One of the best moments of this game for me came during the game. It wasn’t on the field – it was outside the ballpark as I was walking up. I don’t know if anyone else saw this, but it was across the street from the first base entrance. Last July 9th, Randall Simon of the Pittsburgh Pirates took a swing at a guy in a sausage as part of the popular sausage race in Milwaukee (here & here). Well, outside of the ballpark, there was a group of about 6 folks “picketing” the Pirates. One was dressed in a hot dog suit, and the others had placards that said “Hot Dogs are People Too” and “Down with Randall Simon”. It was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen. My wife and I laughed out loud when we drove by them in my truck, and then talked to ’em as I walked by saying “I know exactly what you’re joking about, that was damn funny”.
Anyway, the game was extraordinarily windy – on an order I’d not seen before. The wire story said the wind was 24mph, but it felt more than that. I thought we’d have a ton of home runs because of that, but only two went out. RA Dickey was almost Chan Ho Park like in his pitching. He was lights out for most of his outing, but had those small bits that were really bad that allowed the other team to score. Dickey gave up three in the second on a bunch of stuff that didn’t seem like a big deal, but there were too many things like that, and they all added up to a 3 spot. We countered it with a 3 spot of our own in the bottom of the third, capped by a Teixeira HR off the advertising on the upper home run porch. We went ahead in the bottom of the 5th on a 2 run single by Gary Matthews. The see saw continued on Craig Wilsons 2 run HR for Pittsburgh which tied it at 5. At that point our bullpen took over and did a wonderful job again (4.1 IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB). Really nice to see that especially given the parade of people to the DL this season – with all that instability, a nice consistent job by the bullpen is great.
The score stayed tied 5-5 until the bottom of the 10th when Hank Blalock blooped in a hit to center scoring Laynce Nix to win the game. It was funny, as the last time my wife and I saw the Pirates, it was in Houston, and that game was extra innings too. I said before the game started that it would be amusing if there was a walk off win in extra innings. ;)
One other thing about the game. My wife is from Pittsburgh, so we were all decked out in Pittsburgh stuff. She was there with her Terrible Towel. Wrong sport, but hey, it’s a Pittsburgh thing. :) And speaking of my wife we had a very nice night together, both at the game, and at home. I love my wife, and I was glad we had this night together to share a bit in her hometown sports behavior. ;)
Brett Carre: We won our 5th in 7 games with a 6-5 extra innings win over the Pirates last night.
We got behind 3-0, but we again found a way to come back to take a 5-3 lead. Wilson tied the game with a long homer to take it 5-5. That was the score until Hank Blalock hit a bloop game winning RBI single in the bottom of the 10th.
We are now only 2 back of the 1st place Angels. Can’t everybody smell first place??

Ryan Drese was brilliant. He went 8 innings, gave up two runs on 7 hits, and one walk.
Mike Mussina was godlike, going 8 innings, giving up just one run on 4 hits and ten strikeouts.
We made it a little interesting in the bottom of the ninth against Mariano Rivera, but the two lines above are a summary of the entire game, which took only 2:12 to play

When I saw the pitching matchups for the New York series, I figured this would be the game we’d lose automatically. Rookie making his Yankee Stadium debut against one of the most powerful lineups in baseball. Dominguez hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since he’s been up. Boy was I wrong. Not only was this the only game we ended up winning in the series, but it was an absolutely dominating performance by Juan Dominguez. He went 8 innings, giving up just one run on 5 hits. He also struck out five, and just had the Yankees baffled. It was absolutely amazing to watch.
On the other side, Brad Fullmer busted out of his malaise with a 3 for 4 day. He also scored four times, he had a HR, 2 RBI’s, and a walk. Thing is, after all that, his batting average is only .219. As exciting as this game was for him, he needs a LOT of these to bring himself back to respectability. I hope he does, I really like him, but so far this season, he’s been a bust.
Brett Carre: A nice ass kicking of the evil empire today with a 8-1 win. Every win @ Ny is sweet, but we dominated today.
Juan Dominguez was brilliant. He gave up 1 run over 8 innings going up against the best line-up in baseball. Hopefully that was not a fluke. We could really use him this year.
Brad Fuller led a Ranger offensive charge with 3 hits and 4 runs scored. Tex added a mammoth homer in the upper deck and we sprinkled a few runs here and there for the 8-1 win.

Bombs away is about the only thing I can think of to describe this game. There was a total of 8 home runs for both teams (6 NY, 2 TEX). I actually thought we were going to cruise when we went up 4-0 in the third inning. But that didn’t last long.
Kenny Rogers continued his misery in Yankee Stadium – he’s got some ugly numbers there – real ugly. Today’s line was consistant with that (4IP, 8H, 6ER, 4BB, 5HR). Definitely his worst outing of the year. Kept him from getting to 9 wins.
Overall, a pretty pitching poor game on both sides. It was really nice to see Soriano get a nice round of applause when he stepped to the plate. That wasn’t a surprise. What was a MAJOR surprise was the standing ovation he got in Yankee stadium.
Brett Carre: This game sucked if you are a Rangers fan. We jumped off to a 4-0 lead on a 3-run shot by Alfonso, then Tex jacked a solo bomb to give us a 4-0 lead. Then the Yankees went into home run mode. They hit 5 off of Ranger starter Kenny Rogers. They took a 4-6, we battled back to tie it at 6-6, but Gary Sheffield broke the tie with a solo shot off of Jay Powell.
All in all a fun game to watch, just wish we were on the other end.

While we won the game, it was a shame that we wasted the best pitching performance by RA Dickey in a month. He went 6.2 innings giving up no earned runs (although one did score). He had 7 k’s and two walks. But our pen gave up two runs to tie the game late. Shouse, who I thought pitched fairly well, got tagged for 2ER, and Almanzar, who retired no one got the win, as well as a blown save. But the biggest pitching story is probably Francisco Cordero, who now holds the record for consecutive saves by a Ranger pitcher w/o a blown save with 18. He previously held the record for most consecutive saves to start the season, now he holds the record for most saves in a row by a Ranger – no matter when they came. That’s really nice to see.
Offensively, Mike Young had another multihit game, Blalock also had two hits as did Mark Teixeira. However, the other multi hit guy was the story of the game – Gary Matthews Jr. He went 2 for 2, 3 RBI’s, he scored a run, and walked once. But the big one was a game winning home run in the top of the 9th. We also had a solo shot by Hank Blalock in the 9th for an insurance run.
Felt like a fast moving game, but when I looked at the end, it was 2:49. It felt like one of those games that would be like 2:20 or so. But we swept the short series in Cleveland, and now have three in a row headed to Yankee Stadium starting on Friday. Hope it all goes well there, but New York is now playing like they should, so I’d be surprised if we took the series there – big time.

\o/ What a nice comeback win. But before we get to that..
To be honest, I expected to lose this game. Going against Sabathia, whom we’ve never beaten, and our general malaise the last 10 games or so, I expected to get blown out.
The game started off a bit shaky. In the first, Drese gave up a couple of singles, and a run on a groundout, but didn’t look all that great. Then after a very bizarre 10 MINUTE rain delay, the game got back underway. Not much happened until the top of the fourth. We had tied the game at that point on a Rod Barajas HR, but in the fourth, three singles with a double mixed in scored three runs to put us up 4-1. It was 5-1 after the next inning, but then the Indians started back. They matched our one in the fifth inning, and then Drese kind of fell off the wagon a bit in the sixth, giving up three runs to tie the game at five.
Drese’s line wasn’t terribly great, giving up 5ER in 6.1 innings. But his pitching wasn’t the story of the game. It was our bullpen. In the 5.2 innings the pen pitched, our six relievers (Mahay, Powell, Shouse, Francisco, Ramirez, Cordero) gave up ONE HIT and no runs with 4BB & 3K. That’s one HELL of a line. Especially when you put it against the Cleveland bullpen who has been dead last in just about every bullpen pitching category there is. Cleveland’s pen was equally impressive, going 6 innings and 3 hits, but they made one mistake we didn’t. They gave up a home run ball.
To the new star of the moment, Rod Barajas. This is another game he’s won for us, and his signing is starting to look more and more like a brilliant move, and not just to bring in one of “Showalter’s boys”. Barajas had two home runs this game, including the game winner. He had a hand in the bases loaded bottom of the 11th play that saved the game – an attempted squeeze bunt with the bases loaded that Blalock/Barajas thwarted.
A nice game, even if I missed part of the 11th due to a power failure at my house from a huge thunderstorm over Garland. Great great win – and tomorrow’s game starts at 11AM – what’s with that?

Kenny Rogers is turning out to be a signing that seems well worth it. Through the first two months of the season, he’s now 8-2 with a 3.10 ERA. He’s walked 22 and struck out 41 in a total of 72.2 innings. The eight wins is something no other major league pitcher has done up to this point so far. He’s been a rock for us so far this season, and if you project his numbers out over a whole season (assuming he keeps going at the rate he is now), he’ll have a 24-6 record. Not bad for a 40 year old guy that most every Ranger fan online was screaming that we resigned in the first place.
He did get his 8th win yesterday, although he didn’t really deserve it, walking 7 and giving up 6 hits in 5.1 innings. But he did pitch his way out of several jams, and that was nice to see. I’m sure it was nice to show the other pitchers on our staff, too.
Offensively, we’re still in a slump – not hitting like we were in April. Brad Fullmer did have an impressive HR in the game, but we’re going to need a lot more out of him if we’re gonna click for the entire season.
Oh, and just WHAT is the attraction with William Hung? I just don’t get it.

Damn.

This one was more annoying than the two shutouts, actually – as we had MANY MANY chances to win it, and we didn’t take any of ’em.
Dickey still looks mediocre again – he’s definitely fallen off his April horse. But it’s way too early and panic and want him out of the rotation. This is what growing young talent is about. Look at the shellacking the Twins pitchers took for several YEARS before they finally got good. Needs a lot more time.
Rod Barajas was the offensive star of the game with a three run home run late to bring us to 5-4.
Just couldn’t get the job done at all, when it was there to be done.