I didn’t get to see or hear any of this game, as I was still in Philadelphia at the time. Stayed over an extra day to do the family thing. I first went out to lunch at a place that’s got one of the best French Onion Soups I’ve ever had. The place is called Zoto’s Family Diner, and it’s in a Philly suburb called “Line Lexington, PA”. My brother and I got to hang out with one of our stepbrothers for lunch, so it was great to see him again. Wish we’d live closer, as Harry is a great guy to mess around with.
Hung out at my mom’s place, talked to my grandmother a bit, got to see my two nieces I don’t see too often, as well as my cousin and her husband. After most of the family left, I stayed over at my mom’s as she was taking me to the airport in the morning. A guy I worked with at three different companies back home and who was one of the ushers in my wedding came over, and we ended up talking for the better part of two hours, so that was all good. Had a great time there. It was definitely a good day spent visiting my family back home in the Philly area. All good.

I did get to see a little bit in the way of highlights at my mom’s, since I could get MLB Network, something I now lack at home. Anyway, it was nice to see Josh Hamilton & Nelson Cruz come off the disabled list. I don’t think anyone expected that both of them would hit home runs in their first games back. Oh, as a Rangers fan, you’d LIKE for that to happen, but realistically, you don’t expect it to happen. Josh’s was a solo shot in the first inning, to put us up 1-0. Nelson Cruz’s shot was in the sixth inning, a two run shot, which put us up 3-0 at the time.

Turns out Josh’s home run was all we needed due to Alexi Ogando, who seems to be the best starting pitcher we have at the moment. I mean, how do you argue with a complete game shutout? 9 innings pitched, just 5 hits, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts on 115 pitches. Was a masterpiece, and I wish I would have been able to see it. Ogando is now 5-0, and it feels like he should be 8 or 9 and 0 given the way he’s pitched overall.

Thing is, John Danks for the Sox also pitched a complete game, obviously a loss. He’s now 0-7 with an ERA of 4.34. While I don’t follow the Sox that closely, you get the impression he should have a better record than that. This game alone is one he was good for long periods of time – he didn’t allow much of anything between Hamilton’s first inning home run and Cruz’s sixth inning home run.

Michael Young continues to rip it up, getting another three hits this game. His average is now .348 after this game, and has a total of 63 hits for the season. As a bit of a cheat, the next two games he took ofers. Normally if I have to write recaps for a few games at a time, I still write them as if I don’t know what’s happening in the future games. This one I wanted to look ahead. 63 hits in game 48 is a healthy clip. :)

If Ogando keeps doing what he’s doing, I wonder if he’ll get a shot at the All-Star Game. It doesn’t realy seem that outrageous to me.

Well, game three of the Rangers/Phillies series was almost a statistical reverse of the game the night before. The score was the same, only reversed. The number of hits was mostly the same, only reversed. I was a bit surprised that Matt Harrison outdid Roy Oswalt in the game.

Harrison was darned good, though. Went 8.1 innings, gave up just five hits and walked three. Struck out three, so it was more of a hit to contact day. No runs, though, which is important. No Phillie had more than one hit, and all five of them were singles. Both walks were to DANE Sardinha (a backup catcher). So Harrison looked quite good. Might have even beat the other two Phillies pitchers we went up against.

Oswalt wasn’t any slouch either, he went seven, gave up eight hits and three walks. Obviously more than Harrison, but not an awful or outrageous number. The Philly pen allowed the other run besides the one Oswalt allowed.

Overall, this was a fantastic series pitching wise. There were a total of nine runs scored in all three games by both teams combined. If you put all the scores together, the Phillies won the overall series 5-4. That score isn’t considered too out of whack for ONE game between two teams, let alone three combined.

One amusing thing about this game, though. Since my brother and I were hanging out at his apartment, we fired up some traditional fare for the game. I’ve included a picture of the meal above. A rather large burger, one hot dog, and some potato salad plus macaroni salad. My brother whipped all that up. Was a very hearty lunch to say the least. Thing is it was a bit TOO hearty. In the middle of the fourth, we were both dozing of, so we decided to take a nap. The burger meal did us in. We slept for a couple of hours then resumed watching the game. :)

Well, I was going to two of the three games in Philadelphia, and as it turns out, the Rangers lost both of them. But again, as I also like the Phillies it wasn’t that bad for me personally. :)

Before the game though I met a friend of mine who I’ve known for about a decade or so. He works for Channel 17 in Philly, and as such he had access to the Diamond Club in the park. A comparable thing in Rangers Ballpark is the Cuervo Club, except the one in Philly is much larger. It’s structured like a true sit down restaurant. The Cuervo Club in our park is more like a bar with a bunch of bar area seating. The Philly one also overlooks the indoor batting cages too, so if you’re in there at the right time, you can see players take batting practice. We hung out there for about 30-40 minutes before the game started, and had a great time chatting. His fiance took the picture of us that’s here. Enjoyed that a lot. Had my brother and I not loaded up on our traditional trip fare (Chinese Buffet) beforehand, I probably would have had something to eat down there. :)

When that was over, I headed upstairs to the seats where my brother was. We were in exactly the same seats as the night before, so that was kind of cool. There was rain again this game, but it didn’t stop anything, as it all happened during the pregame when I was down in the Diamond Club sipping a lemonade. :)

This was a game of two former teammates in the World Series last year going against each other. The local Philly press had quotes and whatnot from Lee saying it wasn’t a big deal going against the Rangers, but that he’d be lying if there wasn’t a little “something” in his feelings for the start.

Cliff Lee was pretty masterful, as you’d expect. Eight innings pitched, just five hits and two walks. Struck out ten. Even at just two, it’s a bit more walks then you’d expect from Cliff Lee. But nobody scored, which was the bottom line. It also was only his third win of the season, which is a big surprise. But that’s more a case of the Phillies offense being lackluster this season (and most of last, too). As much as not having Cliff Lee in Texas in 2011 isn’t great, I think we’re probably better off in the long run. However, this is still the short run, and as such, he’s painful to watch when he pitches against you. Hopefully this is the last time we see him against Texas unless it’s the World Series, which would mean the explosion of my head due to a Philly/Texas World Series matchup.

Anyway, Lee looked really good, and really deserved the 2-0 win he got. Ryan Madsen who has developed into the Philly closer since the injuries to Brad Lidge & Jose Contreras was pretty darned good, too. He allowed just one hit in his scoreless inning of work, and dropped his ERA to 0.47. Got his ninth save of the season, which is a great stat when you consider it was only about Game 45 or so of the season for the Phils, and he didn’t start the year as the closer. Lot of talk up there that Madsen doesn’t relinquish the role when the other guys come back.

On the flip side was Colby Lewis. Colby was pretty good for the Rangers too. He wasn’t as dominating as Lee was, but his line was nothing to sneeze at. He pitched well enough for a win, too. 6.2 innings pitched, seven hits, two walks, and six punchouts. He allowed two runs though – one came on a home run shot by Ryan Howard in the second inning, which was his first home run in bloody ages. I managed to get him swinging on the home run shot, that picture is shown here. Came out good, too.

The second run the Phillies got came in the sixth, and was pretty much 100% the fault of Colby Lewis. He walked two in the inning (Ibanez & Ruiz), and then John Mayberry Jr (former Ranger prospect) singled to put the Phillies up 2-0. On the same play, Carlos Ruiz was thrown out at third, so the inning ended there, but the run counted.

That was pretty much it for the offense. On the Rangers side, we had just six hits, all of them singles. And half of them came from Michael Young alone, who was pretty hot in this series overall. Andrus, Kinsler, & Napoli each had singles, but that was it, aside from the two walks to Andrus & Napoli. The Phillies offense was driven by the guys you’d expect mostly. Rollins, Polanco, & Howard each had two hits. Everything was a single execept for the aforementioned Ryan Howard home run. Mayberry and Cliff Lee also had hits. Yeah, Cliff Lee.

What else is amusing is that Cliff Lee had a stolen base. I personally would have ruled it defensive indifference as there was ZERO attempt by the Rangers to stop him. But when it was happening in the stadium, Lee got a lot of cheers and hollering. It did seem funny to see the pitcher trying to steal second base. And getting away with it.

That was pretty much it. It was a fun game. Got to meet a friend of mine I’d never met face to face, and got to hang out with my brother for another game. Rangers lost 2-0, but my hometown team won, so it was good for me all around. :)
Game three of the series was a different kind of viewing experience.

It’s a game I was actually rooting for both teams. I was there wearing the Rangers colors for this game, though. I had a Rangers shirt and my Rangers World Series hat on. I flew up to Philly to visit family, and my brother and I went to a couple of games this weekend. This was the first of the two.

It’s been awhile since I had been to a game in Philly. I’ve been to Citizens Bank Park a few times since it had opened, the first time being the first year in 2004. It’s a great park, I like it a lot. Their attempt to mimic Eutaw Street in Baltimore with the center field area called “Ashburn Alley” is kind of cool, except it is always, and I mean ALWAYS jam packed with people. You can’t casually stroll around there, it’s packed with people, and it’s a lot of close quarters stuff, so if you dawdle, the crowd will force you to keep moving. Or they’ll say something about it. :)

My brother though had gotten some really nice seats, in what amounts to the Lexus Club level at Rangers ballpark. Where we were helped a bit, as we were mostly covered when it started raining in the middle of the game. You can see from the couple of pictures what the view was like. Only the far corner of right field was obscured, and I enjoyed the view from where we were. Especially with the new scoreboard they put in there. It’s pretty massive as you can see from my couple of pictures, and really dominates the view out there. Anyone who reads my site knows I’m a fan of scoreboards, and with the way the park is laid out, you can see the entire scoreboard from places around the park before you even get into the place. Also from the highway that runs not too far from there (closer than I30 is to Rangers ballpark). So I enjoyed that a lot.

Anyway, on the way into the place, I went to check in on Facebook, and saw that my niece Rose was in the park. I told that to my brother, and he called her. She was in town with some friends who had never been to a game before, and my brother went over to where she was to say hi. It had started raining during this time, so I felt bad for him, but he did something nice for me. He gave Rose his ticket, and told her to come over and see me and say hi. Given I live in Texas, I don’t get to see some parts of my family all that much, so it was nice to say hi to her. She’s a bit sports nut, huge Philly sports fan girl, and if I was 20 years younger, and not related to her, yeah, she’d be a cool one to hang out with. :) Anyway, it was really nice to see her, and it took us about five tries to get the picture you see here, we couldn’t get the self portrait thing going right. :)

The game though was Roy Halladay vs CJ Wilson. The result was what you’d expect from a battle of two teams’ #1 guys. Wilson went seven, and Halladay weight eight. The Rangers had a shot to get to Halladay in the first inning. The first two batters of the game (Andrus & Moreland) both singled to start the game. We had first and third and nobody out in the top of the first. Told my brother at the time that the Rangers had better capitalize on that, because if we didn’t, Halladay would shut us down.

After the singles, Capt Uppercut struck out, and on the play Elvis Andrus broke home, and Moreland broke to second. Ruiz threw to second, and Valdez threw home, and probably would have had Andrus trying to steal home, if Ruiz didn’t drop the ball, so the Rangers scored. Michael Young then grounded out, and Beltre struck out. That was it, we didn’t really capitalize. Yeah, we got a run, and that was good, but not against someone like Halladay. He clamped down after that. The Rangers didn’t score again until the 8th inning when Endy Chavez had a pinch hit double, and was later brought home on a groundout by Mitch Moreland. Ryan Madsen came in for the ninth and got the save rather handily. The game itself ended oddly though as David Murphy was called out stealing second.

Pitching wise, Wilson matched Halladay in almost all respects. The one big thing that cost him the game was a pitch thrown to Ben Francisco in the fifth, and another to Raul Ibanez in the fourth. Both of those were hit over the wall, and accounted for all three runs (Francisco’s was a two run shot). That’s pretty much the game in a nutshell. Wilson had ten strikeouts, and overall looked pretty darned good. He just got beat with the home run ball. Shame, as I thought he deserved the win, but against someone like Roy Halladay, you have no margin for error, really.

The Rangers let Halladay off the hook in the first inning, and that proved to be their undoing. Still, I enjoyed the company, and enjoyed the park and the game, so no complaints either way since I like both teams.

Had a great time.

There it is. An extra inning game we lost in 10. Gah.
Derek Holland got screwed, as he was fantastic. Eight innings, nine hits, one walk, five strikeouts, and just one run. 113 pitches – he was great. Deserved the win. But our anemic offense lately couldn’t come through.
Then Feliz blows the save, his second of the year so far. Darren Oliver lost the game, by giving up the run, although it was Cody Eppley who allowed the inherited runner to score.
I’m just annoyed at that. Go read the box score and pro recaps I link to at the top of this story.

All told, there were nine runs scored by both teams this game. Three of them were scored just in the 11 inning. Which just goes to reinforce my theory that if we can get past the 10th inning, we can probably win. After getting to the 10th, the Rangers put up 2 in the 11th, and then the Royals countered with one of their own in the bottom, but the Rangers hung on for the win.
This was a “no power” game. Moreso than usual. It was all singles and a boatload of walks. The other night we had more walks than hits, and it happened again this game. The Rangers had eight hits (all singles), but were gifted THIRTEEN singles. If we didn’t win the game after that many free passes, man…
The hits were pretty clustered. Endy Chavez had two, as did Andres Blanco, & Adrian Beltre. The other two were by Elvis Andrus (who was actually a sub for Blanco this game) & Mitch Moreland.
However, three of the RBI’s were by Adrian Beltre, who has been hitting the ball hard all season, but still has a lot of work to do on his BA (.255 after this game).
Alexi Ogando continues to amaze this season, going seven innings AGAIN. This time he gave up just four hits and two runs with a walk, and five punchouts. His overall ERA is an amazing 2.13. One expects the league to compensate and figure him out somewhat, but they haven’t yet. Good for us.
Bad for the guys who want to get back into the rotation, as Ogando isn’t going anywhere.

Thirteen walks issued this game. Seven by White Sox pitchers, six by the Rangers staff. In both cases, there were more walks than hits. Rangers were given seven walks, and got just five hits. Sox were given six walks, and got four hits. Sloppy game, by the looks of the box score.
In a game when Endy Chavez had the biggest offensive day (2-4 with a run scored), that’s about the big summary.
Actually, the big deal of this game is that the Sox got a three run home run off of Matt Harrison in the fifth to tie up the game at that point. Rangers were up 3-0 until that moment.
Bah.
Harrison still had a quality start, as he went seven innings, and gave up just the three runs. So overall he had an OK outing. But the home run was deflating, for sure.
Bah.