Back home against the Diamondbacks. I’m a bit disappointed in that neither Randy Johnson or Mike Morgan will pitch (at least Morgan not as a starter). I was going to go to the Sat evening game should Morgan have started, but they said he wasn’t. Oh well. We got behind early, and while we had a good rally in the bottom of the 9th against Arizona closer Matt Mantei, it wasn’t enough – we lost 5-4, even with two home runs (one by Raffy & one by Royce).
However, that wasn’t the story of this game. The story here was that we lost Ruben Mateo for the season. I watched it happen in the bottom of the seventh – the replay was quite bizarre (the TV guys said it wasn’t for the squeamish – more on the TV guys in a minute). It was a pretty ugly thing – he tripped over the base and went down in a heap face down. From the looks of it at the time, it looked exactly the same as the injury that knocked out Pittsburgh’s Jason Kendall last year for the season. He came back strong this year, but Ruben has a history of being hurt – I wonder how much that will impact this injury.
Also, TV guy Tom Grieve is out for a few games, apparently he had some sort of outpatient surgery to “remove a growth from his ear” – I can’t find any more info other than that. His replacement is the radio post game call-in guy Steve Busby (who used to do TV coverage from 1982-1994). I immediately thought Steve Busby was way more chatty than Tom Grieve was. Nothing against Tom, but Steve seemed to talk more than Tom normally does. Also, with Craig Miller not being there for the pre-game show, Ranger games have an odd feeling to ’em. I also want to bring back John Rhadigan for the “man in the ballpark” things – he was really funny.

No Juan again. My gut feeling says we’ll never see him in a Tigers uniform, as the Tigers come to Arlington the last four days of July (aka the trading deadline). I’d be surprised if he’s going to be here then. I could be wrong, but my guess is that he’ll be somewhere else (probably Baltimore).
Anyway, we clobbered Detroit tonight 13-5. Rafael Palmeiro got it started early with a home run in the first inning. He then proceeded to get a couple more hits and RBI’s for a total of 3 hits and 4 RBI’s. Luis Alicea continues to be a most pleasant surprise this season, now batting .333 and going 3 for 4 tonight with 4 runs scored, two walks, and two RBI’s. I really have to admit that I was leery about him, but he’s done a great job this season (so much so that I picked him up on two of my fantasy baseball teams ). Overall, we went 16 for 42 as a team tonight, and Royce Clayton was 2 for 3, and Ruben Mateo was 3 for 5. A great offensive night, which is good because our offence has more or less been asleep the last few games.
Pitching wise, we had another “eh” performance by Darren Oliver, who might be taking a trip to the disabled list if this “dead arm” thing keeps up. He gave up five earned runs in 5.2 innings. However, our pen was great again – Crabtree & Perisho combining for 3.1 innings of shutout ball. That looked good, especially from Perisho.
We come back home for the Diamondbacks this weekend. That ought to be a tougher challenge, and the way we played on the road this trip doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence.

Blech. Although the score wasn’t a blowout – it felt like it. It felt like we never got it together ever in this game. :(

What an awesome game! Kenny Rogers is becoming this year’s version of “The Ranger starter who would have an awesome record if he had some decent run support”. I really felt this is the way this game was going to go last night. However, Kenny kept it to two runs, and won the game thanks to some longballs from Luis Alicea (!) and Rafael Palmeiro.
There was some awesome defense in the outfield by Detroit’s Bobby Higginson. He made one diving, rolling catch, and two others that he really had to haul to catch up to – in my opinion, the best player on the field last night. A nice, well pitched game on both sides, some great defense, and just enough offense to win the game. Couple that with a great looking ballpark, and you couldn’t ask for anything more (except maybe the pitching performance from Yankee Stadium on Sunday night ). Hope the remaining two games are equally as great as this one.
No Juan Gonzalez in this game – or anyone else from the Gonzalez trade on either team last night – that was a bit disappointing. I’m hoping that Juan plays when Detroit comes to Texas in late July. However, that’s the last series before the trade deadline, so if Detroit is going to ship Juan, we may not get to see him in a Tiger uniform.

Blech. I hate writing about games like this. So I won’t. Except for one thing.
Rusty Greer was activated today, and came in late and hit a pinch hit double. :)

Blech. I hate writing about games like this. So I won’t. Except for one thing.
Boy, Bertram is lighting up everything the last two days. As Rusty Greer was held back a bit longer, Bert got a reprieve. And he made use of it, pulling off a straight steal of home. It was awesome to see – although I was listening on the radio, I did get to see it on SportsCenter. Way to go!
Who’s Bert? That’s Scarborough Green – Bertram is his real first name, Scarborough is his middle name. When he was a replacement player with the Cardinals in 95, he went by the name Bert.

I thought coming into this game that we’d light ’em up. If I recall correctly, Mac Suzuki was the pitcher on the mound that game in Seattle last spring where Pudge had 9 RBI’s in one game. I wonder if Pudge thought that at all. :)
Scarborough Green, playing in what is probably his last game before Rusty Greer is activated again really lit up the stage. He was awesome in the field, saving some runs, and then contributing with a bat. Doesn’t really look like he was one of the spring 1995 replacement players (for the Cardinals), eh? :)
I’m not writing much about this one, as I fell asleep again – I had my pet cat Flash buried today, so it’s been pretty stressful for me. :(

Well, you never want to lose, but if you do, it’s not all that bad to lose to this kind of game. It’s always nice to see a well pitched game, you just hate it when they come against you. Still, it was really nice to see Jeff Suppan pitch this well – I’m hopeful the Royals can make a turnaround and be a real team again. They’ve got a great young team (as does Montreal).
Kenny Rogers was no slouch either, giving up just one earned run over 6.2 innings. He pitched well, too, but Jeff Suppan pitched better. There’s not a whole lot you can say about games like this! :)

Last night was a bad night for me. I had to put my pet cat Flash to sleep in the morning, and because of that, I was so stressed, I fell asleep on the couch watching the Rangers game. I missed about half of it, but from what I saw, Helling pitched OK, if not dominating. The long ball won it for us, and we’ve won 7 games in a row and tied for first.
Rusty Greer’s wife had her twins last night – Tom Evans is out for the season – Gabe Kapler reinjured himself, and baseball is talking about raising the mound for next season. A lot happened yesterday! :)