A couple of weeks ago, the Texas Rangers set their pitching rotation to keep veteran pitchers Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison away from pitching in Colorado Monday and Tuesday night so the rehabbing starters could avoid more risk of injury while swinging the bat.
That leaves Martin Perez and Robbie Ross Jr. to take their cuts in the respective games, playing under National League rules, as silly as they are (that's a great debate in itself).
So leave it to Perez and Ross to take a couple of hacks, or more likely lay down some bunts. The two have been gearing up to their big chances by taking batting practice recently, and took BP from newly named Hall of Famer Greg Maddux on Saturday in Anaheim.
"Greg is nasty. ... He's still got it," Ross told MLB.com.
Perez is 0-for-5 in his career, while Ross is 0-for-2.
Ron Washington told MLB.com his plan for the two is to be able to get a bunt down, and in a perfect world, be a slash candidate. A slash is when you square to bunt before the pitch to draw in the corner infielders before retreating to your stance and swinging away.
"It is hard, because they don't swing the bat very much, but you never know when a situation will come up where they need to slash," Washington said. "They may swing and miss, but they may swing and make contact, and open up a big inning."
