I thought Mike Morgan pitched the best game by a Ranger last night, but oh my! John Burkett – where’d he go? This guy pitching isn’t John Burkett! This was a spectacular followup to the game in Arlington a few days back against Anaheim. That night, Burkett obviously pitched the best he had all season, and I genuinely felt bad for him when it started to rain, and they were pulling the tarp on the field – Burkett still stood there. It’s really cool that he followed that up with an even better performance this time out. He went 7 innings, giving up no runs and only one hit. Everything seemed to be working – which was great. We could use this kind of Burkett, not the one who was shagged out at the beginning of the season. Still, I’d be surprised if the Rangers pick up his option for next year after this year – it might be on to the Pro Bowlers Tour for Burkett after this. Still, it’s great to see him coming around, it can’t do anything but help the team.
The bullpen tonight (Zim, Wetteland) pitched two no hit/run innings to close out the one hit shutout.
Our offense seemed slow to come – we scored in just the fourth inning (two small ball runs), and then in the 8th, Juan Gonzalez hit a three run home run to seal the game. Juan’s in the middle of one of his hot streaks – I hope if it keeps going, the all star break doesn’t screw it up, as he probably won’t go there.
Speaking of that, Juan is starting to sound a bit like a prima donna to me. I know he says “for the team”, but the two comments about “no HR derby” and “I won’t play unless voted in” are a tad to the prima-donnaish side of things, which the Rangers have always seemed able to stay away from.
One other interesting thing, Mike Morgan was shown on TV being very animated in the dugout after last nights’ game – it was pretty cool to see. :)