Going into last Sunday’s game against the Astros, I don’t think most people thought Chan Ho Park had a shot in hell to beat Roy Oswalt. And he did. The further thought occurs that I think even fewer people figured Chan Ho could pull it off twice in a row, beating Jon Garland. But he did. That’s the most amazing thing about this 8 game winning streak to me – Chan Ho Park has won twice during it, and hasn’t been blasted out of the water, like he had been the last few years. We beat the White Sox – the team with the best record in baseball coming into this series 2 games out of 2 (third was lost in a rainout). That’s the first time our team has ever (including the Senators days) gone 8-0 in a homestand. Most impressive.
This game didn’t start out that way. After 5.5 innings, we were losing to Garland, 3-1. He was pitching well, and Chan Ho wasn’t. Chan Ho didn’t stink up the joint, but he did walk too many, and had too many jams. It’s quite amazing actually that he only gave up three. Anyway, Garland was doing well. Until the sixth when we just teed off on him. Hits were all over the place, and we put up a 6 spot to go up 7-3, and we didn’t look back. We added 5 more runs in the final two frames to really blow it open – something I don’t think anyone would have guessed.
Don’t have time to run down all the individual stats today (you can check out the box scores below). But I mean – wow. Now we’re going into Detroit, who has been playing better, but I think we match up well against. We should stomp on Kansas City (although we’ve had trouble there the last few years), and then we’re off to my hometown team Philadelphia. Not sure how we’ll do there. I just wish I could see them in person there.
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Rainout. It’s going to be made up when the White Sox return at the end of August. I did wonder about the TV coverage, since this was supposed to be a national game, and the national coverage cut out after 6PM. If the Rangers had ended up playing the game, I wonder if our local coverage folks would step in and broadcast the game locally anyway. Would have been irritating to lose the game like that.
Oh well, doesn’t much matter, it’s being made up later. Park & Garland have been pushed to Sunday instead. We will end up missing Mark Buehrle because of the rain, so that’s a good thing.

While our winning streak to this point was really nice (who can totally argue with 6 in a row), I think most Ranger fans were leery of the fact that it was against the Kansas City Royals (arguably the worst team in the AL), and against the Houston Astros (who after our series were 2-19 on the road). So I think it was with a decent sense of concern that we entered the White Sox series on Friday night. Now this isn’t the same White Sox, as they were running out their version of Chris Young (our starter), Brandon McCarthy. Both of these guys are considerations for Rookie of the Year. So it wasn’t like Kenny Rogers vs. Jon Garland. Still, it’s a way better team than our last two opponents were, and that made for some concern, I would think.
We started off fine, with a home run by Mark Teixeira in the first inning. Was a line shot over the right field fence, and it kind of set a tone. We then picked up a second run with another home run in the bottom of the second, this time by Soriano, who appears to have heated up nicely lately. McCarthy got under control and kept it at 2-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning. It was then we experienced another power surge. After a (shock! – gasp) Dellucci walk, Mike Young jacked the first pitch he saw over the left field wall for a two run home run to put us up 4-0. Blalock singled to right, and the Soriano golfed another pitch right over the right field wall for an opposite field two run home run, putting us up 6-0. All six of our runs this evening came on the long ball.
And all along, Chris Young was keeping the White Sox off the scoreboard. That is, until the seventh when he gave up a solo home run to Paul Konerko. Chris Young went another inning after that for a total of 8 innings pitched. He gave up just the lone run on a homer, and striking out five with no walks. An extremely great performance, and it carried on the excellent starting pitching we’ve gotten the last week or so. Brocail came on for the 9th, gave up a run, and then had some guys on base, so Cordero came on for one of those cheap saves, where it’s based off of guys on deck. Still, a win is a win, and a save is a save, so I’ll take both.
A truer test comes Saturday when we send Chan Ho Park against Jon Garland, Chicago’s best pitcher at the moment. I think most people would say we have no chance here, but we had no chance last Sunday when Park went against Oswalt, and we see how that turned out. Granted, the White Sox are likely to score more runs for Garland than the Astros scored for Oswalt, but still – I’ve been feeling good about the team, I think we have a shot, even given the enormous drag factor of Chan Ho Park.
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I don’t have time to write anything about this game on Friday, trying to finish up a project at work. I’ll say this though. Two sweeps in a row, 6 wins in a row. That feels nice (even if it’s teams you should be stomping on).

I was up a good percentage of the night last night dealing with the baby, so my wife could get some sleep. Because of that, I don’t have much energy in the “creative writing” department, so I’ll give this one a miss. A few bullet points, though.
Nix’s pitch looked like a strike to my eyes watching on TV, but it was interesting to see that kind of emotion out of a player who usually shows none.
Astacio probably saved his job last night.
Blalock tied Bell’s record for errorless games at third by a Ranger.
Hidalgo seems to have figured it out.
We’re now tied for first with the suddenly hurting Angels.
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I missed this game, as my wife and I spent a very nice evening out at the Dallas Arboretum with our daughter. We got something to eat afterwards, so by the time we got home it was almost 11PM, and then I accidentally found out the score, so I didn’t bother to watch the whole game. I just skipped through the game on TiVo at super high speed just to the points where the Rangers scored. I should have paid more attention, as there was something interesting in the 6th inning, an “altercation” between Ryan Drese & Rod Barajas in the dugout. According to the papers, they “disagreed on pitch count”, and depending on whose article you read, there was a physical fight, or just had to be seperated. I didn’t see it, so I can’t comment on it.
As for the game itself, Ryan Drese pitched like he did last year. The game was quick moving, taking only 2:28 to complete. Drese pitched seven innings, giving up just two runs in his time on the hill. He did walk three, which isn’t good, and did bring his ERA under 6 at the end of the game. It was groundball city from what I can gather, which is necessary, if we’re gonna make a run at the Angels this year.
Offensively, we were definitely led by Richard Hidalgo who went 2 for 3. Both of his hits were home runs, accounting for his 3 RBI’s in the game. If you take away Hidalgo, the entire rest of the team had 5 hits the entire night, and those 5 hits were gotten by just three guys (Young 2, Mench 2, Soriano). Not a balanced attack at all. But a win is a win, and we’ve now won 4 in a row, and are 5 games over .500. The feeling seems to be that things are picking up finally. Hopefully we can keep it going.
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Going into this series, this was the game I figured myself and most Ranger fans had pretty much no hope on. Chan Ho Park vs Roy Oswalt. We’re going to lose 11-1. Even given the state of the Astros’ offense, it’s Chan Ho Park. So the final score of 2-0 was no surprise. The fact that Park beat Oswalt WAS a surprise.
Park was just as good as Oswalt was – and more so. Oswalt was what he always was. Great pitcher, doesn’t give you much. In fact, of the two runs we did get, just one was really “earned” (although officially they both were). The home run by Teixeira was the one I’m talking about. The one in the first we really didn’t – we got a triple off the glove of Houston’s centerfielder who doesn’t normally play there. Had the Astros played their regular CF, we wouldn’t have gotten that hit or that run, most likely.
But still. I’m shocked that Park won. A win is a win, but I’m starting to think this Park changing his delivery stuff has been working, and THAT scares me, because it means he’ll be here next year, too.
I was at this game, and man was it way too hot for a May game. This felt like the worst days in August. As it was a day game, my seats were in the sun all game (save for the 9th I believe). So I and all the other regular season ticket holders in my area abandoned our seats and went and sat up top in the shade. All but one guy and his friend who stayed in the sun – rookie mistake that is. :)

Chicks must have loved this game, as chicks dig the longball. There’s not much else to say about this one except I can’t believe how awful the Astros are on the road.
We just destroyed them, and what’s mildly amusing is that this is the second in three games we’ve played against them when we won 18-3 (as we beat ’em by the same score in the last game we played against them in 2004 in Houston).
We set a new franchise record for home runs in a game with 8. Was a joy to watch from a Rangers fan standpoint. I also like the Astros, so that part wasn’t fun.er the weekend on this one.

56 games. 59 scoreless innings, 2,632 games. Kenny’s streak wasn’t anywhere near those ones, but it certainly was impressive while it lasted. Kenny’s scoreless streak was broken up after 31.1 innings pitched. I think most everyone assumed it wouldn’t get near Orel’s record 59 (which Josh said on TV last night was in the mid 60’s if you count playoffs, too). I think people probably expected it to go a little deeper than 4 outs last night. But that’s OK – it was still a great game for Kenny, a win for the Rangers, and it was nice that it was broken up at home, so he could get an ovation.
But to me, the biggest event of the night wasn’t Kenny’s streak, it was Laynce Nix, who basically was the Texas Rangers last night. Laynce went 2 for 4 last night, but wow, was it productive. He had a total of 6 RBI’s (a career high) with a home run and a run scored. He definitely carried our team. In fact, if you take Nix out of the game, we had just 7 hits outside of him, and only one other RBI (Mench). This was definitely Kenny & Laynce’s nights.
We’re even hearing in the local press now that the Rangers want to extend his contract. Gee, I wonder why. Would be nice if it could get done in season, so we don’t have the crap of Boras holding us hostage with other teams’ (phantom, usually) offers. I wouldn’t mind picking up Kenny for another year or two.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the spectacular defense in the game turned in by the Rangers in the second. After Kenny’s streak was broken, our guys in the field kept it from getting a lot worse with TWO runners thrown out at the plate. One was on a throw from Laynce Nix direct to Alomar, and the other was from Mench in left to Mike Young as a cutoff. Both were great to watch, and the second I thought he was out, but a nice swipe tag from Alomar saved it. Was really odd to see two outs at the plate in the same inning like that.
It was also nice to see Nolan Ryan again – he was in the booth with Josh & Tom for awhile. Miss seeing him around the park.
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There’s not much to say about this one. Mark Buehrle was great (7.1IP, 0ER). Ryan Drese was not (5.1IP, 5ER). We had a total of nine hits that were scattered all over the place, never got anything going, leaving 10 men on base.
Andres Torres got his first start as a Ranger, and went 1 for 5. That was about the most interesting thing to me about this game, and that’s about all I can think of to write about this one at the moment. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.