We got a very good pitching outing from three rookies – Glynn (starter), Venafro, & Zimmerman. Today’s DMN said that the game was the first that Johnny Oates had managed that had three rookie pitchers in it. Not sure about the history of the club, but it was impressive to see. Was much better than last year’s rookie pitching experiments of Todd Van Poppel & Matt Perisho. Speaking of pitchers, the cameramen and Bill Jones pointed out that Roger Pavlik was in the stands – he was sitting in the first row behind the bullpen chatting with the Ranger pitchers. I wonder if he’s going to attempt a comeback next spring training?
Still, I thought Ryan Glynn pitched well, but probably started to show nerves towards the end of his outing. He went 4.1 innings, not enough for the win, but certainly good enough to keep his slot in the rotation. Mike Venafro came in and pitched really well for his first major league win (3.2 innings), and then Jeff Zimmerman came in for the ninth. Zim initially looked shaky, but ended up getting a shutout inning (that will help my fantasy team
Royce Clayton probably had his best offensive night of the season, getting three hits in 3 AB, scoring a run, and getting an RBI. Nice night for him – this is why we signed him for four years. :) On the flip side, Raffy went 0 for 3, lowering his average to .385 (from .392). Mark McLemore was back after coming out last night. That’s good to see. I’m really pulling for Mac to have a stellar year – I’d like him to stay around (provided he can play).
No home runs though, which is the first game in like 10 or 12 games or something like that where we didn’t have any home runs at all. I was kind of hoping we’d get 10 runs, as that would have been three games in a row where we were involved in a 10+ run game.
Was a really nice night for the rookies – I hope these guys are not flashes, and they stick. We need the help;.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available. I haven’t heard from Jim in a few days. Jim, if you see this, drop me a line – you OK?