Holland holds the Sox.

Listening to Derek Holland, shown here on card number 502 of the 2010 Upper Deck set, pitch can be very frustrating or very enjoyable. If he's off he's going to get shelled. If he's on it's going to be a fun night for Rangers fans and a difficult night at the office for the opposing offense.

Last night Dutch was on and it was a long night for the Red Sox offense in Boston. Over seven innings Derek allowed just two Boston hits and didn't walk anyone while striking out six. One of the hits he allowed was to Jacoby Ellsbury. Shortly after the hit Holland picked Ellsbury off first to negate his hit.

In the eighth inning the bullpen took over. Perfect innings by recent call-up Merkin Valdez and recent acquisition Michael Gonzalez left the final score at 10-0 Rangers.

Several Rangers had a decent night at the plate but David Murphy was perhaps the hottest. Murph went 4-for-5 with two runs scored and a RBI. The RBI came on a home run. Kinsler also went deep and, amazingly, so did Elvis Andrus. The much-heralded Leonys Martin made his Major League debut and managed a single off Tim Wakefield in his only at-bat.

Nice to see Murphy and Kinsler getting hot coming down the stretch. Especially nice to see Holland turn in a spectacular performance to get his 13th win and give the bullpen a break. This game gives Texas 17 shutouts this year. That ties them with the 1977 squad for the team record. The win also bumped the Rangers divisional lead up to 4.5 games as the Twins thumped the Angels.

Starting September off right.

The Rangers managed to take the final game of the homestand last night as they topped the Devil Rays 7-2. That keeps them ahead of the Angels by 3.5 games as the Halos also won.

C.J. Wilson, shown here on card number TEX13 of the 2008 Topps Texas Rangers set, got the win with his dominant performance. For five innings Wilson was perfect. Literally. I was wondering if a no-hitter was in the making.

Of the first 15 batters Wilson faced he struck out seven, got six on fly balls and two on grounders. Going into the sixth inning C.J. was cruising. Then Casey Kotchman smacked a chopper and Wilson tried to grab it with his left hand. That stung a finger on his pitching hand and cost him his control. He struggled through the rest of the inning and was pulled in the seventh after facing two batters. C.J. later made a point of saying that his finger is fine and he will make his next start. Ron Washington confirmed that report.

No worries for Wilson though as the bullpen came in and kept the Tampa Bay bats quiet. The two runs credited to Wilson were the only two they were able to score.

On the other side of the ball Ian Kinsler knocked two long balls while Michael Young smacked one. Kinsler seems to have recovered his home run swing recently. As is normal when he does that he is hammering home runs in bunches. Hopefully he won't fall so much in love with his power swing that it hurts his ability to get on base. On the other hand, the home runs sure are nice.

All in all it was good to see the win and even better to see Texas take the series 2-1. That puts them past one of their difficult series left in the season. On to Boston!

Best Seasons: Rodriguez - 1999.

Number seven on T.R.'s list of best seasons is Ivan Rodriguez's 1999 performance. Pudge is shown here on card number 174 of the 2001 Leaf Limited Lumberjacks set. The card features a piece of Ivan's bat and is numbered 399/500.

By 1999 Ivan Rodriguez was established as the Rangers starting catcher and as a defensive genius behind the plate. At age 27 he had been in the majors for eight seasons and had been an All-Star seven times. He had also won eight Gold Gloves and five Silver Slugger awards. It seemed that it would be hard to top such performances. Top them he did though.

Pudge played in 144 games in 1999 and went to the plate 630 times. In those trips he posted a .332 batting average (1st on the club) and a .356 on-base percentage. He collected 199 hits to lead the team in that category. Of those hits, 35 were home runs, and 29 were doubles. Ivan scored 116 runs (team best) while picking up 113 RBI of his own. He also stole 25 bases while getting caught 12 times.

In the field Rodriguez continued his remarkable defense. He committed just seven errors all season for a .993 fielding percentage, two points above the league average. He also allowed just one passed ball all season. Stealing on Pudge was not a safe undertaking. He threw out 41 would-be base thieves while only 34 runners survived the attempt. That gave him a league best 55% caught stealing rate.

Rodriguez's defense had always been good. In 1999 he finally put together an outstanding offensive year as well. People noticed. Once again he won a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards and was named to the All-Star game. He was also named the MVP of the American League.

Best Seasons: Sierra - 1989.

I was going to wait and post on tonight's game. Alexi Ogando got knocked out in the third inning though and James Shields was brilliant. Looks like the Devil Rays are going to win this one. Time for the next installment in T.R. Sullivan's fifty best seasons in Rangers history list.

Number six on the list is Ruben Sierra's 1989 season. Sierra, shown here on card number 165 of the 1990 Sports Illustrated for Kids set, was 23 years old in 1989 and had been in the Majors for three years. In 1989 his speed and power came together.

Ruben led the league in games played with 162. He also led the league in triples (14), RBI (119), slugging percentage (.543), and total bases (344). He led the team in doubles (35), home runs (29), runs scored (101), and hits (194). His .306 batting average was the best he had posted to that point in his career and was second only to Julio Franco's .316 on the team. His 14 triples are still a team record.

Sierra's season did not go unnoticed. He came in second in MVP balloting. He was also named to the All-Star team and won a Silver Slugger award. This was the season that the Rangers and their fans had been hoping for from Ruben since he tore up through the minors and onto the Major League roster. It would easily be the best season of his career.

Checking in.

Checking in on the 2011 season that is. Kind of a mixed bag over the last few days but at least the Rangers seem to have come out of their slump.

With just two games separating the two teams going into last weekend, the Rangers welcomed the Angels to Arlington. Momentum seemed to be in the Halos favor. To be frank, I was expecting to two clubs to flip-flop in the standings before the series was over. That was not too be. The Rangers suddenly woke up and took two of three from the Angels to come out of the series with a three game lead. They then picked up an additional half a game yesterday when the Mariners managed to beat the Angels while Texas took the day off.

Nice to see the guys pick up a little ground on Anaheim. They're not out of the woods yet though. While the Angels are playing a couple of fourth place teams in the next week the Rangers will be facing off with the Devil Rays and Red Sox. That with Nelson Cruz going back on the Disabled List today with a hamstring injury.

With Tampa Bay coming to town I must confess to being less than impressed to hear that Scott Feldman, shown here on card number 259 of the 2010 Allen and Ginter set, was starting tonight. It's not that I dislike Scooter, it's just that I don't care to see him start a big game. Ron Washington didn't ask me though so Feldman got the start. Good thing he did. He just left the game with a two run lead. In six innings he gave up just two hits and held the Devil Rays scoreless. Very nice work to see from a spot starter. If Texas doesn't hold on to this game it won't be Scott Feldman's fault.

Minor League Monday - Ronaldo Romero, 1989 ProCards.

Texas signed young Ronaldo Romero, shown here on card number 1016 of the 1989 ProCards set, in 1987. In 1988 he would play for the Sarasota Rangers in Rookie ball. With an ERA of 3.05 Ronaldo showed enough promise to get promoted to Single A the next season.

With the Gastonia Rangers in 1989 Romero would post a 4.82 ERA and a 1.679 WHIP in 84 innings. He would start 15 of the 22 games he appeared in and would end with a 5-5 record. Ronaldo did struggle with his control as he walked 60 batters while striking out 62.

That performance wasn't enough to get Romero bumped up to Double A. At 18 years old there was time for improvement though. Another season at Gastonia was in order.

Romero started off the 1990 season like a house afire. By the time he appeared in his eleventh game on May 14th he had a 1.35 ERA. Something had clicked it seemed. Ronaldo got off to a rocky start that night and gave up an uncharacteristic seven runs in the first two innings. Sitting in the dugout in the top of the third he began to have trouble breathing and complained that his heart was fluttering. As emergency personnel responded, his heart stopped. CPR was initiated and he was transported to the local hospital. At 2045, a half an hour after his collapse, he was pronounced dead by the emergency room doctor. At age 19 Ronaldo Romero's career and life were over.

An autopsy later determined that Romero suffered from an enlarged heart and that was likely what led to his fatal heart attack. With that in mind, there was little that anyone could have done. Young people just don't survive heart attacks and there is usually little sign that they are coming until it is too late. Apparently that was the case here. Trainer Tom Tisdale later said that Ronaldo had told him prior to the game that he was feeling the strongest he had all season.

Sorry for the rather downer post. Romero's card was simply the next to come up in the team set. I had no idea what I was about to uncover as I scanned it in and began to research. I suppose that's the thing to keep in mind here. Tomorrow is not guaranteed and nobody knows what the future holds. We all need to make sure that we are prepared to step into eternity at any time.

Senators Saturday - Joe McClain, 1962.

Joe McClain, shown here on card number 324 of the 1962 Topps set, had spent the entire 1961 season as a member of the Senators starting rotation. In 1962 he returned to the game with the goal of making that spot in the rotation his permanent home.

Things went badly for Joe from the word go. He got four starts in ten appearances and completed two games. He wasn't able to win a game though and got tagged with the loss four times. His ERA ballooned to 9.38 and his WHIP climbed to 1.833.

McClain was a control specialist and apparently his control had deserted him. The results were predictably not good. After just 24 innings the Senators had seen enough. They sent Joe down to Triple A to see if he could regain his 1961 form.

Joe pitched 113 innings in 24 games with the Syracuse Chiefs to finish out the 1962 season. He managed to get his ERA down to 4.62 and his WHIP to 1.513. His control was still a problem but at least he struck out more than he walked (59 to 36). Some improvement had been made but not enough, McClain ended his dismal season at Triple A.