It was a thrilling win, if nothing else. Yet again, we’re letting a team that we should be crushing get into the game. We were losing 1-0 after two, but we led until the bottom of the 7th, when the Twins went ahead 4-3. We were down to our last out in the 9th inning when Tom Kelly tried to play percentages, and walked Pudge to get to Raffy. That was a mistake, because Raffy made ’em pay for it with yet another game winning hit. This one a double to right center, scoring Royce Clayton, who was already on base, and Pudge all the way from first. It was a sweet win, but I don’t think we should have put ourselves in a position where we had to win the game like that.
I admit to not knowing a bunch of the small details of this game, because for the first time all season, I got to see my hometown Philadelphia Phillies on TV! I grew up in Philly, and have always been a Phillies fan, but down here, I don’t get to see ’em. They got shellacked, 12-2, but I had fun watching them, and I’d flip over to see what the Rangers were doing. I only saw the last 3 innings of the Ranger game solid.
This win makes us 11-0 against the Twins in 1999. If we win on Wednesday afternoon, it will be the first season sweep in forever (that I can remember) of an opponent. I’m hoping we can get one big win, because after this, the “really bad” team stretch is over, and we’ve only played .500 against them. Not good at all.
Magic number is down to 11. My wife and I have four games left to go to at the Ballpark in the regular season. Of the upcoming homestand, we see one game from each series, and I’m hoping that the Rangers can clinch it when we’re there. Would be nice. Hey, it would be nice if we could clinch it with a win, instead of backing in like we have in 1996 and 1998. :)