This was shaping up to be a nice pitcher’s duel. Through the first three innings, not much happened. The score was 0-0 at that point. Adam Eaton was going against Scott Baker of the Twins.
Both had things pretty much in check, although Eaton was helped out a bunch in the bottom of the third after he walked two consecutive batters, and each of them was thrown out by Rod Barajas when they attempted to steal second.
However, in the fourth, I had visions of that inning against the Orioles a decade ago when we got 16 runs in one inning (a club record still). We unloaded on the Twins for 8 runs in the top of the fourth. It was a massacre. Carlos Lee started things off with a double. Blalock singled, scoring Lee. Matt Stairs reached on a throwing error, allowing Blalock to score and Kinsler to move up. Rod Barajas got plunked, then Wilkerson (hitting 9th!) singled, scoring Ian Kinsler.
Then Gary Matthews stepped up, and on a 3-2 count, absolutely destroyed a ball into the upper deck for a grand slam, his career second. This home run was an absolute no doubter off the bat – the kind that just looks like it would never come down. I’ve never actually been to the Metrodome, but I’ve seen a bunch of games on TV there, and I can’t recall ever seeing a home run hit that far up there. Quite impressive – and to follow it up, Mike Young hit a solo home run right after that to finish off the scoring. Mark Teixeira followed up with an RBI single in the 9th to add another one, but this game was all over when Matthews hit his slam.
Following that, the Twins pen didn’t do too bad at all. In relief of Baker, the four Twins pitchers combined for 5.2 IP, allowing just two hits and one run – all of that on the fourth reliever (Juan Rincon).
Adam Eaton did a bit better than most people were expecting. His stamina still needs a little work, but he went 6 innings – helped out by the Barajas caught stealings I mentioned before. He gave up just four hits, although he did walk four, which didn’t help, but none of them scored. CJ Wilson & Scott Feldman pitched 3 innings of scoreless relief, for the first shutout thrown by the Rangers in a bit.
I’m getting a little worried about all these lopsided wins. 15-2 one way, 15-2 the other way, and then 9-0. I’d prefer a little more consistancy in our offense and pitching. One way or the other, please. Preferably wins.

The Twins open up a seriously large can of whoop-ass on the Rangers tonight, beating them 15-2. There’s very little positive to say about this game. Let’s see what I can find.
Rick Bauer pitched one scoreless inning of relief.
Nelson Cruz got his first major league home run.
Mark Teixeira hit a home run.
Not much else.
The “bad” list is signficantly larger than that. There’s not enough time to write about all of that, but a few of those “high”lites…
The Rangers gave up a 5 run first.
The Rangers gave up three seperate 3 run innings
Carlos Lee had his first ofer in a Ranger uniform.
The Rangers are in last place now.
After thinking a bit more about the Matt Stairs trade, I’m not as “WTF” about as I was when it was first announced. He can probably help off the bench, he’s better than my initial remarks said, but I still find it an odd move. Course that’s more an indictement (sp?) of Brad Wilkerson’s failure in 2006 than anything else.
Matt Stairs got beat 15-2 two nights in a row in two different uniforms.
John Wasdin was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for Matt Stairs, so we’re told. Makes me wonder who will go off the 25 for Kip Wells tomorrow.

I’m feeling kind of sick tonight, I’ll lay low on writing a lot. I was at the other two games in this series, of course they save all the offense for the game I’m not there for. :)
Carlos Lee continues to deliver with the bat again. Lots of offense all over the place. In games like this, you tend to get garbage lineup changes – we had Rod Barajas playing first base at the end of the game. :)

I was disappointed in this. 12 men left on base? Lose the series to the Royals? What the hell was this?
Well, Carlos Lee is as advertised. Was 3-4 with a walk. Wasn’t his problem.
Sigh. It was a really fabulous defensive play by Joey Gathright, though.
I know the party’s not over, but now were the last two games disappointing.

Vicente Padilla had nothing. He looked weak, and had over 30 pitches in the first inning alone. He was lucky to escape the first inning with just one run given up. We did tie it up in the bottom of the first, which I’m sure made everyone feel good.
But then it got really REALLY ugly in the top of the second, and that’s not even Padilla. The Rangers comitted two errors, and one was particuarly heinous, it looked like something out of little league, or a videogame. The not so bad one was Ian Kinsler dropping a ball thrown in from the outfield which allowed a run to score. But the particuarly heinous one was Gary Matthews in center whiffing on a ball, allowing it to roll all the way to the wall. By the time they retireived it out there, the Royal batter had come around third, and scored on that play. Ugly! There was one to my eyes at the park looked like an error but wasn’t counted as such – a ball got by Mark DeRosa in right which I thought should have been an error, but it wasn’t. We did actually get a true third error in the game later on when Mike Young had a fielding one. UGLY!
All of that combined to allow a big ol’ five spot for the Royals in the second. That was the game. Yeah, we managed to piece together a few more runs in the 6th & 8th, but after the second inning, the game was essentially over. Benoit did pretty good in relief, as did Ron Mahay, but John Wasdin allowed three runs in the top of the ninth to add insult to injury.
However, one positive note was the debut of Carlos Lee. Wearing #45 (RA Dickey’s old number), Lee made an immediate impact. Playing DH tonight, he went two for four – two singles in his first two at bats. Lee got a standing ovation as he came to the plate in the second inning, and was pretty well applauded after that from what I saw. I’ll talk more about the trade over the weekend, I’ll try and leave it out of here.
I was at this game tonight. We wnated to be there for the Build a Bear giveaway, and Samantha did fine for awhile, but she hit her wall, as the game started only half an hour before her bedtime anyway. She was having fun for awhile, but in the fourth, she hit the wall. We had to leave in the fifth inning, which is very unlike me, but the welfare of the kid comes first. I am going again Saturday night (by myself), so that will be different.
I did take some pictures during the game of a few things – I had decent seats, so I got some nice shots of some of the guys at the plate. Check out my pictures by clicking on the Carlos Lee thumbnail pic here.

You know, two seasons ago, Ryan Drese was busted on live TV making a gesture at a cameraman. Remember that? That’s what I feel right now about the Yankees.

As is my policy on games we lose to the Yankees, I will not write about this one.
Except this. I was at this game. It was hot. It was fairly entertaining booing A-rod. :)

Game just ended. In keeping up with my personal policy on Yankee games, I will not write about it. Except this. Tex’s home run went further than 420 feet.

The Rangers have now been shut out for the fifth time in the month of July alone! We lost the series finale to the White Sox, 5-0.
Jon Garland went 8 plus innings, giving up just 6 hits. He also irritated his manager when he wouldn’t intentionally hit Ian Kinsler – Ozzie Guillen needs to chill the hell out regarding hitting people. Yeah, everyone knows it’s done, but stfu already, dude.
Anyway, Vicente Padilla only actually gave up one earned run in his 7 innings pitched. There were three more unearned runs. Don’t ever like giving up that many runs.
Starting to get a little concerned that we’ve now been shut out this many times in one month.

John Koronka started this game, and after the first inning I don’t think many people would have thought he would have gone as deep as he did (6 innings). Koronka threw something like 35 pitches in the first inning. He walked the bases full, but escaped with no runs scored. I don’t remember how many pitches he threw in the second, but it was a lot there too. Koronka ended up throwing 100 pitches in all, and gave up just three hits and one run in all. Not a bad outing given how I thought it was going to be at the start.
Our bullpen was quite good too – four guys going three innings, and giving up just two hits and no runs. That’s just 5 hits total to the World Champs.
On the other side, we only had one more hit than Chicago did. Freddy Garcia pitched a great game too, going 7 innings, giving up just 4 hits and one run. In fact, it was tied 1-1 going into the ninth.
Ozzie Guillen sent out his closer to presumably keep us off the board, so they could win in the bottom of the ninth. Didn’t work out that way, as we loaded the bases up, and then came All Star Game MVP Mike Young – he got one of his usual base hits to right scoring two, and giving us the win.
Otsuka got the save, and the Rangers took the series in Chicago, so let’s see if I can break out the sweep graphic for the first time in awhile tomorrow.