OK, it’s not a traditional sweep, but we swept the doubleheader. :)
We won game two, but not nearly as convincingly as Game 1. John Rheinecker took the mound for the second game, and went five innings. He gave up 5 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits, 5 walks (way too many), and 3 strikeouts. Two of those 6 hits were home runs. It wasn’t particularly a good outing. Still, after the drunken euphoria that was game 1, I think this performance got overlooked. :) Frank Francisco wasn’t particularly good, either. 0.1 innings pitched, three walks, two earned runs. Ugh. The rest of our pen threw shutout ball. The last two (Benoit & Wilson) were the big deals. Benoit had a weird line, in that he gave up no runs, but had a blown save. I’m sure Francisco loved that. Anyway, CJ Wilson got the save, and probably will compete in spring next year with Aki to be the Rangers closer in 2008.
The Orioles pitching wasn’t great either, but not nearly as mind bogglingly awful as they were in Game 1. The starter (Olson), and the second reliever (Hoey) combined for 6 innings, giving up 8 hits, 9 earned runs, and walking 5. The other two relievers (Bradford & Walker) gave up nothing.
Offensively, it was a lot of singles for the most part. We had 11 hits in all, and just one double. Michael Young was 3-5, Sammy Sosa was 2-5, Nelson Cruz was 2-5, and Travis Metcalf was 2-3. In fact, Metcalf was the one with the double, and drove in four RBI. That’s a combined eight RBI for Travis in the doubleheader.
What a night. 39 runs also sets a modern record for runs scored in a doubleheader. It was a record setting night in Baltimore. All seven hours worth at the park.