The night of the longball. Man, there were a lot of home runs flying out of the park. We had four. Blalock, Soriano, Fullmer, & Mench. We did have an interesting vareity in the home runs. Blalock’s was his usual bomb to mid right field, as was Fullmer’s. Soriano’s was a monster bomb which probably would have hit way high up on the back wall of the stadium if it didn’t hit one of the catwalks. Mench’s was right down the right field line and hit just inches over the wall on the foul pole. As I recall, Soriano also had another one to right that just barely missed getting out of the park – it looks like Soriano’s power is coming on finally. Speaking of that, we also had five doubles, two by Nix.
On the other side, Tino Martinez & Aubrey Huff had home runs. Huff almost had a second in the bottom of the ninth in a VERY scary save for Cordero. Of the 18 half innings, runs were scored in 8 of them, but all of those 8 were crooked numbers except one. With so many home runs, there obviously wasn’t a ton of quality pitching. :) Chan Ho Park got the win, but he didn’t really deserve it, as he couldn’t keep a lead early. He got better as the game went along, but he’s still far too unpredictable to rely on, I think.
Brett Carre: Another wild game on Wednesday. We had a 9-5 lead going into the bottom of the 9th. Jeff Nelson gets the first two out then walks two and get pulled. Coco comes in and gives up a rbi single bringing up the tying man in Huff. Huff just missed a homer by inches, but 2 runs scored to make it a 9-8 game. Coco struck out Lugo, who was the winning run to end the game. Release Jeff Nelson. It seems like every time he comes in he gives up a run or two.
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - TEXAS 0 1 3 2 0 0 0 1 2 9 11 1 TAMPA BAY 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 8 9 0 (FINAL) BATTERIES: TEX - CHAN HO PARK, RON MAHAY (8TH), CARLOS ALMANZAR (8TH), JEFF NELSON (9TH), FRANCISCO CORDERO (9TH) AND ROD BARAJAS TAM - JEREMI GONZALEZ, JOHN HALAMA (4TH), DICKY GONZALEZ (9TH) AND TOBY HALL WP - CHAN HO PARK (2-3) LP - JOHN HALAMA (0-1) SAVE - FRANCISCO CORDERO (12) HOME RUNS: TEX - HANK BLALOCK (9) OFF JEREMI GONZALEZ IN THE 3RD, 1 ON ALFONSO SORIANO (4) OFF JEREMI GONZALEZ IN THE 3RD, 0 ON KEVIN MENCH (4) OFF JOHN HALAMA IN THE 4TH, 1 ON BRAD FULLMER (4) OFF JOHN HALAMA IN THE 8TH, 0 ON TAM - TINO MARTINEZ (7) OFF CHAN HO PARK IN THE 1ST, 1 ON AUBREY HUFF (4) OFF CHAN HO PARK IN THE 3RD, 2 ON TIME: 2:40 ATT: 10,202 PROBABLES: TEX - R.A. DICKEY (4-1, 4.58) TAM - MARK HENDRICKSON (1-3, 4.83) Box Score TEXAS (9) VS TAMPA BAY (8) - FINAL TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 5 1 2 0 0 0 0 .363 H Blalock 3b 4 1 1 2 0 1 1 .321 A Soriano 2b 5 1 2 3 0 1 1 .324 B Fullmer dh 5 2 3 1 0 1 1 .250 M Teixeira 1b 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 .185 D Dellucci lf 2 1 0 1 1 1 0 .325 K Mench rf 4 1 1 2 0 0 0 .308 L Nix cf 4 1 1 0 0 3 0 .325 R Barajas c 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 .300 Totals 37 9 11 9 1 8 5 BATTING: 2B - B Fullmer 2 (8, J Gonzalez 2); L Nix (7, J Gonzalez); R Barajas (4, D Gonzalez); A Soriano (11, D Gonzalez). HR - H Blalock (9, 3rd inning off J Gonzalez 1 on, 2 Out), A Soriano (4, 3rd inning off J Gonzalez 0 on, 2 Out), K Mench (4, 4th inning off J Halama 1 on, 0 Out), B Fullmer (4, 8th inning off J Halama 0 on, 0 Out). SF - D Dellucci. RBI - D Dellucci (17), H Blalock 2 (27), A Soriano 3 (26), K Mench 2 (16), B Fullmer (15). 2-out RBI - H Blalock 2, A Soriano 3. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - B Fullmer 1, M Teixeira 1. Team LOB - 4. FIELDING: E - R Barajas (2, catch). DP: 1 (M Young-A Soriano-M Teixeira). TAMPA BAY ab r h rbi bb so lob avg C Crawford lf 4 2 1 0 1 0 1 .291 R Baldelli cf 4 2 2 1 1 1 0 .265 A Huff 3b 4 2 2 5 1 1 0 .216 J Cruz pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .198 T Martinez 1b 4 1 1 2 1 0 0 .286 J Lugo ss 3 0 0 0 1 2 2 .267 M Cummings dh 4 0 0 0 0 2 2 .083 G Blum 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .197 T Hall c 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .292 D Rolls rf 3 1 1 0 1 1 2 .143 Totals 34 8 9 8 6 8 8 BATTING: 2B - G Blum (5, C Park); C Crawford (5, C Park); A Huff (3, F Cordero). HR - T Martinez (7, 1st inning off C Park 1 on, 2 Out), A Huff (4, 3rd inning off C Park 2 on, 1 Out). RBI - T Martinez 2 (14), A Huff 5 (16), R Baldelli (10). 2-out RBI - T Martinez 2, R Baldelli, A Huff 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - G Blum 1, J Lugo 1. GIDP - D Rolls. Team LOB - 6. BASERUNNING: SB - C Crawford 2 (17, 2nd base off C Park/R Barajas, 3rd base off C Park/R Barajas). ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS - 013 200 012 -- 9 TAMPA BAY - 203 000 003 -- 8 ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era C Park (W, 2-3) 7 7 5 5 2 5 2 5.65 R Mahay (H, 4) 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 5.56 C Almanzar (H, 4) 1/3 0 0 0 1 1 0 3.50 J Nelson 2/3 0 2 2 2 0 0 5.40 F Cordero (S, 12) 1/3 2 1 1 1 1 0 2.63 TAMPA BAY ip h r er bb so hr era J Gonzalez 3 5 4 4 0 2 2 6.62 J Halama (L, 0-1) 5 1/3 3 3 3 1 6 2 2.79 D Gonzalez 2/3 3 2 2 0 0 0 6.14 IBB - T Martinez (by F Cordero). HBP - J Lugo (by C Park); H Blalock (by J Halama). Pitches-strikes: C Park 103-60; R Mahay 10-7; C Almanzar 9-5; J Nelson 16-6; F Cordero 13-8; J Gonzalez 54-33; J Halama 70-50; D Gonzalez 11-8. Ground balls-fly balls: C Park 8-7; R Mahay 0-1; C Almanzar 0-0; J Nelson 2-0; F Cordero 0-0; J Gonzalez 3-4; J Halama 6-4; D Gonzalez 1-1. Batters faced: C Park 29; R Mahay 2; C Almanzar 2; J Nelson 4; F Cordero 4; J Gonzalez 14; J Halama 21; D Gonzalez 5. UMPIRES: HP--Mike Everitt. 1B--Mark Wegner. 2B--Larry Young. 3B--Angel Hernandez. T--2:40. Att--10,202. Weather: INDOORS