Elvis Andrus Leads Rangers to Top of the AL West

Last Friday, the Texas Rangers lost the first game of a three games series at home against the Chicago White Sox. 

Since then, the Rangers have won a game with three rain delays, an epic, nationally televised game over the White Sox, and swept Seattle in a two-game series against the Mariners' top two pitchers, Felix Hernandez and Erik Bedard.

All of this brought the team to within a half game of the AL West-leading Mariners as the Rangers took to Oakland for two games. With the Mariners getting pounded in Kansas City, the Rangers needed a win to take sole possession of first place in the AL West.

On the mound for Texas was Scott Feldman who has earned his spot in the rotation, even with the return of Kris Benson from the DL. Benson has currently been placed in the bullpen for Texas.

Feldman has been a solid starter for the Rangers in each of his two starts, and has been helped out by consistent run support from the offense.

On Wednesday night, Feldman got his run support before even taking the mound. Elvis Andrus smashed his second home run of the season off of Dan Giese into the left field bleachers.

The Rangers added two more runs in the fourth as Marlon Byrd lead off the inning with a single and Nelson Cruz followed with his fifth double of the season. David Murphy advanced both runners on a fly ball to deep center field, and Chris Davis followed with an RBI single to right field.

Oakland wasted no time getting the runs back as catcher Kurt Suzuki hit a two-run double to deep center field, scoring Jason Giambi and Matt Holliday.

Feldman finished the game with two nearly flawless innings, going six innings and giving up two earned runs and four hits with three strikeouts.

After Feldman, the 20-year old strike-throwing reliever Derek Holland took the mound and allowed only one hit in his two innings of work.

Along with the quality pitching from Feldman and Holland, the Rangers had another errorless outing that included two late-inning double plays.

Francisco closed the game out with his AL-leading ninth save in nine chances. However, this one did get a little tricky with the tying run standing 90 feet away on third.

The Ranger defense was highlighted by a six put-out and one assist-performance from Andrus, who was also part of a key double play that got the Rangers out of a jam in the seventh inning.

Andrus was named the starting shortstop in the offseason under the assumption that he was going to have some growing pains. 

General manager Jon Daniels, team president Nolan Ryan, and manager Ron Washington all stated that they expected a certain amount of rookie mistakes from Andrus. In the minors, he was a contact hitter with great speed, but needed to work on his defensive skills.

But so far, Andrus is batting .276 with 21 hits, two doubles, two triples, two home runs, five RBI, 15 runs scored, three stolen bases, and a .738 OPS. 

Not only is he holding his own hitting, but Andrus has also made a couple of “Web Gem” plays at shortstop. Currently, his fielding percentage is at .949, with six errors in the 23 games.

Now, I know these error numbers are a little high, but doesn’t anybody else remember how poor a fielder Ian Kinsler was two years ago?

Andrus has made some rookie errors and will continue to do so throughout the rest of the season, but with the constant tutoring from Omar Vizquel, Michael Young, and Kinsler, he will continue to improve each and every outing.

And for those of you who have been watching the games this season, you should be seeing the same thing I have. This kid is growing up right in front of our eyes with every game he plays.

I’m not saying he is going to win as many Gold Gloves as Vizquel, but this kid is bound to win a couple and make a few All-Star Games.