While we won the game, it was a shame that we wasted the best pitching performance by RA Dickey in a month. He went 6.2 innings giving up no earned runs (although one did score). He had 7 k’s and two walks. But our pen gave up two runs to tie the game late. Shouse, who I thought pitched fairly well, got tagged for 2ER, and Almanzar, who retired no one got the win, as well as a blown save. But the biggest pitching story is probably Francisco Cordero, who now holds the record for consecutive saves by a Ranger pitcher w/o a blown save with 18. He previously held the record for most consecutive saves to start the season, now he holds the record for most saves in a row by a Ranger – no matter when they came. That’s really nice to see.
Offensively, Mike Young had another multihit game, Blalock also had two hits as did Mark Teixeira. However, the other multi hit guy was the story of the game – Gary Matthews Jr. He went 2 for 2, 3 RBI’s, he scored a run, and walked once. But the big one was a game winning home run in the top of the 9th. We also had a solo shot by Hank Blalock in the 9th for an insurance run.
Felt like a fast moving game, but when I looked at the end, it was 2:49. It felt like one of those games that would be like 2:20 or so. But we swept the short series in Cleveland, and now have three in a row headed to Yankee Stadium starting on Friday. Hope it all goes well there, but New York is now playing like they should, so I’d be surprised if we took the series there – big time.