I was at this game Monday night. I almost didn’t go, because I had a nice day with my wife and daughter. But I went, and I was glad I did, saw a great game, and a great win. I got to the park, and ended up having a nice chat with a fellow who doesn’t normally sit where my seat is about scoring the games. I was scoring on my PDA, and he on paper, so we had a nice chat about all that.
This game got off to a good start. We scored three runs in the bottom of the first and went up quickly. To beat Boston, I figured that was necessary. What was bothering me was the fact we left 7 men on base in the first few innings. Twice had the bases loaded and didn’t get anything – both times the final out was made by Hank Blalock, too. That wasn’t good. Something else that wasn’t good was the fact that Ricardo Rodriguez walked three batters in the third inning on the way to letting the Sox back in the game by giving up two runs. Even with that, I felt pretty good about the game. They tied it in the 6th on a double by Trot Nixon, and I still felt good. Felt like we had another crooked score inning on the way. However, that feeling went out the window when Manny Ramirez jacked an absolute titanic home run in the 8th inning to give the Sox a two run lead. At the park they said the home run went four hundred and fourty some odd feet, but it lookd a LOT more than that. The record in our park is 491, which was straight to the top of Green’s Hill by Paul Sorrento. This one wasn’t at the top, was about 2/3 of the way up and off to the right a bit by my eye. Given the wall is 400, and the top is 491, I would think 2/3 up would be more than 450 at least, plus it was angled a bit to the right, which would add a few more feet. 440 something isn’t enough, IMO.
Anyway you measure it, it’s a pretty deflating home run. We picked up one of the two on a two run double by Rod Barajas in the bottom of the 8th, but we were still losing, and I wasn’t feeling good about coming back, even given Keith Foulke’s recent struggles. But the rest is history, led by a Mike Young triple. A walk, hit batseman later set up the table for Kevin Mench to win it for the Rangers.
The Angels lost too, so we picked up a game in that regard. Go Twins! :)
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I had a nice weekend with my wife and kid, and decided I’m not going to do updates for the Mariners series. Was nice to take two out of three up there. A few notes from the series:
1) Not surprised to see Kenny Rogers booed when he took the field. I wonder what kind of reception he’ll get in Arlington his next start?
2) I was pretty surprised to see the Mariners DFA Bret Boone. I’ve never been a big fan of his, mostly because of his “bat flip” stuff – but he still struck me as a good player. I don’t want him here (not that there’s any room anyway), but I have to imagine someone will pick him up pretty quickly.
3) It’s a good thing the Rangers don’t have Safeco field as their home park – there were SEVERAL balls hit that were outs, which would have been home runs in our park. Hank Blalock got screwed out of two home runs in the same game that way.
4) Shame Kenny didn’t get a win on Sunday – he pitched pretty damn well, and deserved a win.

If there ever was a game to bring some good feeling back (even just temporarily after falling 8.5 games back), this was it. 8 home runs, 18 runs, 15 hits, at least one hit by every starter. At least one run scored by every starter. A call that went our way (the home run by the angels that was denied). This was a good game.
Chris Young only went 5 innings, but given the temperature out there, and the fact that he had almost 30 some odd pitches in the first inning probably contributed to that. Young also struck out 7 in his 5 innings. He’s looking pretty good at the moment. Juan Dominugez pitched two innings of shutout relief. Overall, I say our pitching was pretty good today. Not awesome, but pretty decent.
Offensively, where do you start? As I said above, 18 runs on 15 hits. That means we had a total of 7 hits that weren’t home runs. Of those 7, three were doubles. Kevin Mench had three home runs, matching Alex Rodriguez’s team record for that. I also thought Victor Rojas got extremely excited at Mench’s third home run – I was listening over the internet at work, and had to laugh – his voice got so excited, I think he overloaded his microphone being too close. Enjoyed that, Vic! :)
We’re still 6.5 games out, and headed to Seattle. Kenny Rogers is in tow, but as I write this (3PM on Fri), the verdict on his punishment is still not delivered from Bud Selig. So whether Kenny pitches at all on this trip (he’s supposed to go Sunday) remains to be seen. I would have preferred going on the road with a better record than we got. We’re still 6.5 games behind the Angels. That’s a daunting proposition as we don’t play them again directly till the end of September. Still, it could have been a lot worse. After game two of this series, I think most Ranger fans expected us to lose all of ’em and be 10.5 games back.
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Was nice to see a win – I think if this game had been a loss, it would have made the night completely miserable as a Rangers fan. It’s still not fun thanks to the “Rogers Rage”, but we at least got a win the way the Angels seem to be getting them lately – bloops. This game felt like ours for the entire run. We were up early, and it felt good, despite the odd feeling of the Rogers Rage from earlier.
Vlad Guerrero hit a home run in the 8th. No surprise there. OK, we’re up 6-4. No biggie. Cordero came in, got a couple of outs, and then gave up a double to Jeff DaVanon. Anaheim sends up Dallas McPherson who had very little at bats lately to face Coco, and he hits a two run home run to tie the game 6-6. Wow, was that a depressing moment. After the first two games, I was feeling good, and all that feeling went out the window when they tied the game.
Fortunately, we managed to win the game in the 11th on a bloop hit by Alfonso Soriano, but the 9th was still a deflating moment. Ricardo Rodriguez was spectacular, going 7.2 innings, giving up three runs, but only one earned. Brian Shouse finished that inning, and then Cordero gave up his couple in the ninth. Kameron Loe came in and pitched a couple of scoreless innings that allowed us to get the win, and take some of the attention (although not much) from Kenny Rogers.
Speaking of Rogers, did anyone watch the TV coverage? They had some really cool camera angles from a camera atop the office buildings out beyond Vandergriff Plaza. During the telecast, Josh said “We’re looking for ideas for a name for this camera”. I jumped online and called it the “Safe from Kenny Cam”, but they didn’t go with that. :)
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I was really enjoying this game. Even going into extra innings I was enjoying it. John Wasdin did far better than I anticipated. I normally don’t enjoy extra inning games, because we lose them, especially if they end in the 10th, but if we get past the 10th, we tend to do OK. Then Anderson hit a grand slam, and I got all annoyed. I was ready to put the big deficit in the standings behind us emotionally until the grand slam. That was a major downer.
Dammit.
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My stepfather was in town visiting us (mostly to see his Granddaughter I would think). But anyway, we decided to take him to this game with some vouchers I had. Good thing I didn’t pay much for these tickets. That was disgusting. It was so annoying I don’t want to write much about the game.
Gerald Laird was here. I didn’t know he had been called up, so it was a surprise to see his name listed in the starting lineup.
7.5 back at almost the halfway point. Not insurmountable, but YIKES!
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Rod Barajas won his job when Gerald Laird suffered an injury early in the 2004 season. Rod Barajas had to leave this game with an injury, does that mean that Gerald Laird will get his job back? We’ll see..
Chan Ho Park pitched pretty decently (7IP, 5H, 2ER), but we wasted it, when we lost 3-2 in 10 innings. Andy Pettite pitched like the Pettite of old, going 9 innings, 7H, 2R (1ER), and basically outdueled Park. Kameron Loe kept us in it, by not giving up any run in his two innings, but Juan Dominguez came in and immediately walked two, and gave up the winning run. Annoying, given how poorly we’ve been playing lately, and given the slide we’ve gone into. We need all the wins we can get if we’re going to tread water long enough to stay in the playoff race. Granted, the season isn’t half over yet, but it feels somewhat dismal at the moment.
Probably might have something to do with the disappearance of our starting rotation (released, waived, punched a wall).
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Well, we finally won a game. Early on this game felt like ours from the start, and the Astros didn’t have a chance. We were out 6-0 after 3. Chris Young had a no hitter going into the sixth inning. This was our game. But the June 2005 edition of the Texas Rangers almost allowed it to get away.
Chris Young & Mike Young were the story of this game. Chris Young went 7 innings and gave up 3 runs -a good start by all measurable accounts; it felt marred though given the way he exited, having given up a bunch of runs at the end. Mike Young continued to own Brandon Backe, going 9 for 9 career against him after his first two at bats. Both of which were home runs.
Cordero had to come in and get a save in game when he shouldn’t have had to. We won, but it didn’t feel all that good to me.
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Sigh. Lost our fifth 5 in a row to an Astros team that doesn’t look like the Astros team that we whomped on a few weeks ago in Arlington.
Osawlt looked like he was tossing a shutout, he gave up two back to back solo home runs to Barajas & Nix, but that was it. It was Oswalt’s game. Definitely not ours.
We need a win.

Not good. Not good at all.