The picture below of Buck Showalter arguing with an umpire below pretty much sums up this game. Pedro Astacio pitched even worse than Chan Ho Park did the first three years here and allowed seven runs in the first inning, and exiting after .2 IP in the game. That’s an ERA of 94.5 for this game. Hell, Rangers Captain could probably pitch better than that. Nolan Ryan RIGHT NOW could pitch better than that. Hell, I bet even Jose Canseco could pitch better. OK, I think you get my point. There was a smell coming from the pitcher’s mound of epic proportions in the first inning. Oddly enough, that’s where it ended.
Joaquin Benoit allowed 4H and 1 run in his 4.1IP. Kameron Loe allowed no runs and a single hit in his two innings. Mahay and CoCo allowed a hit each, but no runs. Our bullpen was pretty spectacular, too bad Astacio was craptacular.
Offensively, Alfonso Soriano led the way with two home runs and four RBI’s. Blalock also had a homer, and Gary Matthews chipped in for the 6th RBI. But it wasn’t enough due to the craptacularlness of Pedro Astacio. Another of those, and we won’t be seeing anymore “Vote for Pedro” signs at the Ballpark, eh?
Buck Showalter got tossed for the first time as a Rangers manager. Was cool though to see him turn his hat around backwards and argue – the mark of a true manager/ump argument, IMO. That and Billy Martin’s old “Kicking dirt” piece which I’ve seen Lou Piniella do a few times. :)
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We had a 7 run fourth inning, and a 6 run 8th inning. That was pretty much the game in a nutshell. :)
Plus it rained a lot. Don’t have time to write about this one. Was nice to get a sweep inside our own division. Plus the Yankees are tied for last place with Tampa Bay. It’s all good.

We’re back to 500 again. 28 games in, we’re at .500 and are in second place, 2.5 games back. Not too bad. Not great, as we seem to be stuck in quicksand in both the pitching and hitting departments. Although you wouldn’t know it the last two games in Oakland. Let’s see if we can win 3 games in a row this season (a first) and get over .500. :)
Last night was an odd game offensively. We actually were outhit by Oakland 9-7. But we bunched a couple of hits behind a few walks, and a gift infield hit for a 5 spot in the 6th, which was the difference in the game. In fact, pitching wise, this game went much like the night before, with a pitcher doing really fabulously well until he just broke down and allowed a bunch of hits/runs.
Chris Young had a pretty decent line – he went 5.2 IP, 7H, 0R, 3BB, 3K. It’s always good when you don’t allow any runs, but he did have 10 baserunners during his 5.2IP, which means he was in hot water a couple of times. I liked he tossed a shutout during his time, a little disturbing his WHIP was almost 2. We used four relievers in this game (Regilio, Mahay, Brocail, Shouse), and the only blip between all of them was the HR that Ron Mahay allowed to Durazo to bust up the shutout. Overall, our entire pitching line was quite fabulous, with an ERA of 1.00 for the game.
I’m starting to hear rumblings that Soriano is whining about his being moved to fifth place. He doesn’t want to move to SS, he doesn’t want to play OF. He doesn’t want to bat anywhere else besides fifth, he doesn’t want to run unless it’s exactly right. Uh, it sounds like he’s a candidate to be moved with all the whining. Move him in July and play Esteban German or Ian Kinsler permanently at second. I think Mike Young probably is better served now staying at shortstop. I always assumed he’d go back to 2B after Soriano goes, but I now feel it’s better he stay where he is.
Yankees Watch: They got bombed 11-4 by the Devil Rays. Kevin Brown gave up 6 runs in the first – Buhahahaha!
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I thought for awhile there that Kenny Rogers might have had a chance at another perfect game. He started last night’s game retiring the first 14 batters in a row. That streak ended in the bottom of the fifth when Mark Ellis doubled to left with one out, ruining the no hitter and the perfect game. Kenny has pitched well this year so far, and last night was the pinnacle of his pitching this season. He very well could have 5 or 6 runs, but our team hasn’t rallied behind his pitching. His total line for Monday night:
8IP – 4H – 0R – 2BB – 5K – 109 Pitches
Kenny was masterful. We should have won this game three to nothing, but CoCo almost blew it in the bottom of the ninth. His line was nowhere near as pretty.
1IP – 1H – 2ER – 3BB – 2K – 38 Pitches
If CoCo had blown it, it wouldn’t have been the first time. Last year CoCo blew two games Kenny pitched on the road in June. But we got the win. Offensively we didn’t have much going on. We had a double in the first inning which was a total gift, as Bobby Kielty blew it, and the official scorer gave us a double when it clearly should have been an error. Hank Blalock will take the double and the RBI, thank you very much. Dellucci had a home run in the third for the second run, and we got an RBI single from Layne Nix in the ninth for the third, and as it turns out, important run. We only had six hits total, Rich Harden was quite good, just Kenny was a bit better.
We’re back to 13-14, and are two and a half games behind the Angels at 15-11. Given how sluggish and mediocre we’ve been playing overall, this is a major surprise to be in this place at the start of May.
Yankees watch: They’re 11-15 and firmly in fourth place, 6.5 games behind the Orioles. Random thought: If the Orioles do well, hang in there the entire season, and make the playoffs, I wonder if Peter Angelos will continue to whine about the Nationals in his back yard.
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I don’t have much time to write commentary on the games this weekend, but I have a few comments..
Fri: Win 7-2. Chan Ho Park? Who has been wearing his uniform?
Sat: Lose 9-2. I was at this game. I enjoyed being at the game. I didn’t enjoy our bullpen, though. :(
Sun: Lose 6-5. No time for a commentary.

When this game ended, I could only stare at it in disbelief. This was not a game we were supposed to lose. It just felt like ours the whole way. I’m still a bit stunned. Was nice to see Chris Young pitch so well, though. Wasn’t nice to see Almanzar NOT pitch so well.
We’ll get over it, but man – was I bummed when this one was over. Don’t have time to write much about it, I’m not getting to do the update until almost 5PM the next day, so I don’t feel like recalling all those negative feelings right now. :)
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This game felt like the Rangers’ game almost from the start. Rogers shut down the M’s in the top of the first, and then we were up 3-0 after the third batter on a Mike Young 3 run home run. Kind of never looked back. We put up a five spot in the bottom of the first, and cruised. Richard Hidalgo provided the other 2 first inning RBI’s with a single up the middle. His slump is starting to be disturbing. We picked up a few more runs in the fifth inning on a Mench single, and a Nix single. Nix also added an upper tank home run in the 7th for our 8th and final run. Offensively it seemed to flow pretty well, what with 11 hits overall. Not an insane number of hits, but they were properly put together for best use. :)
Pitching wise, Kenny Rogers finally got some run support, and got his first win of the season on April 27th. CoCo came in to get an inning of work in the 9th, but gave up the two runs. That wasn’t pleasant. Shouse and Regilio were in between them, and gave up nothing in their innings. In fact, outside of CoCo, we gave up just three hits in 8 innings and no runs – an extremely well pitched game (CoCo had 3 hits and 2 runs in his one inning).
But the best moment for me of the night was the Philly Phanatic. I grew up in Philly, and like Kevin Mench, I know the greatness that is the Phanatic. I loved the top of the 5th so much with Josh & Tom that I dumped that to DVD so I could watch it later. I really enjoyed him hamming it up with Rangers Captain (who takes a bum rap from a lot of fans around these parts). I would have loved the night even if the Rangers lost 8-2 because of the Phanatic!
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Well, my daughter was born on Saturday April 16th (an 8-0 loss by the Rangers no less – thanks guys!), and when I stopped doing updates a few days before that, the Rangers’ stats were a winning percentage of .444, we were tied for third place one game out. I don’t do any updates for about 11 games or so, and what do I find when I come back for updates? We’ve got a winning percentage of .476, we’re tied for third and are 1.5 games out. So basically, not much has changed. Which is both good and bad. I would have liked to have made some progress there, but as we’ve kind of treaded water during this time, no one else has stepped on us to keep us down, either.
In this game, Ryan Drese, who was a very pleasant surprise in 2004 didn’t show the same kind of stuff. He was beat around a bit, giving up 11 hits in his 6.1 innings of work. He allowed 5 runs (4ER), and didn’t seem to have a good control of the game at any point. He did strike out five, but the way I saw him pitch, that was a surprise. Ron Mahay followed Drese with a pretty good 1.2 innings allowing no runs, which kept us in the game. However, Brocail came in and gave up two in the 9th which to my eyes seemed to deflate the Rangers. We had been down the whole game, but were within striking distance. Just needed one. Then we needed 3 to tie, four to win, and it didn’t seem like we had any gas in the tank after Brocail’s ninth.
Offensively, we didn’t do a whole lot. We had a total of 8 hits. Four of them were home runs (Dellucci, Teixeira, Mench, & Soriano). All of them were solo. That left just four other hits for the entire game. Even given that, we still were very close until the ninth. Just didn’t seem to be able to get much going.
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Will have a full recap in the morning.
On second thought, no I won’t – I have to take my wife to the hospital. :)

There are a lot of jokes in the local press today about “not being a hitters Park”, or some other Park joke. I’ll resist that, although last night I have to admit I wasn’t rooting for him to do bad so he could be released. I have to wonder if he can do what Ryan Drese did last year. So far it seems to be working. And in the ninth game of the season, one of our starting pitchers got a win – and it was Chan Ho Park, of all people! Ho went 6.2 innings, giving up 3ER on 5 hits, and striking out six, including the side in the second. Most of the hits came in his last inning, when Buck adeptly pulled him before it got ugly. But before that, he was electric. I’m not ready to put myself behind him, but it was nice to see him pitch well, and it was nice to see Chan Ho fans in the stands again. If you read some of my early reports when Chan Ho first came here, I absolutely loved the atmosphere the ballpark had when he pitched well. There’d be entire sections of Korean fans, and they’d have signs, they’d have drums, they’d hoot and holler when he did something good. I really REALLY loved that atmosphere. It made me want to come to the ballpark just to check out the Park fans. I miss that. So in a way, yeah – I’d like him to do well, and bring that fun back to the Ballpark. However, my brain says it likely won’t happen. We’ll see, I guess.
Offensively, we did pretty well last night. Mike Young capitalized on a bases loaded situation with a clearing triple. Barajas, Mench, & Mike Young were all 2 for 4. Soriano was 3 for 5. We had one home run for the night, and it was by Adrian Gonzalez. And wow, was it a no doubter. Off the facade of the upper deck, as far as I can tell, and the Angels’ right fielder didn’t even make a run for it. The game felt a lot more in control than the final score of 7 to 5 would indicate.
Our bullpen tried to give it away again, but we managed to hold on. Doug Brocail gave up 2 earned runs, although I believe they scored on a Cordero pitch. Cordero did get his third save of the season after it originally wasn’t a save situation going into the 9th – he only pitched .1 of an inning.
A win is a win. I’ll take it.
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