You know as I started watching this game, I thought “Oh, it’s Jamey Wright, this won’t be so bad”. What a fool I was! I was duped into believing that the guy wearing #45 lately was a great pitcher. His recent performances had me believing that he was someone to trust. I should have known. This was the Jamey Wright we knew and loved before he signed here. The one that caused me to contemplate blinding myself with knitting needles when he made the 25 man roster. ;) OK, that’s an exaggeration taht fooled nobody. But it wasn’t something I was thrilled when when the Rangers did it. Tonight wasn’t good. 6.2 innings pitched, ten hits, four walks, and five earned runs. Three of them came in the first on a home run to Butler. It was at that moment I sort of wrote the opening bit for this entry. We never recovered.
Brian Bannister tossed a gem against us. Seven shutout innings on four hits and two walks. Not much else to say, the kid was good.
The only offense we got was a Sammy Sosa home run into the grass in left off of Joaquim Soria in the 8th. That was it. Sosa also had a single, as did Mike Young, Mark Teixeira, & Brad Wilkerson – but that was it for our offense, aside from the couple of walks. We had nothing.
The old problem with being unable to win in Kansas City isn’t still with us, is it?

It’s been awhile since I’ve used this graphic, and even longer for a four game sweep. But it was needed, as the Rangers finished off the Seattle Mariners who have now dropped six in a row. I didn’t see any of this game, because I had gotten a new computer, and had the game on via MLB.com’s gameday.
Anyway, Brandon McCarthy had another “eh” outing. Five innings, three earned runs. Only one walk, which was good, but eight hits, which was not. Pitch count was too high again. 100 pitches in five innings. That’s gotta be better. That (to me) seems to be McCarthy’s biggest fault. Too high a pitch count. Other than that, he’s good enough now to battle through. He just burns out too fast, due to nibbling/balls/walks/etc…
Our pen also fit the “eh”. Eye/Francisco/Benoit went a combined four innings, giving up seven hits and three earned runs. Only one walk by them too (Eyre), which was a good thing.
Offensively we had five doubles this game by five different players. But the big shot was a two run home run by Ramon Vazquez in the bottom of the 8th.
Can’t think of anything particularly earth shattering to say about this game except that it was quite nice to take a four game sweep. :)

Kameron Loe pitched the first inning like the Loe from the first part of this season. While he didn’t give up any actual runs, he did pitch like he was in quicksand, throwing something like 25 or so pitches. That did NOT look promising. Couple that with a 30 pitch fifth inning, and one wonders how the heck he managed to throw into the seventh inning. 55 pitches in two means the other frames had some small pitch counts. :)

Loe actually was pretty decent until the fifth when the Mariners scored all their runs. The first one scored three of the four of the first five batters of the inning singled. It actually would have been worse had Gerald Laird not picked off Betancourt from second. Raul Ibanez was at the plate on a disputed call – The Rangers thought they had stuck him out to end the inning – they were walking off the field, and home plate umpire Jim Reynolds said that he had not, it was a foul. This of course bought a cascade of boos from the fans in the park. It got worse on the next pitch when Ibanez doubled to the alley in right center, scoring two more. Reynolds was the target of some booing that would have done Philadelphia fans proud. I was listening in the park, and they said on the radio that it did appear to bounce, but that was a bad feeling. At that moment, you thought that it would be the game breaker.

The Rangers did follow it right up with two more of their own, tying the game at three. But this game was powered by Travis Metcalf. Metcalf went 4 for 4 tonight, scoring one, and driving in one – but the one he drove in was the important one. In the bottom of the 8th, he doubled to left, scoring Gerald Laird. Metcalf had a triple earlier in the game, that was his major league first. The four hits was also a career best for him, as the radio guys said he never got more than two in a game before.

CJ Wilson relieved Loe, going 1.1 innings, giving up no hits, while striking out 3 of the four outs made on his ledger. He was followed by Eric Gagne again. Gagne did mostly the same thing as the first game. Allowed a single to lead off his frame, then not allowing much else. Gagne saved both ends of the doubleheader, as well as a pitching the night before – three appearances in 24 hours.

While Loe wasn’t crisp, he hung in there and battled well. Our pen kept it good, and allowed us to come back and get the win. I was at the doubleheader sweeps in 2004 when we beat the Red Sox & the Pirates. I love doubleheaders anyway – but they’re a heck of a lot better when your team wins both ends of ’em.

This picture was taken from the same location the picture I posted with game one was taken from – couldn’t decide which to post, as I like both, so I posted one per game. :)

I always go to doubleheaders. I love them. Unless they’re the “day night” doubleheaders, in which case, they’re really NOT double headers. Just two games played on the same date. Anyway, the park was beautiful. All the rain has seriously helped out with the green around the place. I’ve been coming to the ballpark since it was opened, and this day just looked more beautiful on the outside. I got to the park around 3PM, which was plenty of time to get to my seat, so I decided to walk around a little and take some pictures. I was just looking for a new pic of the outside of the ballpark, and I think the couple I posted did the job.

As good as that feeling was, it was matched by the pitching performance by John Rheinecker this afternoon. Usually when we call up someone to pitch one of these doubleheader starts, they’re sent right back down after stinking up the joint. Not this time. Rheinecker was brilliant. He went seven innings, and allowed NO EARNED RUNS. The one run the Mariners did get was on a rather goofy looking two base error by Michael Young in the first. Not often you see the shortstop make an error, and then the ball ends up next to the tarp over by the stands. But Rheinecker was great. Seven innings, six hits, one walk, four strikeouts, and as I mentioned just one run – none earned. One has to think that will keep him in the majors. It was seriously impressive to watch live at the park. It was followed up by Benoit’s scoreless (and hitless) inning of work. Eric Gagne came in, and allowed one hit, and then struck out two, getting the save.

Offensively, we had seven hits total. Marlon Byrd tripled in the fourth, scoring Sosa to tie up the game. As I’ve said before, Byrd has been impressive, and this game just added on to that feeling. Michael Young had an RBI single in the fifth, scoring Travis Metcalf for what turned out to be the winning (and final) run of the game.

Marlon Byrd made a really great LONG running catch on a ball hit by Richie Sexon in this game. Really looked like the kind of play that Kenny Lofton would have done a decade ago when he was in his prime. Looked like the kind of play that could earn Byrd a serious look at the permanent CF job the rest of this season.

It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon. The temperature was 89 when the game started, which is very nice and very unusual for July 24th in Texas. Had a nice breeze, a nice quick game which was extremely well pitched on both sides, really. Couldn’t have asked for a better couple of hours at the ballpark. It’s games like THIS that make it worth driving out to Arlington from Garland. Although I expect the folks at USS Mariner might have a different take on this game. ;)

It was seriously nice to see a 2-1 win at home. The game was rather fast moving, concluding in two hours and twenty one minutes.

The picture at the top of this post was taken today around 3PM or so standing in the announcer’s “booth” at the Dr Pepper youth ballpark. That spot is a great place to get a nice looking picture of The Ballpark in Arlington as you can see here.

If you look solely at the hits column in the box score, this would seem to be a rather evenly distributed offensive game. We had 13 hits in all, and of the 9 batters, only Adam Melhuse did not have any hits. Nobody had more than two of them. So you would think this was a pretty spread out offensive game, eh? Not really. Sammy Sosa had five of the eight RBI’s. Brad Wilkerson had two more, and Michael Young had the remaining one.
Sosa had a double in the third, which drove in Young and Tex. Sosa came through again in the fifth with a big three run home run, driving in not only himself, but Young again and Kenny Lofton. Brad Wilkerson also homered in the same inning, driving in two (Byrd). So we’re looking good, going up 8-3 after five innings. Then the fun began.
In the top of the sixth, Kevin Millwood went out, and gave up a single to Jose Lopez. After a popout to Betancourt, Kevin was pulled in favor of Ron Mahay. What was weird about this was Millwood’s pitch count. He was pitching like he was Robinson Tejeda. Millwood tossed 115 pitches in his 5.1 innings of work – way too many. After getting Ichiro to strike out, Mahay allowed a double, giving the Mariners a fourth run. He got out of that, and then Frank Francisco followed up with two scoreless innings.
In comes Eric Gagne. Eric did a great John Wetteland impression, even in a non save situation. The first four batters reached against Gagne. The first three scored. Guillen singled, Beltre, doubled, and then Richie Sexon jacked a three run home run, making the score 8-7. And after that he gave up a single to Johjima. Uh-oh. However, that was the end of the scoring. In fact, the game ended quite bizarrely when Ben Broussard lined out to right field, doubling off Jose Lopez to end the game. Not often you see the old 9-3 double play to end a game.
Still, a win is a win, and you’ll always take it.

Looking a lot like the pitcher that the Phillies gave up on and shipped to Texas, and NOT like the pitcher that the Phillies threw against Texas a few seasons ago, Robinson Tejeda took the hill on Sunday night in the finale of the series against the Indians. He was not particularly good. Robinson went five innings, giving up 5 hits and five walks. He also gave up five runs (3 earned), and struck out four. I know we’re trying to stick with guys to let them learn, but he’s had 46 major league starts in his career with Philadelphia & Texas. One would think he’d be a little more consistent by now.
Willie Eyre was nothing much to write home about, either. He went two innings, giving up five hits and a walk, and three earned runs. Blech. His ERA (4.33) isn’t that horrendous, but I can’t say I feel very confident when he takes the hill.
Offensively, we had just seven hits this game; three of them by Marlon Byrd. Byrd certainly seems to have played himself into the Rangers long term plans, assuming he can keep up most of his current pace. I don’t think anyone expects him to bat around .370 all the time, but he hasn’t embarrassed himself offensively or defensively. Odd that I started this story talking about a failing former Phillies player, and now talking about a failed Phillies player who is seemingly making it here.
Gerald Laird was hit in the hand with a pitch, and it didn’t look pleasant on television. Hopefully it’s not something bad which will require a DL stay. We all know what happened to Laird the last time he went on the DL. Barajas, eh?
Lost the series to the Indians 3-1. That wasn’t fun.

I didn’t see much of this game, because I was busy feeling sad for myself. My computer at home broke yesterday. It’s a doorstop now. Because of that, I had to go buy a new one, and I wasn’t in the mood to watch baseball – I was playing a new football game on my Xbox 360.
However, I did see the first inning, where the Rangers jumped all over Cliff Lee. We scored five in the bottom of the first on a bunch of hits that never seemed to stop coming. In all that frame were three singles and three doubles. And then we only got three more hits the entire rest of the game. One big one was a triple by Marlon Byrd in the bottom of the seventh (which I also saw when flipping by between games) that gave us a more comfortable lead after the Indians had crept back into the game during the last few frames.
Jamey Wright didn’t give up a lot of runs in his performance (3 total, only 1 earned), but he had an obscene pitch count – was at 82 after just 3.1 innings. Way way WAY too much. Of course, his giving up six walks (!) might explain that.
Interesting that two players most folks expected to be out of here (Sosa, Gagne) both came out publicly saying that they wanted to stay here. Read there’s talk of an extension for Gagne. I wouldn’t be opposed to that, assuming he stayed healthy.

For eight innings, the Rangers were completely closed out of this game offensively. Cleveland pitcher Fausto Carmona tossed eight brilliant innings, giving up no runs on three hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. Was an outstanding performance. Not much else you can say about that.
Brandon McCarthy wasn’t too bad either, although he was nowhere in the league that Carmona was. Brandon tossed 5.2 innings, giving up the three runs the Indians got (two came on a home run to Travis Hafner). He walked three, struck out four, but still had too high a pitch count (100 in his 5.2 IP). But not all that awful, either. Problem again was Carmona.
Our bullpen, a strength this season, was good again. Wilson, Benoit, & Feldman all tossed scoreless innings, allowing just three hits combined (and one walk). That was a good outing for the Rangers pen. Perhaps they had a good outing at the rectangular table before that. ;)
We did make some noise in the botom of the ninth against Cleveland closer Joe Borowski. We scored two unearned runs on a few miscues by Cleveland. It just “felt” like they were trying to hand us the game. However, we couldn’t finish off the job, and left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, after scoring two and then loading them up. Oh well.

Maybe it’s time to send Kam Loe down to AAA for a couple of hours to recharge his batteries. In his second straight mostly “meh” start, Kam looked positively Chan Ho Park like. Loe went six innings, giving up six runs on six hits, while walking four. He threw 97 picthes, which wasn’t really bad pitch count wise, but you can’t find much good in those numbers. Heck, he even has three sixes in a row in his line score. ;) Seriously though, it was not a well pitched game for Kam.
CC Sabathia though was the first starter to get to 13 wins. He too went six, giving up three earned runs (four overall), and only had one walk.
Offensively, we had a decent amount of hits (12), but couldn’t get enough together to score more than 5 runs. Brad Wilkerson had two hits (one was a double), Ramon Vazquez had three hits (one a double), and Gerald Laird went 2 for four (one was a home run).
The message I get from looking at this box score is mediocre (at best) starting pitching for the Rangers coupled with an inability to drive in runs (Ranger batters left 16 men on plate, although the team total was lower than that) leads to another loss. That would be our 54th loss of 2007; it came in game 96 of the season.

Kevin Millwood had one bad inning. The second. In that inning:
– N. Swisher walked
– M. Ellis singled to left, N. Swisher to second
– M. Kotsay reached on fielder’s choice, N. Swisher to third, M. Ellis to second on pitcher K. Millwood’s throwing error
– M. Scutaro singled to center, N. Swisher scored, M. Ellis to third, M. Kotsay to second
– B. Crosby walked, M. Ellis scored, M. Kotsay to third, M. Scutaro to second
– K. Suzuki struck out swinging
– T. Buck hit sacrifice fly to center, M. Kotsay scored
– S. Stewart singled to right, M. Scutaro scored, B. Crosby to third
Not a good inning. However, even if none of that happened, it wouldn’t have mattered. Oakland pitchers Lenny DiNardo and Santiago Casilla were totally dominating. DiNardo started, and went seven innings, giving up just three hits. Casilla relieved, went two innings, gave up just one hit. That was it. No walks, no runs, no nothing. The Rangers had four hits total. Two of them were doubles (Metcalf, Wilkerson) and the others were singles (Hairston, Young).
Not much Millwood was going to do against that. Still, his line was’t all that bad, really. Six innings, 3 hits, 4 runs (although only one was earned). Walked three, which isn’t great, but not entirely horrible, either. So Millwood has continued his good pitching since his return, but he got screwed by his own throwing error.
It’s definitely one of those “tip of the cap” moments.