It was a day of weird happenings.
- Jim Joyce blew a call that cost former Ranger Armando Galarraga a perfect game.
- Ken Griffey Jr retired.
- Vlad Guerrero fouled a ball off of the batting cage pole and it came back and hit him in the eye.
- Matt Treanor was the big power stick in this game
Wait – Treanor? Huh? Yeah, Vlad had a freak accident before the game where he fouled a ball off the inside pole of the batting cage, and it whacked him in the eye. That was really bizarre, and it forced some changes in the lineup. Sometimes when that happens, you hear of “so and so stood up and covered the other guy”. Normally you don’t think it’s a catcher batting .215 or so being that guy. But it was. Matt Treanor had the power stroke going. He whacked a strong double to left. Then whacked a home run to left. He would have had another double and some more on the RBI chart, except he was totally robbed in right field by Carlos Quentin. I mean ROBBED. As it stands, Treanor went 2-4 with a run scored and four RBI’s.
Right behind him was Michael Young, who went 3-5 with 3 RBI’s and a couple of runs scored. Josh Hamilton also was 3-5 with just 2 RBI’s. So it was a good night to be a fan of good old fashioned Rangers offense.
Pitching wise Scott Feldman went to the mound, and acted more like the 2009 version than at any other date in 2010. Feldman gave up two runs in the bottom of the first, and then settled down. He gave up another solo run in the sixth, and a two spot in the rain in the bottom of the 8th. His line isn’t awesome, but he did look like the old Feldman, which makes me hopeful that 2010 won’t be a total waste for him. Scotty did get his third win of the season, which is way behind his 2009 pace. But there’s still time for him to get respectable. Just not a ton of time to continue pitching like Mark Clark, though.
Real shame about Armando Galarraga. It is. Wish there was a way to review it after the fact, as you can do that with protested games. Yeah, I know they made all nice after the game, but man, that was annoying. I’m not even a Tigers fan.
And I’ll miss Ken Griffey Jr. Always liked watching him play. I remember when he left Seattle, I saw him in his last game in Arlington, and thought at the time that was the last time I’d see him. Turns out that was true, as I didn’t see him (in person) with Cincinnati, and when he returned to Seattle last year, he wasn’t nearly the player he was. Still, he was a lot of fun to watch, and I’ll miss him. He’ll be in Cooperstown in 2015.