What was interesting about this game is after Vlad Guerrero hit his SECOND home run of the night, Josh & Tom had some interesting remarks. It went something like this (I’m paraphrasing)..
You know, after the grand slam, the crowd was mostly applauding, with small smattering of boos in there. After his double following that, there was still mostly applauding, but a few more boos. After the second home run, it was mostly boos, like the crowd was saying “OK, we gave you your lovin’, welcome home and all that, but knock it off!”
That was a pretty funny analogy on the crowd. I didn’t write about the first game in this series, but he homered there, too. I would have thought the lovin went away after the first game. But yeah, this game was all Vlad. Of the six runs the Rangers got, only one of them was not driven in by Vlad. That one was a single by Kinsler. But the other five were by Vlad Guerrero, and all five of them on home runs.
When this game started, I got disgusted, and tuned out after the third inning. We were down 3-0. Omar Beltre started for the Rangers. He was making his major league debut after being in the system for ages. He was obviously nervous, it could be seen, I’m sure that had a lot to do with the way he pitched. I won’t rag on him since it was his major league debut and all that, but the linescore wasn’t very good at all. Anyway, after the third inning I tuned out and started watching some other stuff with my wife (Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives). However, I wasn’t totally checked out, I had the game on my iPad, in case anything big happened. Well, it did. Kazmir, who usually takes care of the Rangers, was doing that again the first three innings, and then in the fourth, he did not.
Elvis Andrus was hit by a pitch, then Michael Young doubled, and Ian Kinsler walked. That loaded the bases for Guerrero, who hit a grand slam over the left power alley wall to put the Rangers up 4-3, and we never looked back. It was a cool moment, even Vlad thought so, as he uncharacteristically gave a fist pump when it went over the fence. He usually doesn’t give a lot of emotion, but he did there. He did again in the top of the 8th when he had another solo home run into the trees (a pretty much carbon copy of the one from the night before).
It kind of feels to this sports fan that Guerrero’s home runs are kind of like a big ol’ middle finger to the Angels for dumping him. If Guerrero does this again tonight for the final game of the series, it will be like both hands are giving the Angels the middle finger.