Another brilliant performance!

When Kevin Millwood first came to the Rangers, he was coming off a season where he led the MLB with the lowest ERA. Reporters asked him if he was concerned about pitching in the Ballpark, which was notorious for inflating ERAs. His answer was perfect. He simply said that it was about winning, not ERAs. He didn’t have to keep the other teams from scoring ANY runs. He just had to keep them from scoring more runs than the Rangers. And we all know the Rangers can score runs. His philosophy worked to perfection last night. He held the Mariners to 5 runs. The Rangers scored 6, and he got the win.

Millwood used only 87 pitches to get though 7.1 innings, leaving the Rangers 6-5 lead in the hands of C.J. Wilson and Frank Francisco to close out. They didn’t disappoint.

Last night’s win was full team effort. Millwood worked quickly and efficiently against the free-swinging Mariners, which made the 9:10 start bearable. The Rangers put together some timely hits, including home runs by Michael Young and Chris Davis.  Elvis Andrus, who appears to enjoy batting in the #2 spot, had two hits and made an unbelievable play in the ninth that turned out to be a game saver. The kid’s got game! Wilson retired the one batter he faced, and Frankie got the 4-out save.

Where I questioned Ron Washington’s decision last week to replace Scott Feldman with Derek Holland with the bases loaded against Jim Thome, I applaud his decision to bring in Wilson to face Russell Branyan (who had already homered off Millwood) last night. Millwood had only thrown 87 pitches, so he wasn’t tired, but you could tell the Mariners were starting to figure him out. You would have hated to see such a brilliant performance ruined by a single swing of the bat. The decision proved to be the right one. I also liked Wash’s decision to bring Frankie in with 1 out to go in the 8th. Frankie is the best closer in the AL right now. When the game is on the line, he’s our man! Good call Wash!

Vicente Padilla takes on Erik Bedard in the matinee came this afternoon.  Let’s see if the Rangers can cut the Mariners’ lead in the AL West to a 1/2 game