Busy day to be a Ranger fan. We sign first round pick John Danks. We then turn around and trade closer Ugueth Urbina to the Marlins for three very good prospects. Then we get blown out. :)
Actually, the game wasn’t as bad as the score seems. Yes, 13-3 is an ugly score, but it was only 4-3 after 7 innings. Giving up an 8 spot in the 8th inning will never be good. RA Dickey looked serviceable in starting, and Ron Mahay & Jay Powell didn’t give up a thing in their innings. Aaron Fultz (just activated) & Victor Santos – well, that’s a different story. In fact, it could have been a lot worse, as the Royals left the bases loaded in the 8th inning. I was starting to think we’d give up 10 runs in the inning!
Anyway, I think we got good value for Urbina. Some are saying that we didn’t get enough pitching, but I say we got three great players, and you can never go wrong with getting many great players. If you find yourself with a logjam, you can always trade them, too.
Game notes are here and here.

There’s something we don’t normally get – a sweep. And it was against a team that’s generally considered to be pretty good (just about two weeks ago they were in first place). We’ve been playing well the last few weeks – very nice to see.
Normally, you say you win games with pitching and defense. Well, tonight it wasn’t exactly defense, as we made a couple of errors (one by Arod), but we did with pitching and offense. Our offense was home run driven – 8 of the nine runs scored by the long ball. Two home runs by Juan, and one each by Mike Young and Mark Teixeira.
Joaquin Benoit looked sharp again. Don’t want to get too excited, because when I do that, someone starts pitching bad – but it was nice to see another good outing from him.
It was also really great to see Josh Lewin rendered totally speechless in the pre-game show when they had actor Burton Gilliam show up. Burton was in the movie Blazing Saddles, and that’s Josh’s all time favorite movie. Josh didn’t know he was coming, and was rendered mute on two occasions – was a great moment.
I did miss a few minutes of the game here and there, as I had a power blackout, as well as some rain fade on my DirecTV system due to the heavy storms in Garland.
Game notes are here.

A wonderfully pitched ballgame. From both sides. It was nice to see old friend Kenny Rogers back here again, and not surprisingly, he picked the blue uniform top for the Twins – something he did all the time in Texas. I still wish he was here, and I bet he does too, despite the public claims to the contrary. That’s twice now Scott Boras screwed him up in his dealings with the Rangers.
Anyway, the game was rare, a low scoring Rangers win. For the longest time it was just 1-0, off Mark Teixeira’s solo HR in the second inning. Benot kept us in the lead until Torii Hunter jacked a mammoth home run to left, going over the seats in left field. That was it for the Twins, though – as our pen (Shouse, Cordero, Urbina) didn’t give up any more runs on the way to Urbina’s 200th career save.
Laynce Nix was called up to replace Kevin Mench on the roster, but didn’t play.
I also got a big laugh out of the Rangers Captain being on TV in the “fake portion” of the hot dog eating contest. :)
Game notes are here.

No time to write commentary today. Great game, though! :) Game notes are here.

Another good day to be a Ranger fan. First off, we got a very nicely pitched 5-1 win against the best team in baseball at the moment. Ismael Valdes looked good, not like that train wreck he looked like the last few starts.
But the best news of the day was that two and a half Rangers were named to the All-Star team. Alex Rodriguez is the starting shortstop, and that’s no surprise. The other player is Hank Blalock, who was picked as the backup in the players’ vote. He really outdistanced his closest competition for the spot – that was really nice to see. The half was that Carl Everett was also named to the All-Star team as a DH. Carl’s a White Sock now, but he got the award on his playing time with the Rangers – that was great.
Don’t have a whole lot of time to write today – it being Monday at work and all. :)
Game notes are here.

A frustrating game. For some reason, extra inning games fill me with dread. We always seem to lose these – and for some reason, in the 10th. This one was no different. :(
John Thomson pitched surprisingly well – must be the fact that he now wears his pants legs up, and we can see his socks! :) He went 7 innings, giving up only two. Problem was that Jamie Moyer did basically the same thing. Ugueth Urbina gave up a run in the 10th, and we couldn’t come back from that.
Juan Gonzalez had another home run – probably makes his trade stock higher.
Game notes are here.

The 4th of July brought with it this year the usual things. Stirring ceremony at the beginning with a bunch of kids being sworn into the Air Force, those little mini planes behind centerfield, a flyover (which was timed perfectly this year), fireworks, and the Seattle Mariners. My mini plan gave me a ticket to this game, and while I did not stay for the fireworks show, the game was great. I wasn’t expecting much throwing Victor Santos out there against Freddy Garcia, Seattle’s #1 pitcher. However, it turned out better than I thought.
Santos was wild in the first inning, tossing 34 pitches (by my count), and allowing a few runs to score, as well as another in the third. Santos had a total of 5 walks in his 4+ innings of work. However, in the bottom of the fourth we blew the game open – batting around, and scoring 5 runs, powered by a 3 run Juan Gonzalez home run. In fact, the Rangers as a team hit for the cycle that inning. We tacked on two later on on a couple of sac files to make the game 7-3.
Our bullpen threw scoreless baseball, although it got dicey in the ninth when Ron Mahay let a couple of guys get on. Mahay was brilliant in the 8th, striking out the side with some really dominating looking stuff. As was said on the postgame show, our lefthanders this season (Shouse, Mahay, Fultz) have done extremely well, and I remember there being talk of there not having much from the left side this year – a great surprise.
I ended up not staying for the fireworks because up until this year my wife and I have seen just about every fireworks show that the Rangers had over the last 5 years or so. I think it’s safe to say “I’ve seen the show already”. Plus it got me home faster. :)
One last comment. We’ve won two in a row and are now only 20 games back from the Mariners. After winning two in a row, isn’t this the place where we usually lose the next 4?
Game notes here.

It was a good night to be a Ranger fan (something I don’t get to say much anymore). Tony Mounce looked really good again. He had a curveball that reminded me of Barry Zito’s at times – it had some wonderful movement. I’m not claiming he’s Barry Zito of course – I’m not that naive. It’s just he looked awfully good at points. He went 5.1 innings, and got his first major league win. Rosman Garcia slipped a bit, giving up a couple in under an inning, but Shouse, Cordero, & Urbina gave up nothing, with Urbina getting his 22nd save. I know Urbina will be gone, but I wish we were a bit better – I’ve really enjoyed his time here.
However, I think the biggest story was Hank Blalock getting two home runs tonight, one to each side of the field. Juan Gonzalez came through with a two RBI hit (might help his rumored trade to the Dodgers with Mike Lamb). Overall, it was a good game to be a Ranger fan, and while we let the Angels back into the game, we hung on and got the win.
We split in Anaheim, won in Houston before that, and had a winning road trip. This can’t be our Rangers, can it? :) Now we’re home for awhile, and we play the Mariners. We’re 21 games behind them in the standings. It could be much uglier after this weekend.
Game notes here.