behind the dugout

After ending a seven game losing streak with a David Murphy single in the 10th inning to defeat the Twins last night the Rangers are looking to start another more upbeat streak.

Sidney Ponson had not pitched in a big league game since last May after being released by the Minnesota Twins. Ponson hadn’t pitched well at all and was 2-5 with a 6.93 ERA in his seven starts with the Twins and vowed to head home to Florida and either get a call from another team or enjoy the sun.

The sun must have been nice for Ponson as he did not sign with any other team last season. This spring the Texas Rangers contacted the 10-year veteran about accepting a minor league deal following an injury to Brandon McCarthy.

Ponson was on the hill for the first time tonight as a Ranger. Also making their season debut in the game for the Rangers was Jarrod Saltalamacchia fresh from his call-up from Triple-A Oklahoma. He was batting sixth and starting behind the plate for the team. The two had both been at Oklahoma together.

Ponson induced a ground ball off the bat of Matt Tolbert to start the game and following a single by Brendan Harris escaped the inning without further damage after getting Joe Mauer to ground into a double play. In the second Ponson recorded a 1-2-3 inning, possibly the first time he had done such a thing since 2003.

The Twins got back to back singles from Delmon Young and Mike Lamb before a double by Craig Monre off the glove of right fielder Frank Catalanotto scored the first run of the game. After getting Matt Talbert out on strikes Ponson threw a ball that tipped off the glove of Saltalamacchia which pushed the lead to 2-0 Twins. Ponson then rallied to strike out Harris before Joe Mauer sharply hit a ball to third base which was snared by Ramon Vazquez to end the inning.

Down 2-0 the Rangers began going to work in the bottom of the inning. Singles by Ben Broussard, Ramon Vazquez and Ian Kinsler started the inning. Michel Young struck out with the bases loaded before Josh Hamilton dropped a double into left field to tie the game at two and added two more to his team in RBI’s to 25. Milton Bradley was retired on strikes before last night’s hero David Murphy singled to center to score Kinsler and Hamilton. Saltalamacchi struck out to end the inning.

In the fifth inning the Rangers would add another run to up the lead to 5-2. Ponson pitched into the sixth and at that time the game took an unfortunate turn for the Rangers.

Brenden Harris led off the sixth with a double and later Ponson threw the ball away on a fielders choice. Jason Kubel later singeled to drive in a run and at that time Ron Washington called on Jamey Wright. The inning was compounded by infield singles that easily could have been scored errors. The Twins pushed across three runs that inning to tie it up.

Ron Washington praised much for his defensive coaching sat in the dugout stunned as the game got out of hand.

In the seventh things were much the same, they added four in the eight and took a 12-5 lead to the ninth.

Bobby Korecky making his big league debut loaded the bases before getting Ben Broussard to ground into a double play. Ramon Vazquez grounded out to Justin Morneau to end the pain.