No commentary; no time.

I was involved in a church event last night, and will be most of today too, so I have no time to write about last night’s game. Nice try in the bottom of the ninth though. Love the resiliency (sp?).

After his last start, Luis Mendoza looked pretty bad. This was a complete turnaround. Mendoza looked like the guy he did at the end of last season. Great sinker, really good command. His last game was just bad, this one was just good. His overall line was 6 innings pitched, three hits, one walk, just one earned run, and EIGHT strikeouts. He was quite good. Kept Chicago off the board for the most part. It was quite a night and day vs his last start.

Our entire staff was pretty good. The White Sox only had five hits in all. Three of them were extra base hits, which accounted for the runs. Carlos Quentin had a double off of Mendoza for one of the RBI’s. The other one was a solo home run by Jim Thome off of Josh Rupe. No shame there, Thome is a big time home run hitter. I’ll take the performance of our staff. Combined, we went nine innings, just five hits and two earned runs with eleven strikeouts. Warner Madrigal was the only one who didn’t have a great outing. He only went two thirds of an inning, walking three. However, he was bailed out by a play at the plate.

For the second straight game, Brandon Boggs threw out a runner at home. Plays at home plate are in vogue this past week with the Rangers, and you almost kind of hope it happens now, don’t you? :)

Offensively, we were all over Gavin Floyd, the White Sox starter. He only went 2.2 innings, giving up five hits and SEVEN walks. Two home runs, for a grand total of six earned runs. We had two home runs this game. One, a solo shot by Chris Davis in the second inning, and a two run shot by David Murphy in the third. We didn’t have a ton of hits (just nine in all), but we were seriously helped by the walk. With the Sox pitching giving up eight of them, including one with the bases loaded, that helps a lot.

Josh Hamilton had three hits, and Michael Young had two. Ian Kinsler also had a hit, extending his hitting streak to 22 I think it is. Strange hit, though he hit the ball deep into the hole at short, and at the time we had a runner on second. The shortstop was really going away from first, so he threw to third. Our runner was safe, and they called that a hit. It probably would have been had the shortstop threw to first, hence the call. But it was an odd hit.

Speaking of odd, I have to go back to the Chris Davis home run. Usually when a home run ball is hit out onto Greene’s Hill, there’s a pile of (mostly) kids going after it. Well, this one only really had one guy running after it. He was out there way early, and there wasn’t a trail of people after him. There was one guy sort of in the area, but that was it. The guy caught it in his glove. Josh & Tom talked about it. What was amusing is that this guy was a web gem on Baseball Tonight too. I wonder if this guy knows that? :)

Shit.

Anaheim starter Joe Saunders did something you never really want to do as a starting pitcher. Go the complete game and get a loss. Saunders had a great game. Eight innings, six hits, three runs, no walks, and five strikeouts. A really good line. The problem is the Rangers’ line was way better.
The problem was that Rangers pitching was better. Matt Harrison made his major league debut this night, and was fabulous. Matt went seven innings, giving up just five hits, one walk, and just the lone two runs. Matt had a rough start, with an error made behind him on the first play, but got a double play right after it, and from that point on he seemed to pitch better – even if he looked somewhat scared on the TV. :) Eddie Guardado & CJ Wilson followed. While CJ walked two in his inning (!), neither allowed a run, and kept the win for Matt Harrison.
In all, Angels hitting had just six hits. Two of them were by Howie Kendrick, and the other two were by Guerrero. No shame in giving up hits to Guerrero. Or Kendrick either, but you kind of expect it with Vlad in this ballpark. The only extra base hit was a double by Kendrick, everything else was a single.
The Rangers also only had six hits total. Two were by Michael Young, and the others were scattered amongst the lineup. Thing is, even though we only had six hits, it felt like more of an offensive game than the Angels did. That’s because Michael Young had a triple, Chris Davis had another home run (his fourth in his fourth start in Arlington), and Ian Kinsler had a double. Half of our hits were extra base jobs. Josh Hamilton extended his major league lead in RBI’s with two RBI’s. One was a sac fly to left, and the other was a single up the second base hole. That gives Josh 87 in all.
You know, I’ve written about Josh Hamilton a few times before, but a few more things have happened with him I wanted to point out, and now’s a good a time as any. First, when he was interviewed on the TBS All Star Game selection show, he didn’t shy away from his faith. Far from it. When asked a pile of questions to open, the first thing out of his mouth was (paraphrasing), “First off, Glory be to God for everything I have and where I am.” He mentioned God numerous times through the interview, and that’s something to rejoice over. He was quite joyful in his love of Jesus, and it showed in his interview. It’s for these reasons that I will believe Josh Hamilton when he professes his faith. It’s obvious he wears it for the right purpose. Unlike guys like Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin who profess to believe, but wear their faith like a piece of gold jewelery, and that’s all the wrong reasons.
Anyway, the other thing about Hamilton that I liked was that I read that he told his High School coach (or someone like that from his past) that if he ever made it to the Home Run Derby, that he’d take him as his pitcher. Well, that happened – said guy is going to be Josh’s pitcher in the home run derby. It’s moments like THAT that make me think that not all athletes are egotistical jackasses who care about their contract, and that’s it. So God bless Josh Hamilton. I can’t think of a better baseball player for my little girl to root for.
To get back to the game, Matt Harrison’s performance was awesome. Makes you wonder how long he’ll stick around, and if he can seize the spot on the rotation while he’s here.