Blowout! Oh my. There’s just too many things to talk about, I’ll probably forget a few.
When I saw the pitching lineup for this game, I expected it to be a high scoring game. I figured that Glynn would give up a few, and Ken Hill would probably get knocked around, as he’s not that good this year (has he ever been since we traded him to Anaheim?). However, I didn’t figure that it would end up quite like this! Of course, all 18 didn’t come from Hill, it was spread out all over the place – we didn’t score in just two of the 9 innings. It didn’t seem to matter whom the Angels sent out there to pitch, we banged ’em around really good last night.
We continued our recent dominance of the Angels in Anaheim, by taking the last 6 games there (going to last September), outscoring them a total of 57-8 in those six games. This series that just ended was 32-5, with 4 of the 5 coming in last night’s game alone! What’s more interesting is that even scoring 18 runs, we also left twelve guys on base – it could have been a whole lot worse – It’s just too bad we can’t do this against the Yankees, dammit!
Todd Zeile & Raffy each went four for four with four RBI’s. With 20 hits and 18 runs, you’d think we had some longball. We didn’t, there was only one home run, and it was a solo shot from a very non home run hitting Mark McLemore. It’s nice, as Mark was hitting the ball well this entire series, but didn’t get a whole lot to show for it. Mark could have had about 13 hits in 3 games, the way he was hitting the ball, it seemed.
Ryan Glynn wasn’t as stellar as Burkett & Morgan were the last two nights, but he pitched fairly well, working out of a jam with the bases loaded in the second or third, not allowing the Angels any runs, which was good. He did give up two runs in the 6th, which was when he was pulled. Mike Venafro gave up the other two (with Patterson & Kolb pitching an inning each, not giving up anything). Our pitching was fairly decent – it wasn’t as stellar as the last two nights, but you can’t have that every time. One interesting note – Glynn’s last two outings have resulted in the Rangers giving him run support of 14 & 18. :)
Bad news, as Pudge jammed his knee going into first base, and had to be helped off the field. As I write this on 2:45PM Thursday afternoon, there’s still no word as to his condition – I really hope it’s not a big break, as the AL All-Star teams are about to be announced, and I want his streak of appearances to continue.
Let’s see how we do against Seattle over the July 4th weekend. The Rangers have Thursday off, so if the A’s beat the Mariners, that means we’ll go into the weekend series with a 6 game lead on Seattle, a 7 game lead on Oakland, and a 9.5 game lead on Anaheim. I really would LOVE it if we could get to 10 games over the second place team by the All-Star break, but that probably won’t happen. I’ll be happy if we can maintain this lead we have now. :)

I thought Mike Morgan pitched the best game by a Ranger last night, but oh my! John Burkett – where’d he go? This guy pitching isn’t John Burkett! This was a spectacular followup to the game in Arlington a few days back against Anaheim. That night, Burkett obviously pitched the best he had all season, and I genuinely felt bad for him when it started to rain, and they were pulling the tarp on the field – Burkett still stood there. It’s really cool that he followed that up with an even better performance this time out. He went 7 innings, giving up no runs and only one hit. Everything seemed to be working – which was great. We could use this kind of Burkett, not the one who was shagged out at the beginning of the season. Still, I’d be surprised if the Rangers pick up his option for next year after this year – it might be on to the Pro Bowlers Tour for Burkett after this. Still, it’s great to see him coming around, it can’t do anything but help the team.
The bullpen tonight (Zim, Wetteland) pitched two no hit/run innings to close out the one hit shutout.
Our offense seemed slow to come – we scored in just the fourth inning (two small ball runs), and then in the 8th, Juan Gonzalez hit a three run home run to seal the game. Juan’s in the middle of one of his hot streaks – I hope if it keeps going, the all star break doesn’t screw it up, as he probably won’t go there.
Speaking of that, Juan is starting to sound a bit like a prima donna to me. I know he says “for the team”, but the two comments about “no HR derby” and “I won’t play unless voted in” are a tad to the prima-donnaish side of things, which the Rangers have always seemed able to stay away from.
One other interesting thing, Mike Morgan was shown on TV being very animated in the dugout after last nights’ game – it was pretty cool to see. :)

I felt so bad for Mike Morgan. One pitch away from a complete game shutout. He was totally masterful all through the game. It was the bottom of the ninth, two out, and two strikes. He made his one mistake of the entire night. Todd Greene screwed it up, and hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth. However, Mike did get the complete game win. It was the first such beast by any Ranger pitcher this year. It was only the second complete game by a Ranger pitcher all year (the other was an 8 inning pitched complete game loss by Rick Helling). It was Mike’s first complete game in a couple of years, and if he had gotten the shutout, it would have been his first CG shutout in 6 years. Still, he was absolutely dominating, getting his ninth win of the season. This guy has turned out to be the steal of the offseason. Can’t believe he’s been cast aside by so many teams. I know his run support is part of it, but still, the fact that we have a 39 year old starting pitcher that is with his 11th team, and has 9 wins is still impressive to me.
I was out getting a haircut, and missed the top of the first inning, so when I got in the car to drive home, it was already 2-0. I had missed Juan’s home run, and the announcement that Dick Bosman broke his hip. Now forgive me, but what exactly is Dick Bosman doing roller blading? That seems like an activity that is far too young for him. I know George Bush was skydiving for his 75th anniversary, but it just strikes me that rollerblading is not the best thing for Dick to be doing. They said during the game that he’s going to be out “indefinitely”, and that Larry Hardy has taken over as the pitching coach, with Butch Wynegar being called up from AAA to serve as bullpen coach.
Our offense teed off on Chuck Finley, whom we always seem to do good against. We had three home runs again (Juan, Raffy, Royce), accounting for 6 of the 9 runs. We were up quickly, which probably is what gave Mike Morgan what he needed to pitch the way he did. I really want to sweep these guys, as we had such a problem gaining a lot of ground in Seattle, we’ll need all three to pick up some room. I’d love to have at least a 6 game lead over second place, and a 10 game lead over last place by the time the All-Star break comes around.

The final game at the Kingdome, and we lost. Damn. On Friday, it was the home run show by the Rangers. On Saturday, it was the walk show by the Rangers. Today it was the Ken Griffey show. He powered the offense, robbed us of a three run home run (off Juan’s bat), and generally showed why he’s regarded as the best centerfielder in the game today. He was quite cool to watch.
It was an interesting game, as three people got ejected – two Rangers (Royce Clayton & Johnny Oates), and one Mariner (Edgar Martinez). Royce was arguing a call, and got tossed, and when Johnny came out to defend Royce, he got tossed, too. Baseball is one of those weird sports where when you’re at home, and your manager is arguing, the crowd cheers even more when your own guy gets thrown out. You’d think the fans would boo, but they cheer. :)
We lost, and I was annoyed by that, but it seemed like a great game to watch. It’s a pity it was on Fox Sports Southwest, as they have no concept of post game show. I wish this was on Channel 39, as we would have gotten to see some of the post game stuff, which I really wanted to see.
I hope Tom Hicks moves the Rangers to his own station for all 162 games, and does good pre-and post game shows. It’s obvious Fox Sports Southwest doesn’t know how to do that. :(
Tom Goodwin was back off the disabled list, pushing Scarborough Green back down to AAA. Ruben Mateo is still on the DL, and is supposed to go straight to AAA when he’s off the list. Today’s DMN reports that Eric Gunderson’s rehab assignment outing didn’t go all that well.

I didn’t get to see or hear the bulk of this game, because I was out of touch virtually all day working on my car, and didn’t have access to a radio.
However, in looking at the box scores, it appears that walks killed us. Damn.

Well, I can only think of two words to describe tonight’s game – BOMBS AWAY!!
It’s Monday afternoon, and it’s now 3 days since this game, and my memory is not what it was over the weekend. However, if I’m not mistaken, all but 2 or 3 of our runs came from runs driven in by a home run. It was very much an offensive type of night.

After last night’s fiasco, I was glad to come home, and not have to worry about getting to the game. :)
Anyway, about the game. When I heard Burkett was starting this game, I figured it’d be a slugfest. Burkett has been really ineffective as a starter this season (he’s done fairly decent in the pen), and I figured this would be no different. Wow – he was such a surprise, pitching 6 totally solid innings. He looked like the Burkett of old, when we first signed him a few years ago. If he pitched like this all the time, we wouldn’t need to be trading for a pitcher next month. In fact, I felt really bad for Burkett, as he was out there at the start of the 7th, and there was a rain delay after he had worked an 0-2 count to the first batter. When the rain came, the Rangers were running off the field, and the tarp guys were already at work. Burkett was still standing there, like he didn’t want to stop. I genuinely felt bad for the guy, I wanted him to keep going. Still, it was an awesome performance for a guy who quite possibly could be pitching in his final season.
Our offense got going early, scoring all five of our runs in the first two innings. Surprisingly, the A pitcher stayed in there after that, and settled down. After the second, we really didn’t get much else going offensively, which always worries me. We could have had more, though as Ben Grieve made a catch right against the left field wall, which appeared to have deflected off the wall first before he caught it when viewed on TV replay. Raffy was all the way to third, and was an easy double play. We should have had a few more there, but we got away with the same play in Boston last week when Ruben Mateo did more or less the same exact thing.
Our relief pitching continued it’s dominance, and I have to say that with the one exception of the home run ball Burkett gave up in the 6th, our pitching was masterful. I wish we had this kind of stuff every time out from Burkett, we’d be in much better shape than we already are in.
On to the Kingdome to shut that stupid thing down!

Oh man, what an annoying win. For me personally. Let me tell you why…

Well, around 4PM, I had my tickets handed to me. These were luxury box tickets – it turns out they were in the lower level box behind home plate, a little up the third base line. We were still behind the screen that hangs behind home plate – that should give you an idea of where these seats are. Well, when I found out that I was in a luxury box, I first thought, digital camera! This box belonged to the firm that our company’s lawyer works at. Great stuff – they were kind enough to invite my wife and I to a game back in April in the seats they have right over the dugout, too.

So, I went home, got dressed for the game, picked up my wife, and ran back to the office to pick up a co-worker who was riding with us. Also going were others from work in a seperate SUV. Since I live in Garland, my regular route to the ballpark is to pick up Rt. 30 in Garland, and just ride it out to Arlington and the Ballpark. We’re driving along, and hit downtown Dallas, and get through the mixmaster. We pass that, and come out to go by Reunion Arena, and we hit traffic – looks like an accident. So, we’re creeping along, and by this point, we’re right at the point where Rt 35 splits off, and Rt 30 splits off to the left, and continues out to Grand Prairie & Arlington. Well, traffic is stopped, and my car decides that it wants to stop, too! It stalls, and doesn’t want to start. By this time, it’s about 6:10. I get on the cel phone that my wife happened to have, and called AAA for a rescue, after I pushed the car to the side of the highway. I also then called the other car on their cel phone (hey, this is the computer game industry I’m in, we all have cel phones), and told them of my predicament. They show up about 10 minutes later, and they picked up my wife and our friend, and they carried on to the Ballpark. I stayed behind with the car and waited for AAA. It took about another 40 minutes or so for him to show up. It was 95 degrees out, and I’m on cement, in the sun. Er, it was not cool – let’s just say that. The AAA guy shows up about 7:20 or so, and we get rolling right around 7:30. I finally got back home with my dead car right around 8:00PM.

Now, the game is about 25 minutes old, and I’ve totally missed the Stanley Cup presentation that I wanted to see. Not to mention the fact I’m missing out on the luxury box, which is a once in a lifetime thing. Not to mention I really missed my wife. I wanted her to see the Cup, I didn’t want her to stay with me, I figured we both didn’t have to suffer, so I alone waited for the car. It’s 8PM, and I picked up the wife’s car, and drove it out to the Ballpark and met up with the guys already there. Now, one thing about my wife’s car – it has no working air conditioner, so we try to use that only when we have to. And boy, it was still hot out, although two open windows kept it somewhat cool. I finally made it out to the Ballpark, and the game was still in the middle of the 3rd inning. That surprised me, because when I took off from home, it was still the top of the second. It’s about 36 miles from my house to the Ballpark (I’m not sure of the exact mileage). So, I was moving. :) When I got there, parking was already free, so I got to park for free, but unfortunately, I had to park in the middle of where the old ballpark was. If you know the layout of the area, it’s a LONG walk to the ballpark from there. I had to walk past the convention center, past the mini kids ballpark, up home plate, and into the park. When I got out of my car, the A’s had just made a pitching change with one out in the bottom of the third. By the time I got to the ballpark itself from my parking spot, the fourth inning was starting. The final nail in this story’s coffin was this.. I entered in the home plate section. I looked at my ticket, and it said “Dizzy Dean Box – Lower 15B”. So, I figured that meant the box was near section 15. So, I walk down towards third base where section 15 is, and go up to the luxury box level. The ticket person there said I need to walk back towards home plate. So, as if I wasn’t hot enough from all that had happened to me with the car, the walk, the drive(s), I had to walk back to home plate, and I could have taken a friggin elevator! Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

However, I finally get there, and I was so overheated, it took me till the bottom of the fifth before I could really start to enjoy myself. But oh man, were these seats sweet. This was definitely a once in a lifetime experience, and I’m glad I got to be in the box, even missing the first three innings. If you ever get the chance to use one of these, go! It was beautiful. I had taken a digital camera, that I gave to my friend Kevin who was in the car with me to take to the Ballpark. When I got there, I took pictures (Kevin took some when I wasn’t there).

What was weird about the game in a luxury box is that you don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the game itself. I’m sure if you’re up here a lot, you do, but when you’re in a luxury box with a catered meal, you don’t spend a lot of time paying attention to the game at hand. Sure, I watched, and I saw some scoring and good plays, but my focus was on the box itself. It had a private bathroom, sink, counter space, lounge chairs inside, in addition to the 10 actual seats outside in the ballpark area. They also had two seats from Arlington stadium autographed by Nolan Ryan inside the box. That was a nice touch. There were several photos, including a nice one of Arlington Stadium, as well as some of Nolan Ryan. Top notch stuff, and if anyone’s lucky enough to be able to be in one of these reuglarly, I have to salute you – these are the way to go.

The game itself was kind of interesting. From what I listened on the radio to, Mike Morgan was a bit wild early, giving up three runs in the first two innings, including 41 pitches in the second inning. However, he got it together after that, giving up nothing from innings 3-7. He was then replaced in relief by Mike Munoz & Tim Crabtree for an inning – Munoz gave up a weird run. Wetteland came in for the ninth, and things looked bad – he gave up another home run (to Ben Grieve), and the score was 7-6. He did hold on for the win, breaking a season high four game losing streak. This game to me was more about my car troubles and the box than the game itself, so I’m not going to write any more – these things were about all that I remember from the game anyway. :)

However, Ben “bed bouncer” Grieve had his second two home run game of his career. Guess where the other one was? That’s right – at the Ballpark in Arlington last year. We should have this boy here, as he kills us. Of course, we’d be so innudated with remarks about Tom Grieve too, it’d get sickening, I’m sure.

Oh man, what an annoying loss.
Aaron Sele seemed to be rolling along, although he came out after the fifth inning. Our rookie phenom pitchers kept the middle up, not giving any runs, or much of anything in the 6th through the 8th. We were up 3-2 going into the ninth.
Unfortunately, John Wetteland had a meltdown in the top of the 9th, and gave up three runs. Now, that alone would have been bad enough on this loss. However, in the bottom of the ninth, two big things consipired against what was an apparent comeback for (at least) the tie. Tony Phillips, who had just been put into center field (he was playing second all the other 8 innings) made probably the catch of the season. Text doesn’t describe how awesome this catch was. That robbed Juan Gonzalez of an easy double, with two RBI’s to tie up the game. What made it worse was that Rusty Greer was called out for a major brainfart – he passed Pudge on the basepaths, which is a huge no-no. Actually, that was the second thing like that – Rafael Palmiero got caught in a rundown at third, and was thrown out – basically throwing away a run there. :(
Oh man. Not only did we give it up in the 9th, but we screwed ourselves in the bottom of the ninth. Did’t like this at all – but tomorrow night’s trip to the luxury boxes would have made up for it. Or so I thought – wait till you read tomorrow’s commentary by me!

Crap. First losing road trip of the year. I don’t have time to write anything, as I’ve been obscenely busy at work today.