Well, today we had a day night doubleheader. The day game was technically a rainout makeup game from a few weeks back, and tonight’s game was the regularly scheduled game.
About half an hour ago, tonight’s game was postponed. As of right now, they’re still supposed to play the technical makeup game from the first part of the doubleheader.
The regularly scheduled game for tonight (which is now not being played) has no makeup date left. It’s amusing, as the games a few weeks back had two makeups. One was today, the other one was a date in the future (which I can’t recall at the moment). That game was also as I recall on one of the lone common off days the two teams had. No clue when they’re gonna make up the postponed game from tonight.
Tomorrow, perhaps? Course we then have to come back home for a 6PM game in Arlington on Monday. Yeesh, what a mess.

Well, we lost our second game in a row, 4-3 to the Red Sox. While no one ever truly likes losing, this 4-3 loss to the Sox is far more pallatlable than that complete stinkbomb in Kansas City the night before. Mr Yuck, indeed!
I had forgotten the game started at 6PM, so when I was driving home from work, I tuned in about 6:50 for the pre-game stuff, and the game was in the bottom of the second, and we were down 3-0 already. Not a good way to start. We did pick up a couple when Michael Young jacked a Tim Wakefield ball over the Monstah for a two run home run. That was pretty much it for offense, save for an RBI single by Hank Blalock over closer of the year Jonathan Papplebon in the 8th. In all we had eight hits, half of them by Gary Matthews & Mike Young. The other four were scattered amongs four players who got one each. We did get two more doubles tonight (DeRosa, Matthews) to extend our MLB leading lead in that category.
Vicente Pidente Padilla took the mound for us tonight. His start reminded me of Kevin Millwood’s the other day – not dominating, in fact bordering on falling over the edge, but when you look at the total line, it was a decent game, and that’s the bottom line, I guess. Well, no, wins and losses are, but that’s not completely under the control of the pitcher. Padilla went 7 giving up 3ER (all in the first) on 9 hits, 6 strikeouts, and one walk. Not a bad outing at all.
Still, it ended up as a loss. We go into a day night doubleheader saturday. I love doubleheaders. I hate day night doubleheaders, though. Especially at home. Blech. Speaking of that, have the Rangers ever done a day/night doubleheader? I can’t recall one in recent memory – can you?
I’ll say this, Sox fans seem to really love Kevin Youkilis by the reaction of them to just about anything he did. I always wished we had some guy like that where the whole place got excited about no matter what. Been awhile.
Anyone think that we’ll extend Gary Matthews & Mark DeRosa at the end of this season? I think Matthews has played himself into a possible long term solution in center. As much as I like Laynce Nix, I can’t argue against what Matthews has done up here – sustained success is something Nix has yet to achieve, unfortunately.
Anyone think that the thing with Jason Grimsley sounds like something from a CSI episode or something? There seems like a lot more “drama” then there has been with some of the other big names that have gotten in “trouble” (unofficially, of course)?

What the HELL was that mess? I mean…

As I’ve said many many times before, I detest going up against young pitchers on other teams, making either their major league debuts, or have only pitched a game or two. These guys knock us out. Tonight was no different.
We went up against KC rookie Bobby Keppel. who I believe was making only his third or fourth start. And, true to form, he kept us off the board. It wasn’t for a lack of trying though; we had several balls to the warning track that died just before going over the fence. Still, we were shut out for 8+ innings.
Keppel went into the ninth, and gave up a single to the first batter he faced, Hank Blalock. Following that, Buddy Bell went to his bullpen and brought in Ambiroix Burgos. While I understand Bell’s decision to go to the pen in the ninth with your rookie protecting just a two run lead, the Royals’ pen has the worst ERA in the American League (what a stunner), with about a 6. Burgos came in, gave up a single to DeRosa, struck out Wilkerson, and then hit Mench, loading the bases. Kinsler hit a sac fly to break up the shutout, making it 2-1. Barajas was down to 0-2 with two outs, and blooped a single into left, tying the game at two.
Bell brought in Elmer Dessens to try and stop the bleeding, but it didn’t help. Gary Matthews Jr, who I hope gets an All-Star nod, doubled to left, scoring Barajas & Hairston (who had run for Mench). That put us up 4-2 for the eventual win, amidst rather a lot of boos from the few fans who were there in Kansas City.
John Koronka had the ball for us. Koronka, who has been one of 2006′ better surprises has slipped a bit his last couple of starts. He did however pitch pretty well this game. He went 6.1 innings, giving up two runs (QS) on 6 hits with 2BB, and 1K. He got a no decision, but i think he needed to have a good outing line score wise. I don’t think he was in danger of losing his job or anything – but you don’t want to have too many bad starts in a row.
Our bullpen was much better than KC’s (again, not hard). Alfonseca, Otsuka, & Cordero pitched, and din’t give up any runs. Now Otsuka set up Cordero, but I think that only happened because we scored a bunch of runs in the top of the 9th to take the lead, I think the idea was to get Otsuka work in the 8th, and that was it. I don’t think this was a formal change back to Corder as closer.
Oakland lost, so our lead in the West is back to 4 and a half games. I still maintain it’s not great, as we have the worst record of any of the six division leaders, but it’s still nice to say “First place Rangers” again. Been awhile since I could say that.
Also, I got a laugh out of what MLB.com’s game wrapup had as a headline for this game.. Fab four sings in No. 9 I doubt whoever wrote that will see this text, but if you do, it made me laugh. :)

First off, let me say it was nice to see the Rangers win in Kansas City. It seems to me that we’ve had this mental block there where we can’t win in recent years. Course this year with the Royals already 150 games back and 0-500 this season it seems, we had a shot. :)
Texas retains their hold on first place with a win in Kansas City. Kevin Millwood took the hill for Texas. On the road this year, he’s been the same pitcher he was last year, no walks at all (until tonight), and a bunch of strikeouts with an ERA under 3. At home he’s been well, not that pitcher. But on the road, he’s been great. Tonight he labored a lot. His overall line shows a quality start (7 innings pitched, 2 earned runs, 7 hits, 5 K, 1 BB), but he really labored. He had I think over 60 pitches (or clsoe to it) after 3, and from some of the camera shots they were showing of him in the dugout between innings, he seemed flushed, like the heat was a bother to him. Still, you can’t argue with the ultimate line, and that’s the mark of a good top of the rotation guy. Even when he’s not dominating, he finds a way to get the job done, and he did. A well deserved win, I thought.
Offensively, we got several more doubles (4, Young, Tex, Mench, & Laird) – we’re leading the AL in doubles as a team. Our home runs are down this year, but our doubles are way up. Speaking of home runs, we got a couple of those, too. One from Brad Wilkerson (filling the 666 nonsense we’re hearing about today – Uniform #6 got a HR out of the 6 hole on 6/6/06), and one from Ian Kinsler. Kinsler’s double was alomst another home run, so he had some nice power tonight, as well as three RBI’s. We had 11 hits in all, and they were nicely scattered – only Mark Teixeira didn’t get at least one hit.
As for Kansas City? Well, they still have a nice ballpark even if it’s been bombed with advertisements the last 5 years or so. It is still a park I want to travel to see. Oh yeah, the other memorable moment for Kansas City reliever Danny Bautista uncorked a wild pitch that bounced off the ground and ended up (according to Josh Lewin) about twenty rows into the stands. That reminds me of that old classic baseball clip you see in blooper reels of a Yankees pitcher (forget who now) who goes to pitch, and the ball goes flying way out of his hands straight up, and lands on that screen that is behind home plate in Yankee Stadium, and rolls back down towards the field of play. If you’ve watched enough blooper reels, you should know that pitch. It’s been that kind of year for the Royals when I remember that kind of thing for them in a game, and not anything “good”.