A phrase that I know some people would rather go away certainly applied on Sunday afternoon. It was Mother’s day, so it was fitting to break out the old tired phrase, “Chicks dig the longball!” There were eight of them in all.
The Rangers got ’em from Ian Kinsler (his team leading 10th, a two run shot in the 3rd), Hank Blalock (his third, a solo shot in the fourth), Brad Wilkerson (his fifth, a two run shot in the 6th), and the best one, a walkoff solo shot by Nelson Cruz in the bottom of the ninth. The Angels had four as well, and surprisingly, none by #27. Two of their four were by Gary Matthews, both two run shots. Their others were by Shea Hillenbrand, & Mike Napoli.
Now, in all both teams combined for 22 hits, of which eight were home runs. The teams combined for 3 doubles, so that’s 11 extra base hits, and 11 singles. In the overall scheme of things, it wasn’t dominated by home runs, but darnit, when there’s that many of them, it just seems so much sexier to say “the game was dominated by home runs!”. In a way it was, 12 of the 13 runs came off of home runs, so it is right I suppose, but there were 14 hits that weren’t home runs. Ah well, I guess I’m just being too pedantic again.
Mike Wood was our starter, and he didn’t have a great line at all. Went four, gave up 7 hits and 1 walk (plus 3 of the 4 Angels HR’s). CJ Wilson gave up another run (solo HR), but Benoit, Otsuka, & Gagne followed up and stopped the home run barrage. Millwood comes off the DL tomorrow, I would expect Wood would get sent back down.
I remember being at the park some years ago when the Rangers had 7 or 8 home runs themselves, it’s quite entertaining to watch that many of them. Bet the folks roasting at the Ballpark Sunday afternoon enjoyed it. Especially the longballs.
Chick dig ’em, you know.