Another game I missed due to a screw-up on my part – I saw the score when it was over before I watched the game on the TiVo, so I didn’t bother to go back and watch.
RA Dickey did well enough, going 5.2IP, giving up 2ER, while walking 5, hitting one guy.. OK, it wasn’t stellar, but he pitched well enough for a win I thought. However, our bullpen which has been respectable if not great lately reverted to their earlier season form. Even Mark Teixeira talked about it, saying “all this year we’ve been finding ways to lose”. He’s right about that, our pen let this one away. We had gotten to Zito as well, forcing him to give up 5ER on 7H over his 6 innings. Not a shellacking, but definitely un Zito like. It was wasted.
Tex also went 2 for 4 with a double and a home run. Mike young went 3 for 5. That’s 5 hits, we had a total of nine, so it wasn’t a terribly balanced attack.
Mike Young watch: 3 for 5, average up to .332, hitting streak of 21 games
Phil Nevin watch: Off the bench, but went 0 for 4 for that 58 grand he earned in this game.
HR watch: 1 (Teixeira), Team total: 257. Needed to set record: 8. Games left: 7
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Kenny Rogers won in Oakland. What a shocker. He has a record of about 600-2 in Oakland’s stadium. Formally, he went 6.1IP, giving up 1ER on 5H and 5BB. A high amount of walks, but it didn’t affect his bottom line. And the run they did get was a solo home run in the first by Kotsay. Beyond that, the A’s were pretty much kept under control.
Offensively, we had some hits (nine), but it felt like one of those games where we couldn’t get it all going. The only person with more than one hit was Blalock (two). Everyone else who got one got that, one. One of them was Mike Young who advanced his hitting streak to 20 games with a home run. If Young runs the table for the rest of the season, he’ll tie Gabe Kapler’s club record of 28 a couple of years ago, which will be frustrating since he’ll be on a roll, and the only thing that stops him will be the end of the schedule. Since we open at home next year, it will make for an interesting celebration of a new franchise record, what with it being the home opener – that’s always an electric crowd anyway.
Since I covered Mike Young above, the Phil Nevin watch was another 58 grand spent on a right handed bench warmer.
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Well, we got swept by the Angels. Before this series, we got back to 500, now we’re three below again. I knew that with 12 games left and 6 against the Angels that it’d be hard to stay at 500. Right now there’s 9 games left, so we’ll have to go win 6 out of the 9 to end the year at 500. Not a great proposition, imo.
This was another game I missed most of due to night time daddy duties. From looking at hte box scores, Chris Young had an OK start, going 5 innings, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and three walks. As many walks as hits generally isn’t a good thing, and it probably cost him in the ER department. Volquez on the other hand came in and got bombed, giving up 4 hits and 3ER in 0.2IP. That was pretty much the deciding factor.
We had no home runs, so we had better start getting things in gear if we want the major league home run record, I think we need as many HRs as there are games left at this point. Given the way the season has gone, it would be nice to end up with that. Mike Young seems to have locked up the batting championship, barring a meltdown.
Mike Young watch: 2 for 3 with an RBI on a sac fly. Batting 330.
Phil Nevin watch: Still on bench. Collected another $58,596 warming the bench.
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There’s not a whole lot to say about this game. The outcome is what I think most people expected. Bartolo Colon beat Juan Dominguez. But it took a 20 game winner and potential Cy Young candidate to beat Juan Dominguez. That’s a good thing. Their pitching lines were:
Dominguez: 7IP, 6H, 2R (1ER), 2K, 2BB, 98NP
Colon: 7IP, 4H, 1R (0ER), 4K, 0BB, 85NP
If you like pitching, this was a game to watch. In fact, the run we got was a gift. Colon & the Angels surived three errors by third baseman Macier Izturis. We had a total of five hits in the entire game, most definitely scattered. We couldn’t get anything going against Colon, which is no big surprise, we never seem to be able to do that.
Mike Young watch: 1 for 4 with 1 run scored. Hitting streak at 17 games.
Phil Nevin watch: $58,596 paid to Nevin to warm that bench. (That’s taking his 2005 salary of $9,492,689, and dividing by 162).
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I didn’t get to see any of this game. If you read my commentary for Saturday night’s game, my wife and I were holed up at a motel a couple of miles from our house due to our AC being broken. We got a call in the middle of the morning Sunday on my cel phone from the AC repair guy who wasn’t scheduled to come out until Monday morning. He says he can make it out. So I flew over to the house, and got the AC repaired. After we were all done with that, I went back to the motel, at this point we were about 30 minutes away from checkout time, and getting billed for the second day. We had a majorly huge scramble to get all of the stuff for us, the baby, and our two cats out of the motel and into the truck to get back home. We were fortunate that we got done in time. When we got home and finished unpacking, football was on, and I started watching the two games I had TiVoed on the Sunday Ticket package. As I pay a lot for that package, I feel compelled to watch them.
We’re all back home and safe, and cool. Which is good given the current heat wave we’re having here (to those reading outside the DFW area, it’s about 10-15 degrees above normal for this time of year, we should be at 82-85, and it’s around 95-97 now). I’m grateful for the guy who nice nice, friendly work for me on a Sunday morning no less. I didn’t get taken too, which was always good. :)
Anyway, about halfway through I realized the Rangers game was on as well, but at this point the game was already over. We got a sweep which let me use my sweep graphic which I haven’t done in awhile. The win also got us back to .500 which is a big goal. Now I wanted two games above .500 which seems reachable now. There’s twelve games left in the season. 3 vs the A’s, 3 vs the Mariners, and 6 vs the Angels. To finish 2 over .500 we’ll have to go 7-5 over that span. Doable, but with 6 against the Angels, one never knows.
Mike Young watch: 1 for 4 with 2 runs scored. Hitting streak at 16 games.
Phil Nevin watch: Still on the bench, still whining about it.
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This game was one of my season ticket games. Unfortunately, I could not attend due to an emergency at home. It was cool in the morning, so I decided to save some electricity for a few hours and air out the house by turning off the AC. I did that. But once it got warm again, I turned the AC back on again, and it never came on! Well, the unit outside never came on, I should say. Due to that, it kept getting hotter and hotter in the house. My wife got done working at 4, and when she got home, I wanted to move her and the baby over to a motel about a mile and a half from our house. So we started doing that around the time the game was getting started. I came back home to bring a few loads of things we’d need for the baby, and then decided I was going to move myself and the cats over there, too, as the house was about 90 degrees inside.
Due all of this, I only got to hear the briefest of bits when I was going back and forth from home to the motel, although I did get to hear the winning run score. As much as the site and going to games is, taking care of my family is definitely the priority in life there. If I had been there, I’m sure I would have a lot to write about given the way the game finished, but my mind was elsewhere this night.
Mike Young watch: 2 for 5, with 1 RBI, and 1 game winning run scored. Hitting streak at 15.
Phil Nevin watch: Still on the bench, still whining about it.
Jason Botts watch: 3 for 4 with an RBI in the Nevin DH spot.
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This game was billed as a Ranger kid getting a look-see with a major league debut against the Mariners’ Godlike phenom. The way it was in the press, we were going to get a perfect game thrown against us, and give up 13 runs or so. Hernandez went 3IP, and gave up 5ER on 8H, and 3BB. Not a good outing. Josh Rupe went 5IP, and gave up 2ER on 6H, and 1BB to get his first major league win in his first major league start. That was good. He also was the 30th different pitcher we’ve used this year, tying last year’s record. We are still a few behind the number of starters we used last year, and I don’t think we’ll get to that one, though.
We added another home run (Barajas) to continue our assault on the team home run records this season. Offensively, we had a total of 9 hits, which was less than the Mariners had, but ours worked better, as we got the win.
Mike Young watch: 2 for 4, with a run scored.
Phil Nevin watch: Still on bench. Still whining about it.
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The Rangers won their second game in a row, which very recently is something unusual. Our streaks lately have been mostly in the backwards direction.
Kameron Loe started this game, and with the exception of one really unusual statistic, had a great line. 5.1IP, 2R (1ER). He did allow 6 hits, walked four, and committed three errors of his own, yet still left with the lead, and got the win. The errors is the unusual bit. It definitely was a tightrope walk, but the damage was minimal. Shouse, Benoit, & Wilson kept it scoreless until the ninth. Coco came in, and was 2005 Coco, not the really shutdown one from last year. He gave up another run. Stats say his season ERA is 3.75, but wow it feels like it’s 6 or 7, he seems to give up a run most every time. Obviously that’s not true, but that’s what it feels like, anyway. The Mariners left 13 men on base for the game.
Offensively, we had no home runs, but had a couple of doubles (Mench, Blalock). This was another game where we didn’t have a lot of offense. We had a total of five hits in the game. The aforementioned two doubles, plus three hits. One of the hits was by Michael Young who extended his hitting streak to 13 games. It also was his 200th hit of the season, which was a nice milestone to get at home. He continues to lead the batting race, but if you read this article on ESPN by Jayson Stark, the actual batting champion should be Placido Polanco of the Tigers. Read it. Folks who hate Bud Selig and the way Interleague play has “eroded” statistics will get a kick out of that.
Anyway, we got a win, and are back to three under .500. Josh Rupe makes his major league debut on Friday night. Odd that after going so long this season with the initial 5 man rotation we broke camp with that since June, we seem to be in a hurry to make up ground on the record 17 starters we used in 2004. I think (without looking it up), that Rupe will be #13 this year.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.