Only our second extra inning game so far this season started and ended very wildly. :)
At the start, we found out we had some injury problems. Rusty Greer apparently hurt his shoulder in the slide into second last night, and was out for today (not expected to be serious). Projected starter Mike Morgan had to go to the hospital with swelling in his right shin – so John Burkett made an emergency start. Finally, Royce Clayton was out due to the stumble he took over first base in the fifth – he’s expected to be out for several days.
So, a very different lineup took the field for the Rangers, and had a very interesting game. John Burkett pitched four decent innings, but fell apart in the fifth. He was relived by Mike Venafro who pitched three scoreless innings, followed by Mike Munoz, Tim Crabtree, & John Wetteland, who all pitched scoreless relief. Was another really great night for the bullpen. John Wetteland was brought in to pitch the 10th, and got the win, as he was the pitcher of record when the Rangers won the game in the bottom of the 10th.
Pudge has an 18 game hitting streak going now – he’ll probably get a day off tomorrow, as it’s a day game after an extra inning night game. This wasn’t a very big offensive game, and it’s nice to see us win games without having to clobber people to death. Todd Zeile did have a home run in the second with no one on, but that was the only longball of the night.
The game ended in the bottom of the tenth when Pudge doubled to start the inning. After that Mike Trombley threw a wild pitch, and Pudge went to third. At this point I figured that was more than enough, as all we needed was a fly ball. I was not expecting the next pitch, which was another wild pitch allowing Pudge to score. Was quite a bizarre win – but a win is a win – I’ll take it!
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?