Oh my! I was watching this game at home, and I thought Rick Helling was pitching well – I thought it was going to be another great Helling game. Helling pitched well the first two innings, but then had a meltdown in the third, allowing five runs. That was a shame, as I really thought he looked sharp in the first couple of innings, even though he allowed a few walks. He bounced back for a good fourth, but was pulled early in the fifth in place of Mike Munoz, who along with Zimmerman & Venafro shut down the Indians after the third.
Now, our offense. :) Jeez! We went up 2-0 (on a Pudge solo home run in the 1st and a gift error by Vizquel), and I thought that was an OK start. We then let them tie the game in the third, and I thought… “OK – these are the Indians, you don’t keep them down very much”. But then I look up, and we’re down 3. I thought we were screwed.
However, in the sixth, Royce Clayton had a solo home run – showing some more power to left field (most of his homers have seen to have been to right). Not long after that in the top of the 7th, unlikely home run hitter Mark McLemore belted a ball over the wall to bring the score to 5-4. My wife, who was watching with me mentioned the “John Blake peck-away theory”. :)
Anyways, it got much much better after that. After a Pudge single and Juan single, Lee Stevens belted another single bringing in Pudge to tie the game. A pitching change by Cleveland brought up Rafael Palmeiro who hit the first pinch hit home run for the Rangers all season, a 3 run shot, giving us an 8-5 lead. In the 8th, Lee Stevens again batted in Pudge, giving us a 4 run lead, and then Jon Shave, playing for Luis Alicea (who was already playing for Todd Zeile, who had food poisioning) who had moved to second to replace Mark McLemore (who had moved to right to replace Roberto Kelly who was pinch hit for by Raffy) drove in two runs with a double. Shave doesn’t get to play much, it was really nice to see him get into the fray here.
That wasn’t all. In the 9th, Tom Goodwin singled, and Pudge hit yet ANOTHER home run, a two run shot. That gave him 2 for the game. We had a total of 5 home runs this game. Two by Pudge, and one each by Raffy, Royce, & Mac. What a game. I didn’t expect to do well here, and we blow them out 13-5. I felt bad for Helling, other than the one meltdown inning, we had great pitching tonight. That’s 23 runs we scored in the last two games. Let’s hope we can keep this up for the next few (at least).