Rain, rain go awayMajor League Baseball will not acknoledge the three-and-a-half innings the Texas Rangers and Oakland A's played yesterday in a rain-postponed game yesterday.
Too bad. The Rangers were up 7-0 after finishing the top half of the fourth inning.
However, I will give those three-and-a-half innings their due.
Fact is, for 13 innings the Rangers have played some pretty neat baseball spanning back to Tuesday's win. The defense has been perfect. The offense ferocious. The pitching phenomenal.
Matt Harrison bounced back a little going four scoreless allowing just a hit and in cruise control. Maybe this is the start of another good stretch for him.
The offense also looked against another salty lefty from the A's (Gio Gonzalez) getting seven runs early including a discounted Mitch Moreland grand slam. They'd already chased Gonzalez with 71 pitches in the third inning.
Truth is, it's worked the last two days and it's a crying shame that the dumb rain rolled into town for about 12 hours of constantly wetness (which is a pretty good porn title).
A moment on Moreland: He's been, arguably, your second-best hitter on the team for the season despite the fact that he's played sparingly at times and is only getting innings, seemingly, because Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton have been hurt.
Since Moreland was drafted and placed in the farm system, all he's done is hit (.313 career minor league average ... 111 doubles). He's forced the Rangers to move him up the ladder up until last season when he entered the Majors.
Since, all he's done is kept hitting. I never knew if he had a decent glove (he's not awful, certainly), and no one can really tell if they'll develop power (his career high was 18 with low-A Clinton). Yesterday's deleted grand slam would have been his sixth homer of the year. Given a full 550 at-bats, it's relatively safe to say he'd get you 30+ doubles and 20+ home runs while playing first base or right field (as a back-up).
At some point, the mix and matching and juggled line-ups of Ron Washington will need to stop and there will need to be a consensus line-up from day to day. I think it will be really hard to leave out Moreland.
I think he's your first baseman, Mike Young's your designated hitter, Julio Borbon is in centerfield and you simply must stick Dave Murphy and Mike Napoli in when you can.
If Young or Borbon are traded (I think the most likely candidates) it simplifies things any more. Getting cute with Moreland's at-bats, however, is not doable.
