First off, I didn’t see hardly any of this game, as we had a few friends over to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Was a lot of fun, and a friend bought some of my favorite (Blonde) beer, which I haven’t been able to find lately around me.
The Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles swept into town, bringing with them the overall best record of any team in baseball. They finished the game with the same condition, but not before being shown that the little ol team from Arlington can play with them.
Vicente Padilla, coming off a stint on the waiver wire, didn’t allow anything, although he was all over the place. Threw just five innings, but also 108 pitches. Walked three, gave up four hits, but more importantly, no runs. One wonders if he pitches really good between now and the end of July he’ll get moved. I don’t think anyone thinks Padilla will be wearing Texas in 2010, so it could make sense.
He was followed by Jason Jennings, who threw three innings of scoreless relief, and Jason Grilli (who I expect won’t stay long either) who threw a scoreless inning, preserving the shutout.
Offensively, we got some runs across the plate, which has been a problem the last few games. We had nine hits in all. Three doubles (two by Teagarden), a triple (Byrd), a home run (Blalock), and four singles. I missed all of it, just saw highlights on Baseball Tonight. But it was nice to get some runs across.
But more importantly getting a dominating win against one of the big boys. That was very cool.

A lot was written about how the 1-0 win in Arlington is a rare occurrence. It is. You almost never see the Rangers win 1-0 at home. If there’s zero in the score like that, the other number is frequently a nine or something like that.
But not this night. Kevin Millwood was quite good again. While I didn’t get to see the game, his line looks impressive. 7.2 innings pitched, five hits, no walks, and NO RUNS. Kevin left with 105 pitches thrown, which is below his usual workload for 2009. Still, you can’t argue with the results.
Darren O’Day & CJ Wilson both threw two thirds of an inning, also giving up no runs. Wilson gave up a hit, but that was it. The Blue Jays scattered their six hits, with only Aaron Hill getting more than one.
On our side, it wasn’t great to see us shut down offensively again, but thanks to our pitching, the one run we got was all we needed. The Rangers actually had fewer hits than Toronto did (five to their six). David Murphy was the only Ranger with two (one a double). The other hits were by Chris Davis (double), and singles by Chris Davis, Jarrod Saltamacchia, & Nelson Cruz. The lone run actually was driven in by Marlon Byrd, who had a sac fly in the second.
Overall, an extremely impressive game. I wish I was out there for it. Would have been great to see!

Wednesday night’s game was rained out, and for good reason. There was some really heavy rain going through the Metroplex. From the looks of the storm and the radar, there was enough to get the family into the bathroom. That’s an adventure with two adults, a four year old, a newborn, and two cats in a single bathroom. Got pretty humid in there by the time we got out.
Anyway, the Rangers game will be made up as a doubleheader on September 1st. Provided my new job allows it, I’ll be there. I love doubleheaders!

Not much to say about this one.
The Rangers were shut down pretty darned good by Brian Tallet. We managed just two hits. A double by Brandon Boggs, and a single by Chris Davis. That was it.
Meanwhile, Ranger pitching was pretty bad. Combined, they went nine innings, giving up 12 hits, 9 runs (eight earned) with four walks. Meh. It was even a group of names you go “Huh” to for the most part. Mathis, Moscoso, Guardado, & Grilli.
That’s enough about this one. It stunk.

Scott Feldman had probably his worst outing as a starter in 2009 on Monday. Funny thing is if you look at his numbers (six innings pitched, seven hits, two walks, four earned runs), they’re not that awful. Not great, but not Chan Ho Park or Mark Clark level of pitching. Still, given how well he has pitched this season so far, it seems pretty bad.
Jason Jennings followed Scott and gave up a few himself in his two innings. Four hits, two runs.
Offensively the real damage for Toronto was done by one guy. Adam Lind. He had two two run home runs, each coming after a walk to another Blue Jay. Take Lind out, and things would have been a whole lot different.
The Rangers runs came on a bunch of singles, mostly. Only David Murphy had anything other than a single; he had two doubles. The Rangers did try a suicide squeeze, and it was suicide. Elvis Andrus missed the bunt, which hung out Marlon Byrd to dry coming home. :)
I missed a decent amount of this, as my mother in law who had been staying with us was going home in the morning. Still, it was a loss. Meh. :)

Vicente Pidente comes back from his being placed on waivers, and going unclaimed. I don’t think anyone thought he’d start plunking Red Sox, but you always wonder, eh? Anyway, he was pretty good on Sunday afternoon. Seven innings, four hits, four walks, and two earned runs (three overall). Just 99 pitches for the namesake of the Padilla Flotilla. While I never thought he’d be gone this past weekend, one has to figure he’s definitely done after 2009 here, if not traded by the end of July. Padilla did help himself out a bit by picking off Kevin Youkilis from second early on.
Offensively, we got to Daisuke Matsuzaka pretty good. In the 5.2 innings he pitched, we hit him for 10 hits and five earned runs. No Ranger walked, and eight struck out, so he wasn’t totally awful, but still. That’s a decent showing against one of the Sox’ better pitchers. Three doubles, a triple, and two home runs powered the Rangers offense. The highlight was Nelson Cruz almost getting a cycle, just missing the single. Cruz & Murphy both had good days with three hits apiece. Michael Young & Omar Vizquel each had two.
Darren O’Day & CJ Wilson followed up with scoreless innings. Really liking O’Day.
We did it, we came out of the Yankees/Red Sox road trip with a 3-3 record. Not bad at all. Obviously you want to go 6-0, but realistically that’s not happening. I think most everyone is satisfied with 3-3 against those guys. Shows we can hang, which might be useful if this first place thing carries us into October.
Sorry for the brevity – it’s 3AM, and I’m tired. :)

Wow. There’s not much to say about this one. Jon Lester was freakin’ fantastic! I’ve seen many good games pitched in my years watching baseball, but Lester on June 6, 2009 was one of the best. Through the first six, he was untouchable. I mean it was stupid how badly he made the Rangers hitters look.

Michael Young finally broke it up in the top of the seventh when he had a good, clean, double to the monster in left. That was the only hit the Rangers got until Michael came up again in the ninth and singled. Our only run was a sac fly by Andruw Jones in the ninth, scoring Elvis Andrus.

Yeah, the Sox scored a bunch of runs, Derek Holland and Mr. Anna Benson didn’t look that good, but who cares? This was about Jon Lester. Once the game got through the sixth, I wanted to see him throw a perfect game against the Rangers – that would have been quite something to watch, and I think most people at that time were thinking he could.