Oh man, that was annoying. I think you can chalk this game up to one big thing.
Evan Longoria woke up. He went 3-4 with two runs scored and two RBI’s. Was the most potent offensive guy on the Rays Sunday afternoon. Two doubles and a home run. His power stroke was going, for sure. While he didn’t account for all the runs, he was part of a bunch of them.
It’s weird that through the four games played so far, the visitors played like the home team should play. You’re expected to win at home, and in both cases, the home team played like they were the timid team visiting the other park. An odd feeling. Hopefully that carries over to Game 5.
Not going to say a bunch about this one as its almost 1AM, and I’m tired, don’t feel like writing a bunch now. We looked flat. While I don’t think Cliff Lee will give us that in Game 5, I didn’t want to burn him twice in the second round, as he won’t get used to the max potential in Round 2, assuming we go deep in that.
Nelson Cruz did have a home run that my 5 year old daughter liked watching. :)
One good offset to this. The Cowboys lost, so they’re 1-3. Cowboys in last place is ALWAYS good, no matter what else is going on.

Yeah, I know they’re not called the Devil Rays any more. But it bugged me we didn’t beat them, so I’m calling them the Devil Rays. :) Oh, and you can view the photo gallery of mine from this game here.
This was the third Rangers playoff game I had attended. I was at the Oct 2, 1998 game and the Oct 9, 1999 games as well. Unfortunately, my playoff streak is now 0-3. We lost this game. I had picked the Rangers to win the series in 5 before any games were played, but I think a lot of people (myself included) smelled a sweep coming back home. The stage was set on Saturday for that. But before I get into the game, I wanted to say something else.
A big thanks to Mike Gonterwitz (sp?) for inviting me to his pre-game tailgate. I spent about three and a half hours out there. I was a bit worried at first, because I really didn’t know anyone else other than him. However, I brought some dogs, buns, and some Shiner Bock, and I fit in pretty well. There was a minor panic when the propane ran out, and it was discovered that the spare was left at the house (!), but a friend showed up about 15-20 minutes later with a charcoal ‘que in his truck, so the party was back on again. That dude cooked up some badass fajita steaks, and other sausages and whatnot. I had a great time – a few hours spent outside the game eating meat and drinking beer? Hell yeah, you’re gonna have a good time. :) So thanks Mike – I seriously had a great time. Thanks for the invite, hope to do it again sometime.

Once I got in, it was bloody packed. I mean so packed that the area behind the lower home run porch was packed like LBJ during rush hour. You literally stopped out there. Was by far and a way the worst people traffic jam I’d EVER seen in the 16 years the park’s been open. No contest. Was really awful. Eventually made it to my seat, had a decent vantage point, and settled in to watch the game.
The Rangers had their usual pre-game goodies. Charlie Pride sang the National Anthem, but for me, the best moment was Johnny Oates’ grandson throwing out the first pitch. Long time readers here know my affinity for Johnny Oates (links here and here if you don’t). But I got a kick out of seeing the kid out there (was just 8 as I recall). He was escorted by Rusty Greer & Mark McLemore. Liked that. Nice nod to the Rangers’ past glory there.
Once the game got started, it was OK through the first few. There were no runs scored until the bottom of the third, but Colby Lewis looked a little wobbly. It’s one of those things that won’t exactly turn up in the box score. His overall line isn’t that bad, really. Five innings pitched, two hits, no walks. However, he walked five guys – which is more than he’s walked in any game in 2010. That part wasn’t good. But he didn’t break. Still, this is the playoffs, and had it been a mid season game, he would have stayed out there, I’m sure. But you need to win THIS GAME NOW in October, so I understood him coming out. What I did NOT understand was Darren O’Day being taken out later on in the game after just one out. Lewis was immediately followed by Derek Holland (0.2IP), Alexi Ogando (0.1IP, BS), and then Darren Oliver (who was technically tagged with the loss). Compared to the three bullpen guys who came before him, O’Day was sparkling, yet he was taken out immediately. To me, that was the mistake of the game there. They brought in Feliz to get four outs. I would have left O’Day in to finish the inning he was in, as Feliz was meh. While Feliz didn’t get credited with the blown save or the loss, he probably deserved it. Our pen was not good. It just seemed out of whack, given the way it usually performs.
We had a little life at the end when Nelson Cruz jacked a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth to make it 6-3, but by that point the damage was done.
The offense we did have was limited to just three solo runs (3rd, 7th, 9th). The 9th I already mentioned. The other two were on a small ball manufactured run in the third, and the other was another solo home run, that one by “Capt. Uppercut” himself, Ian Kinsler. But really, there was no sustained attack. Six hits overall. No Ranger had more than one hit. To be honest, I expected that with Matt Garza. I was more worried about our performance against Garza than I was against David Price, tell you the truth.
Finally, it doesn’t help when there’s guys on either side of you who are totally non chatty to people they don’t know. *AND* to make matters worse, sigh and groan at every single ball thrown. If it wasn’t a strike, the dude on my right was complaining. That got old after a couple of innings. Come on dude, even Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, & Cy Young threw 100% strikes. Give it a rest, doofus.
Leaving the park, I was bummed at the loss for sure, but as much as Ranger pride might have wanted the sweep, I doubt many people truly expected it to happen. No problem, though.. There’s Sunday’s game.
P.S. The place looked good in all red!

Yesterday I wrote a lot about the game on Twitter, and I did the same thing again for Game 2, so I’ll repeat what I did yesterday, which was post a list of all my Twitter comments (including a few retweets from other people), as it’s mostly a stream of thoughts while watching the game. I had to go pick up my kid from school in the middle, so I got about 35-40 minutes behind live TV, but I had caught up by the end of the game thanks to TiVo letting me skip all the boring stuff (and the commercials).

• MLBN’s Larkin and John Hart pick the #Rangers to win Game 2. Al Leiter picked the #Rays. Ready for more tweeting.
• #Rangers #Rays – My wife just handed me a home made roast beef sandwich as I sit here watching MLBN pre-game coverage. I love this woman!
• Minor panic. Time Warner Cable told me TBS HD was not available two mins b4 first pitch! aaaaaaaaaa! #Rangers #Rays – it’s back, though.
• After the first, Shields looks a lot better than their “Ace” from yesterday. #Rangers
• Really nice dive by Moreland to catch the foul ball. Love the dive. #Rangers #NotRyanGarko
• A couple of really good catches including a dive in center for Josh Hamilton! #Rangers #WhatRibs?
• Much better second inning for CJ Wilson. #Rangers
• Free gift run from Shields. Think Pena would have muffed that throw? Probably not. #Rangers #ThanksJoeMaddon
• Anyone else tired of hearing that the #Rangers are not just a power team anymore? We know that. #Duh #SoundsLikeJoeMorganDuh
• Treanors run was a double gift from Shields. First it was a hit by pitch. Second, he scored on Shields’ throwing error. Thanks Jim! #Rangers
• Had to pick up my kid from school. Now behind about 40min in #Rangers game. At least TiVo will let me skip commercials & pitching changes.
• No doubter home run by Ian Kinsler. Capt uppercut comes through. #Rangers
• Complete muff job for Kinsler on the routine grounder. Fortunately, didn’t amount to anything. CJ still shutting out Rays thru 4. #Rangers
• Treanor gets hit in the back again by Shields. Looks like the same spot. If it happens again, charge the mound! :) #Rangers
• Shields looks pissed off in the dugout after coming out. Let’s score the two inherited runners and really make him steam. #Rangers
• All they’re doing is focusing on Shields being mad in the dugout. Got worse after Michael Young’s home run. Hahahaha! #Rangers #Shieldssux
• Michael Young did appear to go around. We appear to have gotten a gift. Led to Joe Maddon’s ejection. #Hahahahaha. #ByeByeMaddon
• Can’t wait to see the post game whining by the Rays. You know it’s coming. #Rangers
• Kinsler gets another RBI, chasing Qualls, who was completely ineffective. #ShieldsInDugoutIsFunny #Rangers #Rays
• 27 min wait for CJ Wilson in top of 5th, didn’t affect him, though. One walk, no runs. Go #Rangers
• I wouldn’t have thought we’d be up 6-0 after six before this game started. #Rangers #BringYourBroomsSaturday
• Nice try by Young going to second on the Hamilton flyball. Gotta hand it to Upton; great throw. #Rangers #Rays
• CJ is mimicking Lee well. In top of 7th, he’s got first pitch strikes to 12 of last 15 batters. #Rangers
• More pissed off Rays. This time Shoppach, on a ball that looked like strike 3 to me. #Rangers #hahahahaha
• Nice job by O’Day and Oliver in the 7th, keeping it scoreless after 2nd/3rd and no outs. #Rangers #RaysCantScore
• RT Evan_P_Grant: Joe Maddon ejected and I counted at least 10 F-bombs in tirade directed at Jim Wolf. Rays may have gotten jobbed, but Rays have lost poise.
• Why did Niemann do good? He wasn’t acting like a whiny brat. He kept his cool, unlike several other #Rays – We’ll take it, though. #Rangers
• Darren Oliver makes the #Rays look bad in the 8th. #GoodNightRays. #Rangers
• Unless i missed it, it took till the 9th inning of game 2 for the Claw and Antlers stuff to be mentioned. #Rangers #WayToCoverTeamTBS
• The #Rangers now have more wins in two games of 2010 series than 96, 98, & 99 combined. This is good! I have a ticket to Game 3. Brooms!

I have to say before the series started, I was worried about CJ Wilson given his “meh” September. Shouldn’t have doubted him, he was every bit as good as Cliff Lee yesterday. CJ went 6.1 innings, gave up just two hits and two walks. No runs, struck out seven. Threw 104 pitches. He probably would have stayed in had this not been a playoff game, but you can’t take chances now.
Our pen was awesome too. O’Day faced one guy, got him out, and Oliver finished the game with 2.1 innings pitched, no hits allowed by any of them, although Oliver allowed one walk. They basically stood on the Rays throats, but the Rays didn’t help themselves by getting so mad after a seemingly blown call didn’t go their way.
They’re now down 2-0 to Texas, which in and of itself is very cool. We have more wins in the first two games of this series than we do in the 1996, 1998, & 1999 series COMBINED – which is quite sad. While the game isn’t over, and Colby Lewis can still lay an egg on Saturday, one gets the feeling the momentum will carry the team on Saturday to a series sweep!
And I have a ticket. Man, it’s gonna be cool! Although I won’t be able to do the tweet thing from there, can’t type that fast on an iPhone. :)

I scored this game at home on my iPad, and was chattering a lot on Twitter today during the game. Jamey Newberg did not, so I’m assuming he was doing lawyer stuff at work, otherwise I would have been out Tweeted 20 to 1. :) My summary of the game will mostly be an archive of my own tweets. In chronoligcal order from right before the start of the game until it was over..

• @Evan_P_Grant the empty seats there are just bloody amazing. Move that team. They don’t deserve them.
• When did the Orioles hide inside the Rays uniforms? #Rangers (Referring to getting to Cliff Lee early)
• Stop giving the #Rays batters time at the plate, please! #Rangers #seligaboutpaceofgameagain (Rays batters seemed to be trying to throw Cliff Lee off by calling time excessively in the first)
• @aandro 4 out of first 5 outs are Ks, though. @aandro Excuse me. 5 out of 6. (in reply to Anthony Andro talking about how many hits the Rays had early on)
• #Rangers – Both Price and Lee have 43 pitches thrown thru 2 innings.
• I just clawed from the couch after Nelly’s HR. Off the roof out there! #Rangers #Boomstick
• Just seven pitches for Cliff Lee in the third. That’s more like it. #Rangers #Pricedidntdothat
• Retweet of Aandro – The three #Rangers with postseason homers are now Nelson Cruz, Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer.
• The three #Rangers with postseason homers are now Nelson Cruz, Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer.
• That’s the second run that scores on a 3-0 RBI hit. #Rangers #ByBbyePrice
• Retweet of craigcalcaterra – Price’s “throw it right down the middle” strategy may not be as devious as he assumed.
• 5-0 over David Price after 5. Rays look like they’ve already lost sitting on the bench. Not a good sign for a comeback. #StepOnTheirThroat
• BJ Upton, you’re not Derek Jeter. Stop it with the stupid hold your hand up at the ump. You are not getting time. #doofus #Rays #Rangers
• 17 of 21 first pitch strikes for Cliff Lee. #Rangers
• Cliff Lee is now the #Rangers record holder for Ks in the playoffs. #AnyoneSurprised?
• David Price is gone in the 7th after about 105 pitches and a 5-0 deficit. A bit surprised by that, honestly. #Rangers #Rays #w00t
• More than once the ball/strike indicator on TBS has been wrong. Doesn’t even match the pitchtrax count. Fail. #Tbsfail #Rangers #Rays
• #Rangers relievers keep Lees shutdown feeling going. Even threw in a strikeout, too. #O’Day #Oliver #CanSmellGame1Win
• Neftali Feliz takes the hill in the 9th. Non save, but this feels good. #Rangers #Rays
• This is not the part of a John Wetteland closing performance you want to emulate. #NoMoreHeartAttacksPlease #Rangers #Rays
• The 9 game post season losing streak going back to 1996 is over. #Rangers beat #Rays 5-1. Feliz looked like Wetteland in 9th for sure.
• #Rangers had lost something like 10 of 12 at the #Rays park before today.
• @SixOkay Rangers win Game 1 of the ALDS! P.S. Megan Fox for Wonder Woman!

That last one is an inside joke with someone (as much as an “inside” joke can be inside on a public thing like Twitter). Anyway, it was cool that the Rangers won. Winning Game 1 against a guy we were expected to be shut down by is a huge morale booster. I mean, wow. We’re up 1-0. The last time the Rangers were up 1-0 was October 1, 1996, when they were up 1-0 over the Yankees. That was our last post season win until today.
A few other thoughts. After we went up 3-0, we had scored more runs than all the six playoff games in 1998 & 1999 combined. Granted, that had a lot to do with the Yankees late 90’s dynasty, but to me, that’s a more embarassing stat than the fact we had lost 9 playoff games in a row, and before today only a single playoff game. Two runs in six games over two years is pretty sad. We destroyed that today. Funny that you can talk about an “offensive destruction” while only scoring five runs.
Ten hits, five runs (four earned). Error by Elvis Andrus, but it didn’t affect anything.
Early on the Rays had a beef with Carlos Pena claiming he was hit by a pitch and then ended up striking out. It was a non conclusive call based on replays (to me), and obviously one never knows how an inning might turn after that. But if that was the only thing different, we still would have won the game.
Long balls by Nelson Cruz & Bengie Molina. As stated above in Twitter, they join Juan Gonzalez & Dean Palmer as the only other Rangers with post season home runs (both of those others coming on Oct 1, 1996 off of David Cone). That doubles the lifetime franchise of home run output. Yeesh.
Both starters had rocky first innings – Cliff Lee loading the bases, but he escaped. Both pitchers had over 20+ pitches the first inning. Both escaped, although Cliff Lee found himself after that, retiring about 12 in a row or so at one point.
The biggest observation of mine came from one of my mid game tweets when the Rays were down 5-0. They were shown in the dougout looking sad and depressed (much in the way I like seeing the Cowboys). The point being that it was only the fifth, and realistically, it was only 5 runs. Yeah, it was Cliff Lee, but the fifth inning of Game 1 of the playoffs is not the place to look like you’re about one out away from being eliminated. It was at that point I didn’t think they were coming back. Even when Feliz walked two to start the ninth, harnassing his inner John Wetteland. Had he been wearing #35 on his back, it would have been TOO scary for comfort.
Tomorrow afternoon is Game 2. CJ Wilson against James Shields. A lot was made after Lee came out about how CJ Wilson essentially idolizes Cliff Lee, and will use his info from Game 1 in Game 2. Hope it works. I like our pitching staff, but I’m nowhere near as confident about a win after Cliff Lee. Prove me wrong CJ. Prove me wrong.