According to T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com: "Word has been confirmed that the Rangers have signed Jurickson Profar, a former Little League World Series star from Curacao.  The 16-year-old Profar is one of the top prospects to sign on international signing day.  He is a pitcher and a shortstop who led Curacao to the Little League World Series title in 2004."

This is big news.  Profar has said he prefers shortstop, and the speculation the last few days is that the Rangers would be inclined to let him stay there.

According to at least one local report, while no specific player names have been announced, and amid a whirlwind of articles suggesting the Rangers are in urgent financial straits, the club reportedly committed at least $2.5 million today to sign multiple Latin American prospects as the July 2 international signing period opened.  There ought to be names in this year's haul that will generate some instant buzz.

As soon as names are announced, whenever that is, I'll send out a news flash.

Josh Hamilton went 0 for 4 for Oklahoma City tonight, playing center field.  He grounded out twice, flew out to left, and struck out swinging.  He's 4 for 20 on rehab with Frisco and Oklahoma.

The television broadcast of last night's Rangers-Angels game earned a season-high Nielsen rating, surpassing the previous season best, which was the night before.  Interestingly, the game was also the most-watched program in the Dallas-Fort Worth market from 9:30-10:30 PM, which of course includes the local news telecasts.  The dramatic win was the highest-rated Rangers game on FOX Sports Southwest since August 6 last year against the Yankees.

For the season, Rangers games are drawing a 72 percent increase in viewership over last year at the same point in the season, while broadcasts on Channel 27 are up 48 percent.  It's the best year-to-year improvement among all big league teams.  

Finally, we have a cool chance to do a Q&A by submission with Oklahoma City righthander Neftali Feliz.  Send me your questions for the 21-year-old fireballer by emailing me at gjsneaker@sbcglobal.net.  We'll probably close questions at the end of the weekend.

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.

The smarter team tonight, on the basepaths and in the dugout, wasn't the one that the national scribes (and a cross-section of the local ones) like to credit for having a leg up on the field in those areas. 

The team that's 5-1 this season against the other isn't the one they all would have expected.

Neither team would die tonight.  Until one of them did.

Frosty Rivera has been my baseball nemesis for about three years now, and tonight I think he vested a two- or three-year extension on that.

On the other hand, I've been hard on Hank Blalock for a while now, and tonight he earned a reprieve. 

That's a game I won't forget for a while and that Max may not forget ever.  His memorable night started with a 2-1 pitch to Torii Hunter that ended the top of the first, 6-to-3-to-Max, as Chris Davis hauled in the Omar Vizquel throw for the third out and tossed Max the ball from 30 feet as he jogged toward the dugout. 

Six innings later, as a 7-1 lead was whittled down to 7-4, Max stood for "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and placed his hand over his heart. 

There's no chance my wife and I were going to correct him.  The only possible response to our four-year-old's move was to join him, hand over heart. 

It wasn't until about 11:00, when we were halfway home from the Ballpark, having heard the radio replay of Eric Nadel's inspired call of Blalock's game-ending blast - his second homer of the game but only the first walkoff round-tripper of his career - that Max finally conked out in the car.  It was three hours past his bedtime, but he'd been running strong on adrenaline from the way that game played out, and ended. 

When we pulled into the garage and I opened the car door to lift him so I could carry him to his bedroom, he was fast asleep, but still clutching that baseball that Kevin Millwood, Vizquel, and Davis had recorded a major league out with before it was relayed his way. 

So here we are, a half-game back, having treated the Angels' best two starters badly.  Tomorrow the team rests as it awaits Tampa Bay's Friday arrival, while the front office likely opens the July 2 international signing period with a bang. 

A good day of baseball, surprising in many respects, except perhaps in the eyes of a four-year-old, a kid who has become so accustomed to the great moments that this game has to offer that maybe they're hardly surprising at all.

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.

I was flipping through a month-old issue of Sports Illustrated yesterday that had in it an excerpt from Selena Roberts's book on Alex Rodriguez.  The excerpt was subtitled "A-Rod in Texas" and detailed the ugliness of A-Rod's first season as a Ranger, on and off the field.  Roberts noted that, as of June 8, 2001, 59 games into the first season of the $252 million man's 10-year contract, Texas was 27 games out of first place. 

As of that date, the Rangers' team ERA was 6.06, and opponents were hitting an obnoxiously healthy .309/.375/.499.  The club was as bad as it had been the year before, despite A-Rod's arrival.  That week was marked by the drafting of Mark Teixeira and a decision by pitching coach Larry Hardy to demote himself back to bullpen coach.

And yet before last night, if you were to listen to talk radio or read certain columnists the last few days, you'd probably be fighting off a message that the 2009 Rangers, nearing the end of June, were as buried as the 2001 club that was 20-39 on June 8, following a home loss to Houston in front of more than 47,000 fans.

With last night's all-cylinders win (I'm choosing to ignore that disgusting ninth inning), Texas is back to within 1.5 games of the Angels' division lead, and yet will need tonight's series finale, with Kevin Millwood (2.64 ERA) facing Jered Weaver (2.65 ERA), first place against second place, to surpass in three nights the attendance that the club drew on that night eight years ago when it was 27 games back.

There's no reason not to have 30,000 in the building tonight.  Ace on ace, a chance to go 5-1 for the season against Los Angeles, the final home game against the Angels until mid-September, an opportunity to go into an off-day with what ought to be a rested bullpen as Tampa Bay gets ready to come to town.

But before you pack up your crew to get to Arlington tonight, make sure to place your All-Star votes today.  Ian Kinsler's (.267/.344/.521) lead over Dustin Pedroia (.289/.370/.382) for the American League nod at second base has shrunk from 200,000 votes to a scant 6,830, and balloting closes tomorrow.  If you go to TexasRangers.com (specifically, here) and vote the maximum 25 times, you'll get two free tickets to a future Rangers game.

(Milton Bradley voted 25 times in Sports Illustrated's recent poll of 380 players as to which manager they'd least like to play for.  Lou Piniella "won" with 26 percent of the vote.)

It appears that Elvis Andrus is going to finish third in the shortstop vote (behind Derek Jeter and Jason Bartlett), and it's not out of the question that it's going to be the lowest finish for him for many years.  Can't rule out that he gets a shot to suit up this year, actually.

Loved the five home runs and the five stolen bases last night, but under the surface I dug this just as much:

Thirty-one foul balls in 3.2 innings off of Joe Saunders (who hadn't lost in a month).  Eight of them in David Murphy's first two trips.

That's good baseball.  That's how you help dispose of a good starting pitcher in heat like this early in the game, and get to a bad bullpen. 

"He kind of provides an element we don't have a lot of: speed, contact, doesn't strike out, puts the ball in play."  Jon Daniels said that about Julio Borbon when he was called up on Monday, but last night - at long last - it could have been said about the Rangers attack as a whole.  More of that, please.

Borbon ought to be in the lineup to make his defensive debut tonight, but it's going to be interesting to see which of Murphy, Marlon Byrd, or Nelson Cruz - each of whom was really locked in last night - will sit against Weaver to make room.  Or will Hank Blalock not get the start against the righthander?  That wouldn't go over real well with the veteran, who has already bristled a bit about his playing time. 

That, of course, is to say nothing of Josh Hamilton's return within a week.  (Hamilton went 1 for 4 with a walk and a stolen base as Frisco's DH on Monday.  His rehab tour continues with Oklahoma City tonight as the RoughRiders host tonight's Texas League All-Star Game.)

Happy 29^th Birthday to Cruz, who is a .214/.214/.214 lifetime hitter against Weaver in 14 extra-base-hitless at-bats.

Then again, Cruz was a .200/.200/.467 hitter against Saunders before last night's 1 for 2 with a home run.

The bullpen over the last five games: 16 innings pitched, one earned run, 10 hits, one walk, 16 strikeouts.

There are some pitchers in Oklahoma City making a case to be up here.

Righthander Dustin Nippert in his three rehab appearances with Frisco and one with the RedHawks the past two weeks: 14 innings, one run, five hits, four walks, 11 strikeouts.  If you think he's being ramped up to step into a back-of-the-bullpen role, you might want to think again: his four outings have lasted two, three, four, and five innings, and he's now on a five-day schedule.

Meanwhile, righthander Guillermo Moscoso in his return effort for the RedHawks after being optioned back to the farm: five shutout innings, two singles, no walks, two strikeouts.

Righthander Neftali Feliz in his two relief appearances for Oklahoma City: 3.2 innings, one run on three hits and a walk, three strikeouts.  It's not time yet: he has yet to pitch on consecutive days; in fact, he has yet to pitch on one day's rest. 

Righthander Orlando Hernandez in his three RedHawks relief appearances: three innings, one run on one hit (a solo homer) and one walk, five strikeouts.

Get this: Righthander Warner Madrigal issued seven walks in his first seven AAA appearances this year, spanning 10 innings.  In his ensuing 15 games pitched (16.2 innings), he hasn't walked anyone - and fanned 21.  Overall, he has a 2.03 Oklahoma City ERA and is holding opponents to a good-looking .181/.235/.309 line. 

Lefthander A.J. Murray had an ERA of 0.71 in June, and is at 1.27 overall for the RedHawks.  Left-handed AAA hitters are hitting .216/.310/.216 off him.

Lefthander Mike Hinckley in nine June relief appearances: 1.80 ERA.  In his overall time with the RedHawks, lefties are hitting .194/.324/.290 off him.

A Detroit Tigers blogger named Eddie Bajek attempted a year ago to reverse-engineer the Elias free agent ranking formula, and if his snapshot rankings are accurate, Vicente Padilla could be a Type A free agent after the season if he continues to pitch like he has.  Type A's, if they are offered arbitration in the off-season but sign elsewhere, net the clubs that lose them a first- or second-round pick plus a supplemental first-rounder.

Some local reports indicated over the weekend that German Duran had already signed a new minor league deal with Texas after being placed on release waivers, while others reported that he wouldn't be clear to do so until today.  The latter is more likely, but in any event it seems clear that Duran will remain in the system.

Incidentally, the reason Duran was placed on release waivers rather than designated for assignment and then placed on outright waivers is that you can't do the latter with an injured player.  Duran is recovering from an appendectomy.

Baseball America's online cover story this morning is on Hickory lefthander Yoon-Hee Nam, who sits at 7-1, 1.73 in four Crawdads starts and 15 relief appearances (57 strikeouts in 52 innings, 30 hits and 17 walks).

Eric Nadel underwent successful a procedure to strengthen the attachment of the retina in his right eye on Monday, and will return to the radio booth tonight.  He is expected, however, miss next week's road trip to Anaheim and Seattle, as he's not supposed to fly yet.

Napoli: Italian for "bad beard."

Texas has signed its second-round pick, Fresno State third baseman Tommy Mendonca.  He debuted for Spokane last night, striking out looking as a ninth-inning pinch-hitter in a 6-5, 10-inning Indians loss to Tri-City.  Mendonca was the Western Athletic Conference player of the year this season, hitting .339/.447/.721 with 27 homers (third most in the country) and 78 RBI in 62 games.

Last year's second-round pick, lefthander Robbie Ross, got the start for Spokane in the game, fanning nine in 5.1 innings.  In 15.1 pro innings, all in the last week and a half, Ross has punched out 24 while issuing only three walks (though he does lead the Northwest League with four home runs allowed, in what is the third-highest workload in the league).

But Ross and every other mortal bows down in one sense to Dominican Summer League lefthander Miguel De Los Santos (who I had on my breakout list in the 2007 Bound Edition, before he fell victim to Tommy John surgery that season), who has thrown 15.2 innings in the month-old season, striking out 41.  You might recall from my June 13 report that he had one strikeout not go for an out (dropped third strike), so it's seven outs rather than just six that the 20-year-old has recorded on balls in play.  But come on: 47 outs, 41 strikeouts, two hits (.038 average), nine walks, one run. 

Yes: 41 strikeouts, two hits.

He's good at baseball.

For what it's worth, lefthander Martin Perez and righthander Jake Brigham are no longer pitching in tandem for Low A Hickory.

The Rangers' 32^nd-round pick, Florida high school outfielder Reggie Williams Jr., was named a first-team All-USA player by USA Today.

Remember when righthander Dan Haren pinch-hit for Arizona against the Rangers last week and struck out after failing to get a bunt down off of C.J. Wilson?  Haren - who homered and doubled for the Diamondbacks last night - homered off Wilson when the two were college opponents.

Lefthander Kason Gabbard in three starts for AAA Portland in the Boston system: 0-3, 19.64 (16 runs on 14 hits, 14 walks, and three hit batsmen in 7.1 innings).  Ouch.

The Dodgers' AA affiliate at Chattanooga signed a new second baseman last week: 29-year-old Ramon Nivar.

Righthander Brandt Walker, the Austin high schooler whom Texas used its 21^st-round pick on in the 2006 draft (four rounds before popping Derek Holland) but failed to sign, was Houston's eighth-round pick out of Stanford three weeks ago.  He's already signed and is pitching in relief for Tri-City in the New York-Penn League.

The baseball that Grant Schiller is donating for auction at Newberg Report Night on August 2, which already included the signatures of Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, Chris Davis, Kevin Millwood, Scott Feldman, David Murphy, Taylor Teagarden, Derek Holland, Jeff Zimmerman, Jeff Russell, and Travis Metcalf, now also includes Josh Hamilton.

The international signing period opens tomorrow.

In the meantime, the latest huge game in the most fascinating Rangers season in years is tonight.

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.

Real quick: A couple links from the farm about the players that, since the end of May, I've ranked as the top two prospects in the Rangers system:

First, the latest MLBloggy goodness from Beau Vaughan.  His subject this time: Frisco first baseman Justin Smoak.

Second, an outstanding Baseball America story about the man pictured in the Newberg Report banner atop this email.

Have fun watching Derek Holland tonight.

(Sabermetricians: Tune out.)

(Appropriately) lost in what was an energizing win was a feeling I had early in the game about a possibly significant moment for Michael Young. 

After Young, who came into the game mired in a 1-for-20 skid since a home run off Randy Johnson on Friday, had bounced into a double play and walked in his first two trips tonight, he extended the rut to 1 for 22 with a one-out comebacker in the fifth, with Ian Kinsler on third (after a double and an Omar Vizquel sacrifice bunt).  A bad at-bat, with one of several pitches down and away that Young had unsuccessfully offered at on the night, trying to jerk it instead of going with the pitch the opposite way like Young always does when he's locked in.

Right after Young's tapper to the mound, Andruw Jones delivered a mammoth two-run blast over the left field fence, extending what had been a one-run Texas lead to 5-2.

Here's an Instant Message conversation I had with someone the moment after the Jones home run:

  [22:07] gjsneaker1: prediction: Michael gets hits in his next 2 AB

  [22:08] gjsneaker1: I just know that there can be a cloud lifted in someone really hard on himself (I can relate on my much smaller level) when a teammate picks you up like that

  [22:09] gjsneaker1: I bet he goes to the plate in a much better frame of mind than he's had in a while

  [22:14] _________: you could be right

[two innings later]

  [22:38] gjsneaker1: there's 1 (infield single rifled up the middle, deflected by pitcher Jon Garland)

[two innings after that]

  [23:23] gjsneaker1: there's 2 (opposite-field double to deep right center)

What followed for Young was the opposite-field flare to right in the 11^th, caught by Justin Upton, that Vizquel or third base coach Dave Anderson chose not to attempt to score on, and a 12^th-inning strikeout.  But I have a good feeling about the chances that Young is about to get on a very good roll.

Speaking of which, tonight was obviously Chris Davis's night.  Single the opposite way with a man on first.  Double to deep left center on a full count.  Single to center.  Strikeout looking.  Five-pitch walk with a man on first.  And the big two-out, two-run shot on a 2-2 count in the 12th, crushed to straightaway right.

Davis filled the box score with those four hits, two RBI, and two runs, and only two of his teammates saw more than the 27 pitches he saw on the night.  He got himself into good counts, and good things happened.

Why did the Diamondbacks call for an Esmerling Vasquez changeup on the home run pitch, considering Davis's season-long trouble with the fastball?  He'd swung over a Vasquez change earlier in the count, and had fouled off a fastball on the previous pitch.  He was ready for Vasquez to come back with the change, and punished it.

Nice couple wins, this time with the offense carrying its weight.  If Young is ready to get hot, and if Davis, five spots down in the order, can get into a groove where he's not an automatic out, those two things could make this lineup work a good bit better, and maybe the offense can start to get healthy with these three against San Diego before the Angels get to town.

Millwood and Holland the next two nights.  I've got a good feeling about this series.

OK.  You can let the sabermetrics camp back in.  

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.

According to multiple local reports in the last 15 minutes, righthander Neftali Feliz is moving from the Oklahoma City rotation to its bullpen, and the reason is fairly obvious.

Here's T.R. Sullivan's text:

==============

The Rangers are moving top pitching prospect Neftali Feliz to the bullpen at Triple A Oklahoma [City].  It could lead to a promotion to the Rangers at some point similar to what they did with Derek Holland.

"We'd like to see if he's an option to help the Major League club in that role," general manager Jon Daniels said.  "He's scheduled to throw an inning there tomorrow.  We still feel he may start for us in the future but we're going down that road first."

Feliz is 3-5 with a 3.86 ERA in 13 starts at Oklahoma. He has pitched 60 2/3 innings and allowed 59 hits and 27 walks with 55 strikeouts.  Daniels said he has been looking for ways to strengthen the Rangers bullpen.

==============

Since an acceptable trip to New York and Boston to start the month, the Rangers have gone 15 for 90 with runners in scoring position.  That's a .167 batting average in those 13 games.  Roughly one hit per game with a runner on second and/or third, and just seven opportunities a night. 

While the cast is not exactly the same as last year's, this lineup features many of the same players who contributed a year ago to a league-leading offense that hit .287 with runners in scoring position (third best in baseball) and slugged .476 (best in the league).

In June, the Rangers are hitting a collective .218/.277/.363.  That's roughly what Craig Monroe (.215/.287/.354) was hitting before Pittsburgh designated him for assignment this weekend.

You can bullet-point lots of remarkable numbers to tell the story, or simply watch this club take its at-bats most nights lately.  It's an anemia, a pandemic anemia, that features a dizzying array of swings and misses, bad counts, lazy pop-ups, and beatability. 

While the stakes are obviously not the same, the last time we've seen this brand of offensive baseball here, it seems, was in the three playoff series against the Yankees late in the last decade, before anyone in the current lineup was in the major leagues.

Fortunately, May was so good for this team, and the pitching and defense have been so consistent this season, that it wasn't until late last night that Texas surrendered its sole lead of first place in the West, a perch it now shares with the Angels after 47 straight days looking down at the rest of the division.

Five days from now the Angels stop in for a three-game set in Arlington, and after three with the Rays we head to Los Angeles for three at the Angels' place and then four in Seattle, against a Mariners club that is now just 2.5 games back.  Those 10 games against Los Angeles and Seattle are very big.  Not just because of the head-to-head showdowns, but also because of where they land on the schedule.

The good thing about this amazing run of unproductive offense (count on me to seek out the positive) is that it has happened in June.  If it were July 24 today, and this club were tied for first in the West, the pressure to make an impact trade or two would be greater, and based on what this trade market looks like, it would probably cost more to get something meaningful done than it should, even for July, in prospects. 

Maybe we'll know a lot more about where this thing is headed after those 10 with the Angels and Mariners, and unless the hitting starts to catch up with the pitching and defense, the result in the standings will relax any urge to make a short-term strike . . . though I'm confident that a two-month rental pickup has never been a strong consideration, even when the Rangers had the league's best record early this month. 

Milwaukee trading for C.C. Sabathia last July was not the model.  His contract expired after the season.

Boston acquiring Jason Bay last July was.  Two pennant races.

Atlanta and Mark Teixeira in July 2007: Same thing.

The Rangers aren't as good as they were playing a month ago, and aren't as bad as things look now.  I'd still like to see a deal made - the bullpen is still the priority and appears, according to several local stories, to be the area most conducive to a reasonable July trade - because if this team can right itself, there's still a chance to be a factor in September.  Doesn't need to be a blockbuster deal, and it shouldn't be.  Darren O'Day and Jason Grilli upgraded this bullpen at the cost of $60,000. 

(And yes, I think Neftali Feliz is getting closer to figuring into the equation.)

Once you fight through the disgust of watching your team play bad ball for an extended stretch - and I think we'd all agree that even disgust beats apathy - the fact remains that, for all of this team's extremes, it does share a division lead.  So of course there's a chance to get into October.

But lots has to change in the second half, particularly with the bats.  It doesn't need to be as dramatic a change as we've seen in the wrong direction this month, but this loss of consciousness at the plate can't go on.  The problem on offense is obviously something that one trade could never cure, and it goes much deeper than the absence of Josh Hamilton. 

If there weren't a track record for most of these players to be more productive than they've been in June, then maybe there would be a lot more apathy out there than disgust.  With Arizona (Dan Haren tonight) and San Diego on the immediate schedule, followed by 10 of 13 with the Angels and Mariners as this club heads into the All-Star Break, it's time to take what the numbers reveal, and what the eyes can see, and what the players and coaches recognize, and figure out what adjustments need to be made and execute them.  Time to do a better job getting on base and moving around on them.

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.

The Rangers have arrived in the Phoenix area, set to start a three-game series with the Diamondbacks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 11 miles west along I-10 and another 12 miles north on State Highway 101, in a game that's going on right now, the Arizona League Mariners have a 9-2 lead on the Arizona League Rangers.  Among the notable subplots have been the pro debut of precocious 16-year-old righthander Richard Alvarez (3-3-3-3-3-4) and the pro pitching debut of former infielder Johan Yan (1.2-3-5-5-6-3 - and it was no mop-up appearance . . . the transition to the mound is in full throttle).

But the debut I was most interested in was not really a debut, though I'm sure to Jeff Zimmerman it felt a little bit like the first time he'd taken the mound for the High A Port Charlotte in April 1998, as a 25-year-old minor league rookie facing a league full of 21-year-olds.  Tonight, Zimmerman was a 36-year-old facing hitters half his age.  Really: half his age.

Or, in 17-year-old Rangers second baseman Alex Gonzalez's case, less than that.

In the first inning, Zimmerman, making his first pro appearance of any kind since 2003, when he pitched three times in the same Arizona League trying to get back to the big leagues after two years of elbows problems, allowed a Joseph Bonadonna single and stolen base, coaxed a Tomas Telis groundout, surrendered an opposite field RBI single off the bat of Justin Smoak, walked Miguel Velazquez, fanned Ed Koncel, and got Edwin Garcia to pop out.

Alvarez, who had just turned nine years old when, on October 1, 2001, Zimmerman fired a 1-2 slider that John Olerud hit back to the mound before loping toward first base as Zimmerman fired the ball to Carlos Pena to lock down a 4-3 Rangers win over Seattle for his 28^th save, retired the 2009 teenaged Mariners quietly in the bottom of the first: flyout to center, popout to second, infield single, strikeout swinging.

Zimmerman came back out for the second, and on deck stood Ruben Sierra Jr., whose father had pinch-hit in the top of the ninth inning of that October 2001 season finale, grounding out to second in what was at the time a 3-3 tie.  In what would be his second and final inning of work tonight, Zimmerman got Braxton Lane to line out to shortstop, coaxed a Sierra groundout to third, and, after Gonzalez had reached on an error and stolen second, struck Bonadonna out to end the frame. 

It wouldn't surprise me, all things considered, if someone from the Rangers' big league traveling party made it over to Peoria tonight, if for no other reason than to get a look at Smoak as he returns from the oblique injury that cost him nearly a month of playing time.  If there was in fact someone from the big club or front office who got there in time for the top of the first, I suspect the Smoak shot to left quietly put a smile on his face.

But probably nothing like the discreet smile I imagine is on the face of Jeff Zimmerman, whose tightly Ace-bandaged postgame icepack will probably feel as majestic as a steak dinner at Nick & Sam's, a Sunday afternoon nap on the couch, or a scoreless seventh inning in the All-Star Game at Fenway Park as a 26-year-old rookie middle reliever.

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.

Epic purist's game between Derek Holland and Matt Cain.  If Holland starts to command the breaking ball like that consistently, watch out.  Great-looking start.

Once Chris Davis fanned in the top of the seventh inning (his 99^th of the year), I was anxious to see what would Ron Washington would do if Omar Vizquel followed by getting out himself.  Vizquel skied out to left, bringing up the pitcher's spot with two outs and nobody on, and I half-figured Holland's night would be done.  He'd already completed six innings for the first time in the big leagues, throwing 82 pitches.  I could see the argument that you pat the kid on the back, having kept his team locked in a 1-1 tie against what could be this year's National League Cy Young award winner.

But Ron Washington let Holland hit and then let him pitch some more.  He retired Rich Aurilia, Andres Torres, and Matt Downs in order, going seven strong after having never gone six.  One run on four hits and one walk, five strikeouts, 62 strikes in 95 pitches.  A first-pitch strike to 12 of the last 13 Giants he faced.  Lots to build off of.

As for the Rangers offense, little to build off of, again.  Hitless in five chances with runners in scoring position, 11 strikeouts.  More ugly.

Credit Cain, too, of course.  He held Texas to one run on three hits over eight, lowering his ERA to 2.28.

(Since my unpopular suggestion on May 16 that Texas offer Matt Harrison and Justin Smoak for either Cain or Florida's Josh Johnson, and since my equally unpopular seven-player trade proposal on August 27 to bring Zack Greinke here, the Cain-Johnson-Greinke trio has made 33 starts, going 22-5, 2.11.)

Holland's effort doesn't erase the bitterness of losing another game late, but it bodes well for this club's future, as do Blake Beavan's Frisco home debut (one run on six hits and a walk in seven innings, four strikeouts, 72 strikes in 99 pitches) and Robbie Ross's professional debut (two runs on four hits in five innings in Spokane's season opener, punching out nine and walking none, starting with three perfect innings that included five strikeouts and four groundouts), both earlier tonight.

Texas hangs onto its division lead by virtue of Jered Weaver's loss to his brother Jeff, but the way this offense is going, how much longer can this 46-day run atop the West last?  Kevin Millwood gets the ball Sunday to try and extend things at least another day. 

Sure would like to somehow take three of these next four in San Francisco and Arizona before we return for a nine-game homestand that kicks off Friday, when Derek Holland gets a chance to attack San Diego the way he took it to San Francisco tonight. 

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.

We play such a maddening brand of baseball.  Losses like tonight's are games I wish I'd never watched. 

Bad approaches by just about every hitter over age 20, failures to execute (on both sides of the ball) that evoke the legendary John McKay quote, an unbelievable .571/.625/1.143 slash line for the first hitter of each Giants inning. 

Lately, I have no more confidence with a Ranger on third and fewer than two outs than I do with the bases empty and two down.

Even the best teams drop more than a third of their games.  Losing happens.  But I'd feel a lot better if we made teams that beat us work a lot harder.  Or even a little.

Chad Billingsley may be one of the best pitchers in the league right now, but he's walked 4.2 batters per nine innings this season.  This, in a nutshell, says a lot:

The Rangers worked one walk off Billingsley in seven innings on Sunday. 

The Angels worked five walks off Billingsley in six innings tonight.

The significance of that is not just the creation of run-scoring opportunities.  Billingsley got through his seven innings in Arlington needing just 97 pitches (13.9 per inning).

The Angels saw 112 pitches in six innings tonight (18.7 per inning), chasing the 24-year-old.

Tigers lefthander Dontrelle Willis, between his two 2009 stints on the disabled list, both due to an alleged anxiety disorder manifested by a virtually complete absence of command, made seven starts.  In six of them, he issued 26 walks in 27.1 innings.  In the other Willis start, Texas drew two walks in 6.1 (one-hit) innings. 

Toronto lefthander Brian Tallet: Between two lousy June starts (five runs in six innings against the Angels and eight runs in 3.1 innings against Florida), he shut Texas out on two hits over seven innings on the 9th.

The season is past the 40 percent point and my team is still in first place, a position it's held for the last 44 days.  I wouldn't want it any other way, but it sure makes the losses - especially ones like tonight's - sting a lot more.  I hate losses no matter what shade they come in, but that one would have been better for my health if I'd only seen the box score.

We're in desperate need of some good contagious.  The bad contagious needs to beat it, without waiting for Josh Hamilton to come back.

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.

On a night that belonged in one sense to Rangers legend Ivan Rodriguez, perhaps the greatest catcher to play the game, the home team's hero, as far as I'm concerned, was the club's current man behind the plate.

In the seven seasons since Pudge left Texas, four different catchers have started on Opening Day, but the one who donned the gear on April 6 has a real chance to hold the spot down for a long time.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia won't catch over 2,200 big league games, and almost certainly won't log 1,500 games behind the plate as a Ranger, but the improvement he's made this season as a field general has been one of the best Rangers stories in what continues to be a storybook year.

The home run in the bottom of the third was big, but Saltalamacchia's top of the ninth was spectacular.  In two pivotal plays, back to back, he put on a display of Pudge-like quickness, footwork, arm strength, and accuracy.  It was a fitting tribute to the man in the other dugout tonight, and David Murphy never gets the chance to win the game in the tenth if not for what Saltalamacchia did in the ninth.

Look, the sky is not falling.

Ian Kinsler is hitting .260/.339/.508.  It's fair to expect more.

Josh Hamilton is absent, and hit only .240/.290/.456 when he was around.  When he's back, he'll be better.

Chris Davis is at .208/.266/.431, after .285/.331/.549 as a rookie.  He has more strikeouts in 202 at-bats this year (92) than he did in 295 at-bats last year (88).  As big as the 2008 sample size was, it can't be viewed as a Kevin Maas-like fluke.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia (.251/.300/.383) and Marlon Byrd (.288/.310/.455): The average and the slug look like 2008's, but the dropoffs in reaching base have been staggering. 

Hank Blalock has fallen from .287/.338/.508 to .251/.294/.529. 

Yes, Andruw Jones (.257/.371/.532) and Omar Vizquel (.322/.355/.424) are giving us more than we expected, but they have the 11^th and 12^th most at-bats on the club, each fewer than Hamilton, who has missed almost as many games as he's played. 

With 100 games left to play, of the regulars, only Nelson Cruz, Michael Young, Elvis Andrus, and David Murphy are producing at a level that you'd have taken three months ago.  And though each has had at least one torrid streak at the plate this season, looking at their overall numbers you probably wouldn't say any of them is playing out of his mind offensively.

That's sort of the point.  Nobody that Texas counts on every day is hitting out of his mind in 2009.  Not one guy.

And yet the club is two games up on the rest of the division, having survived what was objectively the toughest three-week run of opponents on its 2009 schedule.  You'd have taken that June 16 position three months ago, without question.

If your cynical response is that the pitching staff is full of guys playing out of their minds, in truth that can probably only be said about two, maybe three pitchers.  And as improved as the Rangers defense is, there's at least theoretical (if not statistical) reason to believe that there's a basis for the pitching to have been producing more without doing more.

If this lineup can figure some things out (and I'm not suggesting it's merely a matter of time - there's clearly work to be done), then this team, on pace to win 92 games, can get better.  The most encouraging thing about 35-27 is not that we've just gotten through NYY-OAK-NYY-BOS-TOR-LAD having seen the division lead shrink by only half a game (one full game after the Angels held on last night), but instead that track records suggest that there is so much room for offensive improvement, on nearly a player-by-player basis, that this good baseball team has a legitimate chance to very good.  This year.

Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours Scot Shields has decided to undergo season-ending knee surgery, Kelvim Escobar (who was going to replace Shields as a high-leverage righthander in the Angels bullpen) has gone back on the disabled list with a shoulder that's still giving him trouble, Ervin Santana has been scratched from tonight's start with tightness in his forearm (MRI results should come today), and Torii Hunter bruised his rib cage running into a wall and will miss at least a couple games.  The Angels aren't going away, but Texas has played itself into a position to take advantage of an opportunity that shouldn't be going away anytime soon, either.

For those of you who think I'm about to advocate a launch into Step Five, I'm noncommittal on that right now.  But that doesn't mean an impact trade is out of the question.  Five words:

Delmon Young for Matt Garza.

Actually, 15 words:

Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, and Jason Pridie for Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, and Eduardo Morlan.

I was among what I suspect was an easy majority who saw that November 2007 trade and thought Minnesota had pulled one over on Tampa Bay, having stolen the AL Rookie of the Year runner-up just before he really exploded into superstar territory.  But the Rays probably aren't the defending American League champs without that deal, and they'd never undo it.  As for the Twins, they're rumored just a year and a half later to be shopping Young and his three extra-base hits in 42 games.

I'm not going to sit here and lay out a half dozen specific trade scenarios involving pre-arb players for pre-arb players (yet), but I will suggest to you that falling into the camp that says there's a trade or two to be made that could help fill a hole or two on this contending team doesn't necessarily mean taking on significant payroll, or emasculating the farm system.  It may just be a matter of reallocating assets, in a way that Tampa Bay did with more success than Minnesota did 19 months ago.  It was a good old-fashioned baseball card trade, one that had nothing to do with salary dumps or mid-summer rentals, a trade without which the Rays would probably still be a franchise without a playoff appearance.

It was a bold, smart move for Tampa Bay, who got a lot better right away, without a venture into Step Five.

With the Rangers system as deep in young talent as it is right now, at both the major league and minor league levels, I wouldn't be against the concept of that type of trade to make this team instantly stronger, trusting the evaluations of my scouts to use a strength to address a weakness. 

Getting more production out of the big league lineup, from hitters who have proven that they're capable of providing it, would make the club stronger right away as well.

But those two things aren't mutually exclusive.  Nothing wrong with shooting for both.

You can read more from Jamey Newberg at www.NewbergReport.com.