FRISCO, Texas _ Left-hander Cole Hamels didn't want to play general manager or manager Wednesday afternoon at Dr Pepper Ballpark, and make the decision on when he should come off the 10-day disabled list and rejoin the Texas Rangers' rotation.
But based on his performance in his second start on medical rehabilitation assignment, expect Jon Daniels and Jeff Banister to have Hamels active again next week.
Hamels logged 81 pitches over 5 2/3 innings for Double-A Frisco, allowing one run on two hits and two walks against Midland. One of the hits was a home run on Hamels' eighth pitch of the game.
The Rangers could insert Hamels into the rotation as soon as Monday to open a four-game series at Cleveland. That would be fine by him, assuming he has no day-after issues with his strained left oblique and that his Friday bullpen session goes off without incident.
"It was good, being able to get into the sixth inning," said Hamels, who was scheduled to go only five innings. "I know we were shooting for five with the pitch count we set. Just getting out there and being able to get into a rhythm, especially seeing how I feel with the long innings and warming up and keeping everything going smoothly. That was something we were doing really well."
Hamels retired seven straight after Oakland prospect Yairo Munoz took him deep. Hamels didn't allow another hit until a bloop single to start the fourth, but he was out of the inning four pitches later.
He retired seven straight again before walking Munoz. That ended Hamels' day, which was filled with a lot of cut fastballs.
"I didn't throw a lot of good cutters last start, so I wanted to make sure I had that feel because that's such a good pitch to get guys off-balance," Hamels said. "Make sure I can execute the other pitches off it. That's really a tell-tale sign."
Third baseman Adrian Beltre said that the return of Hamels and Andrew Cashner will have the Rangers at full strength all season and give them their first sense of how good they can be.
He said that the Rangers continue to shoot for a third straight American League West title despite being 12 games behind the Houston Astros entering play Wednesday.
"Cole has been one of the horses here for a year and a half, and it's always nice to have two aces in your starting rotation," Beltre said. "We're getting by without Cole, but there's no doubt he's going to be one of the main pieces for us to accomplish our goals.
"We still have a lot of work to do. We haven't played the way we wanted to. We need to play better as a whole. Our division is not an easy division, and, obviously, we have a really good opponent like Houston that has put some room in front of us. But we have a long way to go."
