Back and forth. Back and forth. That’s the way it went. From the bottom of the third through the bottom of the sixth, both teams scored in every frame. Chan Ho Park was mostly ineffective, although I didn’t get the feeling he was as horrible as he was his first two years here. Even in a bad outing, he seems better. He had a nice looking pitch that would go out, and then curve back in. When it was working, it was georgeous!
However, after the flip flop in the middle innings, we came out of it down 7-6. The really ugly part was Jay Powell walking in a run. It wasn’t so bad, as he came in with the bases loaded (or two on or something like that), so it wasn’t totally his fault. So we’re down 7-6, and then KC brings out Justin Huisman to pitch, and he was brilliant. I was convinced the game was lost.
However, we had some ninth inning heroics. Mike Young homered over the now deeper center field wall in KC to tie the game. Blalock then tripled to right center, and after Soriano K’ed, Brad Fullmer broke out of his slump with a two run home run to cap the comeback. Cordero closed it out for his seventh save in April, and we go back home to face the Red Sox still in first place. :)
Gotta love that.
Brett Carre: Unbelievable! That is all I can say about this one. Down 7-6 going to the 9th and we put up 3 to take a 9-7 lead. Mike Young led off the 9th with the game tying homer and then Fullmer blasted a two run shot to give us the lead for good. Coco came in to close it out for his 7th save of the year.
This game was crazy. A typical AL game with all kinds of runs, walks, and wild pitches. We were down 1-0 after Beltran hit a majestic shot into the fountains off Chan Ho. We came back with 3 in the 2nd capped off by a Rod Barajas two run homer. It went back and forth from that point on until the 9th.
Chan Ho looked very average at best. It’s funny, it seems he has pitched better at night then in the day. His two best starts were at night, in Oakland and in Seattle. Both are pitchers parks so I don’t know how much that weighs into it. 4 1/3 innings for Chan Ho, 6 runs, 4 earned, 2 walks, 4 K’s. Nice job by the pen today. The pen is beginning to become a real strength. Especially the middle relief.
We are now at 13-9 and still in a first place tie with the halos. Now the Red Sox come to town for a 3 game set. Doesn’t this sound funny? The Rangers and Red Sox will battle this weekend in a series featuring a couple of the top teams in the AL. Bring on the Sox!!
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - TEXAS 0 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 3 9 13 1 KANSAS CITY 1 0 2 1 2 1 0 0 0 7 11 2 (FINAL) BATTERIES: TEX - CHAN HO PARK, RON MAHAY (5TH), JAY POWELL (6TH), CARLOS ALMANZAR (7TH), FRANCISCO CORDERO (9TH) AND ROD BARAJAS, GERALD LAIRD (9TH) KAN - DENNYS REYES, SCOTT SULLIVAN (5TH), JUSTIN HUISMAN (7TH), CURTIS LESKANIC (9TH) AND KELLY STINNETT WP - CARLOS ALMANZAR (3-0) LP - CURTIS LESKANIC (0-3) SAVE - FRANCISCO CORDERO (7) HOME RUNS: TEX - ROD BARAJAS (2) OFF DENNYS REYES IN THE 2ND, 1 ON MICHAEL YOUNG (3) OFF CURTIS LESKANIC IN THE 9TH, 0 ON BRAD FULLMER (3) OFF CURTIS LESKANIC IN THE 9TH, 1 ON KAN - CARLOS BELTRAN (8) OFF CHAN HO PARK IN THE 1ST, 0 ON TIME: 3:04 ATT: 13,663 PROBABLES: BOS - BRONSON ARROYO (0-1, 5.79) TEX - RYAN DRESE (1-0, 2.87) PROBABLES: KAN - BRIAN ANDERSON (1-1, 6.44) NYY - JAVIER VAZQUEZ (2-2, 2.63) Box Score TEXAS (9) VS KANSAS CITY (7) - FINAL TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 5 2 2 1 0 1 2 .368 H Blalock 3b 5 1 2 0 0 1 3 .337 A Soriano 2b 4 0 1 1 0 3 3 .341 H Perry dh 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 .270 a-B Fullmer ph-dh 3 1 1 2 0 0 0 .246 M Teixeira 1b 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 .276 K Mench rf 4 1 0 0 0 0 4 .298 E Young lf 4 1 2 1 0 0 1 .390 G Laird c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .346 L Nix cf 3 1 2 1 1 0 0 .365 R Barajas c 3 1 2 3 0 0 1 .231 b-D Dellucci ph-lf 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .308 Totals 38 9 13 9 2 7 15 a-grounded into fielder's choice to pitcher for H Perry in the 5th; b-struck out swinging for R Barajas in the 9th. BATTING: 2B - M Young (6, D Reyes). 3B - L Nix (1, D Reyes); H Blalock (1, C Leskanic). HR - R Barajas (2, 2nd inning off D Reyes 1 on, 2 Out), M Young (3, 9th inning off C Leskanic 0 on, 1 Out), B Fullmer (3, 9th inning off C Leskanic 1 on, 2 Out). SF - A Soriano. RBI - L Nix (14), R Barajas 3 (4), E Young (4), A Soriano (13), M Young (14), B Fullmer 2 (12). 2-out RBI - L Nix, R Barajas 2, B Fullmer 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - K Mench 2. GIDP - H Blalock. Team LOB - 5. BASERUNNING: SB - M Teixeira (1, 2nd base off D Reyes/K Stinnett). CS - E Young (3, 2nd base by D Reyes/K Stinnett), A Soriano (2, 3rd base by D Reyes). FIELDING: E - M Teixeira (1, throw). PB - R Barajas. DP: 1 (A Soriano-M Teixeira). KANSAS CITY ab r h rbi bb so lob avg T Graffanino 2b 4 2 2 0 0 1 0 .347 C Beltran cf 4 2 3 2 0 1 0 .320 M Sweeney 1b 5 0 2 1 0 0 3 .323 M Stairs rf 3 1 1 0 0 1 1 .304 D DeJesus rf 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .077 K Harvey dh 3 1 0 1 2 1 4 .400 J Randa 3b 3 0 1 2 0 0 6 .310 A Guiel lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 4 .200 K Stinnett c 3 1 1 1 1 0 1 .375 D Relaford ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 2 .400 Totals 34 7 11 7 3 6 21 BATTING: 2B - T Graffanino (3, C Park). HR - C Beltran (8, 1st inning off C Park 0 on, 1 Out). S - T Graffanino. SF - J Randa 2, C Beltran. RBI - C Beltran 2 (19), M Sweeney (15), J Randa 2 (8), K Stinnett (2), K Harvey (9). 2-out RBI - K Stinnett. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - A Guiel 2, M Sweeney 1. Team LOB - 9. FIELDING: E - D Reyes (1, catch); S Sullivan (1, throw). DP: 1 (S Sullivan-D Relaford-M Sweeney). ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS - 030 111 003 -- 9 KANSAS CITY - 102 121 000 -- 7 ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era C Park 4 1/3 7 6 4 2 4 1 5.64 R Mahay 1 3 1 1 0 0 0 4.15 J Powell 2/3 0 0 0 1 0 0 1.86 C Almanzar (W, 3-0) 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 2.77 F Cordero (S, 7) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1.93 KANSAS CITY ip h r er bb so hr era D Reyes 4 7 5 5 2 3 1 4.72 S Sullivan 2 3 1 1 0 1 0 6.00 J Huisman (H, 1) 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 C Leskanic (L, 0-3; B, 3) 1 3 3 3 0 2 2 10.80 D Reyes pitched to 2 batters in the 5th. WP - D Reyes 2, C Park, F Cordero. HBP - A Guiel (by C Park); M Stairs (by R Mahay). Pitches-strikes: C Park 81-50; R Mahay 31-20; J Powell 8-4; C Almanzar 14-13; F Cordero 20-14; D Reyes 79-43; S Sullivan 24-18; J Huisman 13-12; C Leskanic 18-11. Ground balls-fly balls: C Park 4-6; R Mahay 0-3; J Powell 0-1; C Almanzar 3-2; F Cordero 1-1; D Reyes 5-2; S Sullivan 5-1; J Huisman 3-2; C Leskanic 0-1. Batters faced: C Park 24; R Mahay 7; J Powell 2; C Almanzar 6; F Cordero 4; D Reyes 20; S Sullivan 9; J Huisman 6; C Leskanic 6. UMPIRES: HP--Gary Cederstrom. 1B--Andy Fletcher. 2B--Tim Welke. 3B--Jim Reynolds. T--3:04. Att--13,663. Weather: 64 degrees, drizzle. Wind: 9 mph, right to left