SPORTSDAY

Don't expect martial arts to catch on as an off-season training craze for big league pitchers. It certainly doesn't seem to have worked for Kevin Millwood, who blogging sensation Jacques Taylor wants put on the DL until he can prove in a rehab start that his groin is OK.

Richard Durrett's story this winter about Millwood taking up kickboxing to get in shape was a great read. The results haven't been so swell for the beefy 33-year-old whom the Rangers signed to be an innings eater.

As Dickey D pointed out, Millwood has left five starts early because of injury this season. That's a kick in the gut to an overworked bullpen.

Mark Cuban is among the five contestants still in the running to purchase the Chicago Cubs.

An early arrival to the Bay Area afforded me the chance to see the Bakersfield Blaze with the added bonus of not having to go to Bakersfield (sorry, Bakersfielders, only time I've been in your town was after Sept. 11, 2001 when the Rangers put the media on the team bus heading back from San Francisco. We were supposed to drive 30 hours back to Dallas on the bus since there was no air traffic, but ended up getting a charter by the time we got to Bakersfield. That was a relief, but the whole environment surrounding Sept. 11 made everything feel a little depressing.)

Nevertheless, read on for a few impressions from the Blaze's scintillating 5-3 win over San Jose last night

With a week to go until the trade deadline, there's some time for us (and I mean all of us) to play GM. So, we'll try and propose a trade here daily and let you guys either give it credence or shoot it down.

Today's proposal: Would you offer Vicente Padilla, Gerald Laird and C.J. Wilson to the New York Yankees for Phil Hughes?

Continue on to find out why it might or might not make sense.

It was a perfect night for the Rangers' affiliates. All of them won.

The big story: Nelson Cruz. He had two homers and has 34 on the season, tying him with Dallas McPherson, who also had two homers. The minor-league world is taking notice. Check out this story on milb.com.

On this, the 24th day of July in 2001:

The Rangers traded 1B Andres Galarraga to San Francisco in exchange for RHP Todd Ozias, LHP Erasmo Ramirez, and OF Chris Magruder.

One would think that yesterday's turn of events would leave the Rangers a little more open to selling of a few veterans this week, should reasonable opportunities to do so present themselves.

After the jump, we'll take a quick look at developments over the past 24 hours that could impact the Rangers as the July 31 trade deadline looms....

The debut of the new blog, devoted solely to the writings of DMN columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor, includes an item on Texas Rangers closer C.J. Wilson. Taylor writes that he expects Wilson to dig himself into trouble more often than he expects to see a game saved.

This line from earlier today?

                                               IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO HR     ERA
Armando Galarraga (W, 8-4)  7.0   3    1    1     1    7     0    3.27

The Mariners have declared some sections and concession stands at select games (Rangers on Sept. 9 is one of them) no peanut zones.

Discuss:

Kevin Millwood. His groin and short start didn't help an already overworked bullpen.

Eddie Guardado and C.J. Wilson. They couldn't get it done, though that was an ugly eighth inning all the way around.

Carlos Quentin. The guy can hit.

Eddie Guardado struggled in the eighth, giving up two runs to make it a one-run game. C.J. Wilson was called in with two outs in the eighth and allowed a three-run homer to Carlos Quentin (his second homer of the game) to give the White Sox a 10-8 lead.

The Rangers bullpen has pitched more innings than anyone and maybe that's catching up to them, though Wilson was rested.

If you haven't seen Alexei Ramirez's play in the seventh, I'm sure you will on ESPN and a bunch of other places.

Ramirez charged Blalock's soft grounder, scooped it in one motion with his glove toward first and it was caught barehanded by Paul Konerko. The out did move runners to second and third and Jarrod Saltalamacchia got a two-out single to score two runs.

It's 8-4 Rangers.

Don't overlook the work Chris Davis has done on his defense at first base. He made a nice diving play on the first batter of the sixth to get an out.

His footwork seems better each day and manager Ron Washington said he's pleased with Davis' improvement and says the player is working hard.

BTW, Davis is getting a chance to play against some lefties and had a double off lefty starter Clayton Richard in the fourth.

He hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Milton Bradley. Blalock has a hit in every game this series and three RBIs. He's also played well defensively.

BTW, Warner Madrigal, a.k.a. Mad Dog, is in the game. Josh Rupe pitched a scoreless 2 1/3 innings. The Rangers chased lefty Clayton Richard from the game after 85 pitches in four innings.

Carlos Quentin just homered off Madrigal in the fifth to make it a 6-4 game.

That's the official word from the Rangers.

Two-out hits the difference in the fourth. Chris Davis doubled and David Murphy singled to score him. Then singles from Ian Kinsler and Michael Young produced another run.

The Rangers have seven hits in the game through four innings and five runs. They had just two runs on 10 hits in yesterday's loss.

Josh Hamilton has struggled off lefty Clayton Richard with three strikeouts. Murphy was batting in the ninth spot for the first time all season today and is doing the job against a lefty. Murphy has a walk, an RBI single and a stolen base.

Today was the fifth time Kevin Millwood has left a game early because of an injury. We still don't know what the injury is, though my bet is on the groin. If that's true, two of Millwood's shortened starts were a shin and three were groins.

Josh Rupe has come on and so far has pitched well. He is rested, though the Rangers bullpen has pitched more innings than anyone in the majors.

Rangers pitching coach Mark Connor came out to talk to Kevin Millwood and Connor then called manager Ron Washington and a trainer out.

Millwood is out of the game. It's hard to tell what it might be, but he's had troubles most recently with his groin.

Josh Rupe gets the call with two runners on (both walked with two outs by Millwood) in a 3-3 game.

Hank Blalock stole second with two outs and David Murphy walked in the second.

Ian Kinsler's double should have just scored one. But when second baseman Alexei Ramirez dropped the relay throw, Murphy alertly sprinted home and Kinsler went on to third.

The play tied the score.

Kevin Millwood gave up a three-run homer to Jim Thome with two outs in the first. Millwood was shaky, giving up a leadoff single to Orlando Cabrera and hitting Carlos Quentin on the arm.

An errant throw to second by catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia didn't help, but with runners on the corners, Thome drilled one out to right-center. I thought the Rangers might walk Thome, even though it was second base that was open. He's just crushed this team recently.

Would you have pitched to him?

Michael Young hit a ball to left field that I thought had no chance to get out. But the wind carried it out.

It's a solo shot off LHP Clayton Richard, making his major-league debut.

For an afternoon, weekday game, it's a nice crowd.

Fifth-round choice OF Clark Murphy (Fallbrook High School in California) and seventh-round pick RHP Matt Thompson, who lives in Burleson and went to Grace Prep Academy, have agreed to terms.

Murphy was committed to UCLA and Thompson to TCU.

Rangers clubs had a heavy dose of the AL West Tuesday. Of the five teams that played, three faced off against potential future intra-division rivals. Oklahoma beat Los Angeles' Triple-A club; Frisco lost to the A's Double-A team in Midland and the rookie Rangers Cobbered (see the jump for the definition of that word; it is not a typo) the baby A's.

There were a couple of injuries last night: German Duran jammed a hand and Wilfredo Boscan left his start at Spokane after just two-thirds of an inning. Don't have details on Boscan just yet, but will update when I do. I'm assuming its an injury. He wasn't ejected and I don't think he reached his pitch limit before the end of the first.

UPDATE: Boscan sprained his ankle covering home; not sure if he will have to miss another start or night. Duran is being checked by a doctor today to determine the extent of the hand injury.

Hop along to see the rest of the details. But if you can't wait, I will tell you this: Nelson Cruz homered again.

With Tim MacMahon and most of the Cowboys crew on their way to Oxnard, I wanted to let you all know that we are very happy to announce the launch of our first sports columnist blog today. Long-time Cowboys writer and SportsDay columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor has the honors since he will be at Cowboys camp starting tomorrow. He promises lots of Rangers talk. We will launch blogs for our other sports columnists, Tim Cowlishaw and Kevin Sherrington in the upcoming weeks.

For now, give Jacques a look and let him know what you want to talk about. He has this thinking that since it's got his name on it he will decide the topics. I'm sure your voices will influence him.

His first post talks a little about his ideas for the blog and his second addresses his 14th Cowboys training camp visit.

Against a lefty, the Rangers are playing four left-handed hitters. David Murphy is batting ninth for the first time this season. Marlon Byrd is batting fifth because manager Ron Washington wants a right-handed hitter there. Jarrod Saltalamacchia moves up to seventh to break up Hank Blalock and Chris Davis, both left-handed hitters.

2B Ian Kinsler
SS Michael Young
CF Josh Hamilton
DH Milton Bradley
RF Marlon Byrd
3B Hank Blalock
C Jarrod Saltalamacchia
1B Chris Davis
LF David Murphy

Kevin Millwood is on the mound.

RHP Eric Hurley appears on track to start on Sunday in Oakland. He was throwing today and getting some treatment, so I'll find out more after the game. But manager Ron Washington is confident Hurley will start.

Chris Davis has eight homers since he was called up on June 26, that's the most in the AL since that time. Davis is averaging one home every 12 at-bats for his entire season -- both major and minor leagues.

Kevin Millwood wants to stay on regular rest, so he's slated to pitch Monday at home against Seattle.

Luis Mendoza's tough night wasn't predicted by many of you (or me, for that matter). Only Quatre Vier got the number of innings right. Of course, as the name might suggest, he went with all fours and 64 pitches. Mendoza ended up allowing six runs. But he did have four strikeouts.

Today's contestant: Kevin Millwood

The guy usually goes at least five. From there, who knows?

My call:

IP: 6
H: 8
R: 3
ER: 3
BB: 2
K: 3
Pitches: 103

Your turn.