The top of the lineup certainly came through for the Rangers this game. Kenny Lofton went 3 for 5 with a walk, and scored two runs. Michael Young went 5-5 with a walk, scored once, and drove in three runs. In fact, Lofton got a triple on the first pitch of the game, and then Young doubled him in on the second pitch of the game, so we led the game extremely quickly.
Sosa couldn’t come through here – I believe he came up twice with the bases loaded and two outs. I wonder if we’re going to be able to get anything for him at all. Sosa left eight runners onbase himself. Bleh. He did have a sac fly at one point, but leaving eight isn’t exactly getting the job done.
Other than Young and Sosa, the other RBI’s were by Laird, Vazquez, & Hairston. No home runs in this game, plus two doubles (both Young), and one triple. We had 12 singles – so it was a low powered attack, but it got the job done.
Robinson Tejeda was out of the game before the end of the fifth, going just 4.1. The usual problem. An obscene amount of walks (six). Four hits, 3 earned runs, two of which came on Jack Cust’s fifth inning home run).
Ron Mahay got a save in this game – I wonder why we didn’t use Gagne – perhaps needed a day off.
Speaking of Gagne, there’s a lot of noise that he wants to stay here past 2007, I wonder if that’s something we’d realistically consider.

Kind of busy at work today to write. But I have to admit to being surprised at the performance turned in by Jamey Wright. Very impressive.

This is another game I didn’t get to see much of. The game had started by the time I got home from church due to a meeting regarding a new church we’re building. By that time I flipped on the tube, and saw we were down 4-2, and I sighed, turned the TV off, and played some more of “The Bigs” on my Xbox 360. I benched Teixeira there, and he didn’t complain about it. :)
McCarthy was OK in looking at his line. Six innings, six hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, and 3 earned runs (four overall). The pen was good this day, throwing quite a lot of innings (5 overall with five relievers). They shut down the Angels, and allowed us to win the game.
We won on a home run by Mark Teixeira that just barely qualified as home run – it appeared to be aided by a fan in the replay I saw.
Still, a win is a win. Something we don’t do much in Anaheim much anymore.

Well, there’s a little dose of reality. I don’t think anyone thought Kam Loe was as totally dominating a pitcher has he showed since his “return” as his numbers had shown. Nor did I think he was a horrendous as he was early in the season. I do think he was better than this, however.
I didn’t get to see the game (as I have some family in from out of town now), but his line was 2.2IP, 3 earned runs (plus two more unearned ones), 5 hits, and worst of all 5 walks. Blech. That’s 10 “bases” given out in 2.2IP. OK, maybe it wasn’t that great, but I guess my first look missed the walks. If he does this again, we need to send him to AAA for a throwing session. :)
The pen wasn’t that great either. Only CJ Wilson escaped unscathed. The other three (Eyre, Littleton, Francisco) all gave up something.
We had a chance to get John Lackey out early, he was horrendous in the first inning, throwing something like 42-45 pitches. That was the only part of the game I got to see. We did score three in the first, which was good, but I think we left the bases loaded, or with two on, and with a chance to score more and get Lackey out early. Let him off the hook. Kind of figured when we did that, we’d probably lose.
Kenny Lofton continues to play extremely well, going 3-5 with two doubles, and scoring twice. Heck, even Sammy Sosa got a triple in this game. Our offense wasn’t too bad tonight, this one was our pitching letting us down. As common as that sounds to long time Ranger fans, the extremely recent vintage Rangers haven’t been guilty of that.

This was a good old fashioned pitcher’s duel.
Kevin Millwood tossed seven innings, giving up just one run on five hits and three walks. There were also two double plays turned by Rangers defense this day.
Kelvim Escobar went eight innings, giving up just one run on six hits and one walk. The Angels turned one double play.
And what did we do with that? Pissed it away on a walkoff loss in the bottom of the ninth to the Angels. At least Millwood has apparently overcome his slow start and has become seemingly the pitcher he was in his year in Cleveland.
Lofton continues to play well at the top of the lineup. I liked the guy a lot. But I can’t see him having any value here past July other than mentor, which we probably don’t really need. Hopefully he goes somewhere where he can win in 2007.
Also, does anyone believe for a minute the stuff that Mike Ogulnick has been pushing about Kevin Millwood being a player to be traded before the deadline? I can’t see us doing that. Besides, doesn’t he have a no trade?

This was a great win. This club is playing very well lately, and as I’ve said a few times already recently, it’s a shame it wasn’t like this out of the gate, I’m sure we wouldn’t be talking about moving a bunch of our players.
Anyway, Kevin Millwood is pitching like Kenny Rogers did after he had that rib removed. Millwood had his fifth straight good outing, is pitching like he should be. Kevin went 6 innings today, giving up just one run on five hits. Few too many walks still (three), but the overall line was pretty good. Our relievers were quite good too. Pitched 3 innings of shutout ball on just two hits.
Offensively, this game belonged to Kenny Lofton. Kenny was on base all four times he was up. Two walks, and two hits. He walked to start off the game, and scored on a Marlon Byrd RBI. This tied the game at 1-1 in the first. That was it until the bottom of the sixth when Kenny jacked a Daniel Cabrera pitch a few rows back in right field. Kenny scored both runs we got today, and that’s all we needed due to the pitching we got. Quite amazing, this recent stretch of good pitching.
It almost makes you not want to get Vicente Padilla back, eh? :)
Anyway, we go into the break with a 38-50 record. Not good. But, it could have been a heck of a lot worse had it not been for the recent hot streak. We’re still 12 games under .500, but if we can continue the streak we’re on, getting back to .500 shouldn’t be a problem. Playoffs are I think out of the question realistically, but I don’t think .500 is.
Also, the more I think about it, the more I’m irritated with the Teixeira quote about “fun conversations” with Baltimore. What a twonk.

This was sheer and total domination. Erik Bedard was two pitches away from a perfect game.
He gave up no walks, struck out FIFTEEN Rangers, and gave up just two hits. Both of them were immediately wiped out via double plays, so Bedard faced the minimum 27 batters through the complete game.
I was at the park, and I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed with my own eyes a better pitched game by anyone. That was quite amazing – we had nothing the whole night.
Thing is Brandon McCarthy was not bad, either. Other than one mistake ball which was a solo home run, he was quite good. His overall line was 6 innings, 4 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks. The O’s scored another run on his ledger, but it was a throwing error by Gerald Laird. McCarthy’s problem was pitch count. Too many pitches – he had to come out. But it’s hard to fault a guy who gives up just one earned run in six innings.
If McCarthy pitches like this for the rest of the year, I’d say he’ll end up with a bunch of wins. But man, you gotta give this one to Erik Bedard.
Given Mark Teixeira’s “fun talks in a year and a half with Baltimore” quote that’s been going around lately, I say send him to Baltimore for Bedard straight up. I’d do it right now.

This was a great game, except for the top of the ninth.
Kameron Loe continues his resurgence this summer by putting in a very strong performance. He went 6+ innings, giving up five hits and three walks, but most importantly – NO RUNS. He wasn’t as dominating as the last few starts, but he got the job done. I was there in person, and it was great to watch this.
Loe was up against Baltimore pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, who is having a great season. He was bringing it, and aside from a small ball run we got in the third, he was pretty darn solid, retiring something like eight in a row at one point. He made a mistake to the currently hit Brad Wilkkkkerson in the sixth, a two run home run about 3 or 4 rows right above the wedgie down the right field line. Went right past me sitting in Sec 41 against the fence – it’s a reason I like sitting there, you get great views of home runs (bad view of the scoreboard, but that’s another discussion). So the Rangers were up 3-0.
After Loe gave up a leadoff double in the seventh, he was pulled – to a really nice standing ovation. CJ Wilson came in, and was surprisingly not good. Wilson walked two, loading the bases. Then came a play which I couldn’t tell live at the park much about. Wilson uncorked a wild pitch, and it came back to Melhuse who tagged out Chris Gomez at the plate. That was the call. I was listening on the radio, and Eric and Vic said that it looked like they got the call wrong, and the recap I read on the wire inclued a quote from the home plate umpire saying he got the call wrong. But it went our way, and that seriously helped. Francisco came in and cleaned up that mess, and also pitched a scoreless 8th.
Then in came Gagne. For the first time since 2004, he blew a save, his first of the season, and it broke a personal streak of save conversions by him of 30. We couldn’t score in the bottom of the ninth, although Brad Wilkerson almost ended it then. He hit a huge towering fly ball to right, up near the top of the foul pole, but it hooked foul at the last minute. Darnit. It looked good off the bat, and it definitely was foul by my eyes at the park, but wow were those few seconds exciting. :) Jack Benoit then came in and pitched a perfect 10th.
In the bottom of the tenth, Travis Metcalf singled, and was sac bunted over by Jerry Hairston. After a walk to Ramon Vazquez, Michael Young came up and hit the first pitch into left, scoring Metcalf for the win. It was nice to see that, and I was glad to see Gagne get picked up like that.
This is the way I believe everyone felt this team was supposed to be playing from the start of the season. I wonder if this is for naught, and the team is about to be split up. That would suck, as we’re playing our best ball of the year right now.
Oh, and I really loved hearing Victor Rojas’ call on the game winner on the replay. Couldn’t hear it in the park on my headphone radio, as the place was too loud. Did get to hear it on the replay in my truck driving home, though. This reminds me that there was a possibility that Vic could have gone to Arizona this past off season to do their TV coverage. I am so glad that did not happen. I want Vic to stay here for a really long time. I love his passion in his game calling, and if Josh Lewin ever moves on, I’d love for Vic to go up to the TV side of things.

The Rangers offense was shut down on Thursday night by Anaheim’s pitching. The Rangers had six hits in all. One triple, one double, and four singles. Nobody had more than one hit, and three starters (Sosa, Wilkkkkerson, & Relaford) had none. The two runs we got were on singles, one by Mike Young in the first, and the other by Marlon Byrd in the bottom of the ninth.
Wilkkkerson’s recent hot streak actually filled me with confidence that he might be able to deliver in the bottom of the ninth, but that was a fleeting thought, he struck out – to end the game, no less. GASP!
Tejeda continues to be the enigma that both Texas & Philly know. Totally mediocre line. 5.1IP, 6H, 4ER, 3BB, 4K. Not going to win much that way. Ron Mahay came on and finished the game, going a total of 3.2IP, and giving up one earned run on four hits. That was decent enough, if not spectacular.
Kelvim Escobar got his 10th win of the season, going 7, giving up just three hits, and the one run to Mike Young’s single in the first.
Kind of a flat game. Still, we took the series against a division foe, and that’s always something to be positive about. We were 6-4 against good teams in this recent stretch (Detroit, Boston, Anaheim). I hope that sort of play continues, and isn’t just a flash in the pan.

This was another one of those games that on paper, we had no hope. Jered Weaver against Jamey Wright. Ugh. I expected us to be down 7-1 after three innings or so. But that’s not what happened. Not even close.

As much as I’ve been ragging on Jamey since spring training, I have to give him props. This was a pretty well pitched game I thought. Except for a stretch where he allowed four singles in a row (which accounted for the two runs in the fourth), he was pretty spot on. Even those four singles were all ground balls. He also had three double plays turned on the field, two of which he was involved in himself. Jamey Newberg said he had a hard time watching him this game; I didn’t. He looked good to me. At least for tonight. You can’t argue with his overall line. It was 6 innings, five hits, two earned runs, two walks, and two strikeouts. His pitch count was 76, so I’m a bit surprised he came out after just six innings.

But no matter, our bullpen was lights out. The three relievers we used (Wilson, Benoit, Gagne) all went one inning, and were all perfect. CJ Wilson struck out two of his three batters, Benoit struck out the side, and Gagne didn’t strike out anyone, but only needed six pitches to get the save. I imagine that inning was a small taste of what Los Angeles (the real LA team, not the one we played tonight) was getting when Gagne was in his prime a few years ago. That was exciting.

Jered Weaver went five+ innings, and was just “OK”. Kind of the line I’m used to seeing from Ranger pitchers. Five innings, 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts. Not awful, certainly not great. Frank Catalanotto and Marlon Byrd both had three hits. Cat was 3-4, and Byrd was 3-3 with a walk. Man, if Byrd is this solid the rest of the season, you would have to think he’d leapfrog Nelson Cruz in the pecking order for the 2008 outfield. Man is he hot. Speaking of hot, recent vintage powerhouse Brad Wilkkkkerson went 1 for 4 tonight with a double off the wall, that looked like a home run off the bat, but didn’t quite get out. He did strike out twice though. No shock there. Overall, we had 11 hits. Two doubles (Byrd, Wilkerson) and nine singles. Gerald Laird had an odd line, going 0-2 with two RBI’s. They were both sac flies.

This is the kind of game you love to see the Rangers win. Well pitched, well played, a great game of baseball. As much as I love 14-2 wins, these 4-2 games where it’s close with great pitching are what it’s all about.

Man, if they only started this way. Now I’m not claiming it can happen, but if we did manage to come back from this enormous deficit and somehow get into the playoffs, Ron Washington would probably win manager of the year. One wonders if that would happen if Buck Showalter might get a small playoff cut – I mean it would be partially due to him being fired, eh? :)