First off, if you look at the box score from my Palm, it’s going to show some really off stats. The reason for that is that I came home from my bowling league, and noticed that my TiVo was not properly recording the Rangers game, so when I started watching the score was already 3-1. I didn’t score the game as it happened, I went back after the game was over and scored it based on the results. So the pitch counts are WAY wrong, and the game time of 11 minutes was how long it took me to retroactively “score” the game. The only reason I did that and didn’t just let it slide is that I’m trying to keep the Ranger player stats in my Palm current with what they really are.
As I didn’t start watching the game till the score was 3-1, I pretty much missed all the good stuff. However, I did get to see the back end of RA Dickey’s pitching performance. Hopefully we can go forwards without seeing comments about him in the newspapers about the Rangers panicking. I mean, what’s the point of “committing to youth”, if you’re not going to let them take some lumps? That’s how the Twins got good, they let their pitchers get beat up for awhile until they learned. Anyway, RA was great, as was Jeff Nelson & Francisco Cordero behind him. All told, we gave up 6 hits, one run (all Dickey), as well as 9 strikeouts (7 by Dickey), and two walks (one by Dickey, one by Nelson). Was a great pitching performance, and it drove us to an over 500 record after 15 games (not something silly like 1-0 or 2-1).
Offensively we got a two run triple from Mike Young (who continues to show that I was right in drafting him in early rounds in my fantasy drafts this year). His night last night (2/4 with walk) gives him a batting average of 394. Not sure what his OBP is at the moment, but if you’re batting 394, it’s got to be in the neighborhood of 450 somewhere. That’s absolutely amazing. Soriano doesn’t seem to have the power numbers so far (only 1 HR and 8 RBI), but he is hitting (.328), plus he’s way ahead of Arod (.203/2HR/4RBI), so that’s gotta be fun. Also last night we got an RBI from Hank Blalock who seems to be hitting lefties just fine so far, and one from Adrian Gonzalez, his first as a major leaguer. Wish I would have seen the entire game, but from what I saw, it looked great!
A winning percentage of .533 on April 22nd is by no means the same as the same on August 29th, but you really have to feel good so far about this year’s team. Provided it doesn’t all end up on the DL. In doing today’s update, I see that Herbert Perry might go on the DL. Assuming he does, that means that at the moment we’ll have these players on the DL. Brian Shouse, Jeff Zimmerman, Brian Jordan, Mickey Callaway, Mark Teixeira, Colby Lewis, and then Herb Perry if he goes. There’s also Rusty Greer, but he’s not impacting this season (other than his $7 mil salary he’s getting for being hurt). Anyway, I know it won’t stay that way (Jordan probably will return this weekend, sending Nivar back to the minors), but it’s still a disturbingly high number of players on the DL all at once – 4 of them pitchers (two of our 5 man roster, too). The hitting has been great overall (suck on that Arod), and the pitching has generally been quite good (I believe we’re in the upper half of team ERA so far in the league). One has to like the season so far. Four straight years of last place makes me wait for the letdown – but it’d be nice if it didn’t come. Now if Tom Hicks would do something cool like make Chuck Morgan or Tom Grieve or hell – bring Tom Schieffer back to be the new president of the team – someone who cares about baseball, and isn’t interested in the “President’s Job” (or at least someone who doesn’t lie about answering all their emails on the stadium Jumbotron), I might be really happy. ;)
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - TEXAS 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 4 9 0 ANAHEIM 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 0 (FINAL) BATTERIES: TEX - R.A. DICKEY, JEFF NELSON (8TH), FRANCISCO CORDERO (9TH) AND GERALD LAIRD ANA - JOHN LACKEY, SCOT SHIELDS (7TH) AND BENGIE MOLINA, JOSE MOLINA (9TH) WP - R.A. DICKEY (2-1) LP - JOHN LACKEY (0-3) SAVE - FRANCISCO CORDERO (4) HOME RUNS: TEX - NONE ANA - NONE TIME: 2:39 ATT: 36,689 PROBABLES: TEX - CHAN HO PARK (1-2, 3.92) ANA - BARTOLO COLON (2-1, 1.64) Box Score TEXAS (4) VS ANAHEIM (1) - FINAL TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 4 1 2 2 1 0 3 .394 H Blalock 3b 3 0 1 1 1 1 1 .339 A Soriano 2b 4 0 0 0 0 2 3 .328 B Fullmer dh 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .292 D Dellucci lf 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 .257 K Mench rf 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .246 L Nix cf 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 .308 G Laird c 4 0 2 0 0 1 1 .395 A Gonzalez 1b 4 1 2 1 0 0 1 .273 Totals 34 4 9 4 3 6 12 BATTING: 3B - M Young (1, J Lackey). RBI - H Blalock (12), M Young 2 (13), A Gonzalez (1). 2-out RBI - M Young 2, A Gonzalez. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - A Soriano 1, M Young 1. GIDP - B Fullmer. Team LOB - 6. BASERUNNING: SB - M Young (3, 2nd base off J Lackey/B Molina). FIELDING: DP: 3 (G Laird-M Young 2, M Young-A Gonzalez). ANAHEIM ab r h rbi bb so lob avg D Eckstein ss 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 .274 D Erstad 1b 3 0 0 1 0 2 2 .231 V Guerrero rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .262 G Anderson dh 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 .339 T Glaus 3b 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 .300 J Guillen lf 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 .268 J Davanon cf 3 0 0 0 0 1 2 .167 B Molina c 2 1 2 0 1 0 0 .333 J Molina pr-c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .296 A Kennedy 2b 2 0 0 0 1 1 2 .220 Totals 27 1 6 1 2 9 9 BATTING: 2B - G Anderson (4, R Dickey). S - D Eckstein. SF - D Erstad. RBI - D Erstad (6). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - V Guerrero 1, J Davanon 1. GIDP - A Kennedy. Team LOB - 3. BASERUNNING: CS - J Guillen (1, 2nd base by R Dickey/G Laird), B Molina (1, 2nd base by R Dickey/G Laird), D Eckstein (1, 2nd base by R Dickey/G Laird). FIELDING: Outfield assists - V Guerrero (B Fullmer at 2nd base). DP: 1 (D Eckstein-A Kennedy-D Erstad). ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS - 100 020 001 -- 4 ANAHEIM - 001 000 000 -- 1 ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era R Dickey (W, 2-1) 7 6 1 1 1 7 0 4.82 J Nelson (H, 4) 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 2.70 F Cordero (S, 4) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3.00 ANAHEIM ip h r er bb so hr era J Lackey (L, 0-3) 6 2/3 7 3 3 2 2 0 8.04 S Shields 2 1/3 2 1 1 1 4 0 6.23 IBB - H Blalock (by J Lackey). Pitches-strikes: R Dickey 101-64; J Nelson 13-6; F Cordero 12-8; J Lackey 105-65; S Shields 38-26. Ground balls-fly balls: R Dickey 7-4; J Nelson 2-0; F Cordero 1-1; J Lackey 7-10; S Shields 2-1. Batters faced: R Dickey 25; J Nelson 3; F Cordero 3; J Lackey 27; S Shields 10. UMPIRES: HP--Paul Nauert. 1B--Randy Marsh. 2B--Larry Vanover. 3B--Sam Holbrook. T--2:39. Att--36,689. Weather: 66 degrees, clear. Wind: 8 mph, out to center.