Rangers Make the Best of Rough Month

The Angels blew their chance on the final weekend of June, and the entire division might have blown it by allowing the Texas Rangers to survive their toughest month. The Rangers handled a significant hurdle by going 15-13 in June and adding two games to their American League West lead, which is at six over the Seattle Mariners.

Three months remain, but if the Rangers were going to collapse, it probably was going to happen during a month in which they had:

* Twenty road games and only eight at home.

* Fourteen games against teams with winning records.

* Seven against division leaders at the time: the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees.

* Two trips to the Pacific time zone and one to the Eastern.

“I’m proud of the club, the way it has responded,” Manager Johnny Oates said. “In a situation like this, there’s more risk of mental wear and tear. It’s tough to stay focused. The mental side of it is the part that I look at, and they’ve managed to stay sharp.”

The Rangers will have 45 of 75 second-half games at home, compared to 36 before the All-Star break. The always-fragile pitching staff had a 4.10 ERA in June, third best in the league behind Boston and New York, and got a major boost when John Burkett returned from a monthlong demotion to the bullpen and gave up only two runs and seven hits in 13 innings of two starts. Burkett had been battling a sore shoulder, but said, “Right now, it feels like somebody planted a new arm on me.”

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Expansion-diluted pitching has put greater emphasis on the role of the middle reliever and setup man. The American League all-star team may provide an example of how important the role has become. Two of the league’s most successful--Jeff Zimmerman of Texas and Steve Karsay of the Cleveland Indians--are getting a lot of support from managers in filing their recommendations to Yankee Manager Joe Torre, who will pilot the AL team.

Zimmerman has a 7-0 record and 0.94 earned-run average, having held opponents to a .104 batting average. Karsay was 7-1 with a 2.63 ERA, having held opponents to a .237 average. Both have traveled circuitous routes to their success, leaving a feeling among managers that they should be rewarded for that as well.

Karsay’s all-star chances all but ended Saturday when the Indians put him on the 15-day disabled list because of a pulled stomach muscle.

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Whining about ballot-stuffing in Cleveland, Ranger right fielder Juan Gonzalez says he will not go to the All-Star game unless elected by the fans, a longshot considering he is a distant fifth in the most recent tabulations.

Cleveland outfielders Manny Ramirez and Kenny Lofton, along with second baseman Roberto Alomar and first baseman Jim Thome, are all headed toward election by the fans, and all are legitimate except for Thome, who has struggled. Rafael Palmeiro, second to Thome, is the obvious choice as the first baseman, but he was hurt in the popularity voting--as was teammate Gonzalez--when Texas had only eight home games in June.

Torre has said he will definitely name Gonzalez to the team, and it would be a surprise if the Texas slugger rejected the honor--not to mention a $50,000 bonus stipulated in his contract.

For now, Torre has far greater concerns about second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, who has 15 errors, eight in his last 21 games, a siege reminiscent of the throwing problems encountered by former Dodger Steve Sax in the mid-’80s.