The Big Hurt was in at DH for the White Sox last night. However, it was the Rangers that were suffering the big hurt. We put two more guys on the DL before the game (Mench, Jordan), bringing the total occupants on that list to 9 (with 3 out for the year). We called up capable reinforcements in the names of Chad Allen & Gary Matthews Jr. I don’t see either of them being a long term solution, but they probably will do for now. Wish Mench didn’t get hurt, as he’s been doing well this season.
Anyway, our best pitcher was on the mound again – Kenny Rogers. He got his 7th win already, and gave up just two runs over his 6 innings pitched. One of them was a solo jack to the Big Hurt, and there’s no shame in that. Struck out 6, walked one. Had a good night. He also lowered his ERA to 3.34. If Kenny keeps going at this pace, he’ll have a 20 win season. That’s something he’s never done before – his most wins in a season were 17, in his final season with the Rangers the first time (1995). In fact, Kenny already has more wins in 2004, then he had in the 2001 & 1997 seasons (not counting his seasons as a reliever in that).
The bullpen wasn’t lights out, but was good enough (3IP, 5H, 2ER) to get Cordero his league leading 15th save of the season. Cordero is 15/15, and needs three more saves to set a new all time Ranger record for consecutive saves. He already holds the record for most saves without a blown save to start the season – the overall record is 17 held by John Wetteland. While Cordero is tied with Mariano Rivera for the league lead with 15 saves, Rivera has a blown save – Cordero doesn’t. ;) In fact, the only other person with a decent amount of saves and no blown ones is Keith Foulke of the Red Sox, who is 9/9.
Offensively, We had 12 hits spread out over 8 players (only Matthews had an ofer). Soriano, Teixeira, Perry, & Allen all had two. Texiera & Herb Perry both had home runs, and Chad Allen and EY had doubles. Tex led the charge with 3 RBI’s, and overall we had a pretty balanced attack last night. A win is a win, but it’s nicer when everyone gets into the act as opposed to one or two guys bopping in all the runs.
We’re back in sole possession of second place after the A’s lost last night.
Brett Carre: A nice way to start a road trip as we beat the Sox 7-4 on Tuesday. Kenny pitched, well, like Kenny. It’s not flashy but it gets the job done. After this long trip we will see if the Rangers are really “for real.” Lets hope they can go .500 or better.