The kid vs. the Cy Young winner. Who is supposed to come out on top in these? Yup, the Cy Young guy. Chris Young vs. Johan Santana was a match up that worried me. I figured as soon as we gave up a run or two, that’d be it. Santana would shut us down and that would be the end of the game. Yeah, I know if you’re reading this, you know how the game turns out, but look at these numbers: Which of these pitching lines is which?
Pitcher A: 7IP, 3H, 6K, 2BB, 0ER
Pitcher B: 7IP, 3H, 6K, 3BB, 1ER
They’re awfully close, the major difference is the earned run figure. The second one was Johan Santana and the first was Chris Young. In his last 3 or 4 starts, Chris Young seems to have rediscovered himself. Which is good, as he’s about to break the Rangers rookie record for wins, he needs just one more. The only run the Twins scored was against Erasmo Ramirez who was called up in favor of Justin Thompson yesterday. But Chris Young out dueling Johan Santana was something I think most Rangers fans were not expecting to happen, so it’s particularly nice to see.
We won the game on a walk off hit by Blalock, after Jesse Crain got himself in too much trouble. The Twins were playing double play depth instead of in, which probably cost them the game based on the ball hit. Nice win, nice series, even the loss felt good, despite it being 7-2. With the exception of the 11th inning on Saturday, I felt we dominated the Twins.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.