Two big things happened in tonight’s game. If you’re a real Rangers fan, you knew about them already, but just the same..
- Pudge Rodriguez became the all time #1 catcher with most games caught in the majors. Nobody else has caught more than Pudge. That’s an impressive number. First.
- Omar Vizquel tied Luis Apricio for all time hits for a player from Venezuela.
Those two are impressive feats. That Pudge did it in Arlington was as Josh Lewin called it “a gift from the baseball gods”. I was there with my wife the game that Pudge played his last as a Ranger. The applause for him on June 19, 2009 was just as great as it was on September 29, 2002.
The actual game itself seemed kind of “meh” other than the walkoff when compared to the stuff above. Matt Harrison came off the DL and pitched OK. Salty & Nelson Cruz had home runs. Kinsler stole two bases. Even Omar Vizquel stole one! The two new pen additions (Jason Grilli & Darren O’Day) tossed a few more shutout innings.
The walkoff was a bloop hit down the left field line. Was your usual fun walkoff win. But even this pales in comparison to me to the events of the rest of the game. It was just major for me. Only thing that would have made it better is if Vizquel also broke the record at the same time. But since he merely tied it, he’ll now have a chance to beat it back in San Francisco where he played for awhile. That will be nice for him, I’m sure.
