Game 154: Rangers vs. Angels

In the midst of the last home stand of the season, the Rangers play three against the Angels and three against the A's. They need to go 5-1 to hit the road above 500 for one last series.

The series at a glance:

• Game 1: Harrison vs. Jon Garland - QP: Harrison - Harrison is pitching better and better each time out. How can he possibly better his last performance?
• Game 2: Padilla vs. Santana or Moseley - QP: Angels. Padilla is once again looking out of sync.
• Game 3: TBD vs. John Lackey - QP: ??? - it's hard to say when you don't know who is pitching for the Rangers... however, I would have to say that the edge already goes to the Angels.

Scouting Report:
Angels: Garland worked around another poor first inning to throw a quality start Saturday against the Mariners, yielding just two first-inning runs on six hits in six innings. He has given up nine first-inning runs on 14 hits in his last four starts (20.25 ERA), but has not given up runs in any other innings of his last two outings (11 scoreless innings). Garland retired nine consecutive batters at one point on Saturday and did not give up a hit after the first until Ichiro Suzuki tripled in the fifth.

Rangers: Harrison will be hard pressed to best his last effort. At Oakland, Harrison tossed a shutout. He allowed just five hits and four walks and struck out five. It was the first shutout by a Rangers rookie in five years. It took Harrison seven Major League starts to strike out more batters than he walked in a game, but since Aug. 16, he has 27 strikeouts to nine walks. Harrison will face the Angels Friday. He earned his first career victory against the Angels in his debut, allowing only two runs on five hits and a walk in seven innings.

Harrison averages around 5 3/4 innings per start. The Rangers are 9-4 when he starts. He is 6-1 in his last eight starts. He still does pretty good against the good teams. He has 13 career starts, but he has already faced two teams twice (Oakland and Seattle). This will be the second time for him to face the Angels.

Notable Angels:

• Garrett Anderson: 1-3 with 2 RBIs
• Howie Kendrick: 2-3 with a double
• Vlad "The Impaler" Guerrero: 1-3

Garland is 14-8 with a 4.47 ERA and is 7-3 on the road with a 4.93 ERA. This season he is 1-1 against the Rangers, giving up 12 runs on 16 hits in 13 innings. He has handed out 4 long balls to the Rangers. For his career, he is 5-8 with a 5.85 ERA in 104.2 innings. He has also handed out 19 career homeruns to Texas.

The current roster is not too fortunate. Only five players have one HR each on the Rangers roster against Garland (Kinsler [DL]), Blalock, Bradley, Laird, and Chris Davis).

Notable Rangers:

• Frank Catalanotto: 12-39 (.308 BA) with four doubles and two RBIs
• Hank Blalock: 9-31 (.290 BA) with 2 doubles, a HR, and 2 RBIs
• Milton Bradley: 6-19 (.319 BA) with 2 doubles, a HR, and 8 RBIs

It's a shame that he is out. Next season, could the batting title be his?
Forecast: I like the Rangers in this one. Even after looking at the numbers, I think the Rangers will take this one with a score of 6-4.

Home Plate