What a circus atmosphere. I probably would have been really into it if I was in Seattle – I know I would have worn Ranger colors, too. For some reason, I just don’t see myself getting assaulted in Seattle. Now, I wouldn’t try that if say, Derek Jeter came to Texas, and we were going to the Bronx. :)
However, I was sitting in my living room, and that’s not the same thing as being there. I would have liked to have been there, but from what I could see, it was definitely a circus. You’ll see in the photos below some of it – but the loudness was surprising. I knew he’d be booed a lot, and cheered when he messed up, but it still didn’t compare – even though some of the cooler stuff was announced. My favorite thing a fan did was sit there with a fishing rod with a dollar bill attached, trying to reel in Arod. Now that was funny, yet uncool at the same time. I laughed at that one.
As for the game itself? Well, Ryan Glynn had NOTHING. He has always had a problem with walking a lot, and he did that tonight too. However, he just seemed to have even less than his usual mediocre to bad outing. If Helling has a night like this Tuesday, I can see the folks clamoring for a change. I have to admit I’m surprised at Glynn, as he didn’t pitch this way in spring training.
Our bats kept us in the game for the most part – Raffy did his best, hitting two home runs in the game – the first two in Safeco this season, but we just gave up too many. I have a feeling that will be the story of the season.

Hopefully, I get to use this graphic a lot this season. :)
It was really nice to see us bust out in this fashion, scoring over 30 runs against the A’s. I don’t like the fact that we’re giving up so many – we have the worst ERA in all of baseball so far. We won’t be able to carry the team that long on just the sticks. We need some better pitching. Still, a win is a win, and I’ll take as many as we can get. Especially when we have to chase the Twins (!) for best record in baseball. :)
Anyway, Arod continued his onslaught this weekend in Oakland, going 2 for 3 with 5 RBI’s for a total of 13 for the weekend. It was really awesome to see our offense wake up. Our pitching? Well, Oliver gave up too many and exited too short for a starter. Our bullpen let them back in the game when they shouldn’t have.
It seems that anyone pitching as closer has inherited John Wetteland. First off, Crabtree couldn’t pitch – he was having back spasms. Second, Venafro, who did pitch for a save, proceeded to walk the bases full before getting the job done. I wonder if we can have a closer that goes 1-2-3 anymore! :)

As I started watching this game, I felt good. Kenny Rogers looked pretty good early on. We jumped on Barry Zito for a bunch of runs early on, going up 8-0, on the strength of the bottom of the lineup, who really delivered well.
However, the biggest bat was Arod, who seemed to be the Arod that was envisioned when he was signed. He went 3 for 5, with six RBI’s, a 3 run home run, and some pretty good defense. This is the ARod that I suspect Seattle is so annoyed at losing. I know I would be. :)
However, as the game went on, our bullpen stupidly let the A’s back in the game – they tied the game up 8-8 in the 8th inning. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. When you’re up 8-0, you deserve to win. :) Anyway, ARod came through in the 9th again, delivering an RBI to put us up 9-8, after Curtis & Velarde (both great surprises so far this season) singled, setting the table.
Mr. Wetteland (ahem, excuse me, Tim Crabtree) got his fourth save in true “#35 fashion”. He put a couple on before getting the job done. Crabtree said he learned a lot from Wetteland, he wanted his uniform, and so far, he’s filling John’s shoes very well – taking all aspects of John’s pitching (especially the heart attack style of saving games). :)

This is the type of game that the 2001 Texas Rangers were supposed to have been playing all along. The big bats break out in a major, major way, and our pitching keeps ’em down.
Quite frankly, I expected to win this game, but not quite by this large of a margin. The game started off great enough, with home runs by Rusty Greer & Randy Velarde to lead off the first. That’s all we really needed. :)
However, we didn’t stop there, really teeing off on Cory Lidle. Arod finally got his first home run as a Ranger, which was nice to see. Geez, just about everyone had a contribution here, only Pudge was hitless, going 0-6.
We ended up getting 4 runs off of Mike Magnante, and one off of Jeff Tam. Our pitching on the other hand, was stellar. Doug Davis did our tired bullpen a job, going 6.2 innings, giving up just one run. Zimmerman & Venafro, who pitched the remaining 2.1 innings didn’t give up anything, which was nice to see.
I hope that these offensive stats are the start of something nice, not just an abberation.

Ewwwwwwwww… That’s about all I have to say about this one. Major stinker. As I’m writing this 3 days later, I don’t feel like jogging my memory to remember this piece of crap. :)

Well, of the three games against the Angels, this is the one I figured we’d lose, because of Ramon Ortiz. Never in my dreams would I also expect us to get beat by Benji Gil! Man, Benji Gil was on fire against us – I doubt it was because of us, but he certainly seemed like a far better shortstop than at any time he played with us. It was even interesting to hear Bill & Tom almost fawning over him.
Not a whole lot to talk about in this one – the main story was Ramon Ortiz shutting us down for 7.2 innings – he ran out of gas at the end, and gave up a couple of runs, but was outstanding in his pitching. I went to look for him on my fantasy leagues, and of course, he was taken on 3 of 4 – I nabbed him for another one, dropping Doug Davis from that team.
Anyway, Randy Velarde continues his early season onslaught, getting a double and an RBI – he’s been a spectacular pickup for us – surprised me, that’s for sure. Speaking of pickups, I’m rather glad we have Caminiti, even though he’s not batting all that great so far – his defense at third is a major upgrade over Lamb or Tatis.
Hopefully, we’ll do better tomorrow.

Well, here starts the chain of games that keep you up past midnight. I was watching on my TiVo, so it made it a little better, as I didn’t start watching the game until 9:45, but when you can take the commercials out, it goes faster. :)
Darren Oliver has already won as many games as he did last year on his second start of the season. That’s great and sad at the same time. However, he again pitched like he didn’t really want it – being wild all over the place, not being terribly consistent – but showing just enough to get the job done. Makes me wonder if he pitched against someone good like the Yankees or the Indians – he’d be 0-2 instead of 2-0.
Tim Crabtree really tried to give the game back to Anaheim, it seemed. His first pitch hit a batter, and the next pitch was a double, scoring the guy he hit. However, he got it together, and the game finished with a 7-5 for the home eleven.
A Rod got booed pretty loudly when he came up to bat – I’m not terribly sure why. I can certainly understand him being booed in Seattle, or in one of the other cities where he had talked to about signing, but it kind of surprises me about him being booed all over the place. I wonder if he’ll get booed in Minnesota, too? Ruben Mateo looked good, getting three RBI’s on a base clearing double, finally coming through with the bases loaded.
Mark Petkovsek pitched well again, proving probably that his first two outings were an aberration. Overall a good game, if a bit wild with Oliver on the hill. Still, a win is a win. :)

What an incredible series of baseball. Sure, we lost two of three, but there was some damn great games here. None was a blowout, all were tight to the final out – and with 17 more against the Mariners, this bodes well for a good season of baseball!
I wasn’t too thrilled with the game after the first 4 or 5, when we had left 9 on base. I forget offhand how many we left on base altogether, but we made the game a lot harder on ourselves than we had to by leaving so many men on base.
It was a tight game again, with Kenny Rogers rolling along, his only blips were two solo jacks given up – otherwise, he looked good (if not awesome, he didn’t seem that crisp to me, but he got the job done). He was pulled for a situational pitching match up in the 7th, one I didn’t agree with either (Kenny looked miffed on TV). Zimmerman got out of that inning, however in the next inning, the Mariners scored two runs on a pinch hit two run home run by Mark McLemore!?!?! – Where was this power when he was with us – two home runs for Mac in two games? Guess that’s what happens when you lose your starting job. :)
Anyway, at this point, Randy Velarde had already been brought in as defensive backup earlier in the inning, and he provided the win – with a home run to take the lead and the game. Tim Crabtree got his second save in as many chances in the 9th. A great win, a great series of baseball!
We’re off tomorrow, and then we’re off on a 9 game west coast swing against our three division opponents.

Another really damn exciting game – that’s two in a row. I wonder what Sunday afternoon will bring?
Both starting pitchers in this game (Doug Davis & Brett Tomko) seemed to suffer the same problem. They pitched well the first three innings, but melted down in the fourth. Actually, Doug didn’t leave till the fifth, but gave up a run in the fourth, and several in the 5th. Tomko got knocked out in the fourth after a two run jack by Andres Galarraga, and a massive home run by Ken Caminiti – it was one of those blasts that you don’t even doubt. Even before the camera had switched from Cammy to the right field porch, I knew it was gone. My wife, who was elsewhere in the house, heard me get excited about that, and came in to watch. Fortunately, with TiVo, I can back it up, and watch it again – I don’t have to wait for their replay, I can make my own. :)
Anyway, at this point, we just cruised for the rest of the game, going into the 9th only down one run. Things were feeling pretty good actually, until the 9th – when Tim Crabtree (getting an inning of work) gave up two runs, putting us down three. This gave us the unfortunate circumstance of going up against Kaz Sasaki down three, which is almost as bad as going up against Mariano Rivera down three.
Anyway, we actually managed to pull off two, in a very exciting fashion, capped off by a two run double by A-Rod. That was A-Rod’s third double of the night, breaking out of his “slump”. :)
Petkovsek pitched well, throwing 2.1 innings of scoreless relief. Combined with his two other fiasco appearances, that LOWERS his ERA to 12.6. This is what we signed him for, I know the first two appeareances were abberations, but still – 12.6? Jeff Brantley also threw a scoreless frame.
Another loss to Seattle, but damn – another great game!

What a cool game! We lost, obviously, but it had a lot of the feel of that massive win last season against the A’s when we came back to win 17-16 or something like that.
The only huge negative to this game appeared to be Rick Helling, who looked totally lost out there. He didn’t have any control, his pitches were all over the place, and he just generally appeared like he had pitched yesterday. The Mariners jumped all over him, and forced him out in the fourth inning. Rick’s ERA is now 11.00, a positively disgusting ERA – this is something I would have expected out of the 5th starter, not the first. However, we did have some nice spots pitching wise – and I refer of course, to Pat Mahomes. Pat pitched 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. In fact, the only person he didn’t retire was the first batter he faced – everyone else he got out, which was awesome to see. When he was pulled, I was wondering aloud why, because he was cruising so well. Anyway, Venafro came in, pitched to one batter, and then was pulled for Zimmerman. Zim did his “thing” by giving up a home run ball, but not right away like usual. He waited until the 10th inning to do that, which cost us the game. Zim didn’t pitch all that bad, but his annoying tendency to give up home runs in pressure situations is really starting to bother me.
A big night offensively for Raffy. He scored a couple of runs, and drove in 5, including a massive 7th inning grand slam, which really put us back into the game. In the bottom of the 8th, we had a chance to take the lead after tying, but a play very reminiscent of Pete Rose happened – Ken Caminiti barreled into Seattle’s catcher at the plate, completely bowling him over. However, Tom Lampkin held on to the ball, and Ken was out.
After that, I just had one thing to say. Kaz Sasaki & Ichiro Suzuki. Blech. :)