I seem to have developed a pattern of updating series after they're over, doing all the games at once. I need to get out of that. By the time I get to the third one, my mind has a hard time coming up with something unique to say about the final game. Such is the same here. We won, but all I can think of to write about was how Frank Francisco blew the save, and then we won on a walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth.

One other thing worth mentioning: Julio Borbon got his first major league hit - and RBI at the same time. Also, from the TV coverage, they didn't show the ball going back into the dugout - that usually gets shown for some reason.

Well, for the first time in a couple of years, I headed out to the Rangers game to retake the pictures for my seat selector feature here on my site. First done about ten years ago, it's something I've always had fun with, but it is a heck of a lot of work. Once I get the pics all sorted out, I'll update my online feature, and post a story about it.

Anyway, when that was over (I started at 5:10PM and finished at 6:48PM, downed 60oz of Gatorade, and two bottles of water during all of this), I sat down to watch the Rangers game. It's only my third game of the season so far, but I always like just sitting in the last row of the upper deck with my Palm to score the game and my headphone radio. I enjoy those. If the park wasn't so far away, I'd probably go to more. Anyway..

After an insanely long first two innings (an hour), I came to the conclusion that I'd be there for awhile. The Rangers scored three in the bottom of the first, and then gave them right back in the top of the second. It was 3-3 after two. Neither pitcher had much of anything on the mound, and both escaped some situations that would have made the three a much larger crooked number on the scoreboard.

Joe Saunders is a pretty decent pitcher, but not here. Before the game, one of the radio guys (get well Eric!) said that Saunders was something like 0-5 with an ERA in the 12's in our ballpark. This game didn't help. Saunders was hit pretty hard, giving up eight runs on five walks and six hits in just 3.2 innings. He was pretty bad. In fact, in the first inning, I really thought we were going to score six or seven and get him out of there with less than an inning pitched, but he escaped that.

Our offense was propelled by the home run. We had five of them in all. Four off of Joe Saunders. Kinsler led off the game with one. Marlon Byrd had a two run shot later in the first inning. That felt good, as a lot of ours have been solo home runs lately. What felt better though was the three run home run Byrd also had in the fourth inning, which was followed up by a solo shot by Nelson Cruz. David Murphy also added a solo shot in the seventh. The home runs accounted for seven of our nine runs.

Pitching wise, I have to say that Scott Feldman was pretty pedestrian, bordering on awful the first two innings. He completely failed in the shutdown inning, he just looked bad. Which is what makes innings three through six more impressive. After 57 pitches in the first two, Scott settled down, and pitched extremely well in 3-6. He needed about 60 pitches to get through the other four innings, and allowed no more runs. At one point he retired a ton of guys in a row - I forget how many. In fact, had his pitch count not been at 116 after six innings, he probably would have come back out - he was looking QUITE good.

Problem is our pen made the game seem closer than it really was. Going up 9-3 in the ninth, CJ Wilson coughed up a couple of runs. One was unearned, but still. 9-3 would have felt a lot better than 9-5, even though both resulted in a win, and us getting back to just one and a half games out of first.

Still kind of bummed at how far we fell in June, but the win helps ease that a little.

When Anaheim came into town, I think most Rangers fans weren't particularly looking forward to it. We started the month up four and a half games, and the Angels came into town now up a game and a half. That's not a particularly fun thing when you factor in the sluggishness the Rangers have exhibited the last few weeks. I saw the inbound Angels as something bad. They're not firing on all cylinders either, but right now they seem better than us, and I wasn't thrilled with that mindset.

Game one didn't help most Rangers fans. They dropped it 5-2. Our offense was mostly flat again. Granted, we had eight hits, and three of them were from Marlon Byrd. Outside of the Birdman, just five hits. Two of them were home runs, however. Byrd & David Murphy went back to back in the third inning, but that was the only two runs we got.

Pitching wise, Pidente was more than flat. He wasn't very good. Five innings, five earned runs on ten hits and two walks. Throw in a home run for good measure, too.

The only really positive thing to take out of this game was that our bullpen was great. Four guys combined for four innings. Only two hits and one walk were allowed, but no runs.

But at the end of the game I had a really bad feeling.

I was driving around today listening to XM's "MLB Home Plate" talk shows, and heard something that seems like epic level news. A caller called in and mentioned that Tom Hicks & the Texas Rangers failed to make payroll yesterday. They said that MLB had to step in and give the team $15 million to make payroll. Whether that was office payroll or player payroll, they weren't clear.

But Kevin Kennedy who was the host said he had several personal ties in the orginazation, going back to his days here (so he said). He claimed he knew something about the situation, and was quite sure that the team "would be in different hands this coming offseason".

Now we knew Hicks was trying to sell controlling interest (PLEASE PLEASE - Mr Ryan..), but this was the first I heard of real money problems like not being able to make player payroll. Kennedy said this wouldn't affect day to day operations, because MLB has a fund set up for things like this, but he did say it probably would affect who could be brought in at the trading deadline, that we couldn't take on much (if any) salary.

This is the first I've heard of it. Either I missed something bigtime in local reporting, or nobody's talking about it. Surely I'm not the first person in DFW to mention this?

Usually towards the end of the year, we always hear about how many players the Texas Rangers have used overall in any particular season. The Rangers are usually towards the high end of that list. Injuries, callups, usually make for a long list, and you tend to forget the guys who are here so quick that they don't even have time for the proverbial "cup of coffee".

Last year I kept track of it, and it worked pretty well, so I'll do it again for 2009. This post will get bumped whenever there is a player who is making his first appearance for the Texas Rangers in 2009. I am going to count guys who get called up, but don't play immediately (or sometimes don't play at all), as they will be part of the 25 man roster officially. So here goes. The most recent additions will be on the top of the list. The original opening day 25 man roster is not in any particular order. The Rangers have one guy in the 2009 original 25 that is making his major league debut (Elvis Andrus), which was the same as 2008 (Kaz Fukumori).

#38 - Julio Borbon (Jun 29 - Major League Debut)
#37 - Jason Grilli (Jun 9)
#36 - Doug Mathis (Jun 3)
#35 - Brandon Boggs (Jun 2)
#34 - Guillermo Moscoso (May 29 - Major League Debut)
#33 - Tommy Hunter (May 29)
#32 - Joaquin Arias (May 9)
#31 - Greg Golson (May 4)
#30 - Max Ramirez (May 1)
#29 - Luis Mendoza (Apr 23)
#28 - Darren O'Day (Apr 22)
#27 - Derek Holland (Apr 18 - Major League Debut)
#26 - Willie Eyre (Apr 15)

#25 to #1: Kris Benson, Scott Feldman, Frank Francisco, Eddie Guardado, Matt Harrison, Jason Jennings, Warner Madrigal, Brandon McCarthy, Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Josh Rupe, CJ Wilson, Jarrod Saltamacchia, Taylor Teagarden, Elvis Andrus (Major League Debut), Hank Blalock, Chris Davis, Ian Kinsler, Omar Vizquel, Michael Young, Marlon Byrd, Nelson Cruz, Josh Hamilton, Andruw Jones, David Murphy.

Derek Holland started this game, and pitched the way you'd think a first year starter should. Pretty horrible line. 5.2 innings, thirteen hits, one walk, seven runs allowed (six earned). The only thing really good was the fact that he struck out eight guys in his time out there. But he was hit around pretty good, that was the reason the Rangers lost this game.

Offensively, there wasn't a ton going on. Rangers managed only six hits. Two doubles and a home run (Chris Davis again). That was about it.

I've seen uglier games by the Rangers, but it just felt like it should have been a whole lot worse. The Padres set a season record with sixteen hits in a game. Figures it'd be against us.

There is not a ton to say about this one.

The Rangers managed just one hit. Was a bloop single by Michael Young early on. That was it. San Diego starter Chad Gaudin had what appears to be the best start of his career. He went eight innings, gave up just the one hit. He did walk two, but struck out nine Rangers. The only Ranger to not strike out was Elvis Andrus. Pretty bad when the best highlight you can think of is who didn't strike out.

Tommy Hunter was called up to make the start, and was a hard luck loser. He went 6.1 innings, giving up just the two runs. One was a solo home run. But I felt bad, he pitched pretty well, he was just seriously upstaged by Chad Gaudin.

Well, I was actually going to go to this game. Given I'm unemployed now, I was going to head out to the park and retake the pictures for my seat selector feature on the site. So I left Garland at 4PM. I wanted to be there when the gates opened, so I can get pictures of all the sections of the park. I have a pretty good drive to the Ballpark (about 33 miles or so - you can see it here). I get to about Jim Miller & I30 in Dallas, which isn't very far at all, and the traffic just stopped. This was at like 4:15. Flipped on KRLD, and they said it was like 45 minutes to an hour JUST TO GET to the Mixmaster in Dallas. Screw that. For me to do what I wanted to do would require me to be ready to roll at 5PM. I've done the "take a picture of every section in the ballpark all at once" twice before, and it takes just about all of the two hours you have from gates open to game start. So I turned around and went back home. Too much traffic. Stupid Arlington not paying for Dart. I want a high speed rail line that takes me to the Ballpark.

Anyway, I watched it at home in HD, and for the first three innings, I was regretting not sticking it out to watch the game. The Rangers just destroyed the Padres pitching, and Walter Silva in particular. Granted, Silva was weighed down with some stupid fielding (two balls muffed in the infield, and a doofus catch by Gwynn in right which looked like me in little league), but he only actually allowed one unearned run. Problem was Silva allowed eight EARNED runs in his 2.1 innings pitched. They just teed off. Everything was falling in, going the right way.

Chris Davis went 1-3 this game after going 4-5 last night. That raised his average to .210. He did walk again, which is good. Of course, he struck out twice. Sigh. Our offense was in gear. In all, two doubles, a triple, two home runs, and a pile of singles. One of the home runs was David Murphy, and it went upper tank in right. The other one by Blalock led off an inning that we left the bases loaded on right before that. Darnit - one batter too late for the grand slam. Michael Young & Nelson Cruz took ofers, but everyone else had at least one hit.

Elvis Andrus had the biggest numbers hit wise. He went four for four with two RBI's and a run scored. His triple in the fifth was one of those no doubters to the area right in front of the Rangers bullpen. Triples are ALWAYS nice to see.

Our bullpen kept things in check. Jason Grilli, Willie Eyre, & Doug Mathis all pitched perfect innings. Most impressive.

While I did miss seeing that game, I do have to say that when the game was over, I was already home. That's a great payoff for missing the game. :)

First off, this game outlasted me. When it went to extra innings, I turned it off. I was falling asleep, and not the short nod-off you get on the sofa on a late game. This was a full fledged "I'm passing out for good for the night" kind of fall asleep. So the last thing I saw was a 6-6 tie. Funny thing is right before I stopped watching, Josh Lewin made the comment that the Diamondbacks / Rangers game was the last game going in the majors for the night. :)

Scott Feldman got the start, and got a technical quality start. Six innings, four hits, one walk, and three earned runs. Didn't exactly light the town on fire, but his line isn't that awful, either. His big mistake was a two run home run to Mark Reynolds in the first inning. That was 2/3 of his earned runs right there. We ran out six more pitchers besides Feldman. CJ Wilson, Jason Grilli, & Eddie Guardado threw scoreless innings. Darren O'Day gave up a single run, and Frank Francisco & Jason Jennings gave up two runs. Frankie's was worst, because he only pitched one third of an inning. Jason Jennings I didn't see at all, as I was asleep at that point. O'Day & Francisco gave up home runs for their runs. Francisco was another two run home run to Mark Reynolds. Reynolds had a good night.

Not nearly as good as Chris Davis, who is desperately in need of a few of the nights he had tonight. Chris went 4-5 plus a walk. He struck out once, but given how often he's been striking out lately, one in a game is a serious improvement. They said on TV that Davis was the first Ranger to have a three hit game on the road trip, and it came in the last game of the trip. Unfortunately, Davis' average after the 4-5 night was just .209. He needs several more of these - I really hope he turns it around, as he's a great hitter when he's not striking out at a rate that makes the slider down and away to Juan Gonzalez result in fewer strikeouts. Slider down and away to Juando was a sure fire strikeout, but nothing at the rate that Davis has been doing. So I'm hoping last night is the end of his major season slump so far. That they've stuck with him this far into it is proof the team likes him, but he needs to work it out pretty soon. I can't imagine they'll stay with him forever.

Funny thing is that as many pitchers as the Rangers ran out there (seven), the Diamondbacks had more. They ran nine pitchers out there in the twelve innings. Arizona starter Jon Garland threw six, but then no other Diamondback pitcher threw more than a full inning in relief. Chris Davis & David Murphy had back to back home runs in the 12th. Davis' capped his 4-5 night.

A nice win, even if it came real late, and I was out cold for the night when it happened. I actually learned of the final score of the game from the Dallas Morning News. The real newspaper, not the website. That doesn't happen much anymore. :)

This was a pretty darned good pitcher's duel. Vicente Padilla vs. Dan Haren. After the last five games previous to this, it was quite the surprise. Actually, that wasn't the surprise. The real surprise was that we ended up on the winning side of that.

Both starters went seven innings. Pidente gave up six hits, two walks, and just one run. Haren gave up four hits and a walk for two runs. However, as in most games like this, our hits were well placed. We had just four of them. One double (Teagarden), and three singles, but we got two runs out of it. Haren also struck out eight, so we weren't exactly lighting it up. But it was just enough.

Ours came early, with a single run in the second and the third. The run off of Padilla came in the fifth. There's not a lot to add about this one because the pitching was quite good.

Padilla keeps doing this, and his trade value will be sky high in July. ;)

This story surprised me. Read this morning an article about Marlon Byrd getting supplements from the guy who used to run BALCO.

The article goes on to mention Byrd has not tested positive for anything. The article also mentions Scott Feldman by name too, but nothing wrong there either.

I have to wonder why someone would get involved with the BALCO guy given Barry Bonds, Game of Shadows, and all that stuff.

Don't know if you've seen these before, but I was just told about a few cool stories.

One is from the print magazine Guideposts, and it's a cover story about Josh Hamilton. It's a story any Rangers fan will already know, but it's a great story and is worth checking out again. Gotta praise God for that story!

The other is an interview with CJ Wilson done by the site "The Hall of Very Good". You can check that one out here, which includes the fact that CJ doesn't use an iPhone, which is a bit of a surprise to me.

The Hall site also recently ran a nice article looking at the career of Omar Vizquel. Check that out, too.

OK, that was annoying. I have time to write about this, but I'd just spend a couple hundred words saying "That sucked". So that's all I'm doing for this one.

Taking a mulligan on the San Francisco series. Ran out of time, and I don't feel like writing about a series sweep loss several days after the fact. :)

Taking a mulligan on the San Francisco series. Ran out of time, and I don't feel like writing about a series sweep loss several days after the fact. :)

Taking a mulligan on the San Francisco series. Ran out of time, and I don't feel like writing about a series sweep loss several days after the fact. :)

Figures. The Rangers play the Astros six times each year. This year they lose only one game. Guess which one I went to? That's right, the one they lost. Since I don't really feel about writing in detail on this one, I'll go for a few bullet points:

• Vicente Padilla seemed sluggish, even though he technically had a quality start
• Chris Davis still strikes out too much, he should have been pinch hit for in the 9th
• We made some noise in the bottom of the ninth, but couldn't bring it home
• Row 37 of Section 117 is really dark, given how far back it is under the overhang
• Darren Erstad in left? Man the Astros must be hurting.

I spoke with an Astros fan for a bit who was wearing a rainbow Astros jersey. Addressed myself as a Phillies fan, so we could talk some old Houston / Phillies rivalries. :)

On to San Francisco....

Two big things happened in tonight's game. If you're a real Rangers fan, you knew about them already, but just the same..

• Pudge Rodriguez became the all time #1 catcher with most games caught in the majors. Nobody else has caught more than Pudge. That's an impressive number. First.
• Omar Vizquel tied Luis Apricio for all time hits for a player from Venezuela.

Those two are impressive feats. That Pudge did it in Arlington was as Josh Lewin called it "a gift from the baseball gods". I was there with my wife the game that Pudge played his last as a Ranger. The applause for him on June 19, 2009 was just as great as it was on September 29, 2002. I also included a picture from his last game as a Ranger here. Seemed to fit, as opposed to using the picture of him I saw in an Astro uniform. :)

The actual game itself seemed kind of "meh" other than the walkoff when compared to the stuff above. Matt Harrison came off the DL and pitched OK. Salty & Nelson Cruz had home runs. Kinsler stole two bases. Even Omar Vizquel stole one! The two new pen additions (Jason Grilli & Darren O'Day) tossed a few more shutout innings.

The walkoff was a bloop hit down the left field line. Was your usual fun walkoff win. But even this pales in comparison to me to the events of the rest of the game. It was just major for me. Only thing that would have made it better is if Vizquel also broke the record at the same time. But since he merely tied it, he'll now have a chance to beat it back in San Francisco where he played for awhile. That will be nice for him, I'm sure.

Kevin Millwood continues to roll along in his attempt to play 2009 like he played when he was with Cleveland. Another strong outing of seven innings, just four hits, three walks, six strikeouts, and more importantly just a single earned run. Which came on a fifth inning solo home run by Pudge. Millwood looks really great, and you have to start wondering if he'll get consideration for the All-Star game. I mean in mid June he's 7-4 with an ERA of 2.62. He really does seemingly deserve consideration for the All-Star staff. That will seem quite weird, having a good Rangers pitcher in the All-Star game. If he does get in, you know it will garner more attention for us, as the announcers will go on about "The Rangers? Pitching?" To that, Jason Jennings followed up with two scoreless innings of his own to cap the victory.

Offensively, the Rangers were led by Ian Kinsler, who had two solo home runs - one in the first and one in the second. He also had a third hit (single), and scored on that hit, too. Nice night for him, after being in a slump for awhile. Kinsler wasn't the only one with home runs. David Murphy also had a solo home run in the third. The three home runs were half of our runs. Michael Young also had a couple of RBI's in the game, and Marlon Byrd had one, too. The hits were not very spread out. They were mostly bunched at the top of the lineup. Five of our nine hits were from the first two batters. The other four were from the fifth and sixth place batters. So nine hits were from four batters. The other five took ofers. The win was nice, the balance was not.

This officially claimed the silver boot for the Rangers for another season. I like playing the Astros, but does anyone really care about the boot? Outside of when we play the Astros, you never hear about it.

This was one of those "growing pains" games for Derek Holland. Most Rangers fans expect him to be great, but he is 22, and there won't be games. Actually,it wasn't totally awful, but the line wasn't particuarly great, either. Five innings, five hits (not too bad), four walks (bad), and a home run. Derek gave up four earned runs in his five innings, which is certainly not good.

The Dodgers also tacked on two against Eddie Guardado in his 2/3 of an inning. He seems to be way more inconsistent this year. There's still outings where he was good like he was in 2008, but the 2009 version isn't nearly as automatic. Certainly he isn't "everyday".

Darren O'Day's ERA is 0.82. Just sayin'... ;)

Offensively, I wanted to start with Ian Kinsler. His slump continues, with his batting average now at .260 after a 0-4 game. This game featured just six hits from Ranger players, two of them from Andruw Jones, everyone else just one. In fact, the only run of the game came from the only hit that wasn't a single, that being Jones' fourth inning solo home run.

There's no shame in losing to the team with the best record in baseball, and it's not like they were run over like roadkill, either. They played well as a team in the two losses, but you'd rather see 2-1 than 1-2 for sure.

I've seen the lights go out on Arlington
I saw the Lone Star State laid low.
And life went on beyond the Galleria,
They all bought bright Leuxes-
And left there long ago.

They held a concert out in Arlington-
To watch the Ballpark lights blow.
They turned our power down,
And drove us underground-
But we went right on with the show...

Feldman & Wolf were rolling on now..
Lookin like a classic pitcher's duel
Then the right field lights went out
We sat and waited
For lights that never came...

We sat at home for hours
Watching Rain Delay shows
The fun was going away
I wanted to hit fast forward..
And we lost all hope of the game

When finally out of nowhere
The lights in right just turned right on.
The players took the field
All the pitching was lost
Both teams ran out the bullpens.

Homer by Kemp
Doubles by more Dodgers
Ran the score up three to one
Guardado, Grilli, & O'Day,
Even Moscosco couldn't help
The Rangers lost the game!

I've seen the lights go out in Arlington-
I saw the ruins at my feet,
You know we almost didn't notice it-
We'd see it all the time on Randol Mill Rd.

They burned the churches up in Oak Cliff-
Like in that Spanish Civil War-
The flames were everywhere,
But no one really cared-
It always burned up there before....

I saw the lights go out on Arlington-
I watched the mighty skyline fall.
The boats were waiting at Ray Hubbard,
The union went on strike-
They never sailed at all.

They sent a carrier out from Norfolk-
And picked the Yankees up for free.
They said that Queens could stay,
They blew the Bronx away-
And sank Manhattan out to sea....

You know those lights were bright on Arlington-
But that was so many years ago...
Before we all lived here in Texas-
Before the Mafia took over Mexico.
There are not many who remember-
They say a handful still survive...
To tell the world about...
The way the lights went out,
And keep the memory alive....

First off, I didn't see hardly any of this game, as we had a few friends over to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Was a lot of fun, and a friend bought some of my favorite (Blonde) beer, which I haven't been able to find lately around me.

The Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles swept into town, bringing with them the overall best record of any team in baseball. They finished the game with the same condition, but not before being shown that the little ol team from Arlington can play with them.

Vicente Padilla, coming off a stint on the waiver wire, didn't allow anything, although he was all over the place. Threw just five innings, but also 108 pitches. Walked three, gave up four hits, but more importantly, no runs. One wonders if he pitches really good between now and the end of July he'll get moved. I don't think anyone thinks Padilla will be wearing Texas in 2010, so it could make sense.

He was followed by Jason Jennings, who threw three innings of scoreless relief, and Jason Grilli (who I expect won't stay long either) who threw a scoreless inning, preserving the shutout.

Offensively, we got some runs across the plate, which has been a problem the last few games. We had nine hits in all. Three doubles (two by Teagarden), a triple (Byrd), a home run (Blalock), and four singles. I missed all of it, just saw highlights on Baseball Tonight. But it was nice to get some runs across.

But more importantly getting a dominating win against one of the big boys. That was very cool.

A lot was written about how the 1-0 win in Arlington is a rare occurrence. It is. You almost never see the Rangers win 1-0 at home. If there's zero in the score like that, the other number is frequently a nine or something like that.

But not this night. Kevin Millwood was quite good again. While I didn't get to see the game, his line looks impressive. 7.2 innings pitched, five hits, no walks, and NO RUNS. Kevin left with 105 pitches thrown, which is below his usual workload for 2009. Still, you can't argue with the results.

Darren O'Day & CJ Wilson both threw two thirds of an inning, also giving up no runs. Wilson gave up a hit, but that was it. The Blue Jays scattered their six hits, with only Aaron Hill getting more than one.

On our side, it wasn't great to see us shut down offensively again, but thanks to our pitching, the one run we got was all we needed. The Rangers actually had fewer hits than Toronto did (five to their six). David Murphy was the only Ranger with two (one a double). The other hits were by Chris Davis (double), and singles by Chris Davis, Jarrod Saltamacchia, & Nelson Cruz. The lone run actually was driven in by Marlon Byrd, who had a sac fly in the second.

Overall, an extremely impressive game. I wish I was out there for it. Would have been great to see!

Wednesday night's game was rained out, and for good reason. There was some really heavy rain going through the Metroplex. From the looks of the storm and the radar, there was enough to get the family into the bathroom. That's an adventure with two adults, a four year old, a newborn, and two cats in a single bathroom. Got pretty humid in there by the time we got out.

Anyway, the Rangers game will be made up as a doubleheader on September 1st. Provided my new job allows it, I'll be there. I love doubleheaders!

As those who read my site know, I'm not the most knowledgeable about the minor leagues. I know some names, but I don't get into the minutae of every prospect that comes down the pike. Still, here's who we got on Day 1:

1 - 14: Matt Purke, LHP (same school as David Murphy)
1 - Supp: Tanner Scheppers, RHP (Pick awarded for loss of Milton Bradley)
2 - 62: Tommy Mendonca, 3B (Fresno? Nobody goes to Fresno anymore!)
3 - 93: Robbie Erlin, LHP

As for the details... I will defer as usual to Jamey Newberg. He's the Rangers minor league guru, and if you haven't read his report on yesterday's draft, you need to. You can get to it here:

http://newberg.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/06/day_one_of_the_draft_bold_busi.html

UPDATE: As I was writing this, the news flash came in that the Rangers drafted Ruben Sierra's son, aptly named "Ruben Sierra" in the sixth round as a center fielder.

Not much to say about this one.

The Rangers were shut down pretty darned good by Brian Tallet. We managed just two hits. A double by Brandon Boggs, and a single by Chris Davis. That was it.

Meanwhile, Ranger pitching was pretty bad. Combined, they went nine innings, giving up 12 hits, 9 runs (eight earned) with four walks. Meh. It was even a group of names you go "Huh" to for the most part. Mathis, Moscoso, Guardado, & Grilli.

That's enough about this one. It stunk.

Scott Feldman had probably his worst outing as a starter in 2009 on Monday. Funny thing is if you look at his numbers (six innings pitched, seven hits, two walks, four earned runs), they're not that awful. Not great, but not Chan Ho Park or Mark Clark level of pitching. Still, given how well he has pitched this season so far, it seems pretty bad.

Jason Jennings followed Scott and gave up a few himself in his two innings. Four hits, two runs.

Offensively the real damage for Toronto was done by one guy. Adam Lind. He had two two run home runs, each coming after a walk to another Blue Jay. Take Lind out, and things would have been a whole lot different.

The Rangers runs came on a bunch of singles, mostly. Only David Murphy had anything other than a single; he had two doubles. The Rangers did try a suicide squeeze, and it was suicide. Elvis Andrus missed the bunt, which hung out Marlon Byrd to dry coming home. :)

I missed a decent amount of this, as my mother in law who had been staying with us was going home in the morning. Still, it was a loss. Meh. :)

Vicente Pidente comes back from his being placed on waivers, and going unclaimed. I don't think anyone thought he'd start plunking Red Sox, but you always wonder, eh? Anyway, he was pretty good on Sunday afternoon. Seven innings, four hits, four walks, and two earned runs (three overall). Just 99 pitches for the namesake of the Padilla Flotilla. While I never thought he'd be gone this past weekend, one has to figure he's definitely done after 2009 here, if not traded by the end of July. Padilla did help himself out a bit by picking off Kevin Youkilis from second early on.

Offensively, we got to Daisuke Matsuzaka pretty good. In the 5.2 innings he pitched, we hit him for 10 hits and five earned runs. No Ranger walked, and eight struck out, so he wasn't totally awful, but still. That's a decent showing against one of the Sox' better pitchers. Three doubles, a triple, and two home runs powered the Rangers offense. The highlight was Nelson Cruz almost getting a cycle, just missing the single. Cruz & Murphy both had good days with three hits apiece. Michael Young & Omar Vizquel each had two.

Darren O'Day & CJ Wilson followed up with scoreless innings. Really liking O'Day.

We did it, we came out of the Yankees/Red Sox road trip with a 3-3 record. Not bad at all. Obviously you want to go 6-0, but realistically that's not happening. I think most everyone is satisfied with 3-3 against those guys. Shows we can hang, which might be useful if this first place thing carries us into October.

Sorry for the brevity - it's 3AM, and I'm tired. :)

Wow. There's not much to say about this one. Jon Lester was freakin' fantastic! I've seen many good games pitched in my years watching baseball, but Lester on June 6, 2009 was one of the best. Through the first six, he was untouchable. I mean it was stupid how badly he made the Rangers hitters look.

Michael Young finally broke it up in the top of the seventh when he had a good, clean, double to the monster in left. That was the only hit the Rangers got until Michael came up again in the ninth and singled. Our only run was a sac fly by Andruw Jones in the ninth, scoring Elvis Andrus.

Yeah, the Sox scored a bunch of runs, Derek Holland and Mr. Anna Benson didn't look that good, but who cares? This was about Jon Lester. Once the game got through the sixth, I wanted to see him throw a perfect game against the Rangers - that would have been quite something to watch, and I think most people at that time were thinking he could.

After going 1-2 in the Bronx, I don't think anyone was looking forward to Boston too much, because you could quite easily see another repeat of a 1-2 series, to come home 2-4. We'd then hear all the pundits (Randy Galloway mostly) whine about how we couldn't beat the good teams. They'd have a point mind to some extent, mind you, but I wouldn't want to hear all of that.

So with some trepidation (and no HD feed) on Friday night I sat down to watch the Rangers take on Boston. Kevin Millwood was taking on Brad Penny. Penny's OK, but not someone to be totally afraid of. And the Rangers weren't. At least not right away. This was a pretty good pitcher's duel through the first four innings. Neither team could get past the zeroes that the starters were putting up.

Until the fifth. The Rangers hit Penny for several runs, (five in all), after a play that Julio Lugo probably should have gotten to. Had he done that, I expect that most of the runs that inning would have never scored. I'm speaking of the three run home run that Ian Kinsler got shortly after Lugo's missed play (which had a visual response from Penny on the mound). The Rangers plated four in the top of the fifth, and that was pretty much all they needed, despite tacking on an additional run in the sixth. That was it from us scoring wise, we were up 5-0 after six. We actually didn't have a ton of offense. Just eight hits in all, three of them by Chris Davis, who seems to be getting more hits, even if he's still striking out way too many times. There was also two hits by Marlon Byrd, and one each by Kinsler (his HR), Saltamacchia, & Andrus. One Davis' hits was a double, but everything else aside from Kinsler's homer was a single. So the fifth was well timed.

Turns out we didn't need all of them anyway. Kevin Millwood was pretty good yet again, going seven innings (plus three batters in the 8th) on 117 pitches. Seven hits and four walks, but allowed just one unearned run. We had no double plays, so this was a case of Millwood getting out of it himself. He really deserves more than 5 wins at this point. He's been way better than his record indicates.

One down, all we need is one more of the remaining two games and we'll have a 3-3 road trip. :)

As has been my policy for the last few years, I don't write about losses to the Yankees.

However, I will say this. It was very cool to see Nelson Cruz' dad in the stands getting quite excited about his son's home runs. They need to bring him to every game, and make him a staple like they do with the old guy in the hat from Seattle. :)

The Rangers took a page out of the Yankees' old playbook this night. That's run up the count on the starting pitcher, and get him out of there.

Andy Pettite started for the Yankees, and was out after five innings, and 104 pitches. In fact, the Rangers scored all their runs off of Andy. He was not his classic self, giving up seven hits and an astounding six walks in five innings for those four runs. Did strike out six, though - otherwise it probably would have been a lot worse. It's a good thing the Rangers got to Pettite, because they couldn't get anything done against the bullpen.

The same went for the Rangers' bullpen - they didn't give up any runs at all, and the ones the Yankees did get were pretty few anyway. Scott Feldman started, and is looking better and better each time he pitches. 6.1 innings, five hits, three walks, and five strikeouts for those two runs the Yankees got. The second run was a solo home run by Jorge Posada in the final inning Feldman pitched, so he was quite good the whole night. Couple of double plays helped out Scott, too.

The Rangers offense was all singles, although Elvis Andrus stole two bases; Kinsler was caught stealing, too. Kinsler was also picked off first, too. That's always embarrassing.

It's always nice to beat the Yankees, but I was disappointed none of the three games from the Bronx were in HD. You'd think at least one of them would be to show off the new stadium. I was kind of disappointed by that.

Read tonight where Sammy Sosa has announced he plans on formally retiring. The article doesn't say when exactly, but you have to assume it'll be shortly.

He seems to not want to talk about steroids at all based on the quotes he gave. One of the more interesting quotes is this one:

"I will calmly wait for my induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Don't I have the numbers to be inducted?,"

Makes you wonder - is Sosa a hall of famer? He certainly did a lot in 1998 with Mark McGwuire to help the sport. Whether it's valid or not is another discussion - which I'm sure we'll hear a lot about once he formally becomes a candidate.

What do you think? Should Sosa be in the Hall of Fame?

As has been my policy for the last few years, I don't write about losses to the Yankees.