The Rangers went into game five, up 3-1, and needing just one win to get back to the World Series. Justin Verlander was the starter for the Tigers, and it would be a tall task to get past him.
We didn’t. But he wasn’t as infallible as normal. He did go 7.1 innings, and tossed a lot of pitches (133 total). But we did manage to get eight hits and three walks off of him, for a total of four earned runs. Most of our runs didn’t come until late, though. We technically were up early. 1-0 going into the bottom of the third, but that was it for a lead in this one. The game was tied 2-2 after five, but in the bottom of the sixth, it fell away.
The Tigers plated four in the bottom of the sixth, on a natural cycle by the team. Ryan Raburn led off with a single. Miguel Cabrera doubled to left, scoring Raburn. Victor Martinez rumled around for a triple, scoring Cabera, and finally Delmon Young homered.
The Tigers plated their final run in the 7th when Raburn homered off of Kohi Uehara, which reminded me a bit of Byung-Hung Kim giving up gopher balls to the Yankees in 2001. Anwyays, that was it for the Tigers.
The Rangers did make some noise coming back after that. The score was 7-2 after the 7th. The Rangers scored two in the 8th, when the Boomstick struck again for a two run shot. We scored another in the ninth, and had two men on after that with the go ahead run on the plate, but didn’t finish the job.
Most of this game was the Rangers playing catch up, and while we got close, we couldn’t get it over the hump, and the Tigers won. Not too terribly surprising.
Rangers offensive highlights.. We had 10 hits overall, and five of ’em were extra base hits. Four doubles (Kinsler, Young, Murphy, & Hamilton) plus the Cruz home run. Everyone had at least one hit except Beltre & Moreland who took ofers.
As I said in the other loss, I never expected a sweep. I kind of always figured Rangers in 6 or 7. This series has gone quite well, it’s been tight, well played (mostly) baseball. With the right set of breaks, the Tigers could have easily been up 3-1 at this point. No doubt.

I’m pressed for time today, as I have a lot of things going on, so I can’t write about this one too much, as much as I’d like to.
I think I can sum it up pretty good with the graphic I created after Cruz’s grand slam the other night. It fits well here, too.
Obviously, that’s not the only thing going on, but last night, Mr. Boomstick got his second home run and 7th RBI ONLY in the 11th inning, and ONLY in this series. It’s quite impressive. Also, when Cruz got the home run in the 11th, I almost spiked my iPad on the sofa. I didn’t, but I was rather excited by that. :)
Cruz also had a very impressive throw from right field to Napoli at the plate to gun down Miguel Cabrera who was trying to score. Cabrera was out by a mile and a half. That’s probably more to Cabera’s slowness than Cruz’ throw – but man, the throw was great. Not to demean the throw, because it was great. But Cabera was out by an EXTREMELY large amount of space. Some of that had to do with his (lack of) speed.
Michael Young finally came through with an RBI; he’s been dreadful in that regard in the playoffs so far.
Speaking of dreadful, our starting pitching this round continues to be pretty blah. No stamina, and our pen is getting worked around a bit. Look at this:
G1: Wilson, 4.2IP
G2: Holland, 2.2IP
G3: Lewis, 5.2IP
G4: Harrison, 5IP
None of them went six. Lewis was the closest, but the overall workload for the pen this round is a minor concern. Not enough to cause a panic, but they are getting worked a lot. Probably won’t hear anyone complain about it given where we are, though.

Well, I never thought the Rangers were going to sweep the Tigers. So a loss or two was inevitable. While one never wants their team to lose, it wasn’t terribly ugly, either. So that’s something positive in the loss.
Doug Fister was the story here. He pitched quite well. We picked up a run in the first, but that was it off of Fister until the Rangers got a second run in the 8th inning. Fister looked quite good. 7.1IP, 3K, 2ER, 102 pitches. Great outing for him. He deserved the win. We never got anything totally sustained going on. The hits that the Rangers got in the first were all bloops or seeing eye hits. Nothing hard hit at all. The one we got in the first was in retrospect, a surprise.
Colby Lewis gave up more home runs than anyone this season, and ALCS Game 3 was no surprise. Gave up two of them. The first tied the game early on, and the other was the fourth run. Uehara, who followed Lewis gave up a solo home run of his own. Our pitching wasn’t horrendous, just “meh”. Problem is “meh” doesn’t get you anywhere in the playoffs. No time for “meh” now. Darren Oliver had a good inning, and Tateyama didn’t give anything up run wise, just a single. But the damage was done by that point.
Torrealba played for the first time in the series, and went 3-3. Overall the Rangers had just eight hits. Two doubles, and six singles. Not much going on, but that’s because it was down to Fister.
Lewis didn’t look like the guy from last year’s playoffs at all. But again. “meh”.
Game 4 is in a couple of hours from now, hopefully we have a better response against the Tigers than last night.

I’ll talk about the floating head to the right later, but I did want to say that the start of the game was rough going for me. My wife and I spent the afternoon at a hospital talking to someone about an upcoming exam we have for our son. That was happening right as the Rangers game was getting started. When that was over, we went and grabbed some dinner, as neither of us were in the mood to cook after a couple of hours talking at a hospital. I chose a restaurant that had no TV’s, and was unlikely to be a talking place for the Rangers. It worked out, because I managed to survive from 3PM till we got home around 7PM from finding out anything about the game. Oddly enough it turned out the game was still going when we got home, but I didn’t know that. More on the TiVo recorded game later. But I pulled it off.
Sat down to watch the game, and instantly thought it was repeat of Game 1. Derek Holland was doing the same kind of stuff that CJ was in the first game. Pitching all over the place, too many pitches, and being bailed out by his defense. There was one play in particular that I was sure was going up the middle for a two run single. But Kinsler ranged REALLY far to his right, got the ball and barely got it to Elvis in time for an inning ending forceout at second. Replays show it was the right call, but by the barest of margins. It was a really great play. Pretty typical of the way we’ve looked this post season.
Derek Holland wasn’t good at all. He only went 2.2 innings, but allowed four hits and four walks for a total of three earned runs. The three runs all came on a three run home run to Sam Raburn in the third inning. You could make the point that the home run was the only costly thing he gave up. However, he was all over the place. 76 pitches in just 2.2 innings. That many walks and big counts will do it. In the playoffs, all that counts is W/L, and the way he pitched, he deserved the L. No doubt.
We did have the lead early on. We scored twice on three consecutive hits. A single (Elvis), a double (Josh), and another double (Beltre). That put us up 2-0 early. Felt good, even with the 25 pitch mess in the top of the first. However, Holland’s team bailed him out again. After he lost the lead with that home run, we cruised (get it? Cruz? har har har) along until Nelson came up in the bottom of the seventh. Matt Scherzer, who had been pitching quite well for Detroit, let the game get away by allowing a solo home run by Nelly off the fair pole in left. Tied the game. Felt good about that.
I’d be remiss by not mentioning Scott Feldman, who came in after Derek Holland failed. Scott pitched 4.1 innings of one hit shutout ball. He also struck out four and just 49 pitches. He really deserves major props for keeping the game where it was at at the time. Wouldn’t have won this one without him.
Then came the roller coaster. After we tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, you started to get that feeling of “Man, we just need ONE. JUST ONE! You always like those going into the bottom of the 8th, and then the 9th, because it’s generally easy, unless the opposing pitcher is shutting you down. The top of the 8th felt like a good setup, as Ogando got the Tigers out 1-2-3, finishing it up with an extremely well placed ball away for a called third strike. The bottom of the 8th started off good when Elvis Walked. Speedy guy on, just need one run. Was feeling even better when Hamilton lined the ball hard down the third base line. Unfortunately, he lined right into a double play, as Elvis had run way too far by that point. Quashed that feeling pretty quick.
Then in the top of the 9th, you were getting the sinking feeling, as Ogando got the first two out quick (good), then allowed a single, and was replaced by Mike Gonzalez, who allowed a double to the only guy he faced (bad). Feliz came in, and oddly enough intentionally walked Miguel Cabrera. Usually that thing is done by the outgoing pitcher. No matter. He ended up getting Victor Martinez to pop out to end the threat with bases loaded. Dodged that bullet.
Then came the bottom of the ninth. Adrian Beltre led off with a double. Then they intentionally walked Mike Napoli to get to Nelson Cruz. Cruz was hit by a pitch to load the bases up in the bottom of the ninth. Needing just one run, the game was surely in our hands now. Wild pitch, walk, balk, any number of ways to get the job done. Surely a short fly out to left field, and a 3-2-3 double play to end the threat won’t happen, right? Well, that’s exactly what happened. In a play that got some noise for a non Washington move, he didn’t sub in Craig Gentry at third, a way faster runner than Beltre. The flyout to left by Murphy was shallow. I’m not sure Gentry would have made it, despite his speed; we’ll never really know. But Mitch Moreland, who has struggled mightily this post season grounded into the 3-2-3 double play to end the inning. Bottom of the ninth, needing just one to win, bases loaded nobody out, and don’t get the job done. Yeah, that’s a a surefire sign of a forthcoming extra inning loss. Always seems to roll that way.
Both sides of the 10th went quickly. Which is good, as it seems that 9 times out of 10 we lose in extra innings in the 10th. We passed the 10th test, which is great. Mike Adams came out for the 11th, and struck out the first two batters, allowed a single, then a flyout, so it was pretty uneventful.
And that’s where I ran into trouble. As I pointed out earlier, I was out when this game was going on live, or at least the start of it. When I TiVo baseball games for viewing later, I usually add an hour to the designated time. Most MLB games are slotted for three hours, and I make ’em four. Given the 15 minutes of crap that Fox puts in front of the game, I made the extra time an hour and a half. And when did that give out? That’s right, just before the last pitch of the top of the 11th. Felt kind of like this Charlie Brown picture here. It was seriously frustrating. Problem is I couldn’t cheat and go to the live Channel 4 feed and pick up what happened after I stopped recording, as too much time had passed. TiVo has about half an hour of live TV buffer, so when my recording stopped, the live buffer took over. But when I hit the end of my recording, it was about 50 minutes after LIVE end of the game, so that buffer was lost. Auuuuuugh indeed! I was scoring the game on my iPad, so I switched over to the MLB At Bat app, and saw we had plated four in the bottom of the 11th. There’s only one scenario where you can get a 4 in the bottom of an extra inning when the game is tied. It meant a walkoff grand slam. Even before I went and looked at the highlights or read the recaps, I went and blew off steam to my wife talking about. All I needed was about 10 more minutes. Oh sure, I saw it on local news recaps, on the MLB At Bat highlights video, but that wasn’t the same. I was robbed. Thanks Fox for not starting the “right” game time! Bah! :)
Enough of rant. Get to the bottom of the 11th, and Michael Young and Adrian Beltre both single. I’d normally write about the tension at this time, but given I knew what happened before I saw how it got there, there was none. Napoli singled to load ’em up again. Surely we couldn’t blow a win with bases loaded, nobody out twice, eh? OK, I’m faking it. No tension again.
Nelson Cruz came up, and on a 1-2 count….

Nelson Cruz made history.. He hit a no doubter grand slam to win the game. While that was super important, and sends us to Detroit on a big high.. It was also the first time anyone had hit a walk off grand slam in extra innings in a playoff game. Ever. Never happened before. Let’s see Andrew Bailey top that one. Click the Nelson Cruz drawing below if you don’t know what I’m talking about. :)

October baseball continues, but for me, a first. I could watch it on TV, since it was on FOX. Fortunately, this year the Rangers are on Fox in the second round. So I sat down with my drink, my iPad, and watched the game. Speaking of my iPad, I just remembered that the scoring software I started using for 2011 allows me to email a PDF of the scorecard to myself. If you’d like to see that scorecard, click here.

Truth be told, I would have preferred the Yankees over the Tigers. The Tigers are a team we’ve had trouble with a lot in the last few years. Our record in Detroit isn’t that good. A lot’s been written about how this isn’t the same team from earlier in the year when we played the Tigers. That may be, but I’m working on gut feeling here, not any measurable anything. I would have felt more comfortable going into the series with the Yankees than the Tigers. However, that’s not what we got. We got the Tigers, and game one was CJ Wilson vs the (unannounced) 2011 Cy Young winner, Justin Verlander. I figure Verlander would be the hardest challenge we’d have, because he’s Justin Verlander. All fairness to CJ Wilson, he’s been a surprise the last two years as a great starter. But he’s not Justin Verlander.

CJ started the game with a three pitch strikeout, and got the game off to a great first batter feeling. However, he let that feeling go by allowing two straight singles and then a walk to load the bases. Not the response you’d expect after a 1-2-3 first batter. However, he did induce a grounder to third, which resulted in a 5-3 double play, forcing the runner at second base. That was a little bit of a theme, as CJ got out of the second inning in the same kind of way on another double play. He was a bit wobbly for sure, but got the job done, and in the playoffs, wobbly doesn’t matter. Getting the job done does.

Surprisingly, Verlander was just as bad early on. While he didn’t allow any runs in the first inning, he did throw 25 pitches (as opposed to CJ’s 20 in the first). Not the kind of outing you’d expect. While I don’t believe he threw 25 again, he certainly didn’t have many of the 7 pitch 1-2-3 innings either – if any. He was equally rocky, throwing 49 pitches through the first two, and 82 over 4. Verlander’s outing seemed to me to have two main factors working against him.

1. The Rangers weren’t swinging at most of the crap pitches out of the strike zone. It was a good job of picking up the pitches.
2. Verlander seemed to be getting squeezed. He was visibly bent out of shape on the mound a few times, and was seen talking to the home plate umpire. But it did seem to me that he wasn’t being helped by Tim Welke at all. There were a few of those that directly benefited us.

CJ kept going past the rocky start and got into the groove. Struck out the side in the fourth. That inning got me to do a few fist pumps and a “Goodnight” from the sofa. Felt good after that inning. Enjoyed that.

Going back to the second, we got on the board first, which is always important, I think. Napoli started off the inning with a single. He was followed by a flyball by Nelson Cruz which I felt he just missed getting out of the park. Little worry though, as David Murphy followed up with a ball that landed right in front of the Rangers bullpen for a triple. Off the bat, it looked more like a can of corn, but kept going. That scored the first run, and I had a Rick Berman moment when Napoli was coming around third. Thought “Rumblin, Bumblin, Stumblin”. While he’s not quite Ryan Howard or Bengie Molina slow, he’s certainly not Craig Gentry, either. :) Ian Kinsler later singled in Murphy which put us up 2-0 in the first. It didn’t feel very secure, because of the wobbly performance of CJ up to that point, but after he settled down, I started feeling better.

One fun note, during the bottom of the second, my six year old daughter was still sitting on the couch with me watching the game. She had her magnetic doodle board, and was just doodling random stuff. In the bottom of the second, she showed me what her latest was, and I had a “proud baseball daddy” moment. See here, this is what she drew. :)

Bottom of the fourth though featured an appearance from the oft missing this year #boomstick. Nelson Cruz jacked one way back over the left field fence for a solo home run. That also ended the scoring for the Rangers for the game. The home run felt good.

Oh, as much as I lay it on Ian Kinsler for his “Capt Uppercut” personae, he did have some great at bats tonight against Verlander. His first at bat was an eight pitch walk. His second was just two pitches, but was a single. He was called out on strikes on his third, but it was a nine pitch at bat. His final at bat was a five pitch flyout against Perry. Went 1-3 with a walk, but saw a ton of pitches (24 over 4PA).

The rains came in the fifth. The first delay was about 45 minutes or so, and CJ Wilson came back out. There was a lot of talk they’d go to Ogando after the rain, but Wilson came out. Probably shouldn’t have as he didn’t have it anymore. The fifth went double, groundout, double, walk, walk, wild pitch run, ground out, intentional walk. The rain delay was in the middle of all that. So we went to rain delay again with the Rangers up 3-2, the bases loaded and two outs. Figured after the second, there was no way Wilson was coming back. But all that activity did also force Verlander out of the game. Normally you wouldn’t want a pitcher out you were doing OK against, but there was some talk that he had “figured something out” during the first rain delay when he was pitching in the came.

A lot of people figured Ogando was coming back out when play resumed. But he didn’t. Michael Gonazlez came out, and got his job done. Retired the one batter he faced. He was followed by Alexi Ogando who pitched two innings, and was pretty good.
In fact, all the relievers on both sides were pretty good. After play resumed following the second delay, there was no more scoring. I’m not going to write about most of the relievers, because they all did a good job. However, I need to mention Neftali Feliz.

He was GAS tonight. Just lit the guys up. The first batter (Ramon Santiago) had a bunt single that just got past Feliz, and was too slow for Kinsler to get. But after that, bam bam bam – Feliz struck out the side with some real GAS. It was one of the more dominating performances he’s had this season. So much so, it made me wonder where that Feliz has been the whole season. It’s ramped up for the playoffs and all – I get that, but man, after the bunt, he looked unhittable.

So we’re up 1-0 over a pitcher who I’d say it’s safe to say most Rangers fans believed we’d probably lose to. Game 2 is important, because I don’t want to go to Detroit 1-1, where too much will be made of “the momentum has shifted” or “Tigers now have home field”. I want to go to Detroit up 2-0, and with a real possibility of not playing any more at home. While I’d love to see the Rangers clinch and get to the Series at home, I’d much rather for a nerves standpoint have them clinch up in Detroit.

I’m writing this on Monday morning, the day after Game 2 was postponed due to rain on Monday night. It was rescheduled for about 3:15PM today. That time means I have to play “avoid the score” as I’ll be occupied at that time, and won’t get to get home and see the game till about 8PM or so. That won’t be easy. :)

I didn’t get a chance to see the early part of the game, as I was watching a liveblog of the Apple iPhone 4S press conference as well as watching my kid, as my wife and my other kid were out of the house. :) After I did that daddy duty, I came onboard the game, although I did get to hear the couple of home runs early on by Kinlser & Beltre to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.
The Rays got back into it in an inning with a walk and a double, although that inning did have Matt Harrison striking out the side, but it wasn’t terribly dominant. It carried over into the third, as Harrison struck out the side two innings in a row. That’s six strikeouts in six outs in a row, and seven strikeouts over the first nine innings!
Beltre apparently got irritated at not having much power so far, as he jacked a second home run to Adrian Beltre in the fourth, an opposite field home run.
This game is moving fairly quickly, or at least comparitively to yesterday’s game. It would be moving even faster if Matt Harrison had a good pitch count. Or got help from the umpires, as a ball that was said on replay to be a stirke was called a ball, and Kotchman singled in a run right after that. Harrison bounced back with his ninth strikeout through four innings. That’s 9 out of 12 outs as a strikeout. But way too many pictures (81) through that four for him to get into truly lofty places, he won’t be around long enough for that.
He did come back for the fifth, led off with a walk, then went 1-2-3 (or 2-3-4 depending on your point of view). Still, that’s 100 pitches (or close to it) through five. Given this is an elimination game, I doubt he’ll be back for the sixth.
Matt Moore, the pitcher who shut out the Rangers in Game 1, came out for game 4 in the 5th, and retired everyone in the fifth and the sixth. He needed only 7 pitches in the 6th to get all three guys. Bet the Rays were hoping they could have thrown him out there a bit earlier.
Matt Harrison did indeed exit the game after five, and was replaced by Derek Holland, who doesn’t usually relieve. Still, in an elimination game, it’s usually all hands on deck, although usually not the team that DOES the eliminating. Derek did OK allowing no runs, although he did give up a single. 14 pitches, yeah, it was good.
If yesterday was the “Year of the Napoli” game, this was the “Year of the Beltre” game, as he went deep a THIRD time on the top of the 7th. Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, Bob Robertson, George Brett, & Adam Kennedy are the only other players to do that in the same game.
I AM NOW TIRED OF THAT “WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. TIRED!” commercial for five hour energy. I think it was on this game about 20 times.
Holland did come out and get the first out in the bottom of the seventh, then Wash came out and made the move to Mike Adams. Adams got his two guys quite quickly, much better than his previous appearances.
The Rays’ changed their pitcher for the 8th, this time Joel Peralta.
In the middle of the top of the 8th, Evan Grant tweeted this. Love it.

28,299 at Juice Box. Those here are doing the Wave. In an elimination game. It’s an epidemic of stupidity.

Peralta walked a couple, and gave up the mound to Wade Davis. It brought up Adrian Beltre, who did loft a ball to right, but didn’t get all of it, and didn’t get a fourth home run.
Bottom of the 8th brought on Alexi Ogando who had some good looking sliders and struck out Longoria quite easily on three pitches. The whole inning was pretty quick, as Ogando got the Rays 1-2-3 on 11 pitches. Looked pretty good doing it.
Wade Davis stayed on for the ninth, and got “Year of the Napoli” striking out. He took care of Cruz quickly, but Murphy singled, and then Moreland walked. We didn’t get any extra insurance there as we left two guys on.
Bottom of the 9th, Feliz time. Feliz let a run score, which really ramped up the clench factor. Due to that, I didn’t want to write a lot, I was a bit nervious after the run scored. BUT… The Rangers got the job done, and elimintated the Rays for a second year in a row. In St. Petersburg.
Napoli better get MVP of the ALDS here. :)
The Tigers are up 2-1 over the Yankees and play later tonight. This could be quite interesting. Given the troubles we have with Detroit, I’m not sure who I want to win that series.
Last thought.. It’s actually Evan Grant’s thought via a tweet. For the amount of money we would have likely paid Cliff Lee for 2011, we paid the same amount give or take for both Adrian Beltre & Mike Napoli. Gotta love THAT.

Random quote from the game: “Eric Nadel: “Here comes Napoli, a one man wrecking crew the last week”. #Rangers”
Before the game started today, I got in the mood by playing my Texas Rangers playlist. Here’s the tunes:
Brother Cane – And Fools Shine On
Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire
Little Texas – God Blessed Texas
Merle Haggard – That’s the Way Baseball Go
Terry Cashman – Talkin’ Baseball
Al Dean & The All Stars – Cotton Eyed Joe
Pat Green – I Like Texas
Pantera – Walk
If you have Spotify, you can click here to check out the playlist there.
Once that playlist was over, it was time for the pre-game show on Rangers radio. Listened to that, and got my video stuff ready.
A few pre-game thoughts.. David Price has never beat the Texas Rangers, either post season or regular season. Colby Lewis hasn’t been as lights out this season, so I’m not so confident on our side. Hopefully I’m proven wrong.
The Rangers got a man on early with a single up the middle by Elvis Andrus, and he got to second on a play by Kasey Kotchmann where he ALMOST blew it and allowed Hamilton to reach. Kotchmann also robbed us right after that when he speared a hard liner by Michael Young, which would have easily scored the first run of the game. Nice to see us not being dominated by Price early on.
Rays started off with a 10 pitch at bat by Desmond Jennings. Didn’t lead to anything, as it was an 18 pitch 1-2-3 inning for Colby. Not too bad, given the 10 pitch inning early on.
Both sides had a play in the first two innings where the pitcher was late covering first and it almost cost them an out. Both plays resulted in outs, but it’s a bit of a surprise that both sides pulled the same thing and got away with it early on.
Colby’s looking pretty good through three. Perfect through the first three innings, throwing just 38 pitches (27S/11B). Price has allowed three hits, and no runs yet, but the Rangers seem through the first three innings just “this close” to breaking through against him.
His perfect ended there, as the first pitch of the fourth was a home run by Desmond Jennings. Can’t say I’m too surprised either, what with Colby giving up the most home runs by anyone this season. After the home run, Colby came back with a walk, but then got it together, and struck out the side after that. He followed that in the fifth with a seven pitch 1-2-3 inning. Colby, despite the home run, has looked pretty good today. Not liking we haven’t broken through against Price so far.
There was an issue with Price’s finger during the bottom of the fifth, which at the time the Rangers radio guys weren’t sure about, a blood blister, a fingernail, but the first batter of the sixth was a walk. There was then an infield single, and an out by Hamilton that took a really acrobatic play by Price or it would have been another infield single. We ended up not getting the job done though, left men on second and third. Sigh.
Eric Nadel was going on a lot about the positioning of the Rays fielders being a big deal as to why the Rangers weren’t getting much done through the first six innings.
Colby walked another runner in the sixth, but didn’t break, allowing just that.
In the top of the seventh, Mike Napoli jacked a two run home run to left center, which prompted me to say this on Twitter:

I think Mike Napoli has stolen Nelson Cruz’s #boomstick this year. It showed up again right there.

Craig Gentry got a single after the home run, and that knocked Price out of the game. Price won’t win against the Rangers again. The first batter after the pitching change to Brandon Gomes was Ian Kinsler, who walked. Followed in the next pitch by a double steal! Haven’t seen many of those lately.
“35k Faithful Rays fans” was uttered by Steve Busby in the 7th when Gomes was throwing balls. I dispute that. There aren’t any faithful Rays fans that total 35,000 based on the way their games are attended. Gomes ended up walking Elvis Andrus too, which led to another pitching change (JP Howell) and Josh Hamilton.
JP Howell was no better. He threw a strike, then allowed a single to Josh Hamilton, scoring Craig Gentry & Ian Kinsler. That was it for Howell. Just two pitches. Elvis got caught on a fake throw to second when Hamilton was stealing second, he was caught in a rundown, and got tagged out on the famous 1-2-5-2 play. :)
After that, Darren Oliver came in for the 7th. I would have let Lewis pitch a bit more, but I guess with the weapons we have in the pen, I can understand it, the playoffs aren’t the time for individual stats. Oliver did give the Rays a hit when he had the play where he had to quickly cover first, and he didn’t do it, allowing Johnny Damon to reach. It was INSTANTLY followed by a hard hit single to right field, bringing the tying run to the plate. I still would have left Lewis in.
Darren Oliver got knocked around a bit too hard. As of yet no hits, but they’re hitting him hard. The bases were loaded up by three straight singles. He came out and was replaced by Alexi Ogando. Oliver came out with one out and bases loaded. Not good.
The first Ogando pitch was popped up into foul ground, and both Beltre & Andrus missed the ball. Tough break there, it would have been an enormous help in that situation to get that second out on the first pitch. The Rangers did get the out, but it was a groundout to Moreland, which allowed a runner to score, making it 4-2. That was it. In an inning that made me fairly nervous, Alexi Ogando got out of it, and given they had the bases loaded with just one out, a single run scored isn’t too bad.
The Rangers didn’t do anything in the top of the 8th, and Mike Adams came on for the bottom of the 8th. He allowed another home run to Desmond Jennings, his second of the game. That’s a bit of a surprise, as he had just 10 of them all season. Lovely tweet by Evan Grant right after that…

From start of 2009 season with SD until traded to Rangers, Mike Adams allowed 5 HRs. Since traded: Four.

Bah. I felt a bit better after the Rangers pitched out with Longoria on base, and they caught BJ Upton on a caught stealing. But then Adams walked Longoria, so it’s a “seesaw” feeling of emotions in this game. Mike Adams’ command seems to be non existant this game. He gave up a home run, and then three walks. Bah again.
He’s replaced by former Pirates closer, Mike Gonazlez, who comes in and strikes out Johnny Damon. He’s immediately replaced by Neftali Feliz, who will come in to get a four out save, bypassing Koji Uehara, who had been warming up, ramping up the nervous factor in this game. Feliz came in and struck out Ben Zobrist.
The Rangers made no noise in the top of the ninth, well almost no noise – Ian got a double. But generally the Rangers went down quickly.
A thought as we start the bottom of the ninth as I harness my inner John Vittas… “It’s clench time”…
A second thought as we start the bottom of the ninth by me: “I see Bank of America is sponsoring the Game Breaks on TBS. Does that mean they’ll charge me $5 for each of those they show?”
Throwing over to first a few too many times, in my opinion.
We ended the game on a 5-4-3 double play!! It’s unclench time! Clapped my hands at home – what an exhale end to a really nervous game!
Rangers up 2-1. Possible elimination of Rays in Tropicana Field up tomorrow at 1PM.
Final word: David Price is now 0-6 against the Rangers all time.