Derek Holland started this game, and pitched the way you’d think a first year starter should. Pretty horrible line. 5.2 innings, thirteen hits, one walk, seven runs allowed (six earned). The only thing really good was the fact that he struck out eight guys in his time out there. But he was hit around pretty good, that was the reason the Rangers lost this game.
Offensively, there wasn’t a ton going on. Rangers managed only six hits. Two doubles and a home run (Chris Davis again). That was about it.
I’ve seen uglier games by the Rangers, but it just felt like it should have been a whole lot worse. The Padres set a season record with sixteen hits in a game. Figures it’d be against us.

There is not a ton to say about this one.
The Rangers managed just one hit. Was a bloop single by Michael Young early on. That was it. San Diego starter Chad Gaudin had what appears to be the best start of his career. He went eight innings, gave up just the one hit. He did walk two, but struck out nine Rangers. The only Ranger to not strike out was Elvis Andrus. Pretty bad when the best highlight you can think of is who didn’t strike out.
Tommy Hunter was called up to make the start, and was a hard luck loser. He went 6.1 innings, giving up just the two runs. One was a solo home run. But I felt bad, he pitched pretty well, he was just seriously upstaged by Chad Gaudin.

Well, I was actually going to go to this game. Given I’m unemployed now, I was going to head out to the park and retake the pictures for my seat selector feature on the site. So I left Garland at 4PM. I wanted to be there when the gates opened, so I can get pictures of all the sections of the park. I have a pretty good drive to the Ballpark (about 33 miles or so – you can see it here). I get to about Jim Miller & I30 in Dallas, which isn’t very far at all, and the traffic just stopped. This was at like 4:15. Flipped on KRLD, and they said it was like 45 minutes to an hour JUST TO GET to the Mixmaster in Dallas. Screw that. For me to do what I wanted to do would require me to be ready to roll at 5PM. I’ve done the “take a picture of every section in the ballpark all at once” twice before, and it takes just about all of the two hours you have from gates open to game start. So I turned around and went back home. Too much traffic. Stupid Arlington not paying for Dart. I want a high speed rail line that takes me to the Ballpark.
Anyway, I watched it at home in HD, and for the first three innings, I was regretting not sticking it out to watch the game. The Rangers just destroyed the Padres pitching, and Walter Silva in particular. Granted, Silva was weighed down with some stupid fielding (two balls muffed in the infield, and a doofus catch by Gwynn in right which looked like me in little league), but he only actually allowed one unearned run. Problem was Silva allowed eight EARNED runs in his 2.1 innings pitched. They just teed off. Everything was falling in, going the right way.
Chris Davis went 1-3 this game after going 4-5 last night. That raised his average to .210. He did walk again, which is good. Of course, he struck out twice. Sigh. Our offense was in gear. In all, two doubles, a triple, two home runs, and a pile of singles. One of the home runs was David Murphy, and it went upper tank in right. The other one by Blalock led off an inning that we left the bases loaded on right before that. Darnit – one batter too late for the grand slam. Michael Young & Nelson Cruz took ofers, but everyone else had at least one hit.
Elvis Andrus had the biggest numbers hit wise. He went four for four with two RBI’s and a run scored. His triple in the fifth was one of those no doubters to the area right in front of the Rangers bullpen. Triples are ALWAYS nice to see.
Our bullpen kept things in check. Jason Grilli, Willie Eyre, & Doug Mathis all pitched perfect innings. Most impressive.
While I did miss seeing that game, I do have to say that when the game was over, I was already home. That’s a great payoff for missing the game. :)

First off, this game outlasted me. When it went to extra innings, I turned it off. I was falling asleep, and not the short nod-off you get on the sofa on a late game. This was a full fledged “I’m passing out for good for the night” kind of fall asleep. So the last thing I saw was a 6-6 tie. Funny thing is right before I stopped watching, Josh Lewin made the comment that the Diamondbacks / Rangers game was the last game going in the majors for the night. :)
Scott Feldman got the start, and got a technical quality start. Six innings, four hits, one walk, and three earned runs. Didn’t exactly light the town on fire, but his line isn’t that awful, either. His big mistake was a two run home run to Mark Reynolds in the first inning. That was 2/3 of his earned runs right there. We ran out six more pitchers besides Feldman. CJ Wilson, Jason Grilli, & Eddie Guardado threw scoreless innings. Darren O’Day gave up a single run, and Frank Francisco & Jason Jennings gave up two runs. Frankie’s was worst, because he only pitched one third of an inning. Jason Jennings I didn’t see at all, as I was asleep at that point. O’Day & Francisco gave up home runs for their runs. Francisco was another two run home run to Mark Reynolds. Reynolds had a good night.
Not nearly as good as Chris Davis, who is desperately in need of a few of the nights he had tonight. Chris went 4-5 plus a walk. He struck out once, but given how often he’s been striking out lately, one in a game is a serious improvement. They said on TV that Davis was the first Ranger to have a three hit game on the road trip, and it came in the last game of the trip. Unfortunately, Davis’ average after the 4-5 night was just .209. He needs several more of these – I really hope he turns it around, as he’s a great hitter when he’s not striking out at a rate that makes the slider down and away to Juan Gonzalez result in fewer strikeouts. Slider down and away to Juando was a sure fire strikeout, but nothing at the rate that Davis has been doing. So I’m hoping last night is the end of his major season slump so far. That they’ve stuck with him this far into it is proof the team likes him, but he needs to work it out pretty soon. I can’t imagine they’ll stay with him forever.
Funny thing is that as many pitchers as the Rangers ran out there (seven), the Diamondbacks had more. They ran nine pitchers out there in the twelve innings. Arizona starter Jon Garland threw six, but then no other Diamondback pitcher threw more than a full inning in relief. Chris Davis & David Murphy had back to back home runs in the 12th. Davis’ capped his 4-5 night.
A nice win, even if it came real late, and I was out cold for the night when it happened. I actually learned of the final score of the game from the Dallas Morning News. The real newspaper, not the website. That doesn’t happen much anymore. :)

This was a pretty darned good pitcher’s duel. Vicente Padilla vs. Dan Haren. After the last five games previous to this, it was quite the surprise. Actually, that wasn’t the surprise. The real surprise was that we ended up on the winning side of that.
Both starters went seven innings. Pidente gave up six hits, two walks, and just one run. Haren gave up four hits and a walk for two runs. However, as in most games like this, our hits were well placed. We had just four of them. One double (Teagarden), and three singles, but we got two runs out of it. Haren also struck out eight, so we weren’t exactly lighting it up. But it was just enough.
Ours came early, with a single run in the second and the third. The run off of Padilla came in the fifth. There’s not a lot to add about this one because the pitching was quite good.
Padilla keeps doing this, and his trade value will be sky high in July. ;)

OK, that was annoying. I have time to write about this, but I’d just spend a couple hundred words saying “That sucked”. So that’s all I’m doing for this one.