Well, Thursday was my 44th birthday, and I headed out to Arlington for my tradition of attending a game on my birthday. I’ve done that as long as I can remember. I’ve mentioned this here before, but if you didn’t know I go on my birthday. If they’re not in town, I go on the closest calendar day to August 20th. I have to confess when they signed Pudge, I didn’t want him starting on Wednesday night. I wanted him starting on Thursday for the first time, so it would be my birthday game. That didn’t happen. But I got to see him in the dugout! Wheeeee!
I did get to see Derek Holland in person, and he didn’t seem to be “on” this game. He struggled in places, and while he still got the win, and didn’t allow a ton of runs to score, it wasn’t the smoothest outing I would think. Overall, his line was 5.1 innings, 83 pitches, seven hits, no walks, 3 k’s, and just one run allowed. The reason it was just one run was in thanks to Netfali Feliz. In the sixth, Holland loaded the bases, and was pulled by Ron Washington. In came Feliz. This was something I also wanted to see, and while he didn’t hit 100, there were several 97’s and 98’s, and watching him warm up, it really looked like Walter Johnson. I thought Feliz’ movement in warming up really really looked like the old pitcher for the Washington Senators, Walter “Big Train” Johnson. Willie Eyre and Jason Jennings also tossed soreless innings onto this game, but the big moment was the second pitch that Feliz threw. With the bases loaded, he got Joe Crede to hit a squibber over to Michael Young, who stepped on third, and then threw to first for the inning ending double play. Just felt then like it killed the Twins. From that point onward, it was all smooth sailing for Rangers pitching.
The Rangers hitting was quite good, too. In all, we had seventeen hits. As I’ve said many times before, that many hits leads to a lot of things like “Every Ranger starter had at least one hit”. Which is what happened. They all had at least one. We had three guys with three hits (Borbon, Young, & Blalock). Borbon chipped in with his first career major league home run, a pull job down the right field line, just to the left of the wedgie. In all, there was a lot of extra base hits. We had three doubles (Andrus, Young, Borbon) and four home runs (Byrd twice, Borbon, & Cruz). That Borbon was even here to get the shot when Cruz came back from the DL is a testament to how hot Borbon has been since first coming up recently. I’m glad he’s sticking around.
Hank Blalock had three sharp hits, and he’s been batting worse than Chris Davis was when he was sent down. Makes you wonder what’s going on there.
The multiple home runs was a great, and we almost had six. Ian Kinsler upper cutted one that went WAY WAY up – over the foul pole high, but just to the left of the pole. The other one was a ball that Michael Young hit, that bounced off the top of the left field wall, and back in play. There was a video review of the ball, and man, it just missed being another home run by literally an inch or so. So we had four homers, but could have quite easily have had six. Nice to see the offense going.
The Rangers also turned three double plays, which I’m sure helped. :)
We head out on the road to Tampa, New York, & Minnesota to close out the Metrodome. That will be hard trip, and if we can do it without losing any more ground to Anaheim, we could be in good shape. New York will be the hardest, as they’re doing quite well at the moment.
One last thing about Borbon. I don’t think he should be wearing #29. That number should be a plaque hanging in left field with the numbers 26, 34, & 42.