I’m scared. It’s May, and Chan Ho Park hasn’t pitched himself out of a job yet. His line wasn’t spectacular last night, and he didn’t get the win, but he’s looking at least servicable this season, which frightens me. If we manage to get to the playoffs, and he’s still in tow? Yikes – that makes my hair stand on end. Doug Brocail is looking like the Doug Brocail pre-2004 so far this year. His stats aren’t terrible (2-0, 4.91, 10K, 10BB), but they won’t win any Cy Young awards. He also doesn’t have that feeling he had last year. I’m not advocating dumping him, but I worry when he comes out of the bullpen now. Park had a really cool play during the game, a ball pinballed straight up in the air after kicking off his ankle, or leg or something like that. Park barehanded it coming down and tossed out the runner by half a step – was a very nice play. I actually wanted him to stay in the game when he was pulled, and THAT is the scariest thought of all. :)
Offensively, I thought we had the game wrapped up early. It certainly felt like it when we went up 3-0 after 1, and 4-0 after three. Park was pitching well (!) and we seemed to be hitting the ball well. Park got in a minor jam, and Brocail let several inherited runners score to tie the game, but Matthews came through in the 7th with his first home run of the season; a game winning home run.
Both us and the Angels seem to be putting some distance between ourselves and the A’s/Mariners. The division was all knotted up within a half game of each other awhile ago, and after last night’s play, we’re 1.5 behind Anaheim. Oakland is 5GB, and Seattle is 6GB.
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Dammit! That’s about all I can think of to say about this game right now, other than Chris Young probably should have gone out for the ninth.
At least our entire division lost tonight, so the standings remain unchanged.

Kenny Rogers shut down the Indians during his 7 innings on the mound. He gave up no runs (extending his scoreless streak to 21), six hits along with four strikeouts, and four walks. Speaking of streaks, Mark Teixeira now has a 12 game hitting streak, too. Soriano didn’t have any more home runs, but Mike Young did in the first inning to put us up 2-0 after the second batter of the game. This game felt more in control than last night’s game.
There really isn’t much to write about here. Rogers gave up nothing, we got a bunch of timely hits, but no one player dominated offensively.
Pudge and the surprisingly good Tigers come into town Monday night. Let’s see how we fare. I don’t expect it will be easy at all.
One other remark. With Rogers pitching this well, Scott Boras has to be salivating at the chance for another contract, eh?
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I was at this game, and before the game started, I was talking to a few of the other season ticket holders in my area, and we pretty much all agreed that Drese had become a question mark. No one really knew what to expect from him tonight, as he had gotten not destroyed like Astacio did last night, but pretty much hit around well. Much to our surprise, Drese pitched like Drese from last year. His line was extremely impressive.. 9IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 1K, 100PT. It also was his first complete game win of his career, despite having a few complete games under his belt already.
Offensively, we were lead by Alfonso Soriano, who for the second night in a row had two home runs, with 3 RBI’s, and three runs scored. The other two RBI’s came from Mike Young and Rod Barajas (the last run scored on a throwing error). We actually only had 9 hits, but they were placed together well. Young and Teixeira had two each, as well as Soriano’s 3. Nix & Barajas chipped in with one each.
Was a nice game to be at – we won. Always good, but the game felt “in control” since the bottom of the second. Nice to not have to sit in the stands going “Oh God, we need 4 runs in the last 2 innings to just tie it”.
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The picture below of Buck Showalter arguing with an umpire below pretty much sums up this game. Pedro Astacio pitched even worse than Chan Ho Park did the first three years here and allowed seven runs in the first inning, and exiting after .2 IP in the game. That’s an ERA of 94.5 for this game. Hell, Rangers Captain could probably pitch better than that. Nolan Ryan RIGHT NOW could pitch better than that. Hell, I bet even Jose Canseco could pitch better. OK, I think you get my point. There was a smell coming from the pitcher’s mound of epic proportions in the first inning. Oddly enough, that’s where it ended.
Joaquin Benoit allowed 4H and 1 run in his 4.1IP. Kameron Loe allowed no runs and a single hit in his two innings. Mahay and CoCo allowed a hit each, but no runs. Our bullpen was pretty spectacular, too bad Astacio was craptacular.
Offensively, Alfonso Soriano led the way with two home runs and four RBI’s. Blalock also had a homer, and Gary Matthews chipped in for the 6th RBI. But it wasn’t enough due to the craptacularlness of Pedro Astacio. Another of those, and we won’t be seeing anymore “Vote for Pedro” signs at the Ballpark, eh?
Buck Showalter got tossed for the first time as a Rangers manager. Was cool though to see him turn his hat around backwards and argue – the mark of a true manager/ump argument, IMO. That and Billy Martin’s old “Kicking dirt” piece which I’ve seen Lou Piniella do a few times. :)
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