The Minnesota Twins ruined the return of Pudge Rodriguez to the Rangers lineup. Oh, he was officially added to the roster the day before, but this was the first time (the real) #7 played in a game in about seven years or so. He got massive ovations, made some plays behind the plate, and was great with the bat, too. Pudge went 3-4 with a double, a run scored, and an RBI. It was a great return for #7. When we got him via a trade the other day, I theorized that he’s here for the remainder of 2009, and that’s it. If he plays like this, they could take a real look at him going forward as the backup, and trade one of the kids, but that’s wild speculation, and said in the rosy feeling of the return of Pudge. That’s a discussion for later.

Kevin Millwood took the mound, and with the departure of Pidente, he’s now got more career starts than the rest of the starting rotation does combined. Kevin Millwood has 368, and the other four (Feldman, Holland, Hunter, & Nippert) combine for 91 starts. So Kevin has FOUR TIMES the combined starts of the other four. He didn’t pitch like he was that far ahead of the others. 5.2 innings, 113 pitches, seven hits, four walks, and five earned runs. Bleh. He was done in by the recent problem the Rangers have – a meltdown inning. We gave up four in the sixth. I admit, when it started going south, I fast forwarded through it on TiVo. I didn’t feel like watching that.

Offensively, we had no home runs, but we did have some other power. Two doubles (Byrd, Pudge) and a triple (Byrd again). Elvis Andrus also stole a base, and we had a bunch of singles to account for our four runs.

But the story of the night, even with the loss, was the return of #7 to the catching duties for the Texas Rangers. As much as I can’t see it happening, it would be nice if he never left again. I’d really like that.

I’m taking a mulligan on this game, no time to write, about to head out the door for church, and have too much going on when I get back to write.
Although it was really REALLY nice to see Pudge take the lineup card out to home plate. Was a great moment after it was announced he was a Ranger again.

I’m taking a mulligan on this one. No time to write.

Before the Red Sox won their world series a few years ago, I used to love going to Red Sox games. Primarily because the games were usually good. It wasn’t a blowout one way or another, the games were well pitched, well played, and I usually enjoyed them. Then the Sox won the World Series, and their fans became equals on the “jerkoff” scale with Yankees fans, and made it no fun to go to the Red Sox games. Oh well. Had I gone, this game would have been one of those ones from the past. 4-3 game, well played, well pitched, and one I did enjoy watching on TV.
Dustin Nippert took the mound for Texas, and he did well under the baking August heat (why day games in August – WHY?) Dustin went six innings, allowing six hits and three walks. A bit too many, but it didn’t really hurt him – he only allowed two runs. Actually, as I look at the box score, it doesn’t seem *THAT* impressive, but live, it seemed better than the line. Doug Mathis followed up and allowed just one hit, but it was a solo home run, accounting for Boston’s third run. Beyond him, our two headed closer followed. CJ Francisco pitched two innings, allowing just one hit. Also struck out five of the six batters faced, which was nice to see, after the fiasco on Friday night.
Offensively, we didn’t have a ton either – with only four runs, there wasn’t a ton, but we did have eleven hits. We had a couple of solo home runs. One by Michael Young, and another by Taylor Teagarden, which appeared to bounce off the corner of the new video board ring in left field. We also had three doubles.
We had a couple of double plays, and… HECK WITH IT..
WE TOOK OVER THE WILD CARD LEAD WITH THIS WIN! GO RANGERS!

Holland again! 6.2 innings pitched, seven hits, two runs, three stikeouts. He actually kept the Sox under control. The two runs he allowed were two solo home runs (Bay, Martinez). He’s starting to feel to me like Cole Hamels did for the Phillies last year. Man, he’s good.
The big story for me this game was the speed on the bases. Elvis Andrus & Pedro Borbon were running all over the place. The two of them had a combined seven steals, and Ian Kinsler also had one. The eight steals sets a Rangers franchise record now for number of steals in a game. It was almost like videogame baseball, where you jack the running speed up to max on your guys, and push down the arm strength of the opposing catcher. Varitek had no hope. A friend of mine who is a Sox fan says it’s been that way all year with Varitek – he can’t throw anyone out, apparently. But MAN was it nice to see these guys run all over the Red Sox.
Ian Kinsler was back in the game, but wasn’t batting leadoff (Borbon was). Kinsler homered in his return to the lineup. He was also hit in the head with a pitched ball later in the game – not something that looked good at all, but at least it was’t Hiroki Kuroda of the Dodgers.
Overall, the Rangers had 12 hits. Just two were extra base hits (the Kinsler HR, and an Andrus triple). Everything else was a single. So not a lot of power, but way more than enough to hang a seven spot on the Boston pitching staff.
But the important part was that we beat the Red Sox, and are back to just half a game out in the Wild Card race.