No time for commentary today. Nice to see 5 in a row! :)

It’s four in a row now – but unfortunately, we can’t gain any ground, because division leader Seattle has won their last 5 in a row, and we’re still nine out. However, we’ve moved to within 4 games of 500 again. However, if history is a teacher, we’ll get to within one game, and then lose 7 of our next 9 or something like that.
Anyway, Joaquin Benoit continued to stretch of great pitching with a fourth game in a row that was won by a Ranger starter who pitched pretty good. Benoit went 7 innings, giving up just two (earned) runs on a total of 4 hits. He also had 8 strikeouts and two walks. Overall, some great pitching – no complaints here.
Offensively, we got out to a 5-0 lead after two (with HR’s by Hank Blalock & Arod), and that’s all we’d get and Benoit made it hold up. Actually, after the second inning, I felt like we were going to score like 20 runs and totally stomp on the Devil Rays. That didn’t happen, but I’ll certainly take a good pitching performance and a win any day over a “stomp ’em into the ground” win. :)

When you’re in last place for the better part of four years, you take particular pleasure in a series sweep of anyone. It’s positively orgasmic when the series sweep is against the Yankees, and the cigarette afterwards is the fact that it happened in the Bronx! I can’t say the losses came for a more deserving team. The Rangers pulled off a feat that they have never done in the 42 years this club has been in existence (counting the Senators days, too). That’s take a series sweep of the Yankees in New York (of 3 games or more).
The story of today was John Thomson. He pitched a 3 hit complete game, giving up just a lone run. He walked 5 (a career high), and threw 134 pitches (also a career high). He lookd great, and quite frankly, he looked like the pitcher we’re paying $13 million a year to who has given us squat. Thomson is starting to look like an awesome pickup – if he continues on like this, he should be signed to a couple of year contract! Of the three hits Thompson gave up, two were to Soriano – the entire rest of the Yankees lineup was held in check. Spectacular.
What’s more surprising is that we scored as many runs as we did off Mike Mussina. Going into this game, he was 7-1 with an ERA of 2.02! He gave up four runs in his seven innings (3 earned). It raised his ERA to 2.22. ;) Arod came out of his slump going 2-4. Carl Everett & Raffy also had two hits each, but the big one was Juan Gonzalez’ 2 run home run which gave us the lead we never relinquished.
A nice moment happened before the game when Roger Clemens presented Raffy with a plaque commemorating his 500th home run – and he got a standing O from the Yankee Stadium crowd of 50,000. I wish they would have shown all of that on TV.
We now have 12 games against the Devil Rays & the Orioles. We have a habit of playing down to teams we’re supposed to beat. I hope that the sweep of the Yankees prevents that from happening, I’d really love to pick up some ground, and possibly come out of those 12 games at 500.

Ismael Valdes comes off the DL, and something I’ve been waiting to happen for awhile now happened because of that. We designated Esteban Yan for assignment. I cringed when we first signed him, and continued to have bitter beer face every time he came in to pitch. He certainly threw more gas on the fire when he pitched, or at least stunk up the joint. I cannot say I’m sad to see him go at all. Wish we’d do the same with Chan Ho Park, but one can only dream so much, eh?
Anyway, Valdes was great coming back from the DL. He went five innings, giving up two runs, and the bullpen was great. Brian Shouse is someone who I admit to thinking “Who the hell is this?” when he was signed, and even in spring training. I was wrong there, he’s turned out to be pretty good. Cordero & Urbina closed it down to give us the first two in the Bronx, guaranteeing us a series win in New York. \o/
Offensively, we picked up 5 runs. No home runs, and it’s been a few games since we had one. Arod’s in a bad slump, he’s now something like 0 for his last 14 or so. In fact, the only extra base hit was a double by Teixeira. Nice to see some runs put up with small ball.
Dare we hope for a series sweep tomorrow? :)

Boy, I have to say after the debacle in Boston, I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of facing the Yankees and Roger Clemens going for win #299.
However, early, Clemens was wild, and with five walks, going up 4-1 by the second inning. When we went up 5 to 1 in the fourth, I was feeling good. Hank Blalock had a 3 run double early, barely missing a grand slam by less than a foot. Not everything was great, as Juan Gonzalez struck out four times, and hit into a double play. Blalock also struck out four times, too.
The Yankees did what they did best again, coming back late to tie the game. However, surprisingly, in the 8th inning we didn’t give up about 20 runs all at once (probably because Esteban Yan didn’t pitch) and went behind. It carried into the 12th when we loaded the bases again for Hank Blalock who hit his SECOND three run triple, winning the game.
Was a really great win. Makes me wonder where all this was when we were in Boston, though. :)

This game irritated me so much, I don’t want to write a thing about it. :mad:

I only saw a short piece of this game, as it was on during my bowling league, and then I went from there to go see Matrix: Reloaded. Didn’t appear to miss much of anything, though. :)

This was frustrating. A nice, crisp fast moving game dissolves in the 8th inning when Cordero can’t keep the Sox off the board. Dammit. :(

That’s pretty much the bottom line of this game. Yeah, the Rangers scored 17 runs. Yeah, we gave up 10. Yeah, I got sunburned sitting at the game, but it all doesn’t matter. Raffy got his 500th home run, and I was glad to say I was there to see it! It was funny, because when he popped out after the sixth inning, quite a few people left the stadium. Fools! I bet all of them that left will be telling folks that they were there to see it.

This was an odd game for me, because I always score the game. I had gotten comp tickets from my ticket agent, and was sitting in Sec 26 Row 23 – roughly 20 rows right behind home plate. However, I left the scorecard at home, and I can’t score on the one in the program, because I feel the scorecard is too restrictive, I track far more info than the basic stuff. So I didn’t score. I was watching the game, and as been chronicled, when Raffy came up for his final at bat, I had a feeling that he wasn’t going to do it. Even moreso when he was down to two strikes.

But then he did it. It was quite the moment. My wife was jumping up and down, and was all excited. I was trying to be all excited while still taking pictures and making sure I didn’t miss the moment. It was quite cool to be there (unlike the thousands of people that probably will say they were there when they weren’t).

I know I didn’t write a lot, but it’s one of those “moments” that lives in your mind, but you find it hard to describe. I did have two armfuls of goose bumps while it was happening, though. :)

OK, we lost again. Sigh. We lost again against CC Sabathia. As I sit to write this, I’m more interested in writing about Sunday’s game. :)
It was really nice to see Todd Greene’s cousin Ronald Young, the former Iraqi POW out there to throw out the first pitch. That was a great moment.