I expected us to lose this game. A 1-4 pitcher who has been shaky against a 7-0 pitcher who has been totally dominant? I expected the score to be like 17-1. We lost alright, but we didn’t fall out totally. Never seemed to get it going against Garland, which is the story of the day. Garland beat us to his major league leading eighth win of the season. He deserved the win, he pitched well, going 7 runs, giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits.
It did feel like we were behind the 8 ball however early however. It was because of some extra help from the umpire at third who CLEARLY blew a call calling Aaron Rowand safe at third when every replay showed he was out – and it was really obvious, too. That directly led to their first run, and while that one run didn’t decide the game, it came in the first, so one never knows what kind of mental tone that set for everything else that followed. It did lead to Steve Smith being ejected – he definitely is our most ejected coach. :)
Offensively, we didn’t mount much of an attack. We only had 6 hits, and three of them came from Mark Teixeira – and two of those 3 were doubles. The remaining three hits were from Blalock, Nix, & Hidalgo. Only two RBI’s were Tex and Hidalgo (who now has his average way up to .212).
I’m glad the old Ranger farmhand Scott Podsednik has gotten a good career together. He’s not a Carlos Beltran, or even a Cliff Floyd – but he’s a good solid respectable player, and from what I remember, a pretty nice guy, too. Good for him – the sport needs more good solid players like that. I like seeing him now that he’s in Chicago, I couldn’t see him when he was in Milwaukee.
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