I’m not going to be writing about the Angels series. The webserver that this site is housed on was compromised, and while no data appears to have been lost, the security breach has taken up most of my time in plugging holes.
No time to write.

For Saturday’s game, I wrote about pitching and shutouts. Well, that applies two days in a row, as the Rangers were shut out by Houston pitcher Taylor Buckholz. I remember this guy from when he was a Phillie (as I follow them too), he never stuck me as quite this good.
He tossed a complete game shutout, going all 9, giving up just five hits and striking out 6 with no walks. Quite a masterful performance. Couldn’t get anything going all day. The only one close was Kevin Mench who had two of the five hits, but that was all.
John Koronka took the hill for us, and wasn’t really that bad, IMO. He technically threw a quality start (6IP, 3ER, 5H, 3K, 4BB). The walks were not good, too many. But he didn’t really strike me as having a bad start. Problem is that when you have the kind of game that Buckholz had thrown against you, it’s almost impossible to win.
Interesting that two of the games in this series were shutouts, one going to each side. Astros are up 2-1 games wise for the Silver Boot award for 2006.

Whenever there’s a shutout win, you will always look to the pitching in the game. This one was no different.
Kevin Millwood went seven innings, allowing no runs on just four hits, while striking out six. Rick Bauer & Francisco Cordero finished up the last two innings allowing no runs on just one hit (Cordero). The cool thing is that all three of our pitchers allowed no walks combined. That’s always good.
Andy Pettite on the other hand was a victim of the kind of game we usually have against us. Pettite gave up 12 hits in his 6 innings, and 5 of the 6 Ranger runs. Without going back and counting, and awful lot (I’d say about half) of the hits probably shouldn’t have been, they were bloop hits, and ones right on the line, and things of that nature. While we only needed one run from the way our pitching went, we got a lot more than we probably “deserved”.
Still, a win is a win, and I’ll take it.

Aw dammit. This was looking good too. Tejeda was pretty decent if not great through the first four, and got through the fifth, although he was clearly out of gas. He only gave up one run on two hits through five. Struck out six, walked four. As I said, decent if not great. Given some more stamina, he might have gone further.
He was matched up against Roy Oswalt. You know what that means. You’re expected to lose. Especially when you throw a “kid” (Tejeda) against him. But Oswalt seemed (for him anyway) pedestrian. His total line was 6.1 IP on 11 hits, 2 BB, and 3K. He gave up all thee (earned) runs the Rangers scored tonight. Could have been a lot worse as we left a ton of guys on base. The frustrating part of that is that we got twice as many hits as the ‘Stros got (12 to 6), but lost the game 5-3.
Our relief pitching was an odd lot tonight. Rick Bauer couldn’t hold the lead, giving up the tying run (at 2-2) in his inning of work. He was followed by Scott Feldman who looked really great during his .2 IP. Problem was he was making a running tag on a runner down the first base line, and twisted his ankle – and had to leave the game. Joaqun Benoit came in, and in the 8th gave up the 3 run double to Adam Everett that lost us the game.
Shame, as it felt like a game would would triumph over Roy Oswalt.

As much as I’d like to write about the Rangers beating the Yankees to take a series split in New York, I just don’t have the time today. Way too busy at work, as my company is about to release a product. Updates might be spotty for the forseeable future due to that.