I was at this game, and driving out to the ballpark, I feared rain again. The weather was bad in the 40 minute drive I have to the ballpark, and it spitted rain a few times on the way out. Fortunately, as my wife and I pulled up to the park, everything cleared up. It was a nice blue sky with great puffy clouds. A bright afternoon – and oh man, did we get a great game.
A few commentaries ago, I said I wasn’t all that thrilled with Mark Clark pitching, as he has been a great disappointment so far this year. However, today, he pitched his masterpiece of the year so far. He went seven innings, allowing four hits, and only two runs. It was by far the best game he’s pitched as a Ranger, and he seems to finally be headed in the right direction. Zim came in and pitched a perfect eighth inning, and Wetteland came in and secured the save, even if he made it a bit interesting by allowing runners to get to first and third. :) Of the six hits the Ranger pitching allowed, two were by Wetteland in the 9th – this was by far our best pitched game that I can recall.
We were shut down on offense too – the Twin rookie pitcher was matching Mark Clark all along the way. That kid lookd really good – in fact, I didn’t think our offense looked alive at all until Tom Kelly started playing bullpen musical chairs. And even then it wasn’t that great – we pulled out a 3-2 win, which seemed like it should have been swapped with the Dallas Stars’ score – the Stars were playing cross town, and lost 7-5, in what seemed like a baseball score.
Our current injury situation seems weird. Rusty Greer was still out of the starting lineup, but did make an appearance in the eigth as a pinch runner for Raffy – he eventually scored. Royce Clayton was still out, and probably won’t be back until the Arizona series on Friday. Mike Morgan was also down for the count, but on the radio pre-game show, Johnny Oates said that he probably could pitch out of the bullpen in an emergency.
This win gives us two consecutive sweeps in a row for a season high six game winning streak. THat’s also tied for the current high winning streak in the majors (with the Diamondbucks, who also have 6 in a row). Furthermore, this gives us a record of 29-20 for the season, also a season high 9 games over .500. An interesting note, this gives us virtually the same record as the New York Yankees, who are 29-19. :)
I’m hoping things are back to speed come Friday when we don’t have the DH to rely upon – Raffy probably will be relegated to pinch hitter status only. Also, Mike Simms is about ready to come off the DL, which poses a roster problem – who to move to AAA to make room for Simms?
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?