This one wasn’t terribly boring, that’s for sure. We had two rain delays (during which I played some baseball on my Xbox), we had 18 runs, 27 hits, 4 home runs, 9 pitching changes… you get the point. This wasn’t a 1-2-3 every inning, clean, crisp game. I wasn’t thrilled going into it. Ryan Drese has never been one of my favorite pitchers for the Rangers, but so far in 2004, he’s trying to change that. Coming into this game he had a really good line, and he didn’t do much to hurt it here. He went 5.2 innings, giving up 3 runs. I still can’t say I’m excited about seeing him pitch, but he hasn’t embarrassed himself out there, which I suppose is positive. It was our bullpen that couldn’t get the job done. The Eraser wasn’t bad, but after him (Almanzar, Mahay, & Nelson) all gave up some runs. Almanzar in particular had a bad outing, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits in .1 innings pitched. Not good for the ol’ ERA. Anyway, Cordero came in and got a four out save for his fifth of the season.
Offensively, David Dellucci hit a third home run in as many at bats, going back to yesterday’s game. Young, Blalock, & Soriano continued to tear it up at home, going 8 out of 15 with two doubles between the three of them, scoring 5 runs. The rest of the lineup chipped in with 7 more hits, including homers by Dellucci as was already said, plus Kevin Mench, who is starting to look more alive iwth the bat the last few games, which is good (and needed).
Thing is, as close and as wild as the game was, it didn’t feel to me like we were going to lose. It always felt like we were way out in front, even though we only lost by two. Still, it’s nice to be above .500, as well as having a better record than the Yankees. Hell, the TIGERS have a better record than the Yankees right now. :)
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - SEATTLE 1 0 1 0 1 0 2 3 0 8 12 0 TEXAS 0 1 2 4 0 0 3 0 x 10 15 0 (FINAL) BATTERIES: SEA - JOEL PINEIRO, KEVIN JARVIS (7TH), RON VILLONE (7TH), MIKE MYERS (8TH), SHIGETOSHI HASEGAWA (8TH) AND BEN DAVIS TEX - RYAN DRESE, ERASMO RAMIREZ (6TH), CARLOS ALMANZAR (7TH), RON MAHAY (7TH), JEFF NELSON (8TH), FRANCISCO CORDERO (8TH) AND GERALD LAIRD WP - RYAN DRESE (1-0) LP - JOEL PINEIRO (1-2) SAVE - FRANCISCO CORDERO (5) HOME RUNS: SEA - BRET BOONE (5) OFF CARLOS ALMANZAR IN THE 7TH, 0 ON SCOTT SPIEZIO (2) OFF RON MAHAY IN THE 8TH, 1 ON TEX - DAVE DELLUCCI (3) OFF JOEL PINEIRO IN THE 2ND, 0 ON KEVIN MENCH (2) OFF JOEL PINEIRO IN THE 4TH, 0 ON TIME: 3:15 ATT: 28,020 PROBABLES: SEA - FREDDY GARCIA (0-0, 2.25) TEX - JOAQUIN BENOIT (0-0, 9.64) Box Score SEATTLE (8) VS TEXAS (10) - FINAL SEATTLE ab r h rbi bb so lob avg I Suzuki rf 4 3 2 0 2 1 4 .293 S Spiezio 3b 6 1 3 3 0 1 3 .367 B Boone 2b 4 2 1 2 1 0 3 .250 E Martinez dh 4 0 1 1 1 0 2 .274 W Bloomquist pr-dh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .265 R Ibanez lf 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 .304 Q McCracken lf 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .333 R Aurilia ss 5 0 1 1 0 2 3 .246 J Olerud 1b 3 0 1 0 2 0 1 .231 B Davis c 3 0 0 0 1 1 2 .056 a-D Hansen ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .400 R Winn cf 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 .203 Totals 37 8 12 7 9 5 20 a-lined out to right for B Davis in the 9th. BATTING: 2B - R Ibanez (5, R Drese); R Aurilia (6, C Almanzar); E Martinez (7, J Nelson). 3B - S Spiezio (1, R Drese). HR - B Boone (5, 7th inning off C Almanzar 0 on, 1 Out), S Spiezio (2, 8th inning off R Mahay 1 on, 2 Out). RBI - S Spiezio 3 (4), B Boone 2 (11), R Aurilia (10), E Martinez (6). 2-out RBI - R Aurilia, S Spiezio 2, E Martinez. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - R Aurilia 1, S Spiezio 1, E Martinez 1, J Olerud 1, I Suzuki 2. GIDP - B Boone, B Davis. Team LOB - 12. BASERUNNING: SB - B Boone (2, 2nd base off J Nelson/G Laird). FIELDING: DP: 2 (S Spiezio-B Boone-J Olerud, S Spiezio-J Olerud). TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 5 2 3 0 0 1 1 .400 H Blalock 3b 5 2 2 2 0 1 3 .324 A Soriano 2b 5 1 3 2 0 0 1 .343 B Fullmer dh 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 .263 D Dellucci lf 3 1 2 1 0 1 3 .310 a-C Allen ph-lf 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 K Mench rf 3 2 1 1 1 0 1 .250 L Nix cf 4 0 1 2 0 2 0 .298 G Laird c 4 0 1 0 0 2 2 .381 A Gonzalez 1b 3 2 1 0 1 0 1 .278 Totals 37 10 15 8 2 7 17 a-lined out to first for D Dellucci in the 7th. BATTING: 2B - A Gonzalez (1, J Pineiro); H Blalock (6, J Pineiro); A Soriano (3, K Jarvis). HR - D Dellucci (3, 2nd inning off J Pineiro 0 on, 1 Out), K Mench (2, 4th inning off J Pineiro 0 on, 0 Out). RBI - D Dellucci (6), A Soriano 2 (10), K Mench (7), H Blalock 2 (14), L Nix 2 (8). 2-out RBI - A Soriano 2, H Blalock 2, L Nix 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - D Dellucci 2, G Laird 1. GIDP - K Mench. Team LOB - 5. FIELDING: DP: 2 (A Soriano-M Young-A Gonzalez 2). ---------------------------------------------------- SEATTLE - 101 010 230 -- 8 TEXAS - 012 400 30x -- 10 ---------------------------------------------------- SEATTLE ip h r er bb so hr era J Pineiro (L, 1-2) 6 11 7 7 1 6 2 8.46 K Jarvis 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 6.30 R Villone 1 1/3 2 1 1 1 1 0 3.48 M Myers 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 7.36 S Hasegawa 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.23 TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era R Drese (W, 1-0) 5 2/3 7 3 3 4 2 0 2.87 E Ramirez (H, 2) 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.93 C Almanzar 1/3 3 2 2 0 0 1 4.15 R Mahay (H, 2) 1 1 2 2 1 0 1 4.05 J Nelson (H, 5) 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 4.05 F Cordero (S, 5) 1 1/3 0 0 0 2 2 0 2.45 K Jarvis pitched to 2 batters in the 7th. J Nelson pitched to 3 batters in the 8th. WP - J Pineiro, R Villone. IBB - K Mench (by R Villone). HBP - R Winn (by R Drese). Pitches-strikes: J Pineiro 107-66; K Jarvis 5-3; R Villone 27-12; M Myers 5-3; S Hasegawa 2-2; R Drese 99-53; E Ramirez 7-6; C Almanzar 14-7; R Mahay 22-10; J Nelson 16-6; F Cordero 38-20. Ground balls-fly balls: J Pineiro 7-4; K Jarvis 0-0; R Villone 1-2; M Myers 0-1; S Hasegawa 1-0; R Drese 13-2; E Ramirez 1-0; C Almanzar 0-1; R Mahay 1-2; J Nelson 0-0; F Cordero 1-1. Batters faced: J Pineiro 28; K Jarvis 2; R Villone 7; M Myers 1; S Hasegawa 1; R Drese 27; E Ramirez 2; C Almanzar 4; R Mahay 5; J Nelson 3; F Cordero 6. UMPIRES: HP--Tim Timmons. 1B--Bruce Froemming. 2B--Mike Winters. 3B--Hunter Wendelstedt. T--3:15. (Plus 2 rain delays totaling 1 hour, 32 minutes in the 4th, 8th). Att--28,020. Weather: 74 degrees, cloudy. Wind: 10 mph, in from right.