I’ve seen the lights go out on Arlington
I saw the Lone Star State laid low.
And life went on beyond the Galleria,
They all bought bright Leuxes-
And left there long ago.
They held a concert out in Arlington-
To watch the Ballpark lights blow.
They turned our power down,
And drove us underground-
But we went right on with the show…
Feldman & Wolf were rolling on now..
Lookin like a classic pitcher’s duel
Then the right field lights went out
We sat and waited
For lights that never came…
We sat at home for hours
Watching Rain Delay shows
The fun was going away
I wanted to hit fast forward..
And we lost all hope of the game
When finally out of nowhere
The lights in right just turned right on.
The players took the field
All the pitching was lost
Both teams ran out the bullpens.
Homer by Kemp
Doubles by more Dodgers
Ran the score up three to one
Guardado, Grilli, & O’Day,
Even Moscosco couldn’t help
The Rangers lost the game!
I’ve seen the lights go out in Arlington-
I saw the ruins at my feet,
You know we almost didn’t notice it-
We’d see it all the time on Randol Mill Rd.
They burned the churches up in Oak Cliff-
Like in that Spanish Civil War-
The flames were everywhere,
But no one really cared-
It always burned up there before….
I saw the lights go out on Arlington-
I watched the mighty skyline fall.
The boats were waiting at Ray Hubbard,
The union went on strike-
They never sailed at all.
They sent a carrier out from Norfolk-
And picked the Yankees up for free.
They said that Queens could stay,
They blew the Bronx away-
And sank Manhattan out to sea….
You know those lights were bright on Arlington-
But that was so many years ago…
Before we all lived here in Texas-
Before the Mafia took over Mexico.
There are not many who remember-
They say a handful still survive…
To tell the world about…
The way the lights went out,
And keep the memory alive….

First off, I didn’t see hardly any of this game, as we had a few friends over to watch Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Was a lot of fun, and a friend bought some of my favorite (Blonde) beer, which I haven’t been able to find lately around me.
The Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles swept into town, bringing with them the overall best record of any team in baseball. They finished the game with the same condition, but not before being shown that the little ol team from Arlington can play with them.
Vicente Padilla, coming off a stint on the waiver wire, didn’t allow anything, although he was all over the place. Threw just five innings, but also 108 pitches. Walked three, gave up four hits, but more importantly, no runs. One wonders if he pitches really good between now and the end of July he’ll get moved. I don’t think anyone thinks Padilla will be wearing Texas in 2010, so it could make sense.
He was followed by Jason Jennings, who threw three innings of scoreless relief, and Jason Grilli (who I expect won’t stay long either) who threw a scoreless inning, preserving the shutout.
Offensively, we got some runs across the plate, which has been a problem the last few games. We had nine hits in all. Three doubles (two by Teagarden), a triple (Byrd), a home run (Blalock), and four singles. I missed all of it, just saw highlights on Baseball Tonight. But it was nice to get some runs across.
But more importantly getting a dominating win against one of the big boys. That was very cool.

A lot was written about how the 1-0 win in Arlington is a rare occurrence. It is. You almost never see the Rangers win 1-0 at home. If there’s zero in the score like that, the other number is frequently a nine or something like that.
But not this night. Kevin Millwood was quite good again. While I didn’t get to see the game, his line looks impressive. 7.2 innings pitched, five hits, no walks, and NO RUNS. Kevin left with 105 pitches thrown, which is below his usual workload for 2009. Still, you can’t argue with the results.
Darren O’Day & CJ Wilson both threw two thirds of an inning, also giving up no runs. Wilson gave up a hit, but that was it. The Blue Jays scattered their six hits, with only Aaron Hill getting more than one.
On our side, it wasn’t great to see us shut down offensively again, but thanks to our pitching, the one run we got was all we needed. The Rangers actually had fewer hits than Toronto did (five to their six). David Murphy was the only Ranger with two (one a double). The other hits were by Chris Davis (double), and singles by Chris Davis, Jarrod Saltamacchia, & Nelson Cruz. The lone run actually was driven in by Marlon Byrd, who had a sac fly in the second.
Overall, an extremely impressive game. I wish I was out there for it. Would have been great to see!

Wednesday night’s game was rained out, and for good reason. There was some really heavy rain going through the Metroplex. From the looks of the storm and the radar, there was enough to get the family into the bathroom. That’s an adventure with two adults, a four year old, a newborn, and two cats in a single bathroom. Got pretty humid in there by the time we got out.
Anyway, the Rangers game will be made up as a doubleheader on September 1st. Provided my new job allows it, I’ll be there. I love doubleheaders!

Not much to say about this one.
The Rangers were shut down pretty darned good by Brian Tallet. We managed just two hits. A double by Brandon Boggs, and a single by Chris Davis. That was it.
Meanwhile, Ranger pitching was pretty bad. Combined, they went nine innings, giving up 12 hits, 9 runs (eight earned) with four walks. Meh. It was even a group of names you go “Huh” to for the most part. Mathis, Moscoso, Guardado, & Grilli.
That’s enough about this one. It stunk.

Scott Feldman had probably his worst outing as a starter in 2009 on Monday. Funny thing is if you look at his numbers (six innings pitched, seven hits, two walks, four earned runs), they’re not that awful. Not great, but not Chan Ho Park or Mark Clark level of pitching. Still, given how well he has pitched this season so far, it seems pretty bad.
Jason Jennings followed Scott and gave up a few himself in his two innings. Four hits, two runs.
Offensively the real damage for Toronto was done by one guy. Adam Lind. He had two two run home runs, each coming after a walk to another Blue Jay. Take Lind out, and things would have been a whole lot different.
The Rangers runs came on a bunch of singles, mostly. Only David Murphy had anything other than a single; he had two doubles. The Rangers did try a suicide squeeze, and it was suicide. Elvis Andrus missed the bunt, which hung out Marlon Byrd to dry coming home. :)
I missed a decent amount of this, as my mother in law who had been staying with us was going home in the morning. Still, it was a loss. Meh. :)

Vicente Pidente comes back from his being placed on waivers, and going unclaimed. I don’t think anyone thought he’d start plunking Red Sox, but you always wonder, eh? Anyway, he was pretty good on Sunday afternoon. Seven innings, four hits, four walks, and two earned runs (three overall). Just 99 pitches for the namesake of the Padilla Flotilla. While I never thought he’d be gone this past weekend, one has to figure he’s definitely done after 2009 here, if not traded by the end of July. Padilla did help himself out a bit by picking off Kevin Youkilis from second early on.
Offensively, we got to Daisuke Matsuzaka pretty good. In the 5.2 innings he pitched, we hit him for 10 hits and five earned runs. No Ranger walked, and eight struck out, so he wasn’t totally awful, but still. That’s a decent showing against one of the Sox’ better pitchers. Three doubles, a triple, and two home runs powered the Rangers offense. The highlight was Nelson Cruz almost getting a cycle, just missing the single. Cruz & Murphy both had good days with three hits apiece. Michael Young & Omar Vizquel each had two.
Darren O’Day & CJ Wilson followed up with scoreless innings. Really liking O’Day.
We did it, we came out of the Yankees/Red Sox road trip with a 3-3 record. Not bad at all. Obviously you want to go 6-0, but realistically that’s not happening. I think most everyone is satisfied with 3-3 against those guys. Shows we can hang, which might be useful if this first place thing carries us into October.
Sorry for the brevity – it’s 3AM, and I’m tired. :)

Wow. There’s not much to say about this one. Jon Lester was freakin’ fantastic! I’ve seen many good games pitched in my years watching baseball, but Lester on June 6, 2009 was one of the best. Through the first six, he was untouchable. I mean it was stupid how badly he made the Rangers hitters look.

Michael Young finally broke it up in the top of the seventh when he had a good, clean, double to the monster in left. That was the only hit the Rangers got until Michael came up again in the ninth and singled. Our only run was a sac fly by Andruw Jones in the ninth, scoring Elvis Andrus.

Yeah, the Sox scored a bunch of runs, Derek Holland and Mr. Anna Benson didn’t look that good, but who cares? This was about Jon Lester. Once the game got through the sixth, I wanted to see him throw a perfect game against the Rangers – that would have been quite something to watch, and I think most people at that time were thinking he could.

After going 1-2 in the Bronx, I don’t think anyone was looking forward to Boston too much, because you could quite easily see another repeat of a 1-2 series, to come home 2-4. We’d then hear all the pundits (Randy Galloway mostly) whine about how we couldn’t beat the good teams. They’d have a point mind to some extent, mind you, but I wouldn’t want to hear all of that.
So with some trepidation (and no HD feed) on Friday night I sat down to watch the Rangers take on Boston. Kevin Millwood was taking on Brad Penny. Penny’s OK, but not someone to be totally afraid of. And the Rangers weren’t. At least not right away. This was a pretty good pitcher’s duel through the first four innings. Neither team could get past the zeroes that the starters were putting up.
Until the fifth. The Rangers hit Penny for several runs, (five in all), after a play that Julio Lugo probably should have gotten to. Had he done that, I expect that most of the runs that inning would have never scored. I’m speaking of the three run home run that Ian Kinsler got shortly after Lugo’s missed play (which had a visual response from Penny on the mound). The Rangers plated four in the top of the fifth, and that was pretty much all they needed, despite tacking on an additional run in the sixth. That was it from us scoring wise, we were up 5-0 after six. We actually didn’t have a ton of offense. Just eight hits in all, three of them by Chris Davis, who seems to be getting more hits, even if he’s still striking out way too many times. There was also two hits by Marlon Byrd, and one each by Kinsler (his HR), Saltamacchia, & Andrus. One Davis’ hits was a double, but everything else aside from Kinsler’s homer was a single. So the fifth was well timed.
Turns out we didn’t need all of them anyway. Kevin Millwood was pretty good yet again, going seven innings (plus three batters in the 8th) on 117 pitches. Seven hits and four walks, but allowed just one unearned run. We had no double plays, so this was a case of Millwood getting out of it himself. He really deserves more than 5 wins at this point. He’s been way better than his record indicates.
One down, all we need is one more of the remaining two games and we’ll have a 3-3 road trip. :)

As has been my policy for the last few years, I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.
However, I will say this. It was very cool to see Nelson Cruz’ dad in the stands getting quite excited about his son’s home runs. They need to bring him to every game, and make him a staple like they do with the old guy in the hat from Seattle. :)