Since I have been slacking off the past week, I'll get caught up now.
The Rangers are finally getting on the winning side of things now having won 3 of their last 4 games.
The first was a 6-0 victory in Pittsburgh with Texas getting some very rare starting pitching. Kam Loe pitched 8 scoreless innings allowing just 5 hits and striking out 7 for the win. Only problem is 8 scoreless innings only lowered his ERA to 6.56 on the season. Doesn't say a lot for his season so far. Gerald Laird spurred the offense hitting his 4th homerun of the year and driving in 3 runs. Rookie Travis Metcalf also hit his first big league homerun.
The Rangers moved on to Cincinnati on the 15th, and got a winning streak going with a 7-6 victory over the Reds. Padilla started for Texas but got rocked for 6 runs on 12 hits over 5 innings, but somehow still managed to get the win. Sammy Sosa was a huge reason for that hitting the 599th homerun of his career and driving in 5 of the Rangers 7 runs. Ramon Vazquez also pitched in with his 4th homerun of the year.
The Reds romped over the Rangers in game 2 of the Cinci series dealing Texas an 8-4 loss. Jamey Wright made his 2nd start of the year, and first since April 10th, but gave up 4 runs on 9 hits over 5 innings for the loss. Travis Metcalf provided most of the offense going 2 for 4 with a double, a triple, and 2 runs batted in.
The Rangers finished off the series against the Reds with an offensive explosion scoring 11 runs on 12 hits en route to an 11-4 victory and a series win. Kevin Millwood started for Texas and actually had a decent game. He did give up 4 runs over 6 innings but walked just 2 and struck out 10 Reds batters. Lofton, Young, Byrd, and Melhuse all had multi-hit games and Byrd hit his first homerun of the year and drove in 3 runs. Adam Dunn hit 2 homeruns for the Reds but it wasn't enough as the rest of the Cincinnati offense couldn't get much going.