Bouncing Back

Texas has scored a total of 18 runs in the last two games, ending a four-game losing streak and earning two straight wins. Matt Treanor (above) led Texas in Wednesday's game with four RBI in it's 9-5 victory. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

One thing has been a given for the 2010 Texas Rangers (28-24) through the first couple of months of the season: they beat up on bad teams.

That was case in the first two games of the three-game set against the Chicago White Sox (22-30), as Texas has relied on it's bats to pound the Sox into submission.

"We score four runs at the beginning of the game, with [Mark] Buehrle on the mound, you're a little excited about the game," White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen said after Tuesday's game. "Then, all of the sudden, everything was turned around."

After Chicago jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings, Texas scored seven runs between the fourth and sixth innings - including five in the sixth in which the Rangers took the lead for good at 7-4. Texas got to Buehrle early, chasing him after 5 1-3 innings as he gave up six runs on 12 hits.

"He's going to work fast. He's going to throw his changeup down in the zone and try to get you to roll over, but we were able to get to him a little bit in the first inning and make him throw a lot of pitches," Ian Kinsler said of the Rangers loading the bases in the first inning, although they didn't score. "I think it might have affected him later in the game when he was getting up to about the 100 pitch count. It kind of tired him out a little bit."

It was the first time the Rangers had scored eight or more runs in a game since a week earlier, their last win on May 25, against the Kansas City Royals.

Wednesday night's game saw the Rangers waste no time in jumping out to a lead against the White Sox as Texas took a 3-0 lead after the first. Texas would push it's lead to 9-2 at the end of the sixth behind Matt Treanor's big night. Treanor knocked in a career high four runs (more than he knocked in all of May) as he helped the offense put Chicago away early.

While the Rangers' bats were hot, Texas pitching looked about the same as it has in recent weeks. Texas gave up 11 runs on 19 hits in the first two games of the series, numbers that are consistent with the display Rangers' pitchers have put on in the past few weeks.

Rich Harden (W, 3-1) lasted only five innings in game 1, giving up four runs on seven hits and three walks, as Texas had to use five relievers to close out the game. Scott Feldman (W, 3-5) started Wednesday night and got off to a good start, giving up only three runs as he cruised through the first seven innings. Feldman faltered in the eighth, however, as he allowed a two-run homer to Paul Konerko (his second of the game) that cut the Rangers' lead to 9-5. Luckily, Feldman survived the inning and Texas was able to put in little-used reliever Pedro Strop to close out the game.

While it isn't a brand of baseball that is going to win many games come playoff time, Texas is winning in it's usual fashion - against sub-.500 teams. For the year, the Rangers are now 21-6 against team's currently with losing records... and 7-18 against team's above .500.

The third and final game against the White Sox in Chicago is Thursday night with a 7:10 p.m. start time. The Rangers' most consistent pitcher, Colby Lewis (4-3, 3.41 ERA), gets the start while former Seattle Mariners' great Freddy Garcia (4-3, 5.26) starts for Chicago.

News and Notes:

• After 22 years, Ken Griffey Jr. has called it a career. I've been to many baseball games in my time, he is hands-down the greatest player I've ever seen play.
  
• Vladimir Guerrero is expected to play Thursday despite sitting out Wednesday's game due to a severely swollen left eye . Guerrero hit a ball of off the roof of the batting cage in batting practice and the ball bounced right back at him, hitting him in the face. Guerrero says his vision is fine and X-Rays showed no structural damage.
  
• With Derek Holland headed to the D.L. with a left rotator cuff injury, Tommy Hunter will make his first start of the season in his place on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Hunter started 19 games for the Rangers last season, going 9-6 with a 4.10 ERA.

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)