A lot happened in this game, but if you’re a Rangers fan, the thing that was probably the coolest thing was the return of Hank Blalock. This was his first game action since going on the DL back in May. Was nice seeing the Hammer at the plate again. Especially with Mark Teixeira gone, I think this team needs a shot of “familiar” instead of seeing a parade of guys from AAA this year like we have. That’s usually good, but this fan was happy to see someone familiar instead of someone trying to make their mark, know what I mean?
Anyway, Hank went 2 for 4, but the second one was the memorable one. It was a grand slam in the 8th off of Scot Shields, a guy who usually torments us. Was quite nice to see that. In fact, all eight of our runs were off of the longball. Blalock’s grand slam was four, Ian Kinsler’s home run was two, and Brad Wilkerson’s home run was two more for a total of 8 runs. While one would like a more balanced attack, you can’t argue with the results; we won the game.
Kason Gabbard started the game for us, and didn’t pitch all that well. Went six innings, gave up 5 hits, which isn’t too bad, but also walked 5 (bad), and gave up 5 earned runs. I like the 5-5-5 deal from Domino’s Pizza, but definitely not from my starting pitchers. Wes Littleton came in, and was almost perfect in his two innings of work, only walking one batter, and nothing else. CJ Wilson gave up two earned runs in his relief appearance, and tried to give the game to Anaheim, but didn’t break. He earned the save, and we got the win.
Now we go home to play the Royals, a team we should utterly destroy, but never seem to be able to beat.