Friday Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill

Welcome to the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill, where we raise a glass to Steve Buechele who took the Bakersfield Blaze to the California League semifinals in his first season as a manager.

* Marlon Byrd: "I told the guys about Oakland (20 straight wins) in 2000 and Colorado in 2007. The Phillies catching the Mets. It can be done. But we need to start winning right away."

* Tommy Hunter's 3.23 ERA is the second lower ever by a Rangers rookie pitcher who made at least ten starts in a season. Lowest is by Steve Comer. He had a 2.30 ERA in 1978. The last time a Rangers rookie pitcher had an ERA under 4.00 was Kevin Brown with a 3.35 ERA in 1989.

* Derek Holland has a 6.01 ERA but that's not close to being the highest by a Rangers rookie pitcher with at least ten starts. That's Luis Mendoza. He had an 8.67 ERA last year.

* One run in four games has happened only once in franchise history and that was while they were the Washington Senators in 1971. The Rangers have never been shutout six times in one season at the Ballpark in Arlington until this year.

* The Rangers were held to one hit for the 3rd time this season on Wednesday, also May 19 at Detroit and June 28 vs. San Diego. Prior to this season, Texas had never been held to one hit or less at home at the Ballpark in Arlington, but it's happened twice in less than three month This matches the most times ever in a season for Texas to be held to one or zero hits in a game, also 3 times in 1984 and 1998.

* The Rangers batted .125 and scored one run in their three-game series with the Athletics. By comparison, they hit .141 with one run scored in the three-game ALDS series against the Yankees in 1998 and .152 with one run scored in the three-game playoff series against the Yankees in 1999.

* The Cubs had a hard time getting ahold of outfielder So Taguchi and telling him he was being called up from Triple A. Said Taguchi: "I don't have any friends in Chicago, so [I thought] maybe this was a wrong [number], and I just ignored it maybe for two hours."

* Just for the heck of it: Kazuo Fukumori.

* Ichiro Suzuki, getting a beer shower from his teammates after his ninth straight 200-hit season: "It's impossible that we're going to have the exact same team members as this year next year. So, to get to enjoy this moment now with them ... makes me very joyful."

* Jon Daniels on signing Tanner Scheppers: "We would have liked to have done this two months ago but hopefully ten years from now we'll be able to look back at the kind of professional career Tanner has had and see it was just a footnote."

* Scheppers was the 44th overall pick. So was Reds first baseman Joey Votto, who is hitting .303 with 21 home runs and 70 RBI. Best pitcher taken with the 44th overall pick was Jon Lieber by the Royals in 1992. He ended up a 20-game winner for the Cubs.

* John Grisham, a huge baseball fan, on Little League baseball: "The age of 12 is a magical year for boys playing baseball. It's the last year the kids are on the small field and they know the game and they are still little boys. After 12, they go to the big field, which is the same size field that the New York Yankees play on. So once they leave this field, they are in a whole different world of baseball."

* Yankees infielder Joe Sewell - 80 years ago tomorrow - set a Major League record by going 115 straight games without striking out. In 1929, he struck out just four times in 578 at-bats.

* Elvis Andrus is the only American League rookie with enough at-bats to qualify to be listed among the league leaders in batting. He has 418 at-bats. Next most is Orioles outfielder Nolan Reimold with 358. Most at-bats ever by a Rangers rookie was George Wright with 557 in 1982.

* The Rangers have scored 800 runs in 13 straight seasons, longest in the Major Leagues. They have 700 this season with 17 games to go.