Josh Hamilton returned to the lineup on Tuesday night, and went deep. He’s had a power outage most of the season, but hopefully the reason he was on the DL for awhile helped that, and he can start raking. Josh wasn’t the only Ranger to homer. Chris Davis also did that, and Kinsler, Byrd, & Saltamacchia all doubled.
Our offense was pretty spread out. Every Ranger had at least one hit, with both Kinsler & Young getting three. The big damage was the bottom of the seventh where we plated six. Josh’s two run home run was in there. Was nice to see that.
Scott Feldman continued in the rotation, and looked good. 6.1 innings pitched, just one run on four hits.
(This commentary is short, due to playing catch up on nine games of commentary at once).

Vicente Padilla went a second straight game giving up just one hit. That kind of snuck out of nowhere. He started off the year weak, but has really come on strong the last couple of starts. Seven innings, just one hit and one run. Looked pretty good out there. Maybe, just maybe, with multiple starters pitching well? Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.
Offensively, it was all about the power. We had nine hits. Five of them were for extra bases. Two doubles (Vizquel & Davis) and three home runs (2 by Blalock, & one by Chris Davis).
The game was tied through four at 1-1, but then Rangers popped it open with a four spot in the fifth, tacking on single runs in the seventh & eighth. The Sox didn’t really have a chance this game, we kept on top of ’em pretty good.
(This commentary is short, due to playing catch up on nine games of commentary at once).

Kevin Millwood wasn’t as dominating as he had been at times this season, but he certainly pitched well enough to win. He went seven innings (again), giving up just three runs. A good outing.
However, former Ranger prospect John Danks was better. Six innings, just one run. Fanned 10, something that always helps.
The Rangers didn’t have any power this game. Only one hit was for extra bases, a double by Nelson Cruz. Everything else (six of ’em) were singles.
The White Sox also had just seven hits in the game, but placed theirs better.
(This commentary is short, due to playing catch up on nine games of commentary at once).

MATT HARRISON WAS FREAKIN’ FANTASTIC!
Now THAT is the Matt Harrison I think people were expecting. Matt threw a complete game shutout. Nine innings pitched, 111 pitches, just four hits, and NO RUNS. Holy crap was that great! Man, if we can only get this kind of pitching regularly.. It’d be scary how good we could be with our offense.
MATT HARRISON WAS FREAKIN’ FANTASTIC!
Oh yeah, four doubles and seven singles, but who cares?
MATT HARRISON WAS FREAKIN’ FANTASTIC!
(This commentary is short, due to playing catch up on nine games of commentary at once).

Brandon McCarthy was the old Brandon McCarthy (4IP, 7ER).
Chris Davis hit a home run in the fifth.
The Rangers scored three in the ninth, in a “who cares now” kind of fashion.
Meh – this game sucked.
(This commentary is short, due to playing catch up on nine games of commentary at once).

In a game where all the offense was over by the end of the fourth inning, you find good bullpen numbers on both sides. Both teams’ pens gave up no runs. All the runs were by the starters, who also pitched fairly decently.
Scott Feldman, making a spot start went six, gave up four hits and two runs. Dan Giese went 5.2 innings, giving up eight hits and three runs. Decent pitching, if not dominant.
Elvis Andrus had a home run in the first inning, then all the other four runs in the game came in the fourth inning. Cruz doubled, but for the second game in a row, the offense was mostly singles.
(This commentary is short, due to playing catch up on nine games of commentary at once).

This game for the most part was one I thought was going to be one where you’d chalk it up to Padilla being a hard luck loser. He was being bested by Erik Bedard. Padilla went eight innings, gave up just a single hit, and one unearned run. That was it. Bedard went 7. Gave up just one run (his was earned), and the game went into extra innings tied 1-1. I’m no fan of extra innings (unless I’m in attendance, than give me 30!).
However, the Rangers unloaded in the top of the 10th, scoring six times to totally take the game away. It was capped by a grand slam by Jarrod Saltamacchia. The Rangers offense was surprisingly small. We did have two doubles, and two home runs, but we also had 12 singles.
Nice to see a big inning like that.
(This commentary is short, due to playing catch up on nine games of commentary at once).

I was planning on doing this when my son was born in three weeks, but…
I found out yesterday that my job I had for the last 16 and a half years is going away. Not just me, but the whole company I was working for. Done – for those of you that didn’t know, I worked for 3D Realms, the folks who make Duke Nukem videogames. I have until next Friday at work, then I’m out. I’m working on a few things, but right now, I have to say I have zero desire to write about the Texas Rangers.
I WILL be back, but for right now, my head is a in a place where I can’t begin to bring myself to write. Sorry about that, gang. Given I have a kid coming, and I’m going to be out of a job, I want to put out the tin cup. If you are in an ability to help out, I’d really appreciate it if you could send a few bucks my way – but please understand it will not affect anything , but when you’re desperate, you have to do what you have to do. Thank you for visiting.
The donate button is to your right on top of the menu. Thanks.

Early on, this game was what you thought it would be. 2009 Kevin Milwood vs Felix Hernandez of the Mariners. You figured it would be a low offense game. And it was, for awhile. The first three innings were quick, clean, and devoid of runs.

Until the top of the fourth when Hank Blalock doubled in Michael Young and then Marlon Byrd singled in Hank. That put us up 2-0. Feeling good. Started feeling even better when in the next inning, Michael Young homered to right, scoring Elvis Andrus. OK, we’re up 4-0. With the way that Kevin Millwood is pitching in 2009 so far, you’re feeling really good about that.
Then the old Rangers Kevin Millwood showed up for the bottom of the fifth, as he gave up two home runs. A solo shot to Russell Branyan, and a three run job to Franklyn Gutierrez. Kevin wasn’t exactly awful there, but giving up all four runs you get right away was a bit disheartening.

However, Chris Davis came to the rescue, and reinforced Texas’ point in this with another two run home run (scoring David Murphy). That put us up 6-4. Seattle picked up their final run on a fielder’s choice by Ichiro.

The Mariners made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth. They put two on, and Ichiro was up, something you never want to see happen. Fortunately, Frank Francisco got him to pop out to center field, ending the game.

Frankie got a four out save. He got his eighth save, which ties him for the overall MLB lead with Heath Bell of the Padres. Speaking of numbers like that, going into today’s action, Kevin Millwood leads all pitchers with 45.1 innings tossed. That leads Zack Greinke by just one third of an inning, and Roy Halladay (44), Dan Haren (43), and Josh Johnson (42). At this rate, Kevin will vest his 2010 option by July. :)

The play that most people are talking about was the really extremely good play by Elvis Andrus in the ninth. It was quite amazing to see, and made you think of a ton of great shortstops from the past. Not the least of which was the guy who is currently Elvis’ backup, Omar Vizquel. It reminded me of a do or die play from 2001 in Seattle that caused an epic, major level meltdown by Lou Piniella. This one had a minor meltdown, but man was it a play for the year end highlight reel. If you didn’t see it, you will want to check it out here. The clip has the Mariners’ announcers, so they were not surprisingly skeptical of the call, but what the heck, gotta get some go your way some time. You could also check out this mp3 of Eric Nadel’s call, too (thanks to Jamey Newberg for the mp3) :)

The Rangers started off this game in a way that would make Ricky Henderson proud. Ian Kinsler homered to start the game. We went up 1-0 quickly, and never relinquished that lead.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure it would hold up, as the 2009 edition of Matt Harrison hasn’t been near as impressive as the 2008 edition was. However, Matt held it together pretty darned well on Sunday night. In front of a national audience (this was on ESPN), Matt showed why he was considered a big piece of the Mark Teixeira haul. Matt threw just five innings, but had an elevated pitch count (100), hence his early exit. However, he didn’t allow any runs on six hits and no walks. Wasn’t dominating (too many pitches), but did what he had to during his time out there. Get the pitch count under control, and this would have been a rather spectacular outing. Matt was followed up by Jason Jennings, who gave up the lone run that the Sox plated. Darren O’Day came on after that, and continued to show that he was a good, solid pickup. Usually waiver claim pickups are “meh” at best – otherwise why would the original team let them go? However, O’Day has been quite good for us. Something nice to see. CJ Wilson finished up with a scoreless inning. Overall, some really good pitching from the team from Arlington.
Back to the offense. We had five single run innings. There was the first, with the solo home run by Kinsler (his ninth). We also had three doubles in the game and a bunch (nine) singles. Not a real power game, but enough to score a single run in the third, fourth, fifth, & sixth innings.
This was all against former Ranger farmhand John Danks. Danks went just 5.1 innings, gave up 10 hits and 5 earned runs. Walked one, struck out three. This is not the line that fits with the commonly held position that the White Sox got the better of the trade that brought Texas Brandon McCarthy. Even with the five earned runs in about five innigs, Danks’ ERA is just 3.81, so he’s not like this all the time, but we have a habit of roughing up “good” pitchers in Arlington. Still, Brandon McCarthy has pitched pretty well in 2009, so the pendulum might be swinging back our way in the “Who got the better of the Danks / McCarthy trade” question.
This puts us back at .500. Let’s see if we can get on a roll. I got really tired of playing the “dance with the .500 line” last year. I don’t really want to do that again in 2009.