The Rangers took a page out of the Yankees’ old playbook this night. That’s run up the count on the starting pitcher, and get him out of there.
Andy Pettite started for the Yankees, and was out after five innings, and 104 pitches. In fact, the Rangers scored all their runs off of Andy. He was not his classic self, giving up seven hits and an astounding six walks in five innings for those four runs. Did strike out six, though – otherwise it probably would have been a lot worse. It’s a good thing the Rangers got to Pettite, because they couldn’t get anything done against the bullpen.
The same went for the Rangers’ bullpen – they didn’t give up any runs at all, and the ones the Yankees did get were pretty few anyway. Scott Feldman started, and is looking better and better each time he pitches. 6.1 innings, five hits, three walks, and five strikeouts for those two runs the Yankees got. The second run was a solo home run by Jorge Posada in the final inning Feldman pitched, so he was quite good the whole night. Couple of double plays helped out Scott, too.
The Rangers offense was all singles, although Elvis Andrus stole two bases; Kinsler was caught stealing, too. Kinsler was also picked off first, too. That’s always embarrassing.
It’s always nice to beat the Yankees, but I was disappointed none of the three games from the Bronx were in HD. You’d think at least one of them would be to show off the new stadium. I was kind of disappointed by that.

As has been my policy for the last few years, I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.

Taking a mulligan again as my son came home from the hospital with momma on Sunday. :)

(I’m making this a short recap, as my wife gave birth to our son on Thursday, and don’t have more than five minutes to do three game updates).
When you score 14 runs, an article usually becomes most about who got what offensive stat, etc, etc, etc. I didn’t see this game at all (again at hospital), but I did get to see the game on that “condensed game” feature MLB.TV has – you basically see the entire game in eight minutes. All they show you is the out, or the hit, or the run – so I did sort of see it all, just not in the normal way. :)
Four doubles, three home runs, and ten singles was quite a barrage. Three guys with two hits, three guys with three hits. Only one guy with an ofer from the starters. Some nice defense, it was a game that was never really in doubt, even though we didn’t score anything until the third inning and were actually behind 1-0. You just felt it. Granted, I knew the final score before I watched that “condensed game”.
Great pitching – Nine innings combined, five hits, only one earned runs, and four walks (three in the first inning).
We go for the four game sweep on Sunday. In the words of the Hammer.. Sweet!

(I’m making this a short recap, as my wife gave birth to our son on Thursday, and don’t have more than five minutes to do three game updates).
Scott Feldman continues to show that he should have been in the rotation since the first game of the season. Six innings, two earned runs. Our pitching has been great!
A couple of doubles and six singles are all we got, but it worked. Led us to five runs, which was enough.
Four double plays helped, too. ;)
Oh hey, did I miss something? Where’d Cordero go? Didn’t get either save in the DH.
I actually started watching this game on the TiVo when I got home from the hospital, but I fell asleep in the second inning. :)

(I’m making this a short recap, as my wife gave birth to our son on Thursday, and don’t have more than five minutes to do three game updates).
I would have been at this DH, except I was at the hospital with my new baby and my wife. I think I would have been literally attacked if I even suggested going, let alone actually going to this game. Which pains me as a baseball fan, as I freakin love doubleheaders.
Anyway, three home runs by the Rangers are all that was needed to get by the Oakland A’s in the first game of the DH. Nelson Cruz had 3 RBI’s himself, and Tommy Hunter went 5.1 innings, giving up 7 hits, three walks, and three earned runs. Not terribly effective, but “OK”. He was called up for this start, and was sent back down inbetween games of the DH.

As has been my policy for the last few years, I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.

This game started with a really long rain delay. Was about two and a half hours or something like that. I knew it would happen, as I was out driving to the airport, and there were some quite freaky looking clouds – and cloud colors. Some were quite scary looking, but the actual rain I personally ran into wasn’t much – although I saw on news coverage that it was hailing at the Ballpark.
The game finally got started around 9:30 or so, and Kevin Millwood took the mound. We have a habit of giving up runs early to the Yankees. We always seem to be in a perpetual state of playing catch up against them. Not tonight. Millwood put up a zero in the first, and we plated two (Hamilton & Cruz) with a single to right in the bottom of the inning. That’s always a nice feeling, being up on the Yankees.
Speaking of “feelings”.. I’m a little surprised Teixeira got booed as much as he did. I figured he would get some booing, but he got more than I anticipated. A-Fraud however, got rather lustily booed – surprising as he hasn’t been here in six years, you’d think it would die down a bit, but his personal dramas probably continue to stoke that fire. Tex however, answered it by going titanic on a home run ball hit into the upper tank in Home Run Porch.
In the bottom of the fourth, we plated another run on a Chris Davis home run. Chris is doing pretty well with home runs this season. Unfortunately, he leads the universe in strikeouts. I mean it’s really ugly how many he has. Still, a home run onto Greene’s Hill is always nice to see for the home team.
Kevin Millwood ran out of gas early in this game – he ran into trouble in the sixth where the Yankees scored a couple of runs in the top of the sixth on a double by Matsui, & a single by one of their scrubs.
The Rangers came back in the bottom of the seventh to counter the two runs Kevin gave up in the sixth. However, Millwood was out of the game by then, so he got a no decision. Our two were fairly non exciting runs. One on an infield groundout, and another on a sac fly. Still, two runs are two runs, and they gave us the lead.
The scoring was capped off by another home run by Chris Davis – two in a game. That one I missed, because at this point I was starting to fall asleep. They did the seventh inning stretch at midnight. :)
THE RANGERS HAVE THE BEST RECORD IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE! 27-18 (.600) Only the Dodgers have a better record in the NL, too. Second best record overall. That’s way better than what I thought we’d be doing this year. Feels good.

As has been my policy for the last few years, I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.

Wow. Just wow. Brandon McCarthy threw a complete game shutout on the road, which means nine innings. He did give up nine hits, but I don’t think anyone really cares about that. He’s never even gone past the seventh inning as a start before this game, and he nailed it. Scattering nine hits, it was a most impressive performance. This is the guy we thought we were getting from Chicago a few years ago.
The power stroke was still here. Had home runs from Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, & Jarrod Saltamacchia. Four doubles jumped into the pool too. Every Ranger had at least one hit, except for pitcher Brandon McCarthy. However, Josh Hamilton made up for that, getting three of his own.
I don’t know what else to say about this. It was Brandon McCarthy’s game from front to back. Good for him. And good for us, too!
What’s cool is we ended the trip at ..500. Can never complain about .500 on the road, really.