I was busy working on another website tonight, so I flipped on the radio and listened to the first inning. OK, we’re down 2-0 early, not great, but not bad.
I then had to go do something else, so I turned off the radio. Came back to my desk, turned it on again, and when the KRLD coverage came back from a commercial, I heard “..and the Rangers are down 7-0”. I actually said “Shit!” out loud, and turned off the radio – that was it I was done for that game.
I’m really tired of 7-0 games early where I have to hope we’ll come back. There’s too many of them, and I’m getting burnt out hoping we’ll have a comeback (that almost never seems to happen anyway).

• Rookie pitcher Greg Smith was quite dominating for the A’s.
• Josh Hamilton lost a fly ball in the seventh which led to Oakland’s three runs.

Those are about it for the two major points to this game. Scott Feldman started the game, and took the big hard luck loss. His first six innings pitched, he allowed NO runs, and only three singles. Then in the seventh came the non error error that led to the three runs Oakland scored. That was a shame, as Feldman deserved better than that. At least call it an error so the runs are unearned.
Offensively, there was only one thing to talk about for the Rangers. That was German Duran’s solo home run in the third inning. The Rangers had just four hits total. German’s home run, a double by Brandon Boggs, and singles by Michael Young & Gerald Laird. That’s it. This was of course due to Greg Smith. Smith went six innings, striking out ten Rangers, walking two, and allowing just three hits. A quite masterful performance. Smith’s bullpen mates followed him up by not allowing any more runs, but Houston Street almost blew that. He obviously felt he was being squeezed, and got into a minor shouting match with the home plate umpire. I was a bit bummed he didn’t get ejected, as it might have turned the tide.
Duran’s home run gave us a 1-0 lead at that time which held up for awhile. However, as the game progressed, you kept getting that feeling (well, I did) that one run was not near enough – you kept waiting for the meltdown. Normally, those meltdowns involve the other team getting five to seven (or more) runs, so the fact it was just three was nice, but still. Never thought we’d win 1-0.
Still, we took the series, and that’s always a positive thing.

A.J. Murray was called up to start this game on Saturday. I generally don’t like once we start going into the minors for guys to start games, who aren’t likely to start more than a game or so. It just “feels” like panic. Oh, I know all the rational, factual reasons for why it’s done, but once we start having these kinds of subs (and especially on May 3rd), it just feels like desperation and/or panic.
Still, Arlington John Murray started this game, and actually pitched pretty decently. He went 5.1 innings, giving up six hits and two walks. Gave up three runs, although one was unearned (oh look, another Ranger error). Our bullpen threw another 2+ innings of shutout ball, so that was nice to see, although CJ Wilson did not get the save opportunity – must have been unavailable (missed that point when I was watching).
Offensively, we had about as spread out an offense as you could get. We had nine hits overall, and each Rangers player (there were no subs this game) had exactly one hit. David Murphy’s though was the biggest – a three run home run in the first inning – which pretty much set the tone for the whole game. Chris Shelton had another home run, his first as a Ranger – that came in the ninth for an extra insurance run at that time.
Jarrod Saltamacchia and German Duran connected on a strike ’em out – throw ’em out double play, which was nice to see.
Milton Bradley had a caught stealing, and a pickoff in his ledger this game. Makes you wonder if there was a lapse of attention on the bases for him tonight.
I suppose the biggest news of this day was not the Rangers win (which is good), but the fact that Josh Hamilton was named the American League player of the month for April 2008. That hasn’t happened to a Ranger in many a season. It was nice to see him get that award in his first month as a Ranger. Based on his spring training numbers, it’s nice to see it carry over into the regular season. As a Christian, I rejoice in his story of salvation, but as a baseball fan, I rejoice in his performance. Praise be to God that Josh is in the place he is in, and has the skills he has to get noticed, and be able to deliver God’s word from a place you don’t normally see it delivered from. Good for Josh.

This game was a game where you took advantage of the situation. The Rangers had just seven hits overall (and three by the same player; Milton Bradley). There was not a lot of concentrated offense here.
In fact, of the seven runs total in the game, just three of them were earned. Vicente Padilla was hit with that more than Joe Blanton was. Padilla only gave up one earned run, and the Rangers only had one error. The A’s, on the other hand had FOUR errors in the game, although one of them was that bogus foul ball where nothing actually happened foul.
Milton Bradley and Gerald Laird doubled, but everything else was a single, so there were no longballs here to account for the “efficient” runs. Joe Blanton only walked one. Heck, Ian Kinsler’s RBI was on a groundout to second base. Those kind of runs. :)
Josh Hamilton took an ofer this game, but made a quite spectacular catch in centerfield, to double off Daric Barton, who had gone all the way to third. It was quite the highlight catch, and I think a bit more cool than Gary Matthews catch from two seasons ago.
Our pen was good, too (Wright, Guardado, Benoit, Wilson). No runs allowed by those guys. Nice to see after the recent shaky appearances by Benoit.
VIcente Pidente earned the win, going 5.2 innings, giving up just five hits and four walks (too many walks). He was not as crisp as he has been in his other wins (VIcente threw 108 pitches), but it was enough to get the win.
We’re still not that great at 12-18, but the last week or so has been much improved over earlier in the season. Perhaps some of the local talk about Ron Washington’s head can go away for now.

Uh, hello? Is that really Sidney Ponson who did that? Did my ears deceive me? Perhaps it was because I was at work, and not listening as intently as I do at home. No way could Sidney Ponson go eight innings, give up just one run and striking out five. Not THAT guy. No way. That had to be some sort of typo.

Turns out it really was Sidney Ponson – the guy who couldn’t “pitch his way out of a bleeping paper bag” (Thanks Tom) for awhile now. It was his first win in the majors in a full calendar year. The same guy who last had what could be qualified as a “good season” in 2003 when he split the year between Baltimore and San Francisco. It was quite impressive to hear. Probably better to watch.

There were just eleven hits total by both teams. Nine of those were singles. The other two were solo home runs by the Rangers, accounting for all of our runs. The first was a leadoff home run by Ian Kinsler in the first, and the other was a shot from Ramon Vazquez in the sixth. The Royals pushed across their run in the third. But that was it. Little offense to speak of. We turned two double plays against Kansas City, which always helps.
The biggest surprise to me (sadly) was that we didn’t make any errors. There were a few lineup changes. Michael Young DH’ed, and Vazquez played short. Milton Bradley did not play at all, and Brandon Boggs started in left.

The game was very short, by far the shortest of the season, lasting just two hours and ten minutes. Given how much games cost anymore, I prefer longer – I feel like I get more value, but 2:10 is always nice to see from time to time.

This game got off to the start you want to see in a home game. Seven runs and multiple home runs before the second inning. We were up 7-0 after two, and 9-1 after five. But as some baseball players might tell you, a ton of runs (even 22 of them) isn’t always enough.

The Rangers got out to a 9-1 lead due to the longball. This was an extremely windy night, and even the changing of the wind with the Gold Club probably wasn’t responsible for this one – it was REALLY windy. It was one of those games where hot dog wrappers and All Star ballots were blowing all over the place. Not quite like that footage from Pittsburgh from the 80’s where it was a mini tornado, but there was enough of it. Kind of like this picture from the August 6, 2005 game…

That’s significant, since several of the home runs balls (David Murphy’s to left in particular) were severely assisted by the wind. Now they weren’t all windballs, but most were. One that was not was Josh Hamilton’s first career grand slam, which came in the second inning. That was Josh’s only hit of the night, but it was a good one.

There was a lot of offense, as the score would indicate. Every Rangers starter except Chris Shelton had at least one single. There were five home runs in all (Bradley, Murphy, Hamilton, Boggs, Laird). In addition to Hamilton’s first career grand slam, it was Brandon Boggs’ first ever major league home run. The other eight hits were singles.

Things were going great until the seventh inning when we couldn’t get anyone out. The Rangers threw out three pitchers in the seventh (Millwood, Francisco, Wright). Didn’t seem to make much difference. We gave up a five spot that inning, which made things 9-6 at that point. OK, nowhere near as good as 9-1, but we’re still winning. We got the lead up to 5 again with a two spot (Murphy’s HR) in the bottom of the seventh. Then we got to play nail biter again, as we gave up three more in the 8th and 9th, to make the game’s final score what it was.

Don’t like endings like that. Like when we get out 9-1, and the margin stays that way.

Still, a win is a win, and we’re now 10-18.

My subject says it all, I think. The only thing I can think of to write about Jennings is that according to several post game stories, he got hurt during the game. If that’s true, and something really is wrong, it could be a graceful way out. Jennings looked good early on, and had a few fantastic moments, but he’s making Mark Clark look good now. Time for something else there.
Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention something that I always love seeing – someone make their major league debut. Tonight it was Brandon Boggs. Pinch hitting for Frank Catalanotto, Boggs worked the count to I think 3-1, and then jacked a low and away pitch into right center for his first major league hit. In fact, Boggs got another hit on his second at bat, so he’s 2-2 so far in the majors.
The game left lifeless, and that’s because of the crappy feeling you get early on when down 5-0 after the first two innings.
But in more interesting news, the Philadelphia Eagles are suing Terrell Owens over money he did not pay them back. Go Philly! :)