This game got out to a really fast start. We scored four runs in the first inning, then two in the second, and another in the third, putting us up 7-1 right away. It just “felt” like a blowout was on the way. We won, but we didn’t get a blowout. Mike Morgan allowed the Twins to creep back into the game.
Our four runs in the first came by us getting a whole slow of singles, after a leadoff error allowed Roberto Kelly to get on. Then Pudge, Rusty, Juan, Raffy, & Todd all singled to give us our runs in the first. Pudge had another great night at the plate, he’s just on fire offensively – he’s also got a 12 game hitting streak going, too. He was 4 for 5 with a run scored last night – he’s batting some atmospheric number (around 750 or something, isn’t it?) since the All-Star break.
Actually, we were outhit by the Twins 14-13. Of all these 27 hits, the bulk of them were singles. We had one double (Greer), one triple (Kelly), and one home run (Mateo). The rest were singles. Minnesota had four doubles, the rest were singles.
Mike Morgan got his 12th win of the year, who woulda thunk it? :)
On TV, we got to see the 15,000,000th fan ceremony. They picked someone and said they were the 15 millionth fan to see a game at the Ballpark. They flashed a stat saying in the 21 years the Rangers played in Arlington stadium, they had about 31 million all told, and we’ve gotten half of that in just under 6 seasons at TBIA. Less, actually, since the first year TBIA was around, the season was cut short (due to the MLB players strike).

Well, I got to see this one (see last night’s commentary) because it was on KXTX. :)
Jeff Zimmerman (am I the only one besides Jeff that thinks “The Zimmenator” is a stupid nickname?) tied a 73 year old record for consecutive wins by a reliever to start a career by going to 9-0. Unfortunately, his scoreless streak was broken at 29 2/3 innings. However, the way he’s pitching this year, it’s hardly noticeable (his ERA is now 0.88 after that run).
However, the story of this game was Pudge. He hit two home runs, driving in 4 of our 5 runs (Raffy had the other) with a solo shot and a three run home run. He also picked off a runner at third – his sixth pure pickoff of the season, the first at third. There’s no doubt that Pudge was the star of this game, it was quite cool to watch him play last night. Pudge also now has 20 home runs for three years in a row, tying a record for catchers. If Pudge gets one more steal between now and the end of the season (I think that’s a safe bet), he’ll be the first catcher in all of MLB history to have 20 steals and 20 home runs in a season. In fact, given there’s about 57 games left or something like that, I think there’s a good shot of Pudge getting to 30/30 providing he stays healthy.
Speaking of Pudge, I used to like Juan better than Pudge, but lately that opinion has changed a lot given the way Juan’s been behaving – I read an article about him verbally abusing Johnny and attacking a water cooler. I also saw the cooler last night (before I read about Juan’s battering of it) with the sign “Please don’t hit me, I’m a nice cooler”. It looked funny on the TV. :)
Burkett pitched OK – he’s definitely our fifth starter, but for him, it was a decent outing – I didn’t think he pitched bad at all, caught a few bad breaks, and was hit, but not lit up. I hope he can keep it going at least at this level for the rest of the season.
Attendance was pathetic for The Ballpark. Was only 24,720. I know it’s Monday, and it’s the Twins, but that seems really low for us!

Figures. The game I wanted to go to because of the raising of the Nolan Ryan flag, and the giveaway of a Ryan flag and the one that is one off from my season ticket game is the one they blow out the Royals. :(
To make matters worse, my lame ass cable company has Fox Sports Southwest out of whack again for the second day, forcing me to miss another Rangers game because of their screwed up setup – this is about 6 this season because of this. I didn’t get to see the game, but I listened to part of it, and I got disgusted because I couldn’t see it that I stopped listening too, and started watching a movie.
I hate my cable company! I live across the street from a TCI building, yet we have some other company – go figure.
Sele turned in his longest outing of the season, going 8 full innings. He gave up 5 runs though, but did go long in the heat, which was nice to see.

I was at this game (was one of my season ticket games), and quite honestly, I wish I didn’t have to be. I was so tired from the trip home last night (I never got in until 2AM, and I was supposed to be home around 10PM or so). Tack on the heat, and I wasn’t feeling that good during this game, and it had nothing to do with the team. I was feeling queasy, so I left in the top of the 7th inning – I abhor this kind of behaviour, but I will do it for illness. :(
The game itself wasn’t a whole lot better. It looked good early, with a 5-0 lead after two innings, but that was about it for us, except for a couple more runs late in the game. We had a pitching meltdown, which is rare for us this season, unlike past seasons. :)
Jonathan Johnson pitched several innings in the middle, and appeared to be a sacrificial lamb. He was lit up pretty well, but he stayed out there for three full innings, when he should have rightfully been pulled very quickly. He was sent right back down after this appearance, I doubt we’ll see him again this season before the September callups.

I didn’t hear or see anything on this game, because my wife and I were travelling back from Baltimore, and had a horror story travelling (delays in both Baltimore and our layover Chicago). Because of this, I have no commentary of any kind on this game.

This game my wife and I did not go to. The main reason why we didn’t was because it was a day game, and quite frankly, this was our one big day to explore the Inner Harbor. Besides, I don’t generally like day games in the summer anyway. We had a wonderful time exploring several things in Baltimore – the highlight was definitely the Aquarium there.
We were in the Aquarium when the Ranger game was happening, so we didn’t get to see or hear any of it. I did catch some highlights on SportsCenter on ESPN later in the evening. WOW – what a home run by Royce Clayton (423 feet; into the Rangers bullpen in Baltimore). In fact, all three of our runs were solo home runs (Clayton, Pudge, & Kelly). I had a bad feeling about this game going in, as Mike Morgan doesn’t seem to pitch well in the heat – and it was hot. Add to that the fact that he still had that bruise from being wailed by a batted ball in his last start, and I wasn’t expecting what he gave us (6 innings, 3 hits, 1 earned run). Our bullpen gave up donut, and it was a really nice 3-1 win by the Rangers. Would have liked to have seen it, but I had such a wonderful time seeing the sights in Baltimore that day that it really didn’t matter.

Our second of two games at Camden Yards. This place is great – my full report on the Orioles’ ballpark is coming soon.
Big difference between this game over the last game was that my wife and I were by ourselves this time – no Ranger fans around, so we had to chill out a bit. Was a bit rainy before the game, but our seats were undercover, so that helped, even though it had more or less stopped raining by the time we had walked over to the hotel. There’s a shot of what my seats looked like in the pictures below.
We lost this game by the same score that we won by last night. I felt Burkett was left in just a tad bit too long, but he didn’t pitch all that bad, either. Cal Ripken missed his 400th home run by about a foot or two – the ball was just foul past the left field foul pole. Damn, I really wanted to see that. :) We did get a couple of Ranger home runs – one by former Oriole Todd Zeile, and another by Ruben Mateo, which was opposite field, not that far away from where I was sitting. That was nice – and the home runs were about the only time my wife and I actively “cheered” the Rangers this game. :)

My wife and I were at this game in Baltimore. We decided to take a vacation together, and we had never seen the Baltimore Inner Harbor, so we decided to plan a trip around when the Rangers were there. I know it’s kinda geeky, but hey, it’s something cool to do for a Rangers fan. :)
What was cool was that where we were sitting there was at least two other groups of Ranger fans. A family of four from Carrolton, and some people behind us who I think were from The Colony. It was quite cool having around 12 Ranger fans there, and we could shout for the Rangers – that was quite cool. What was not cool was the ballpark. It was friggin hot! I had forgotten what humidity outside the state of Texas was like. Yikes! My wife and I also met the author of a baseball book in one of the resturants before the game started. The book is called “Minor Players, Major Dreams”. I’ve ordered it from Amazon, so I hope to have some commentary up on it before too long.
It was cool that we won the game, but to tell you the truth, I was paying more attention to the Ballpark itself – I tend to do that when I’m in a place I’ve never been before. I’ll have my full report on Baltimore’s stadium up shortly.

Well, this game wasn’t broadcast anywhere, so it’s hard to do commentary on it. :) Nice to see a bunch of home runs, and from the pictures below, it’s wild to see the old uniforms again, especially on people that weren’t here before when the Rangers wore them last.
And Gregg Zaun pulling a Babe Ruth – that was quite amusing. There’s a pretty cute article about this here.

Not available, but we certainly seem to like to let Tampa Bay get back into things late in the game, don’t we? :)
I felt awful for Helling, as he was going so well, until the home run to McGriff in the bottom of the 9th.