Texas-Houston: Rangers Sweep Lone-Star Series behind McCarthy Shutout

Due to spending time with my family this weekend, which I highly recommend, I had to watch all of these games on my DVR, but it was worth it.  As long as we don't have to go to Detroit in the playoffs, I think we have a real shot of making some noise this fall.

Friday night was quite simply a fabulous game.  It was one of those games that no matter which team you were rooting for, you have to admit it was a great game. 

Holland pitched a great game until he left his last pitch up in the zone.  It is always a good reminder for a rookie to get one blasted on him every once in awhile.  I would have liked to have seen him get a chance to battle back, but it all worked out.

No thanks to CJ Wilson.

He had been pitching better again recently, but I just was not impressed with his stuff this weekend.  Just because he had a decent string as the closer early last season, they seem to think he is still going to be that good, but he isn't.

Luckily, Nelson Cruz saved the day in the 10th.  It is great to see him really finding himself as a player this year.  A lot of us didn't know what to think after a few years of uncertainty, but he has really come into his own this year as his three home runs over the weekend showed.

Saturday was just a good old fashioned win without anything overly exciting.  Cruz hitting two homers, and Blalock going back-to-back with Cruz was quite fun, but despite that two-run scare in the seventh, the outcome wasn't really in doubt. 

I will give Wilson his due as he pitched much better in this game and didn't blow the save again. 

Sunday was the type of pitching performance that we are becoming accustomed to.  The fact that it came from an unlikely source isn't even that big of a shock anymore.

Brandon McCarthy was on fire this afternoon.  After having his longest outing as a Ranger not too long ago, he went the distance and didn't allow a run despite allowing nine hits.  This was the first complete game shutout of his career.

This is the type of resiliency that has been instilled in this pitching staff.  We all expect them to give up hits, and even some runs, just don't let that turn into five or six runs.

The only thing McCarthy didn't do was get a hit, the only Ranger without one today.  I think we can look past that though as he did his part on the hill, and the offense took care of the rest.

Josh Hamilton had a monster day at the plate, and reaffirmed how we need to lock him up sooner than later.  I would like to think he feels at home with this team and will want to stay.

It also struck me again this weekend how solid Chris Davis has been defensively.  We all know he hasn't been hitting as well as we would all like, but you can't overlook his defensive contribution. 

It seems like every game he is doing the splits three or four times to make a play happen.  I can't help but wonder how many innings may have gotten ugly if he doesn't make that stretch or dig a bad throw.

Elvis Andrus's defensive contributions have been well documented and the overall team defense has improved drastically, but I don't think Davis is getting the credit he deserves.  Not just for making the tough plays, but giving that extra effort to get an out when the play is close at first.

This was exactly the type of weekend we needed going into inviting the Yankees to town.  This should be a fun series and one that is very telling of what kind of team we have.

There is no reason we can't sweep them too and really make a statement of how good we are.  I'm glad this series is at home as that should help our younger guys stay relaxed and ready to play.