Ismael Valdes got screwed. Once again he pitched well enough to win (he probably should have 10 wins by now), but was let down by someone else on the team. In fact, Valdes retired something like 17 or 18 batters in a row at one point.
We did end up winning the game – today mostly by the long ball. Raffy got another for 3 in the series – one in each game. The Menchman got two this game, and Todd Greene also chipped in. Was a nice offensive output. Would have been better if we could have keep the Cubs off the board so Valdes could get a win. Other than Kenny Rogers’ re-emergence this season, I think Valdes is our best pitching story. I really hope we reup him for next season.
After the game, we fired Oscar Acosta – given his remarks in the newspapers, I’m not surprised. The picture painted in the papers makes him seem like a real hard person to get along with.

Wrigley looked great again, and unfortunately, Dave Burba pitched good. Quite honestly, I never wanted him here, and when I read that he had two starts before he’s gone (which may yet happen), I thought good. Let him pitch crappy in those games, so he can go. Of course, he pitches decent (if not spectacular). Sigh.
As for the game in hand, we went extra innings again, which so far to this point has meant loss. However, we scored 3 (our call up kids doing the work) in the top of hte 10th for a win. Francisco Cordero got a save, and looked good getting it.
Don’t have time to sit and think and write about this one a lot today, but it was nice to see Raffy get a home run two games in a row. Hope that continues!

Wrigley looked gorgeous, and before this game I was saying this was probably our best chance to win a game in Chicago as Bere was pitching. He had the worst record of the three pitchers pitching against us. I should stop doing that, because whenever I saw we’re up against a bad pitcher, he does great, and boy was tonight a night for Bere. With the exception of a Rafael Palmeiro home run in the second (which didn’t look fair to me), Bere was pitching a perfect game into the 8th. Fred McGriff bobbled a popup and then we scored some runs to tie the game. Things were looking good, especially when Rocker was called in and threw three strikes, absolute bullets over the plate, freezing Todd Hundley who never swung his bat. Rocker was EXTREMELY impressive there.
But that’s where it ended. Gonzalez grounded out into a double play, which killed our base runner in the ninth, and then Rocker gave up a home run ball in the bottom of the ninth to lose it. I knew when we tied but didn’t go ahead, we’d lose in the bottom of the ninth. I just knew it.
2.5 seasons of this last place crap is really starting to get annoying. But Wrigley looked nice, so that was something, eh?

Well, I have to admit, that when the game got to 6-4 in the bottom of the 6th, I had gotten disgusted. It’s not that a two run lead was insurmountable, but I didn’t feel like watching anymore. I went off to do some work on the Internet on non baseball things. I kept my eye on the game though with the live “Game day” pitch by pitch count on MLB.com. When I saw us climbing back, I decided to go watch the 9th on TV. I should have known better. :(
We clawed back and tied the game in the 9th against Billy Wagner which was enough of a feat. But when Pudge was thrown out in the top of the 9th trying to take the lead (at the plate), I knew we’d lose. This team just doesn’t seem (to me as a fan, anyway) to have the heart to come back against stuff like that. It’s kind of like when I was growing up watching Pete Rose play. You knew if Rose was anywhere near coming up, you had a chance to win. This team doesn’t seem to have that feel to it. That’s unfortunate, because I like most everyone on the team, but it doesn’t seem to “have it”, which is why I think this season (and most likely next, too) is lost, and we should dump big name players (Uh, Everett) and just go with kids. I think we’ll do better in the long haul – look at what has happened with the Twins the last year or two. They went through some hell, but did it with a bunch of kids, and now they’re winning.
Oh yeah, for the first time as a Ranger, Arod did not start the game at shortstop. Mike Young did. Arod did come in and pinch hit late, but he didn’t start, which was a surprise.
Additional commentary about the game is available here.

Wow – what can you say about this one except Wade Miller was awesome? A three hit shutout with help from Octavio Dotel & Billy Wagner. That’s all she wrote for this game.

The thing to like most about this game, and the thing that was reported on the most in the local media was Mike Young’s game. He was 5-5 with two home runs. Going back into the last game, he’s 7 for 7 in his last 7 at bats. Most nice. Should help raise his stock in John “My second baseman has to hit as good as Arod usually does” Hart.
I don’t have much time to write about today’s game (Monday is usually a hard day for me), but I couldn’t let this go by without praising Mike Young’s efforts.
Oh, and Pudge at the end picking off Hidalgo to end the game. That was very sweet.

Well, this game was fun for me for a few reasons. First, it was dollar hot dog night, which is always good to be able to get FOUR hot dogs for the price of one of them ($3.75) any other time. Walked up to the hot dog stand and said “Here’s something you’ll probably hear a lot tonight – 3 hot dogs!”. :)
Second, I was by myself. Normally I go with my wife, and I really love going to games with my wife (even games I go to by myself seem to be lacking something because my wife isn’t there). But when I go by myself it feels different (and not just because I’m by myself). There’s always something about sitting in the stands by yourself, listening to the game on the radio and scoring the game that seems, well, cool.
Third – we won. The big story on this one of course was the 8th inning when we put up a seven spot – with something like 6 or 7 straight Rangers reaching base. I thought that Chan Ho Park pitched better than before, but nowhere near what he should be. This felt like a spring training game for him (to me). After he came out though – our relief pitching didn’t give up anything at all (runs wise), which was nice to see. Especially Rocker, who was the beneficiary of a very fortunate deflection off himself for a DP. We had gotten a few runs here and there, and we were down 4-3 starting the 8th, which wasn’t bad, but after we had scored one in the 7th, and left two on base, you always get the feeling that we won’t get anymore. Boy, was that wrong – it was capped off by a bases clearing 3 run triple by Mike Young, giving us (at that time) a 9-4 lead. We tacked on one more, giving John Rocker his first win as a Texas Ranger, and getting Park off the hook again.
One thing did bother me about the fans in the stands. We were booing Ken Griffey Jr when he came up to pinch hit in the ninth. I know he’s not our player, but he is most definitely one of the game’s greats, and quite frankly, I saw no reason to boo him. I even said that when I called in to the post game show (yeah, that was me on there talking about Griffey & our fans). I might understand it if Griffey was going to Seattle, but there really is no beef with him here. One caller after me on the post game show said something about “He’s in our house”. Well, duh – but that wasn’t my point. He was one of the game’s greats – and I felt it was very disrespectful to be booing him – it just bothered me.
Finally, I almost wished I wasn’t at the park for this one – because there was a very fun broadcast on TV with Josh Lewin & Tom Grieve in the stands broadcasting. I hope they do that more often. I TiVo’ed the game at home, and watched pieces of it when I got back. I’m more convinced Josh Lewin is one of the most fun broadcasters I’ve seen in awhile. His doing the word scramble, jumping in the dogpile for a home run ball was very fun to watch.
Also, when I was leaving the game, someone stopped me and said Hi. I had said on my site that if you saw me with a Siegler 20 Rangers Jersey, say hi, so someone did. To that person – I’m afraid I cannot remember your name. I’m really bad with names until I’ve met someone several times. It was nice chatting with you, if you ever want to say hi or chat about the Rangers, drop me a line. :)

Should have known better than to expect to win two in a row from a first place team. :) I felt good starting the game. I had just grilled up a steak on the BBQ, was sitting down to eat dinner in front of the Ranger game, and then the Reds’ 22 year old players Dunn & Kearns decided it was time to open up a can of whoop ass on us. Unfortunately, that whoop ass can has been opened on us too many times – I’m getting tired of seeing it.
Their kids did look good – I can see why the Reds are excited about them, they look like great young kids to have. Radio guys made a point that one is making the major league minimum, and one just barely over it. Also, their entire starting rotation is making about two million combined! Yeesh! Park’s getting $400,000 per game to start for us. I’d rather have the Reds guys about now. I have to admit, after we went down 6-0, I pretty much tuned out, and started doing some other things around the house. I did tune in again in the bottom of the ninth, and saw an attempt at coming back, but all it really did was make the score look closer than it should have been.
Jay Powell finally pitched for us, and looked good. Hope that holds up. Also, Ryan Ludwick is making a case to stick around when Carl (I’m now in the way of some really good kids) Everett comes back. Makes me wish we’d eat Everett’s contract and release him. Can’t trade him, unfortunately – he’s untradable given the way he’s played.

Well, this game went right for us in just about every way. We scored runs – got great pitching from Ismael Valdes (who I really hope is still here next year – he’s been awesome), and we didn’t screw up late, even after having brought in John Rocker (whose sprint in from the dugout got him to the pitching mound before Valdes was in the dugout, I’ve never seen that happen before). We had home runs from Mike Young, Herbert Perry, & Kevin Mench (just called up again). Cincinatti had some problems with pitching. Their first guy was normally a reliever, and had to come out after just .2 of the first inning with what turned out to be a broken finger. They ended up going through five pitchers (they were on Pitcher #3 in the third inning already!). Hopefully it strains their pen for the rest of the series.
There were some great comical moments, too. Mike Young’s HR that he didn’t know was a home run and slid into third base, then heard the Natural music was one. Arod’s trip and tumble to score in the first inning was great (provided he doesn’t get hurt from it), and the third was Johnny Bench on the TV coverage asking a cameraman for an autograph. That was totally awesome. Was kind of hoping we’d get Griffey & Arod, but Griffey’s hurt again. Also, the stat about 33 gold gloves (all from catchers) being in the house last night was great too. Bench with 10, Pudge with 10, Jim Sundberg with 7, and Bob Boone with 6. Was nice to see my old friend Bob Boone (who won a series ring with the Phillies in 1980 – my home town team

Dave Burba didn’t give up a first inning run at all – quite a departure from the norm. However, just two days later, I can’t say I remember anything else from this game, except two images from the TV coverage. Some fans in the stands with brooms, and some fans doing that stupid Braves “chop” things. That irritates me more than the wave!