I’ve fallen into a bad habit lately in skipping large parts of Rangers games via TiVo, because they get down early, or are playing crappy or whatnot. I decided to score this game, as I wanted to force myself to pay attention. So what happens? Rain delay to start the game. Then four other delays. In all, 2 hours and 27 minutes of delays spread out over multiple occasions. The last one was just 12 minutes, and one was over an hour. What a mess. I actually almost went to this game. When it was first delayed, I almost hopped in the car and drove out. I would have gotten there before it started, but it was still raining pretty darned hard in Garland, I didn’t want to drive in THAT.
Anyway, Brandon McCarthy started, and looked pretty good. He went five innings, giving up just three hits and one run. No walks, which is very good. The only reason he came out of the game, was rain. In fact, he went four, and there was a delay. They came back and played the top of the fifth (I presume to get it game legal), and McCarthy pitched that, but the game stopped again, and he was done. Shame, as he probably could have gone awhile more, he exited with just 68 pitches over five innings. Pretty good.
Luis Mendoza came in, and proceeded to stink up the joint, despite the smell of rain. He actually got two quick outs in his inning, then gave up a hit, a walk, and a rather painful hit of Jermaine Dye. Then a grand slam to AJ Pierzyqeiosdfgok (how the heck do you spell that?). Sigh. At that point, it put the A’s back in the game, as they had been down 9-1 before that slam.
Eddie Guardado gave up the other run. Darren O’Day continues to look like a great pickup, it’s a look we haven’t had from a pitcher in ages. The closest I can think of would be Mike Venafro, and even his sidearm wasn’t as pronounced as O’Day’s. Feldman played with sidearm for awhile, but has pretty much gotten away from it.
Fransisco finished up with a perfect inning for the save.
Offense wise, we did all of our scoring in the third and fourth innings. Three in the third, and six in the fourth. The three in the third were a three run home run by Hank Blalock, which finally put Tom Grieve on the board for the “home run call” game. The six runs in the next frame were pretty much due to the five doubles we had that inning. Nobody went hitless in this game, although Michael Young was the last to get a hit.
There was a really nice play by Omar Vizquel, who has played pretty darned well during his time here. Doesn’t look like a guy on the back end of his career, tell you the truth.
Jose Contreras does, though. 0-4 with an 8.31 ERA now. I wonder if we’ll get him next weekend in Chicago.
I really enjoyed Tom Grieve’s calling of Hank’s 3-run HR. That was my favorite part of the game. I love Tom Grieve, but Josh Lewin, eh…. not so much. He is cool too sometimes, but sometimes he says things that are a bit off the wall.
Tom always brings good things to the table. I didn’t know he played for the Senators! And I didn’t know he was the VP and GM of the Rangers! His history with Texas is even more elaborate than I had thought. But perhaps that explains my fondness of him!
Hank’s HR wasn’t to the upper deck, but still, that was a good call! =)