Can't win for losing

Vicente Padilla: Who knew?

I've spent about 12 hours attempting to build some analogy for the Texas Rangers weekend.

It was two ass-whoopings. A total: 11 hits, 3 runs. An impotent offense that looks lost, out of control and completely out of sync.

Then Sunday. Vicente Padilla comes off the DL and simply dominates the Minnesota Twins for a 1-0 win.

Vicente flippin' Padilla rolling in and just making it look easy. 80 pitches in 7 innings. Just three hits and two walks. Not his best performance of the year, but he'll win games 99 percent of the time pitching like that.


Then Taylor Teagarden. Basically called up to play three games as Jarrod Saltalamacchia gets over the crud. He makes one of the best throws down to second base in Rangers history completely annihilating Brian Buscher (granted, I might have been able to do this to the slow Buscher, but nonetheless) and then he takes a Scott Baker pitch to centerfield for the game's only run.

Note: Baker was working on a perfect game at the time.

So why do you explain to someone what this weekend was like for the Rangers? Down-down-up. It's sickening the way they lost the first two games and not that the offense was any better in the third, the pitching was so fantastic, it didn't matter. I guess it's like hitting on two hot girls and getting completely ignored. Then you talk to the third and she half laughs at a couple of jokes, but you're not going to bang her and you both know that.

Pretty good analogy, right?

Notes:
1. He might drive you bonkers most of the time, but C.J. Wilson's stuff is so awesome and electric sometimes that you have to give him an entire season to iron things out. The movement on his fastball was absurd.

2. I like that Dustin Nippert throws strikes (20 of 29 Saturday). The problem is that many of them are smack down the middle of the plate. And they are hit hard.

3. Padilla has 11 wins this year in 19 starts.

4. In his next start, Padilla will probably pass his innings pitched from last year.

5. It's fun watching Eddie Guardado get guys to swing at 85 mph fastballs. He has 39 appearances this year. He had 30 total in 2006 and 2007 combined. What a catch by Jon Daniels.

6. Ian Kinsler's and Mike Young's hit streaks are toast.