This is the time of year that folks who root for bad baseball teams find ways to do other things. I’m no different. Last night I spent a lot of time watching the Monsters Inc. DVD that I got in yesterday. :)
I tuned in late to the game, and guess what? We lost in extra innings again. However, by far and away the most entertaining thing of the game that I watched was Lou Piniella’s blow up after Mike Young made a spectacular play at second to get (at least by the umpire’s call) an out. Lou of course came out and had a major Lou meltdown. Quite funny to watch, ESPECIALLY as the umpire kept his cool and didn’t say a word, just kind of stood there and let Lou spew. I’m fairly sure that egged Lou on a bit more than he might have. Was also nice of the TV folks to leave the game on Lou, and not cut away to commercials, so we could see it all. There’s only one picture below of this, wish there were more stills. Quite quite funny.
He didn’t pitch in this game, but I still don’t like Rich Rodriguez. Oh yeah, Arod didn’t start the game, but did pinch hit late. Would have liked to have seen the entire night off for him, but one pinch hit isn’t that bad, I guess.
Additional game commentary is available here.

You know, when a game is played close, and you lose late, you’re supposed to say “I don’t mind losing that because it was a good game”. I’ve gotten tired of saying that over the last three years. I want to win again. I’m sure the Rangers do too, but as a fan, hey, all I can do is bitch about it, right? I can’t actually make decisions that impact the games, right? :)
Anyway, Chan Ho Park looked good, even though he walked 8 batters, it didn’t seem to impact him too much. Park has done a complete turn around lately, and he seems to be the pitcher we had signed, not that guy wearing #61 for the first half of the season. This is good, as I hope he can carry this over into next season. It does show he doesn’t come back well from an injury, though.
Arod looks beat out there, I think he needs a day off. Also, I still don’t like Rich Rodriguez.
Additional game commentary is available here.

I didn’t see most of this game, as I was watching my hometown Philadelphia Eagles whoop up on the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football. I did see the latter stages of the game though. I was bummed I missed Pudge getting ejected, it looked like quite a scene, especially with him flipping off the umpire. The DMN says that he could be in line for a suspension, but we’ll see if that happens.
Anyway, we managed a comeback against Kaz Sasaki in the 9th (who doesn’t look as impressive this year for some reason). However, our usual problem turned itself up late. Too many walks. In fact, we had 13 walks over the 11 innings, the last one being the worst, as it gave the Mariners the win. Normally I don’t like saying “Let’s end this season”, but since the Rangers seem unwilling to NOT use Rich Rodriguez, I’ll be glad when the season is over so I don’t have to look at him pitch for us (hopefully never again). In fact, all 6 of our pitchers walked at least one Mariner – yeesh.
No home runs at all in this game, which isn’t surprising with the ballpark we were playing in, but what was surprising was how ineffective Arod was last night. He had several opportunities to drive in quite a few runs, and did nothing – that was a bummer. Always love to see Arod stick it to the Mariners. In fact, if he’s gonna hit 60, he needs to get going, as there’s now 12 games left for him to get 5 home runs. 6 home runs to tie Maris’ AL record for home runs.
Additional game commentary is available here.

No time to write about this game as I sit here and do this page on Monday afternoon. Too busy at work. Besides, we got swept. :) Additional game commentary is available here.

No time to write about this game as I sit here and do this page on Monday afternoon. Too busy at work. Besides, we got swept. :) Additional game commentary is available here.

No time to write about this game as I sit here and do this page on Monday afternoon. Too busy at work. Besides, we got swept. :) Additional game commentary is available here.

Listened to this game at work, and as such, I didn’t get much listening done. I rarely do when at work.
Was really nice to see a win, and a sweep of the Mariners, who really got hurt by losing all four in Texas. It also brings us that much closer to actually getting to .500 before the end of the season. It’s not out of the question, but is definitely a tough project with so few games left in the season. It’s the first time we’ve swept Seattle in a four game series since around 1992, I think, and the first time at home since 1986. We’re also 30-30 since the All-Star Break. 19-9 Since August 4th, and 5 games above 500 at home. w00t! :)
Additional game commentary is available here.

I’m not going to touch on the September 11th stuff, as there’s been a lot written by a lot of people who could write about it a lot better than I.
As for this game, Colby Lewis was far more impressive than I anticipated him being. I didn’t see most of the game, because Wed is my bowling league, and missed most of it, but t was nice to see Arod jack another one, for 54 now, as well as a nice finish in the bottom of the ninth, damaging the Mariners chances some more – bet they thought coming to Texas would be a cakewalk. :)
Dare we think sweep? :) Additional game commentary is available here.

Well, I was at this game, and for a game that featured only 13 hits and 5 runs, it ran awfully long. I know the box score said 2:59, but it seemed to be awfully slow and boring, even for a game that (barely) had a time under three hours. Anyway, it was still nice to see some good pitching. Kenny pitched well, although he wasn’t sharp, throwing about 110 pitches or so in 6 innings. Kenny’s only mistake was a throwing error, which allowed his only run to score. Rudy Seanez was NOT good – his line doesn’t look THAT bad, but sitting at the Ballpark, he looked really “eh”. My least favorite Ranger, Rich Rodriguez came on, and threw two pitches to get out of the Seanez inning, and Cordero was absolutely lights out, striking out the side in the 9th for the save.
Was a nice night at the ballpark, saw a good win, and there was less than 20,000 there – well, announced, anyway. We broke our home run streak of 27 consecutive games, as we didn’t have any tonight. There was a short video tribute to the home run streak before the game, which was nice to see.
Also, what’s with the HORRIBLE music at the Ballpark anymore? They are playing music before the game that is just a) not baseball music and b) just atrocious anyway. We really need Chuck Morgan back. Give him a massive pay raise, and fire the three people they replaced Chuck with. YEESH!
Additional game commentary is available here.

I only saw a few minutes of this game, as I was watching Monday Night Football (damn Steelers lost – Grrrr). Anyway, the only bit I saw was when I flipped to the game in the bottom of the 6th, and Arod was at bat. Decided to stick around to watch him bat, and given that I only saw about 3 minutes of the game, I watched the right 3 minutes – got to see a great home run by Arod. Then I see by the box scores that he hit another, as well as Raffy hitting #40.
Also saw where Arod & Raffy are the first two players ever to hit 50 & 40 home runs two years in a row. No one else has ever done that. Nice job, guys!
I think that might be it for Aaron Myette. Probably pitched himself out of a job.
Additional game commentary is available here.