So far I haven’t watched many of the playoff games on TV. They’ve either been on during the day, or at night I haven’t had time since my mother has been in town for a visit. Tonight however, I watched from about the fourth inning on of the Tigers / Yankees games.
Wow – that was probably the best pitched game by Kenny Rogers since he made a run at a second perfect game a couple of years ago in an interleague game (against the Reds, I think). He was masterful, and showed way more emotion than I remember him having when in Texas. His curveball was fooling Yankee hitters all night, and he was just brilliant. Congratulations to Kenny Rogers. Was also nice to see the old (not as Pudgy) Pudge out there too with the fists up, and all. Too bad it couldn’t have been in a Ranger uniform, but I’m happy for ’em.
Kenny’s line:
7.2 innings pitched
5 hits
2 walks
8 strikeouts
Nice followup by Joel Zumaya & Todd Jones pitching 1.1 IP of shutout ball in support of Kenny.
Also, what was Gary Matthews Jr doing on Baseball Tonight after the game? I didn’t know he was doing commentary for ESPN. That was a surprise, for sure.
P.S. ” If the Rangers disappeared today, would anyone circulate a petition to bring them back? Would anyone sign it?”….
Unlike some frenchie sounding Taylors around here, we do care about our local team. Some of us are not frontrunning only Cowboys fans. Sigh.
Gary didn’t do so bad if I do say so myself. My theory is that baseball tonight is running low on announcers because they’re all off covering the games. Oh well, I don’t mind seeing Eric Byrnes and Gary for a change.
I said at the beginning of this series (while not here though) that THE thing that is going to get the tigers to the second round is pitching. They have the best bullpen in baseball, coupled with arguably the best rotation, while young. Joel Zumaya is an insane setup guy for a closer who was having a dominant last bit of the season as well. Dominant pitching always beats dominant hitting. And it’s showing out here.
Series is not over yet though.