo!

(Image via Keith Allison.)

Things you need to know about this game:

1.  Josh Hamilton can’t play baseball with sinus issues and is really good at snot rockets.

2.  The 4th inning was the worst.  The Angels scored 6 runs.  We saw 3 Rangers pitchers and 12 Angels batters.  We also saw Tanner Scheppers throw a wild pitch and while covering home was hit by Chris Iannetta as he crossed home plate.  Then, Mike Trout nearly cleated Scheppers head when sliding into home on the wild pitch while Scheppers was down in the home plate area.  Evidently Scheppers has a bruised knee and had to leave the game.

3.  I thought that after a while, I’d get used to the weird glove crap thing that Ryan Dempster does before each pitch. I haven’t.

4.  West Coast games still suck.  Seriously, anyone who stayed up after that horrendous 4th inning deserves an award.  Or at least a free cup of coffee.

5.  Mike Napoli still loves Angels pitching.  A home run, a single, …

6.  The A’s lost earlier in the day, so the Rangers magic number goes to 13.

7. Jered Weaver is now 9-0 against the Rangers when pitching at home.

8.  Vernon Wells fell over the left field wall while trying to catch an Ian Kinsler home run. And it was hilarious.

9.  I’m blaming Hamilton for the awful 4th. Surely if he and his sinuses had sucked it up, none of that awfulness would have occurred.

10.  Eff the Angels.

11.  Despite being only 3 games back in the Wild Card game AND playing their division rival, Angels fans still couldn’t attend the game.

FINAL: Rangers 3, Angels 11

The Rangers did what they needed to do by beating the mighty Mariners 9 to 3. Yu Darvish pitched 7 super strong innings while striking out 9 batters and he looked dynamite in a hello kitty sexual way the entire evening.

Ian Kinsler started the offense engine off with a lead off dinger – his 6th lead off shot of the year. And not to be outdone by Kins, Josh Hamilton decided to hit a monster shot in the 3rd inning, and he landed it somewhere in Oklahoma.

The offense engine hit full throttle in the 8th and decided to score an additional 7 runs, which basically tucked the Mariners in bed and wished them a good night.

Koji Uehara followed Darvish and had another strong outing striking out 2. Michael Kirkman thought it would be funny to tease the Mariners one last time in the 9th by giving up 2 earned runs, but he would quit fooling around and finished them off for good.

Go Rangers!

T’s Game Notes and Observations

• Darvish reached the 200K mark on the year during the game. He has 205 now.
• It was good to see Adrian Beltre and Hamilton playing tonight.
• I think I set a new personal record by changing 7 dirty diapers during the game.
• I had no idea that Ron Washington was the player who followed Cal Ripken, Jr at shortstop when Cal finally decided to take a seat on the bench. I hope I heard that correctly on the broadcast.

(Image via Keith Allison.)

It’s nice to see the Rangers taking advantage of a series against a losing team, especially this late in the season. 

Ryan Dempster, with help by bombs by both Adrian Beltre and Josh Hamilton, pitched a solid game, going 7 innings, giving up only 2 runs.  Dempster struggled through the 3rd, 4th and 5th, but cruised through his final 2 innings of work.

Now, for the bad news. Adrian Beltre left the game in the 5th due to a sore shoulder, injured on an incredible diving play in the 2nd. Not much was said as to the extent of the injury (Beltre is getting a “precautionary MRI”), but, as we all know, a Beltre injury at this stage of the season could be pretty detrimental for this team. Let’s hope they were just being overly cautious.

And to make matters worse, Josh Hamilton left the game after the 7th with soreness in his knee.  Fantastic…

Oh, but there’s more… Mike Olt, who came into the game for Adrian Beltre in the 5th, exited the game after pulling a leg muscle in the 7th.  So, we got to see Ian Kinsler play 3rd with Jurickson Profar coming in to play 2nd. Anyone else shocked Young wasn’t asked to play 3rd? Wash confuses me.

FINAL: Rangers 5, Indians 2

Let’s start with this: Today is the 11th anniversary of 9/11. Let us never forget. A moment…

Now on to baseball…

When I was little I loved the Indians for some reason. They were my second team behind the Rangers. Why? I have no idea. I think as I got older though, my hardcore passion for the Rangers grew and the Indians got left in the dust.

Here we are in present day as the Rangers came back from an off day to take on the Cleveland Indians at home. Harrison vs. Jimenez. This should be interesting. I talked about it the last time the Indians played the Rangers. Does anyone remember when Jimenez rocked?

Yeah, about that. Now I just kind of want to laugh at him. Don’t get me wrong. I love the fact the boys came in and beat him up (with the exception of Hamilton), but seriously….how does someone go that downhill after being traded? I just don’t get it.

Jimenez lasted 5 innings but gave up 5 runs (only 2 of them being earned runs) , 4 hits and 4 walks. Harrison on the other hand looked pretty good out of the gate. He went 5 and 2/3 only giving up 2 on 5 hits and 3 walks.

The Rangers bats looked pretty good tonight too. Beltre knocked in his 31st ding dong… Kinsler, Moreland and Martin had doubles and Murphy, Martin and Soto had stolen bases. Yes, I know the stolen bases don’t have anything to do with the bats, but the fact that Soto stole a base got me excited. Sorry for partying people!

The Rangers got in a little bit of trouble in the 8th when Mike Adams came in…It was interesting. The Tribe put two more on the board making the score 6-4 Rangers.  Not to worry though. Joe Nathan came in in the 9th and shut it down.

I’m glad the Rangers pulled this one out. The A’s are seriously getting too close for comfort. I know it’s a pennant race, but let’s put some distance between us and them, ok guys?

FINAL: Rangers 6 , Indians 4

END OF GAME NOTES:

• Cruz was not in the starting lineup today. Could it be he’s not boomsticking enough?
• Where is Jurickson Profar? That kid is fun to watch. Let’s put him in more Wash. He’s proven he can play some ball. Plus, any 19 year old that says he ‘acted’ scared to get the same pitch is a hero in my book.
• I still love David Murphy.
• Mike Adams had an interesting 8th inning. I’m not really sure what he was doing. Still thinking about Joe Nathan in a Cowboys uniform? Don’t know what I’m talking about? Look it up…it’s kind of funny.

(Image via Keith Allison)

Well, the Rangers continued where they left off last night…not hitting.  Thankfully, all that ended in the 4th when Josh Hamilton laced his 40th home run, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

Saturday’s starter, Yu Darvish, did his best to mimic Derek Holland’s performance from the night before, going 8 strong innings, giving up only 1 earned run on 2 hits with 7 strikeouts.  And like Holland, the rest of the team really wasn’t supporting his strong start. With a man on 2nd and 2 outs, an Ian Kinsler error would let the Rays tie things up in the bottom of the 8th.

However, unlike Friday night, the Rangers offense woke up in the 10th.  A double by Geovany Soto followed by a Jurickson Profar double, would score Leonys Martin (who was pitch running for Soto).  A walk, single and ANOTHER Josh Hamilton hit by pitch, the Rangers would lead 4-2.

Really until the 10th inning, there’s not much else to report offensively besides Hambone’s homer.  The Rays did (purposely?) hit Hamilton in the  top of the 6th, resulting in home plate ump giving warnings to both benches.  Of course, Wash came out to argue since that wouldn’t give the Rangers a chance to retaliate, but isn’t winning retaliation enough?  I think so.

FINAL: Rangers 4, Rays 2

Did anyone else start today thinking they needed a vacation to recover from the holiday? I sure did. I love holidays, don’t get me wrong…but the day after holidays is always BRUTAL. The work day seems twice as long, the motivation is lacking, and the Rangers made me wait until tonight to watch them play when I was so used to the day games from this weekend.

Apparently the Rangers had the same jet lag feeling I did today. Second game at Kauffman Stadium against the Royals with Harrison on the mound trying to finally get his 16th win….Wouldn’t happen. They looked awful. Well, it started off just fine, but after Elvis’ homerun in the first and and RBI from Moreland in the second the Rangers went on a downhill slide.

In the third inning Kinsler got picked off third…

Mini Rant: Ian, let me start by saying I love you…you are my favorite player and have been since you started in the bigs. BUT I am getting really tired of trying to defend you to people. Please stop making stupid mistakes and go back to the basics of baseball. No more pops up or pickoffs please. Trust me you’ll thank me for the sound advice. It might save you from some Texas lynch mobs.

After the pickoff Kins decided he would start off the bottom of the third with an error putting Cain on first. A double later and the Royals were on the board. The Royals scored again on a soft sac fly to center, which Hamilton made a great throw on (Soto just couldn’t get the tag down in time)…lame.

Harrison didn’t look bad until the 5th inning. He couldn’t keep the ball down, it looked like he had no control and he paid for it. A two run bomb by Alex Gordon and a double later and Matt Harrison would take a seat on the bench. Poor guy is having a really hard time getting that 16th win.

The Royals got another homerun off Roy Oswalt in the 6th. Does anyone remember the ‘pitcher has a big butt chant’? I’m pretty sure they were talking about Oswalt (yes, I know he’s on my team…I just can’t help singing that chant everytime he comes out).

The Rangers threatened in the top of the ninth when they put runners on the corners with no outs. Young got a sac fly and the Rangers got a run out of it but unfortunately the Rangers couldn’t pull out of the holiday hangover to get the W tonight. Tomorrow we really need to get the win…I really don’t like how close the A’s are getting. Let’s do this boys!

FINAL: Rangers 3, Royals 6

Happy Labor Day everybody! I love today. Celebrating working by not going to work. Awesome. I hope everyone had a great weekend at BBQs, pools, parties, games, etc!!!

The Rangers came to play today when Yu Darvish took the mound against Chen and the Kansas City Royals. Darvish looked awesome today. He pitched 7 innings, gave up 3 hits and 3 runs and struckout 6, but the coolest part was he had a perfecto game going into the 6th inning. He got the first 17 he faced out and was only broken up by a two out walk and a bloop single in the 6th.

Darvish was on today. He looked like he was more relaxed, throwing pitches he knew he was comfortable with, and cut down on his walks. It’s amazing what happens when you don’t give up 6 walks a game.

The Rangers had Darvish’s back and put up 8 runs with 5 bombs by Beltre, Cruz, Hamilton, Young and Soto. Home run happy team!!! That makes me happy.

In the top of the 9th inning it almost got a little dramatic when Royals pitcher, Louis Coleman, plunked Nelson Cruz in the back. He was obviously trying to send some kind of message, I’m just ot sure what that message was supposed to be.

Anyways, Nelly looked like he was ready to charge the mound when both benches were cleared and warned. The drama fizzled out when Michael Young hammered one to left center. That shut everyone up. It was great. The Royals couldn’t catch up to Joe Nathan however and the game would end with the Rangers on top by 4.

Have a great rest of the long weekend everyone!!!

FINAL: Rangers 8, Royals 4

END OF GAME NOTES

• I kind of missed Profar being in the lineup today. Kinsler went 0-5 and was less than impressive. Don’t get me wrong I love me some Kinsler, but with Profar at second that is one killer infield.
• Beltre is still eating his super Wheaties.
• Hamilton is either on fire or cold as ice. He’s either bombing home runs or striking out. There is no in between and it’s starting to get on my nerves. Let’s get some consistency in here people!
• David Murphy is still my hero. Dude is a stud.
• Matt Harrison hits the mound tomorrow to go for his 16th win.