About the only positive thing you can say about this game is that we still have not been shut out this year. Oh yeah, Danny Kolb & Juan Moreno were really good out of the bullpen. Other than that – we sucked. :)
This was bittersweet for me, as it was the last baseball game I’ll be going to until next April. I’ll really miss it. I would have gone to the Wed final home game, but it’s at 2PM. I have a bowling league on Wed, and I have to be there at 6PM. Not enough time to get from Arlington to Garland. :(

Well, after the sweep of Anaheim, I guess we’re back to reality with the Mariners coming in.
We lost this game – and it showed – we lookd pretty bad out there. I was at the game, but I admit I didn’t pay as much attention, as I was with a friend of mine who I tend to talk a lot with, so I was missing big chunks of the game.
Didn’t miss much from the looks of the wire reports.

I didn’t see or hear any of this game due to being over some friends’ house and watching football.
However, it was really nice to see that Arod broke the HR records of both Ernie Banks, as well as the Ranger team record. Looking good for the first 50 HR season by any Ranger player ever. Raffy continues to hit HR’s lately too, getting his 45th.
Rick Helling was great again, going 7 innings, and giving up only one run – he left with 98 pitches, I wonder why he left early?

I didn’t see or hear any of this game, but in looking at the box score, I see Raffy really opened it up with two home runs, as well as 3 RBI’s. Aaron Myette pitched pretty good, going 7 and giving up 4. Overall a nice win, although I didn’t see any of it. :)

I was at this game, one of the last of the season I’m going to. Kind of bittersweet having baseball back after the national tragedy, yet being so close to being over for the season as well. I might feel different if the Rangers had any playoff hopes left.
Anyway, Rob Bell continued to pitch mediocre, he wasn’t horrible, but he wasn’t great. Arod on the other hand tied Ernie Banks’ SS HR record with his 47th, and Carlos Pena had a real mixed bag. He fell a HR short of the cycle, but had a really rough time in the field. He’s young, he’ll put it together eventually.

I didn’t see or hear any of this game – I was watching some other TV this evening – Whose Line is it Anyway, followed by the President, and then my wife watched Big Brother 2’s finale – by that point, I wasn’t interested in watching what was left of the game, and by the score, eh – I didn’t miss anything. :)
Looking at the boxscore, I see Raffy had another home run, and Mike Young went 3 for 4, in addition to Ruben Sierra going 2 for 4 with an RBI. Not particularly stellar offensive performance overall, but still was nice to see another HR by the Rangers. Pitching wise, two folks who have turned out to be busts gave up the runs – Darren Oliver & Mark Petkovsek. Mark gave up three in one inning (on a HR to Eric Chavez).
I’m going to the game Friday night against the Angels. Hopefully we win that.

Game two back after the rather unscheduled break, and the Rangers big bats came out in a big way.
I didn’t see much of this, as I was at my bowling league, and was 10 lanes away from the closest TV, but what little I saw looked good. Doug Davis continued to look good early. I’m very confident in him now – moreso than some of our regulars (Helling/Rogers). Arod hit his 46th HR of the year, which I think puts him one behind Jim Thome, as well as Ernie Banks for the all time HR record by a shortstop.
I got home from bowling, and turned the latter part of the game on, and saw the two home runs by Pena & Haselman. Overall a good game to win – kept the A’s from clinching the Wild Card a little, although the Mariners officially clinched the West last night thanks to us. :)

NOTE: I had taken a break from doing game commentary again after the August 26th game, and I was going to start again around mid September, then 9/11 happened, so there was a larger than usual break. This was the first game the Rangers played after the 9/11 attacks.
Well, this game wasn’t really about who won or lost. It was about playing baseball again. A lot has been said in the media about getting back to normal, and I agree with that – however, I also feel that baseball should carry on no matter what happens to this country. I also believe that the crisis in our nation right now will make a labor agreement much easier to reach – or at least it should be. I don’t think anyone, even the biggest MLB supporters, will have the stomach for a bunch of millionaires whining and bitching at each other over how much more money they should make.

Last night however, my wife and I attended a Rangers & A’s game in Arlington. My wife had found some US flag stickers, and I put one on the back of my Rangers cap (I wore the blue cap with red & white “T” lettering, as well as a red T-Shirt, so I was Red White & Blue). We also had brought a flag or two from home, as we weren’t sure how many flags we’d get given at the Ballpark. Anyway, as we were walking up, I could see the gate in the distance, and it looked to me like Ranger players were at the gate – as we got closer, I could tell that Ranger players were at the gate. It didn’t occur to me that the players might be handing out flags. But they were. It was very cool to see the Rangers handing out flags to folks entering the park. I got my first flag from Arod (who is MUCH MUCH taller than he seems on TV when you’re standing right next to him). I also got one from Mike Lamb. I stood there and watched the players (I was at the first base gate) hand out flags for awhile, and it was pretty cool. I also went up and talked to Mike Lamb & Mike Young for a minute or two. Didn’t want to bother them, but I did want to say hi. My wife got a flag from Kenny Rogers who also patted her on the back and said thanks for coming, which made my wife feel really good. Was nice to see the players handing out flags. One note though – there were a lot of cameras there, mostly all pointed at ARod. That’s fine and all, but let’s pay attention to some of the other players there. My wife and I then ended up walking to home plate and the third base entrance to see who was there. Home plate had Ruben Sierra, Raffy, & Pudge (on a crutch). Gabe Kapler was there, who is my wife’s (and probably a lot of other women’s) favorite player. He was just kind of walking around, not saying anything, so I walked up to him and wished him well on his baby on the way (which I had read in the paper) – he seemed appreciative of that and thanked me. Of course, my wife is just standing there going ah-ga-ga-ga, too afraid to say something, apparently. I tried to break the ice by saying hi to Gabe, but she still didn’t say anything more than “Hello”. :)

Anyway, it was great seeing the players there – and the pregame stuff was even more emotional. I’m not generally a person to wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I teared up pretty good with the pregame video – and I even sung the national anthem – most people don’t. Also, for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel like going “STARS” when they got to that part of the song. Overall, was a very nice ceremony, and I felt for Pat Mahomes, who had a NYPD cap on.

All in all a very emotional night, and I’m glad they still did the stuff after the hour rain delay to start the game. Don’t even care much about the actual game itself, you can read the commentaries below for that – I was just glad to be back out at the Ballpark.