Uh, excuse me? Did someone replace Chan Ho Park last night with someone else? I sat there watching Chan Ho Park pitch, and damned if he didn’t seem like a totally different pitcher. His fastball was sharp and had movement on it, and his curveball. Yikes – it looked like Barry Zito’s curveball. It was absolutely amazing how awesome he pitched. It was by far – no comparison the best pitching performance he had in a Ranger uniform. Nothing was even close. Park gave up seven hits over his seven innings, and struck out eight – a lot of them on called third strikes. Unfortunately, a short sequence in the 6th inning cost him the game. He gave up a triple on a ball that was botched by Kevin Mench in right. A single followed, and then his only mistake was hit over the fence. Park came back the next inning and was brilliant again. It’s a real shame that we couldn’t get any runs to cover that small mistake, because Park really deserved a win the way he was pitching.
Unfortunately, Mark Mulder was the opposing pitcher. Mulder gave up even less. Mulder gave up 5 hits over his seven innings, and just one run.
We never got much going offensively, and the one run we did score was a small ball run – scoring on an a fielder’s choice that never left the infield. I’ll take this pitching performance from Chan Ho Park any day. It was quite amazing to watch.
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - TEXAS 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 1 OAKLAND 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 x 3 7 0 (FINAL) BATTERIES: TEX - CHAN HO PARK, CARLOS ALMANZAR (8TH) AND ROD BARAJAS OAK - MARK MULDER, JIM MECIR (8TH), ARTHUR RHODES (9TH) AND DAMIAN MILLER WP - MARK MULDER (1-0) LP - CHAN HO PARK (0-1) SAVE - ARTHUR RHODES (2) HOME RUNS: TEX - NONE OAK - JERMAINE DYE (1) OFF CHAN HO PARK IN THE 6TH, 1 ON TIME: 2:05 ATT: 13,217 PROBABLES: TEX - COLBY LEWIS (NR) OAK - BARRY ZITO (NR) Box Score TEXAS (1) VS OAKLAND (3) - FINAL TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 .222 H Blalock 3b 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 .125 A Soriano 2b 3 0 1 0 1 2 0 .333 M Teixeira 1b 4 0 0 0 0 3 2 .125 B Fullmer dh 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .286 E Young lf 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 .667 K Mench rf 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 .125 R Nivar cf 3 0 1 1 0 1 1 .333 R Barajas c 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Totals 30 1 5 1 1 7 4 BATTING: 2B - A Soriano (1, M Mulder). RBI - R Nivar (1). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - R Barajas 1, M Teixeira 2. Team LOB - 3. BASERUNNING: SB - A Soriano (1, 2nd base off M Mulder/D Miller), R Nivar (1, 2nd base off M Mulder/D Miller). CS - E Young (1, 2nd base by M Mulder/D Miller), R Nivar (1, 2nd base by M Mulder/D Miller). FIELDING: E - A Soriano (2, ground ball). DP: 2 (H Blalock-A Soriano-M Teixeira, M Young-A Soriano-M Teixeira). OAKLAND ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Kotsay cf 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .111 B Kielty lf 4 1 2 0 0 1 0 .500 E Chavez 3b 4 1 2 1 0 1 2 .429 J Dye rf 4 1 1 2 0 1 1 .429 E Durazo dh 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 .167 S Hatteberg 1b 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .000 B Crosby ss 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 .167 D Miller c 3 0 0 0 0 1 2 .000 M Scutaro 2b 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .167 Totals 30 3 7 3 1 8 6 BATTING: 3B - B Kielty (1, C Park). HR - J Dye (1, 6th inning off C Park 1 on, 1 Out). RBI - E Chavez (1), J Dye 2 (4). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - E Chavez 1. GIDP - D Miller, E Chavez. Team LOB - 4. ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS - 000 010 000 -- 1 OAKLAND - 000 003 00x -- 3 ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era C Park (L, 0-1) 7 2/3 7 3 3 1 8 1 3.52 C Almanzar 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 OAKLAND ip h r er bb so hr era M Mulder (W, 1-0) 7 5 1 1 1 4 0 1.29 J Mecir (H, 1) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0.00 A Rhodes (S, 2) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 Pitches-strikes: C Park 95-68; C Almanzar 4-3; M Mulder 95-63; J Mecir 13-10; A Rhodes 14-10. Ground balls-fly balls: C Park 10-5; C Almanzar 0-1; M Mulder 9-6; J Mecir 0-1; A Rhodes 1-1. Batters faced: C Park 30; C Almanzar 1; M Mulder 25; J Mecir 3; A Rhodes 3. UMPIRES: HP--Brian Runge. 1B--Kerwin Danley. 2B--Jim Reynolds. 3B--Dana Demuth. T--2:05. Att--13,217. Weather: 59 degrees, clear. Wind: 14 mph, out to center.