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The Texas Rangers had Roy Oswalt throw a bullpen session for them on Friday, revealing the Rangers as the another team that saw him pitch.

In the last two weeks, Oswalt has thrown for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox.

Ken Rosenthal revealed that Oswalt threw for Texas, but reportedly, the Rangers are still not sold on the idea of adding the veteran:

Sources: Oswalt threw for #Rangers yesterday. Rangers’ issue same as it was in off-season: Oswalt wants to start and they don’t have need…

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 19, 2012

 

Not only is there not a need for him in the starting staff, but there’s also no need for Oswalt in the bullpen. They have a deep bullpen that will be able to hold up over the season without Oswalt.

Rosenthal speculated on a possible scenario to get Oswalt into the starting rotation, stating that the Rangers “could create room for Roy O by moving Lewis. No indication they are considering it. No guarantee Oswalt would be better than Lewis.”

This might be the only way that Oswalt finds a spot on the Rangers, and even this is highly speculative. The chances that Oswalt lands in Texas are becoming slimmer and slimmer with every day that passes.

It is only a matter of time before Oswalt is pitching at the MLB level; it likely will not be with the Rangers, however.

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Oakland A’s slugger Yoenis Cespedes was scheduled to play in his first game Saturday, since missing four games due to a strain in his left hand.

That plan did not go as the A’s had expected.

Cespedes was not only scratched from the lineup against the Detroit Tigers, but Cespedes was placed on the 15-day disabled list before the game began on Saturday.

Cespedes felt discomfort in his injured left hand after two rounds of batting practice, forcing the scratch and the placement on the DL. The DL stint will be retroactive to May 7th, but there is currently no timetable for his return.

The A’s are hopeful that the injury will get better over the next week, as manager Bob Melvin’s spokesperson told the media, “(Cespedes) took batting practice and was still feeling it a bit, so I wanted to be precautionary with it.”

Cespedes thought he had put the injury behind him. Unfortunately for the A’s, he will be missing at least another week, and they will be missing their team leader in RBI.

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Josh Hamilton achieved an accomplishment that’s even more rare than pitching a perfect game or hitting for the cycle.

On Tuesday night, Hamilton blasted four home runs for the Texas Rangers in their victory against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

Hamilton homered in the first inning on a ball to dead center field. In the third inning, he launched his second home run on a line drive to the opposite field. 

Hamilton had a home run “half time” by hitting a double in the fifth inning, between his first two and last two home runs.

His third home run came in the seventh inning on another shot to dead center and his final one looked like two of his previous ones—another blast to center field in the eighth inning.

Hamilton didn’t take the easy route to his four home runs, going to the deepest part of the field three out of four times.

Josh Hamilton becomes only the 16th player in MLB history to hit four home runs in a game. The way that Hamilton was swinging, he quite possibly could’ve become the first player to ever hit five in a game if he had been given the opportunity in the ninth inning.

Nonetheless, the accomplishment is more than impressive as Hamilton appears to be, at this point, the early season AL MVP.

Hamilton is the first player since Carols Delgado to hit four home runs for the Toronto Blue Jays on September 25, 2003.

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Players want to have their names in the record books—but not for records like this. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have had very few things to celebrate this season, and on Friday night they set a record that would have been better left unbroken.

Ervin Santana, who is now 0-6 this season, took the loss once again for the Angels against the Toronto Blue Jays, despite only allowing three runs and striking out 10 batters.

Santana is off to a terrible start this season, but what exactly goes into an 0-6 start?

Factors that result in records being broken.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Stats and Information), the Angels have been shut out five straight times when Santana starts.

The Angels have not scored a run for Santana since April 8.

This is the first time in MLB history that a pitcher has received no run support in five straight outings, breaking the previous record of four straight outings held by 11 different pitchers.

Santana has not had very many good starts this season. He has lost every start this year, and only his last two starts have been stellar. His previous four had been dreadful. He allowed 10 home runs in his first four starts of the season.

The Angels, however, have enough firepower to overcome a few bad outings by their starter. They should be able to put some runs on the board and avoid setting such an embarrassing record.

The names in the batting order makes this record almost unbelievable.

It is inconceivable to think that the Angels could not score one run for Santana in almost a month’s worth of starts.

Santana might hold the record, but this is truly a team effort.

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Just when you thought the Washington Nationals might lose a one-run game at home, they come from behind again to win against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Stephen Strasburg looked good on Friday night, but was the victim of the ball jumping out of Nationals Park. Hunter Pence and Carlos Ruiz connected for surprisingly long home runs. When they landed, they accounted for a total of three runs.

Strasburg had not allowed a home run since August 15, 2010.

Strasburg only allowed one other hit in his six innings of work and struck out four.

That Nats bullpen was lights-out on Friday. Five relievers combined for five innings of three hit balls. They also struck out six batters, with Henry Rodriguez and Tyler Clippard striking out two apiece.

Bryce Harper was hitless on Friday, but still had a big impact on the game. He went 0-for-3 but walked three times and was a part of the rally in the 11th inning.

Steve Lombardozzi singled with two outs in the 11th inning and was followed by Harper getting on base with a walk and Jayson Werth following with a walk.

Wilson Ramos singled on a one-two pitch scoring Lombardozzi and sending the 34,377 fans in attendance home happy.

Ryan Perry was credited with the win and Michael Schwimer took the loss in this one.

The Nats have scored 86 runs this season and 42 of them have been scored in the seventh inning or later.

They improve to an amazing 8-0 in one-run games at home this season. Overall, they are 11-3 at Nationals Park.

Washington (17-9) remains on top of the NL East and will look to create more distance with the Phillies on Saturday and Sunday.

Gio Gonzalez (2-1, 1.82 ERA) will take on the Phillies’ Vance Worley (2-1, 1.97 ERA) on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. ET.

The Nats and Phillies are in prime time on Sunday night when Jordan Zimmermann (1-2, 1.89 ERA) opposes Cole Hamels (3-1, 2.78 ERA) at 8 p.m. ET.

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The Oakland A’s are one of the teams that are thankful for the extra wild-card spot in the playoffs.

Although they are still long-shots to make the playoffs, a winning start has boosted fans’ spirits as the season unfolds.

Last season they began the season very similar to this year, by hovering around .500. Their downfall began after they were 27-27.

In the following 14 games they lost all but one, including 10 in a row at one point. The season was all but lost after that run.

This season they have a couple key pieces that might help them stay strong throughout the season.

Bartolo Colon is shaping up to be the A’s ace this season.

Last year they were led by Gio Gonzalez, whose production dissipated after the All-Star break. He was the owner of a 2.47 ERA before the break and a 3.94 ERA after the break.

They will rely on the veteran arm of Colon to stay strong throughout the season and in crunch time.

The biggest piece of this team’s equation is Yoenis Cespedes.

Cespedes is the offensive firepower that the A’s have lacked in previous seasons. Cespedes has a chance to hit 35 or more home runs and be a big threat to other teams.

Last season in Cuba he hit 30 home runs in 90 games.

In the stretch that the A’s lost 13 of 14, they lost nine of the 13 games by three runs or less. The A’s have the pop in the lineup to get those runs back quickly. 

The big question is if he can be more productive than Josh Willingham, who Oakland parted ways with during the offseason. 

What is lost in Willingham’s production from last year (29 home runs, 98 RBI) is that 18 of his 29 home runs came after the All-Star break. The A’s season was lost by that point.

Cespedes will not get the job done by replacing Willingham’s numbers; he will have to surpass them. Most importantly, he will have to put up huge numbers throughout the entire season to help the A’s stay in the race.

These two guys might have a huge say towards the end of the season when the wild-card spots are up for grabs.

Most importantly though, the A’s are exciting fans and putting a quality product on the field.

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Daisuke Matsuzaka is making good progress as he works to return to the Boston Red Sox after undergoing Tommy John surgery last June. 

Matsuzaka’s first start was not particularly impressive, but he rebounded nicely Saturday afternoon.

In his first rehab game last week with High-A Salem, he allowed three runs in four innings and threw 57 pitches. On Saturday he took the mound for the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs and looked dominant.

Matsuzaka threw 74 pitches in 4.2 innings. He allowed three hits, one earned run and struck out seven, while only walking two.

His only run was on a long fly ball that was misplayed and resulted in a triple. He responded by striking out the next batter, but was pulled when he walked the following.

The only negative of the outing was that 30 of his 74 pitches were balls. In his first outing he threw 57 pitches and 17 balls.

It was another step in his recovery for the Red Sox, who could certainly use his contributions at the big league level.

Matsuzaka is scheduled to make three more starts in the minors and be back in the majors on or around May 23rd.

Although it was against a Double-A team, the Red Sox have to be happy with the results.

If he remains healthy and continues to pitch as dominant as he did on Saturday, then the Red Sox can look forward to an important piece of their rotation joining the club again.

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The first step to being successful is getting over .500 and the Oakland Athletics have taken that step. 

The A’s took a 3-1 lead on an Eric Sogard two-run home run and never looked back on Friday night. 

Josh Reddick added a home run for Oakland and finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBI.

Brandon McCarthy picked up his first win of the year. He was solid for seven innings allowing two runs while striking out four and issuing three walks. 

The win gives the A’s an 11-10 record and puts them one game over .500 for the first time since May 18, 2011.

The A’s won despite Yoenis Cespedes having an 0-for-4 night. It has to be encouraging for fans to see the team get a win without the centerpiece of the offense breaking through.

Oakland has the opportunity to pile up wins in the early part of the season and put some distance between themselves and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The A’s are still trailing the Texas Rangers, but are doing their best to keep things close within the division.

It will be hard for them to have a chance in the division with the Rangers great lineup but they certainly still will have a shot at the playoffs.

If the A’s can keep themselves in contention through the first half of the year then they can make a legitimate push for a playoff spot come October.

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The Washington Nationals have been plagued with injury after injury since spring training. They might be dealing with their biggest injury yet as Ryan Zimmerman was sent for an MRI on Tuesday night.

After experiencing inflammation in his shoulder on Saturday, Zimmerman rested for three days and was expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday against the San Diego Padres. 

On Sunday morning he said that he did not “see any reason right now why I won’t play Tuesday.” However, he was left out of the lineup because he still felt pain when he swung a bat. 

Amanda Comak tweeted that manager Davey Johnson said the Nationals fear Zimmerman’s dealing with a strain that could keep him out at least a week, but are still hoping for the best.

Johnson seemed worried later on when he spoke of Zimmerman, saying, “I don’t have a good feeling, I mean, he’s had three days off…Hopefully it’s nothing serious. We’ll know after the MRI.”

There sounds to be nothing positive coming from the manager of the Nats in this situation. Johnson seems to be as pessimistic as he was with the injury to Michael Morse.

The consensus is that the injury is likely a join issue opposed to a structural issue. 

A lot weighs on the results of his MRI. The Nats might be lucky that they started so hot this season because they will struggle a bit without Morse and Zimmerman on the field for an extended period of time.

In the meantime, Steve Lombardozzi will take over at third base. As the lineup begins to weaken more due to injuries, the Nats might be thinking about Bryce Harper sometime very soon.

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Albert Pujols has gone 65 at bats to begin the season and has yet to hit a home run. Can Pujols fill out the home run column in the series about to begin against the Tampa Bay Rays?

Unfortunately for Pujols, he will be facing some of the most dominant pitching in the American League. Here is a breakdown of the starting pitchers that he will face in the series.

On Tuesday night, he will take on hard-throwing lefty David Price. Although Price has not had a great start to the season, he is still one of the elite pitchers in the league.

He has allowed one home run on the season to this point. Last season, he allowed a career high 22 home runs, with 13 of them being hit at Tropicana Field.

Wednesday, Pujols will take on Jeremy Hellickson, who has allowed three home runs in three starts this season.

Last year, Hellickson allowed 21 home runs in 189 innings and 11 of them were allowed at his home park. Of the three starting pitchers he will face, Hellickson appears to be the most likely to give up a home run to Pujols.

Pujols will not receive a break in the series when he faces Matt Moore on Thursday. He is another Rays lefty that is off to a slow start and is much better than his numbers suggest. 

Just like Hellickson, Moore has allowed three home runs in three starts this season. Moore only pitched 9.1 innings last season and allowed one home run.

Last season, Tropicana Field achieved statistics that classified them as an “extreme pitchers’ park” based on the park index (PI). Going by this calculation, a park with a PI of 100 is a neutral ballpark.

Tampa’s home ballpark is statistically the second-hardest park to hit a home run with a PI of 87, second only to San Diego.

It will not be impossible for Pujols to hit a home run in this series, but it won’t be easy. This is not the easiest staff to figure out as he adjusts to the pitchers in the American League.

Bottom line is that if Pujols can resist thinking about hitting a home run, then it will eventually happen and the pressure will dissipate.

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