The party is over, as we were formally eliminated from the playoff race with this loss.
The only other thing I’ll write about the game is that it was nice that Mike Young set a new Ranger record for hits, getting his 211th in the bottom of the ninth. He’s also the only Ranger ever to have more than one 200 hit season.

I suppose the thing that bothered me most about this game is that we have the season on the line. We’re up against the wall, and we’re sending Chan Ho Park out there. The biggest pitching disappointment in the entire history of the franchise, and we send him out there to save our slim playoff hopes. If there’s anything that will dash the goodwill of Ranger fans, it’s got to be that. I really hope the Park experiment is cut loose in the off season. It will cost Hicks a gob of money to do that, but he is NOT helping us, and as we move forward from this season, I can’t see Park playing a part in it (a good one anyway), so after three years, it’s time to cut him loose.
We lost this game mostly because of the four home runs given up by our pitching. Two by Park, and two by John Wasdin. Two of them were by Vladimir Guerrero, who definitely seems to have a power stroke here in this series.
After this loss, I said to my wife, “Well, we’re not technically out of it, but we might as well be”. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of fire in there right now.

Aw dammit! Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing.
P.S. Bases loaded, nobody out. We get nothing.

This was bad. Bad bad bad. At least it didn’t do any overall damage, we’re still only two out of first with 7 to go. Still workable.

I was at this game, it was my final season ticket game of the season, was nice to see all my usual friends around me who had tickets too, so if any of you read this – hi! Was a great season. Hope to see some of you in October. :)
Chris Young started off great, was pretty dominant through the first three, except for a solo HR in the first. Wasn’t as much of a see-saw in terms of the score, but it sort of felt like it sitting there. When Young faltered, RA Dickey came in and save for one walk, was perfect in his 3.2 innings of work. Spectacular. We needed it too, with our pen mostly drained.
Offensively, we had just enough. Not a ton, but some power from Soriano, and a few almost home runs and a triple from Mike Young were all we needed to get this win which brings us back to two out.

A back and forth game. There were a ton of pitchers on both sides. Seattle used 6. Texas used 6. I thought Showalter had a bit of a quick hook with Benoit – I thought he could have at least finished 5.
I’m not writing much because I fell asleep (twice) on the sofa watching this game. Even with TiVo, I could have backed it up, but I was so groggy, I just gave up and went to bed.
Shame we couldn’t pick up the win, as it drops us to 3 back now.

WOW! What a finish! An absolutely amazing win in a great game means we now are only 2 games out of first place with 10 games to go in the season.
I spent most of the morning at the law firm that represents my company, so when I returned, I didn’t have much time to pay attention to the game. I was buys doing work work and didn’t pay much attention. I know the game changed hands a few times, and when Park gave up a HR ball three pitches into the game I wasn’t filled with a lot of excitement about our chances for a sweep.
I didn’t really get to start paying attention to the game until the 8th inning. We were down 3-2, and then we went down 4-2 when Jeff Nelson gave up a home run ball – the third we gave up today. Then after a 10 or 11 pitch at bat, Blalock jacked a solo home run to bring us back to one run. Following that, Mike Young (who went 4-5 and is now 6 hits shy of setting a new record for hits with a season – he currently has 205) doubled down the line to bring the tying run to the plate. Ken Macha walked Mark Teixeira intentionally (which was his second free pass of the game, his 5th in the game, and a new Ranger record for walks in a 9 inning game). That brought up Brian Jordan who grounded out, in what sounded like a DP ball on the radio. So now we’ve got runners at the corners with two outs. Down a run.
Up steps David Dellucci who has been in an 0-20 slump or something like that. Dellucci gets down with two strikes. We’re down to our last strike, and he then jacks a double (I don’t remember where it went exactly), which scored both Mike Young and Brian Jordan to win the game in walkoff fashion.
My words here simply cannot do justice how cool this win was. I wish I was there, and I might have been had I not had to spend all morning at a lawyer’s office. We’re done with Oakland for the season. Next up is Seattle. Bring it on!

We won again on Eric Young’s first home run of the season – what a great time for it.
I can’t spend much time, as I just got back from the law firm who represents my company (spent the morning there), and I need to go do some work now. :)