Well, I was actually going to go to this game. Given I’m unemployed now, I was going to head out to the park and retake the pictures for my seat selector feature on the site. So I left Garland at 4PM. I wanted to be there when the gates opened, so I can get pictures of all the sections of the park. I have a pretty good drive to the Ballpark (about 33 miles or so – you can see it here). I get to about Jim Miller & I30 in Dallas, which isn’t very far at all, and the traffic just stopped. This was at like 4:15. Flipped on KRLD, and they said it was like 45 minutes to an hour JUST TO GET to the Mixmaster in Dallas. Screw that. For me to do what I wanted to do would require me to be ready to roll at 5PM. I’ve done the “take a picture of every section in the ballpark all at once” twice before, and it takes just about all of the two hours you have from gates open to game start. So I turned around and went back home. Too much traffic. Stupid Arlington not paying for Dart. I want a high speed rail line that takes me to the Ballpark.
Anyway, I watched it at home in HD, and for the first three innings, I was regretting not sticking it out to watch the game. The Rangers just destroyed the Padres pitching, and Walter Silva in particular. Granted, Silva was weighed down with some stupid fielding (two balls muffed in the infield, and a doofus catch by Gwynn in right which looked like me in little league), but he only actually allowed one unearned run. Problem was Silva allowed eight EARNED runs in his 2.1 innings pitched. They just teed off. Everything was falling in, going the right way.
Chris Davis went 1-3 this game after going 4-5 last night. That raised his average to .210. He did walk again, which is good. Of course, he struck out twice. Sigh. Our offense was in gear. In all, two doubles, a triple, two home runs, and a pile of singles. One of the home runs was David Murphy, and it went upper tank in right. The other one by Blalock led off an inning that we left the bases loaded on right before that. Darnit – one batter too late for the grand slam. Michael Young & Nelson Cruz took ofers, but everyone else had at least one hit.
Elvis Andrus had the biggest numbers hit wise. He went four for four with two RBI’s and a run scored. His triple in the fifth was one of those no doubters to the area right in front of the Rangers bullpen. Triples are ALWAYS nice to see.
Our bullpen kept things in check. Jason Grilli, Willie Eyre, & Doug Mathis all pitched perfect innings. Most impressive.
While I did miss seeing that game, I do have to say that when the game was over, I was already home. That’s a great payoff for missing the game. :)