Series Preview: Texas Rangers @ Seattle Mariners

Seattle: 56-86
Rangers: 70-74

GAMES

Game 1: Felix Hernandez vs Vicente Padilla
Game 2: ? vs Kevin Millwood

Vicente Padilla was a headcase his entire career and had a reputation as being somewhat dim. He came to Texas and finally had one year of moderate success (104 tRA+) and landed himself a lucrative three year deal. Now into the second year of that deal, Padilla has posted tRA+s of 87 and 86.

Kevin Millwood was a solid enough pitcher in his 20s while with the Atlanta pitching juggernaut. He moved to the Phillies in 2003 and the good luck began to slip. While Millwood continued to pitch well, his ERAs rose and he suffered health issues in 2004. Unable to land himself the multi-year deal his agent thought he worth, Millwood took a one year deal with the Indians and proceeded to rock the house in ERA and grabbed hisself a nifty five year deal.

Now, Millwood had a legitimately good season in 2005 (116 tRA+), but he got paid for his 146 ERA+. Millwood gave the Rangers what they hoped for in year one with a full season of 111 tRA pitching but since then he's suffered more injury problems and posted consecutive tRA+s of just 91.

Likely Starters:
C TTaylor Teagarden/Gerald Laird
1 Hank Blalock
2 Joaquin Arias
3 Chris Davis*
S Michael Young
L Marlon Byrd
C Josh Hamilton*
R Nelson Cruz
D Milton Bradley^

The Rangers will likely mix the lineups a bit more as they're now in the same position we are, playing for 2009.

CONTEXT

I have no idea who's starting the second game of the series as the Mariners probable pitcher list still says Ryan Feierabend and I have my doubts that he's going to be making that start. Could be Carlos Silva, could be Jarrod Washburn, could be who the hell knows.

Adrian Beltre clearly loves me back and expresses his affection by hitting line drives and homeruns.

Jose Lopez, first half: .298/.318/.412
Jose Lopez, second half: .285/.325/.478

Ichiro: 185 hits and counting.

Well Felix, Morrow has thrown down and bettered your no-hit mark by two outs. Maybe it's time to remember what it's like to be transcendent?

THIS SERIES BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Great Pumpkin
Elysian Brewing. Seattle, WA

The first ale that I tried that managed to pull off the delicate balance between having enough pumpkin spice flavor to not cause a let down from the usually potent spice aroma and not having so strong a flavor as to taste like something beside a beer.