G93: Rangers sweep Boston with 3-1 win

Does anyone remember May 2, 2004? That was the last time the Rangers swept Boston at home (I believe). It’s also the date of the famous SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP chant that just dominated the entire stadium – we have Hanks’ Homies to thank for that. That was a major highlight, and while I don’t believe the same thing happened this time (I didn’t get to see/hear the game, more on that later), this is something I thought needed to be brought up from five seasons ago. :)
I mean, we swept the Boston Red Sox, before the series started, I believe the team with the second best record in the AL. That’s seriously impressive, and as I wrote about in the last game’s commentary, something that will probably serve us well, should we happen to be fortunate enough to meet up with Boston in the playoffs. Anyway, about this game…
I didn’t see it. I got burnt by not checking my TiVo. The TiVo will record the ESPN feed for a game before the FSSW feed, because ESPN has a lower channel number. Since ESPN is blacked out, I got three hours of ESPNNEWS while the game was going on over on FSSW, not being recorded. Grrr.. Normally I pick up on those and fix it, but I forgot to look for this game. I just saw highlights.
Clay Buckholz, one of the “untouchables” for the Red Sox started, and got hit – a little. Not a lot, he wasn’t awful, but six hits and two walks for three earned runs in four innings is a bit “meh”. That was all our offense, however, as despite ten hits, we only pushed across three runs.
But it was enough, as Dustin Nippert, making a spot start for the suddenly flu bitten Vicente Padilla, got the win. Went 5.2 innings, giving up five hits and two walks – but just one earned run. Came out after throwing 94 pitches. He was followed up by Doug Mathis, who threw a 3.1 inning scoreless outing for a long save – his first of the year.
Kinsler had a home run, Marlon Byrd had a double, but otherwise, it was a power outage, as everything else was a single. Even the Sox didn’t have a lot of power. Six hits for them, only one wasn’t a single (it was a solo home run).
But a sweep of the Red Sox. We’re closing in on the trade deadline, and we’re just 3.5 games out of first place in the AL West, and just 2.5 games back behind the Red Sox in the wild card race.
It’s exciting, man. I wonder who we’ll move to bring in a piece before next Friday. You get the feeling something is going to happen. Well, OK, maybe I do and you don’t. :)