The TV guys gave Raffy player of the game, and while he did do a lot, I felt Todd Zeile deserved it. If it wasn’t for Todd, we wouldn’t have gotten rolling, and he too was 3 for 4. Don’t get me wrong, I like Raffy, but I just felt for Todd Zeile last night.
Again, we got really great pitching. 7.0 (plus a batter or two in the 8th) out of Aaron Sele. Jeff Zimmerman wasn’t his most crisp (he allowed an inherited run to score), but he still pitched really well, and I thought Wetteland look like he was throwing lightning bolts out there.
This was very much a picher’s duel until the 8th inning, and even then it was still well pitched. These are great baseball games, I just wish they didn’t start at friggin 9:15PM.
I’m hoping that when the player’s agreement is up for renewal after the 2000 season (I know 2001 is an option year, but it still has to be agreed upon), they make some sort of realignment, and get the Rangers out of this double time zone mess they’re in. I also want to see different Interleague teams, specifically NL East. Yeah, yeah, I know, people want to see the Astros, but I’d rather see the Phillies, the Expos (Vladimir Guerrero), and the Braves down here.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Aaron Sele and Raffy Palmeiro powered the Rangers over the LA Dodger$, 3-2, Monday.
Sele, who probably pitched his best game since the second game of the season, had the Dodgers way off-stride.
Meanwhile, Palmeiro, who was only supposed to be available for pinch-hitting duties on this Interleague road trip, has started the last 3 games – and by his bat alone, has lead the way to two victories.
Palmeiro, having a career year, is on his way to putting up numbers no Ranger player ever has, even surpassing Juan Gonzalez’s fine seasons.
Jeff Zimmerman and John Wetteland (both putting up fairy-tale like numbers) shut the door in the 8th and 9th innings, respectively, to nail down a fine victory.

I’ve had a pretty long and tiring day at work Monday – I don’t feel like writing commentary for this game.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available.

I didn’t get to see a whole lot of this one, I was out for the evening with my wife. Came home, and when I started paying attention to game was after Raffy had already hit his grand slam. Bombs away for Raffy! A Grand slam and a two run homer. Boy, will that help my fantasy teams. :)
This game was more typical a Ranger win than the last few wins have been. This was a “slug ’em into submission” type of game. Ryan Glynn had a way too high pitch count again, but still didn’t pitch that bad, and Raffy played the field for the first time this year. He still looked rusty out there, but wasn’t all that bad, considering it was his first time there all year.
Wetteland also got his ML leading 19th save.
Commentary from Jim Meeks:
Not available.

What can we really say about this one? Two streaks came to an end, our 9 game winning streak, and Pudge’s 20 game hitting streak. Both because of the same thing. Randy Johnson.
Boy, did the Big Unit look on top of his game. It was scary how good he lookd early. He was throwing a perfect game into the fifth, when he walked a batter. Juan Gonzalez broke up the no hitter next inning with a sharply hit ball (that was the first well hit ball of the whole night, actually) past the second baseman for a single. The only real offense we had was a home run by Royce Clayton (into the swimming pool in right) scoring Roberto Kelly who was on second after a single and a Johnson wild pitch, and a Juan Gonzalez solo homer off of a reliever in the 9th. That was it.
Mark Clark gave up four home runs for a total of 8 runs in the first couple of innings. John Burkett may have found his niche now in long relief. Since going there, he looks good. He pitches 3, 4 innings, and then starts to break down. This might be a good spot for him. I know everyone wants to crucify him, but I think he doesn’t look all that bad in the pen.
Danny Kolb made his major league debut (wearing #52), and seemed really nervous. He pitched 2/3 of an inning on a walk, a bobble by Zeile, and a single. That loaded the bases, and then there was an infield grounder to score a run, and then he reloaded the bases with a walk. That was about it for Kolb. Kolb sounds like a good kid from Jamey Newburg’s reports, I’m sure he’ll do better before – this seemed like stage fright.
Johnny Oates threw an all righty lineup against him, made for some strange positionings. Jon Shave played first, and Mark McLemore played Left field, with Roberto Kelly in center. Tom Goodwin did come in as a pinch hitter for John Burkett, but hardly a lefty all night. No Raffy, No Rusty, and no Lee Stevens. Was an interesting lineup for sure (see the game log below for the full starting lineups).
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available.

I didn’t get a chance to listen to the entire game as I was busy with work issues. It was a nice win, and started out like the last two, with nothing getting going until the fifth inning. Gregg Zaun played with poison oak, and was ordered not to shake hands with anyone. :)
Gregg did come through with a nice game. What I heard sounded really good. Unfortunately, as I’m in the middle of work, I won’t be able to say much.
We swept three straight series (DRays/Twins/Royals). That’s 9 in a row. That’s the record for any team all year so far, it’s now second longest in the Rangers history (record is 14 in 1991). We’re on a roll. Tim Crabree lost his consecutive appeareances with no runs scored, as he gave up two. He’s still pitching damn well this year. We did use the big bang theory to win this game, with a 6 spot in the 5th inning.
Next up is the Big Unit on Friday in Arizona. We’ve shown we can hit him in the past, let’s see what happens now.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Bases on balls will kill you. It’s an old story and man, is it ever true.
Kevin Appier, long the nemesis of the Rangers, knew it was true – and learned again the painful reality of four balls to a batter.
The Rangers, a virtual punchless team offensively until an opponent makes a mistake these days, were able to pounce on Appier’s 3 bases on balls on Wednesday, in a 6 run, 5th inning.
Until the walks, Appier had shut down the Rangers and held a 1-0 lead. But as of late – and the Rangers ride a nine game win streak – the Rangers have capitalized on every mistake made by the opposition. In the Devil Rays, The Twins and the Royals, they have found a mountain of miscues to catapult them to victory.
Two nights in a row during this streak, it was the wild pitch they used.
Another time, it was an error.
Many of the games were decided by a terrible bullpen blowing a starter’s lead in the late innings.
And Wednesday, it was the base on balls.

The Rangers set the highest current winning streak in the majors, and have the best team winning streak since 1991. The Diamondbuck$ lost yesterday, so that leavs the Rangers alone with an 8 game winning streak.
The Royals starting pitching shut us down again for the second night in a row, and the Royals pulled their starting pitcher after six innings, which I thought was weird, since we were being shut down again. The replacement picked up where the starter (Witasick) left off. However, in the eighth, the wheels came off. Matt Whitesant walked a batter, and then proceeded to hit two batters (althouh the call on Shave didn’t look like a hit batter to me). Then Mark McLemore, who is having a kick ass season, came through with the game winning hit, a double into center, scoring two runs and giving us the win. Rusty Greer singled again after Mac had moved to second, scoring Mac. A great night for Mac – that’s for sure.
A great night for our pitching again. Rick Helling gave up only one run, and got another no decision, but he is pitching really awesome lately. He’s gone into the 7th inning or later in his last four starts. Unfortunately, we’re not getting the job done with the bats for him. Case in point – Jeff Zimmerman has as many wins in relief as Rick Helling does as a starter (Rick’s 5-5, Jeff’s 5-0). Wetteland was a god in the 9th. Only a couple pitches and perfect relief from him (and Zim, too). Wetteland got his major league leading 17th save of the season, too.
Pudge also extended his hitting streak to 20 games, setting a personal record and setting the AL season record. The NL is around 30, I think – some guy from the Diamondbuck$.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Feasting on never-beens and pretenders like the Devil Rays, Twins and Royals, the Texas Rangers have now won 8 straight games.
The Rangers’ bullpen has been the key. They’ve won each of the past four games. The relievers have allowed one run in 25.2 innings, an 0.35 ERA during the streak. That’s nothing short of incredible.
Tuesday’s bullpen combo of Superman Jeff Zimmerman (the league leader in ERA, if he were eligible) and John Wetteland (the league leader in saves) stopped whatever thoughts the Royals had of adding any insurance to what was a slim 1-0 lead.
Let’s compare the Rangers’ pen to that of the Royals. KC relievers lead all of baseball with 11 blown saves in 19 opportunities (58% blown). The Ranger relievers have won their past 11 decisions and are 13-1 with four blown saves in 21 chances.
Tuesday evening, Rick Helling pitched his best game so far. The Rangers’ offense, which has been sputtering as of late – until they HAVE to score, let Helling down. In 7 innings, they couldn’t score. Helling allowed just 3 hits and 1 run.
Yes, the Rangers’ win came gift-wrapped again (gee, how many games in a row now has that happened?) by a lousy bullpen giving away a lead.
Yet a win is a win.

Oh man, what a game! What’s really interesting (about the game) is that there wasn’t much to talk about until the 8th inning. Before that, Ryan Glynn was a bit wild, walking five batters in the first three innings (actually, that’s all he walked), with two of those coming across for runs. Take away those walks, and Glynn pitched a decent ballgame. He went six innings (one batter into the 7th), and allowed 6 hits, and three runs – the third coming on a solo home run in the 6th off former Ranger Chad Kreuter. On the flip side, Royal pitcher Jeff Suppan was masterful, allowing only two hits through 7 and 2/3 innings. Unfortunately, the third and final hit he gave up was costly (to him), as it was a smash from Goodwin that hit him in the shin, forcing him to leave. I felt bad for the kid, as he pitched a spectacular game, and it was a shame he had to leave like that. He was relieved for the rest of that inning by Matt Whisenant, who kept it a shutout. One of the two hits was a double by Pudge which extended his hitting streak to 19 games – tying his career high.
And then the ninth… The Royals brought in their closer Jeff Montgomery, and I figured that was it. A three hit shutout. If you’re gonna get shutout, it might as well be one of these types, where you’re totally shut down. Well, it started off that way when Gonzo struck out, and then Raffy walked. He was forced out at second when Pudge grounded out, but he himself was safe at first – there almost was a double play to end it. Todd Zeile singled, and then Lee Stevens came up. I had just said to my wife, “A home run here would be really nice to tie the game”. Well, we got one. A line home run that bounced off the wall in front of the Ranger bullpen and into the pen. Man, did that place go friggin nuts! Due to where I was sitting (more on that in a minute), I couldn’t see the scoreboard or anything, but I could see virtually everywhere in the ballpark at once. It was rockful! What a rush!
Tim Crabtree, who continues to be one of our best pitchers this year pitched 1 1/3 innings of perfect ball in relief including the 10th. In the bottom of the tenth, Tom Goodwin got onbase with an infield single. I saw #24 standing at first, and I figured that was it. A decent hit, and he’d just fly around the bases. Mac sacrifiiced him to second with just one out, and it was looking even better. Rusty Greer was walked intentionally (I figured to force a double play), and then Juan came up and smacked a single to short left field. With Goodwin’s speed, it was more than enough to score from second, and we won the game quite dramatically. It was great – the game was dead even down to two outs in the bottom of the ninth – and it all came alive there. The only thing better is to win the game with two outs, a 3-2 count, and someone hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 9th to win. *THAT* is the most exciting way to win a ballgame in the 9th. However, this was DAMN close. This was two games in a row I went to (I was also at Sunday’s game), and two games in a row were dramatically won by one run. Totally exciting baseball.
This was one of the cooler games I’ve ever been to. My wife were at the game yesterday, and we didn’t have anything planned for Memorial Day, so we said why not grab tickets for Monday’s game? There’s a few places in the stadium that I’d never sat in, and so we decided to try somewhere else. I intentionally went for what’s called “the worst seat in the house”, which was Section 345 (see seating chart). These tickets are $5 for an adult, and you know what? They’re not all that bad. Now, I’d be lying if I said they were was a good as the seats I had a few weeks back in section 32 on April 11th, or even my regular season tickets in Section 39, but for the bad rap these seats got, they weren’t so bad. I actually had the first row in this section, the last two seats to the right. I was sitting in Sec 345, Row 1, Seat 9, which is the last seat in the first row of this section. My wife felt weird sitting there, and I kept feeling like I was going to drop everything off the ledge, so we moved up two rows (hell, there’s very few seats actually used up here), and we felt much more comfortable. The foul pole is right in front of you, but it doesn’t actually block any of the bases, and you can see through it, so it’s not that bad. You can’t see the Jumbotron, but you can see all the other scoreboards. The big one out in center field is viewable from these seats (but I suspect if you went up too many rows, you wouldn’t be able to see it), as is the out of town scoreboard, and all the small scoreboards around the park. This may sound stupid, but I’ve been to many games here, and whenever I sit in a new section, I love looking around checking out all the other vantage points these new seats offer, and seeing what new things I can see. We even got beer, peanut, & Lemon Chill vendors up here, which surprised me. When we walked in to our seats, we looked off the ledge that overhangs the small triangle section in left field. It’s quite a ways down from there. What’s funny is if you walk up to the last row in Section 345, you’re actually higher than the walkway and the Jumbotron. I took a picture pointing straight down from there, it’s quite a view – so long as you don’t get Vertigo from these things. :) I took a few pictures from this section, but I used a conventional camera, so I won’t have those online for a few days, as I get them developed.
There were also a few cool pre-game things. The first I figured would happen as it was Memorial Day. They honored two gentelmen who had served in the Korean War and were given the congressional medal of honor by President Eisenhower. There were also some folks representing each branch of the military on the field for the national anthem, and there was a 21 gun salute after a moment of silence for the holiday’s real purpose. That’s the first time in awhile I teared up at the national anthem. The pregame ceremony was quite moving. There also was a fairly cool parachute thing which I didn’t know was going to happen. There something like 4-6 parachuters that jumped into the stadium. I hadn’t seen that live since I was a kid – it was quite cool. I grew up in Philadelphia, and the Phillies used to have something similar they called “Kiteman”, and they’d also have a parachuter drop the first pitch into the park from above the stadium. This whole thing was quite moving and brought me many memories of my childhood.
All that, plus a totally great baseball game, and the usual awesome Rangers fireworks show afterwards.. One thing that was really cool about the fireworks show.. In the 20 minutes or so after the game before the fireworks, my wife and I spotted a few players on the field with their kids in front of the dugout. Lee Stevens and Tim Crabtree were out there with their children, and there were a bunch of other kids as well as some wives we could see too. From where we were sitting, we couldn’t see in the dugout to see if any Ranger players were there or not, but it was quite nice to see the baseball players out there with their kids sitting on the ground watching the fireworks. Tim Crabtree looked really cute with his infant daughter between his legs playing pattycake. Quite cool.
It was an awesome night, and both my wife and I got in the door for $10. If you count the $8 it cost for parking (grumble, grumble), how can you beat a night like this for $18? I’ve been to many many baseball games, and this one ranked up there as one of my all time favourites, and I was sitting in the cheap seats. I loved it. I know these commentaries of mine don’t get read all that often, but if you’re a real fan of the game, and ever just want to go to a game, these $5 aren’t all that bad. It’s a great value, and I saw many families with small kids up here.
Go Rangers!
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available. I haven’t heard from Jim in a few days. Jim, if you see this, drop me a line – you OK?

I was at this game, and driving out to the ballpark, I feared rain again. The weather was bad in the 40 minute drive I have to the ballpark, and it spitted rain a few times on the way out. Fortunately, as my wife and I pulled up to the park, everything cleared up. It was a nice blue sky with great puffy clouds. A bright afternoon – and oh man, did we get a great game.
A few commentaries ago, I said I wasn’t all that thrilled with Mark Clark pitching, as he has been a great disappointment so far this year. However, today, he pitched his masterpiece of the year so far. He went seven innings, allowing four hits, and only two runs. It was by far the best game he’s pitched as a Ranger, and he seems to finally be headed in the right direction. Zim came in and pitched a perfect eighth inning, and Wetteland came in and secured the save, even if he made it a bit interesting by allowing runners to get to first and third. :) Of the six hits the Ranger pitching allowed, two were by Wetteland in the 9th – this was by far our best pitched game that I can recall.
We were shut down on offense too – the Twin rookie pitcher was matching Mark Clark all along the way. That kid lookd really good – in fact, I didn’t think our offense looked alive at all until Tom Kelly started playing bullpen musical chairs. And even then it wasn’t that great – we pulled out a 3-2 win, which seemed like it should have been swapped with the Dallas Stars’ score – the Stars were playing cross town, and lost 7-5, in what seemed like a baseball score.
Our current injury situation seems weird. Rusty Greer was still out of the starting lineup, but did make an appearance in the eigth as a pinch runner for Raffy – he eventually scored. Royce Clayton was still out, and probably won’t be back until the Arizona series on Friday. Mike Morgan was also down for the count, but on the radio pre-game show, Johnny Oates said that he probably could pitch out of the bullpen in an emergency.
This win gives us two consecutive sweeps in a row for a season high six game winning streak. THat’s also tied for the current high winning streak in the majors (with the Diamondbucks, who also have 6 in a row). Furthermore, this gives us a record of 29-20 for the season, also a season high 9 games over .500. An interesting note, this gives us virtually the same record as the New York Yankees, who are 29-19. :)
I’m hoping things are back to speed come Friday when we don’t have the DH to rely upon – Raffy probably will be relegated to pinch hitter status only. Also, Mike Simms is about ready to come off the DL, which poses a roster problem – who to move to AAA to make room for Simms?
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available. I haven’t heard from Jim in a few days. Jim, if you see this, drop me a line – you OK?