Faced with a depleted and struggling bullpen, the Rangers will turn to Hideki Irabu as their closer for the time being.

	Irabu

Texas is leaning or Irabu, 32, for lack of a better option. Closer Jeff Zimmerman and setup man Jay Powell are on the DL, Rudy Seanez and Dan Miceli have had trouble, Hector Carrasco is in extended spring training, Francisco Cordero is in the minors, and John Rocker was demoted Wednesday. Rangers manager Jerry Narron felt better about his choice after Irabu registered his first save Wednesday night.

"It felt good to have a guy come in there and throw strikes right away," Narron told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Our guys have a lot of confidence when he comes in."

The Rangers started looking at Irabu as a closer in spring training when Zimmerman first came down with elbow problems.

Midway through spring training, pitching coach Oscar Acosta told Narron and general manager John Hart that, if Zimmerman continued to have problems, then Irabu should be given a chance to close, The Star-Telegram reported. Irabu made his debut in the bullpen in the Rangers' final exhibition game, against the New York Mets on March 30. Taking over in the ninth, he struck out John Valentin, Mark Johnson and Gary Matthews Jr. in the Rangers' 3-2 victory.

After the game, pitching coach Oscar Acosta told GM John Hart, "There's your closer right there."

Hart told the Star-Telegram: "Oscar was onto that early. But we were still having issues with our starting pitching. We might have gone to him earlier if we hadn't had the Chan Ho Park injury."