I was at this game Monday night. I almost didn’t go, because I had a nice day with my wife and daughter. But I went, and I was glad I did, saw a great game, and a great win. I got to the park, and ended up having a nice chat with a fellow who doesn’t normally sit where my seat is about scoring the games. I was scoring on my PDA, and he on paper, so we had a nice chat about all that.
This game got off to a good start. We scored three runs in the bottom of the first and went up quickly. To beat Boston, I figured that was necessary. What was bothering me was the fact we left 7 men on base in the first few innings. Twice had the bases loaded and didn’t get anything – both times the final out was made by Hank Blalock, too. That wasn’t good. Something else that wasn’t good was the fact that Ricardo Rodriguez walked three batters in the third inning on the way to letting the Sox back in the game by giving up two runs. Even with that, I felt pretty good about the game. They tied it in the 6th on a double by Trot Nixon, and I still felt good. Felt like we had another crooked score inning on the way. However, that feeling went out the window when Manny Ramirez jacked an absolute titanic home run in the 8th inning to give the Sox a two run lead. At the park they said the home run went four hundred and fourty some odd feet, but it lookd a LOT more than that. The record in our park is 491, which was straight to the top of Green’s Hill by Paul Sorrento. This one wasn’t at the top, was about 2/3 of the way up and off to the right a bit by my eye. Given the wall is 400, and the top is 491, I would think 2/3 up would be more than 450 at least, plus it was angled a bit to the right, which would add a few more feet. 440 something isn’t enough, IMO.
Anyway you measure it, it’s a pretty deflating home run. We picked up one of the two on a two run double by Rod Barajas in the bottom of the 8th, but we were still losing, and I wasn’t feeling good about coming back, even given Keith Foulke’s recent struggles. But the rest is history, led by a Mike Young triple. A walk, hit batseman later set up the table for Kevin Mench to win it for the Rangers.
The Angels lost too, so we picked up a game in that regard. Go Twins! :)
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