Aw dammit. This was looking good too. Tejeda was pretty decent if not great through the first four, and got through the fifth, although he was clearly out of gas. He only gave up one run on two hits through five. Struck out six, walked four. As I said, decent if not great. Given some more stamina, he might have gone further.
He was matched up against Roy Oswalt. You know what that means. You’re expected to lose. Especially when you throw a “kid” (Tejeda) against him. But Oswalt seemed (for him anyway) pedestrian. His total line was 6.1 IP on 11 hits, 2 BB, and 3K. He gave up all thee (earned) runs the Rangers scored tonight. Could have been a lot worse as we left a ton of guys on base. The frustrating part of that is that we got twice as many hits as the ‘Stros got (12 to 6), but lost the game 5-3.
Our relief pitching was an odd lot tonight. Rick Bauer couldn’t hold the lead, giving up the tying run (at 2-2) in his inning of work. He was followed by Scott Feldman who looked really great during his .2 IP. Problem was he was making a running tag on a runner down the first base line, and twisted his ankle – and had to leave the game. Joaqun Benoit came in, and in the 8th gave up the 3 run double to Adam Everett that lost us the game.
Shame, as it felt like a game would would triumph over Roy Oswalt.

As much as I’d like to write about the Rangers beating the Yankees to take a series split in New York, I just don’t have the time today. Way too busy at work, as my company is about to release a product. Updates might be spotty for the forseeable future due to that.

Oh yeah. We lost to the Yankees again. I decided a year or so ago I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.

Shit.

Milwood strong. Mussina strong. Cordero strong. Otsuka strong. Farnsworth not.
That’s the game. Milwood had a great game, going seven innings (on only 78 pitches), and at one point retired about a dozen in a row. In fact, Kevin would have likely kept going, but had to come out due to it raining in the Bronx, causing another rain delay. Cordero came out, pitched a scorless 8th, and Otsuka a scoreless ninth. Between all three pitchers, we gave up a total of six hits, a really great pitching performance, plus no walks.
Mike Mussina also went seven, giving up 6 hits and two runs, matching Milwood. However, Kyle Farnsworth came out and pitched in the rain, giving up 3 hits and two runs in his one inning of work. That gave us the game.
We’re now two games up in the West, which is nice to see.

Given the way the rains washed out Friday night’s game, and the forecast we were told about, I can’t say I’m surprised at all about the fact that tonight’s game was totally rained out hours before it even started. According to the press release, it will be made up in June when we go back there.

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Going into this road trip, I didn’t have a particularly great feeling. The homestand ended weakly, and my gut feeling was the team was lethargic. The dark storm clouds were all over the start of this road trip, both figuratively and literally on Friday night. I saw this road trip as a major possibility for disaster. We had that 1-12 road trip last year which effectively killed the season for a lot of people. We are in Boston, where we haven’t played well at all in the last few yeras, then to New York for 4, and then on to Houston before returning home again. It didn’t feel good at all.
Which is why the win last night made me feel better. Sure, it’s just one, and we could lose all the rest, but I’d much rather start the road trip with a win than a loss. You don’t often get games shortened by weather for a win, but that’s what happened. Actually, now that I think about it, I used to see this a bunch when I lived in Philly, but down in Texas, that almost never happens, it seems.
Kameron Loe started the game, and looked pretty good, if not dominant, despite his line of 5IP and 0ER on 5 hits (4K, 1BB). I did miss bits of it due to “family stuff”, but from what I saw, it was good, if not “oh my god, he’s shutting out the Sox”. But, you can’t argue with the line, it was a good performance, even if my attention wasn’t focued on it. :)
Clement on the other hand never seemed to get it going, going 5 himself, but giving up 4 runs on six hits over his five frames. Hank Blalock got a home run off CLement, but that was the only longball. Gary Matthews led the offensive charge going 2 for 4 with three RBI’s, and a triple. Rod Barajas and Phil Nevin also chimed in with a double each. We actually didn’t have a bunch of hits overall (7 in 6 innings), but they were efficient, combining for 6 runs. From what they were saying, it seems lke Saturday’s game might get wiped out by rain, too.
Also, I don’t know if you read Baseball Musings, but David over there was at the game last night, and posted his thoughts on attending the soaked Sox game here.

Vicente Padilla had a technical quality start. He went 6+ innings, gave up 3 runs on 3 hits with 3 walks and 5 K’s. But he hit a wall in the seventh, that cost him.
But as I sit here and try and write about this on Friday, I have to say I don’t want to – because I was really disappointed that we lost the game. We should have swept the Twins.
Sigh.

I think the picture to the right about sums up this game in several ways. I don’t think I really need to explain it, do I? I mean, if you’re gonna lose, lose big. Losing 15-5 is pretty big, although it didn’t even feel as close as 10 runs for most of the game. Felt like 20-0, almost instantly. And yes, I took the easy way out and watched something else. Was watching E3 coverage, as my industry’s trade show is going on right now in Los Angeles.
Justin Morneau hit two home runs and drove in 6 RBI’s. Millwood just raised his ERA about 1.6 to 5.1 by allowing 9ER on 9 hits in 1.1IP. That can’t be good for the ol’ ERA. :) Thing is, none of the 4 relief pitchers we threw out there (Bauer, Feldman, Alfonseca, & Wilson) had clean slates. All gave up runs (although Wilson’s was unearned).
We stunk hard. However, our home streak of games without any home runs is over – Mench & Blalock had home runs.
I’ve said this before – if we’re gonna lose THIS bad, it might as well be something REALLY interesting and we lose 27-3 or something like that. :)

While we won this game, I felt bad about it. The reason was that I was completely disgusted with the Yankees series. We couldn’t do a thing against the Yankees. Then we beat the Twins, who are floundering. It just confirmed what happened in the Yankees series to me. Now if this game had been against the Red Sox, or the White Sox, or even the A’s, I would have felt better. But the Twins are 13-19 and should have lost. No accomplishment there. :(
I didn’t get to see the game, as I had forgotten it started at 6PM. My TiVo at home caught it, but I turned on for the pregame show on my way home from work, and got the game, so I listened. No score while I was driving home, but when I got home, ate dinner and all that, I discovered that my TiVo had picked up the ESPN feed of the game, and not the local coverage, so I didn’t watch anything, which at this point was in the 7th inning. I ended up doing family stuff, so I barely saw any of this one. 6PM ESPN really mess with me. :)
Hank Blalock had an odd line. He went 4 for 4, but had no runs scored, and just one RBI. Mike Young was 2-3. Mark Teixeira was 2-3 with two runs scored, and Gary Matthews was also 2-3. Phil Nevin led with 2 RBI, and no one else (Tex, Blalock, Mench) had more than one – the 6th run not coming on an RBI.
John Koronka (who I’ve had on 7 of my 8 fantasy teams for about a month now) contiunues to be solid for us. He went 6.1IP, giving up 7 hits and 2 walks for 3ER. Not as sharp as he’s been in the past, but still “technically” a quality start, and certainly well enough for the win. Benoit followed up with 1.2IP of shutout ball, and Otsuka got the save, after giving up a run.
But a win is a win, even if it doesn’t feel like the greatest win, because it was against the struggling Twins.