Time for another of those catchup posts. I missed a few games, mostly due to the fact that the stupid games are starting so late again.
G112: Rangers lose to Angels, 9-1: This game turned me off pretty quickly. The ejection of Adam Eaton in the first inning pretty much annoyed me. As it annoyed a lot of other Ranger fans from reading – I also saw the guys on Baseball Tonight get into it and question the ejection. Whether it would have turned the game, who knows. Josh Rupe followed Eaton, and gave up 5 runs in the 1.2 innings he pitched following Eaton’s departure. We were down 8 runs in the second inning; a certain recipe for disaster. It wasn’t helped by the double error Ian Kinsler made on the same play. Just a game that got too ugly too fast, and we just really had no hope in this one early on. [ Game recap on mlb.com ]
G113: Rangers lose to A’s, 7-4: This was a game I didn’t get to see much of at all, because I was too tired, and went to sleep before it finished. When I went to bed, it was 4-2 A’s. In looking at the box score, Volquez wasn’t particularly great, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings while walking two. I’ve seen a lot worse than that, but those kinds of numbers won’t win you many ballgames. Rick Bauer didn’t help, giving up 3 more in his inning plus. Our old buddy Esteban Loaiza went 6.2Ip, giving up all four runs the Rangers scored.
Speaking of that, Hank Blalock busted out with a home run, but generally is doing his usual second half slump, although it doesn’t feel as pronounced to me (I haven’t looked up the numbers before making that statement). Matt Stairs chipped in with a couple of doubles, plus Kinsler & Tex had a double as well. Hard to write about this one as I didn’t see most of it. [ Game recap on mlb.com ]
G114: Rangers lose to A’s, 7-6: This game I didn’t see ANY of, as I was not feeling well, and went to bed around 10PM. Given I was going to bed that early (I normally don’t go to bed until 2AM), I had some other things I needed to get done before I hit the sack. As I didn’t see any of this game at all, I’ll have no actual commentary for it, except to say that an interference call in the 9th inning is a really odd way to end the game. [ Game recap on mlb.com ]
G115: Rangers destroy A’s, 14-0: Well, this one can be summed up like this. “SAVE SOME FOR ANOTHER GAME, GUYS!” Given how many close games we’ve had, winning by 14 runs is both fun and really maddening. I know baseball is different every time you play it, but you always get mad when something like this happens right after losing by one run. Arrrrgh!
Anyway, this one was all Rangers, and it pulled us back to being 5.5 games out in the West. Not too bad, but we can’t afford much more of “not too bad”, we have to get up there and do this kind of stuff routinely if we want to end up on the top of the division. It’s still possible obviously, but you get the feeling that we need to start moving quickly.
This game was led by Mark DeRosa who had two three run home runs as well as a double and a single, with 6 RBI’s in all and two runs scored. He wasn’t the only one, Carlos Lee finally got a home run as a Texas Ranger. We had four doubles in all (Tex, Matthews, Hairston, & DeRosa). Barajas & Matthews also had home runs besides the ones I’ve already mentioned. Was pretty efficient too, having 17 hits and 14 runs.
We pretty much nailed Barry Zito, which does’t usually happen. Zito gave up 6ER in his 5+ IP. Their relievers didn’t fare much better either (except for Flores who stopped the bleeding). Vicente Padilla on the other hand was pretty darn good, going 7 innings, giving up no runs on 6 hits and 6 strikeouts. Ron Mahay also pitched two scoreless innings of relief.
Overall a game that went the Rangers way in just about every way possible. Just wish there were more like that. [ Game recap on mlb.com ]