Well, for the first five and a half innings, not much happened. The Mariners did get two runs, but both were on wind assisted home runs that barely cleared the outfield wall. Joel Piniero was cruising, which was odd, as we usually annihilate him. Adam Eaton was doing well too, except for the two home run balls. Time was flying, and I was out and about running some errands, so I was listening to the game on the radio. I got home in the top of the seventh inning, but I had to replay the bottom of the sixth on my TiVo.
Up until this point, Piniero had only allowed three singles to Ranger hitters. We were pretty asleep at the wheel. It was at this point that the annihilation began. Rod Barajas singled, Sarge Jr walked, and after a Mike Young flyout, Carlos Lee singled to load the bases. It was at this point that Mark Teixeira cleared the bases with a double that missed being a grand slam by a foot or two right off the wedgie in right field, giving us the lead 3-2.
Which was good, because Buck took out Eaton and put in CJ Wilson. Two quick groundouts and a strikeout later, we were back at bat, and the seventh turned out to be more interesting than the sixth. Piniero went back out, but didn’t have much. After a Stairs groundout, Kinsler singled, Rod Barajas doubled, putting men on second and third. Piniero’s last act was to intentionally walk Gary Matthews to get to Michael Young. Now I know it was a double play move, but wow – Young is lights out with the bases loaded.
It was at this point that I thought “Man, the folks at USS Mariner will be firing up another ‘Kill Hargrove’ thread”. I knew they wouldn’t be liking this.
Grover brought in Julio Mateo, and he promptly gave up a double to Mike Young, which kicked up chalk in the left field corner. Sarge ran through the stop sign at third, and scored. The throw home from Betancourt bounced off Jojima, and went into the Rangers dugout. This awarded Michael Young a little league grand slam (OK, really a double with a two base error), but still.
And the fun didn’t end there. Carlos Lee then singled, Tex walked, Blalock singled to right, loading the bases again. At this point, Grover took out Mateo (who retired no one), and replaced him with Sean Green. Mark DeRosa singled to the left side, but the ball hit Mark Teixeira in the back, which cost us a run when Carlos Lee was forced to return to third. Green then plunked Matt Stairs, who was up for the second time in the inning, forcing in the eighth run.
There was no more scoring after this, but I have to say this game really turned on a dime. We did to Piniero late in his appearance what we usually do early on. We picked up a half a game on the idle A’s, and a game on the Angels (who got blown out). We’re now alone again in third place, 5 back of Oakland.
Yeah, that was a pretty awesome game once we took the lead! I was sitting in the right field foul territory with a pretty nice vantage point. BTW: wasn’t it 8-2?