The final home game of the Rangers 2009 season ended pretty poorly.
We were actually winning 5-0 going into the 8th inning. Brandon McCarthy was pitching quite well, actually. 7.2 IP, 6 hits, only two runs, neither of which were earned. Then the bullpen stunk up the joint. In fact, all seven Rays runs came in the 8th & 9th. Frank Francisco was particularly bad.
Sigh. No taking a lap of the ballpark on this finale.

I was planning on skipping this game. I had some other family stuff going on. However, I tuned in at the bottom of the fifth, and had a minute or two, so I peeked in. Picked the right time, that’s for sure.
The Rangers were losing 3-1 at the time I peeked in, and I have to say I wasn’t sure why I picked that moment to stop and watch. It was a party, that’s for sure. The really fun part is that all the scoring happened after there were already two outs. That’s very sweet.
– I. Rodriguez singled to shallow left
– C. Davis doubled to deep left center, I. Rodriguez to third
– J. Borbon walked
– E. Andrus lined out to shallow right
– J. Hamilton struck out swinging
– M. Byrd homered to deep left center, I. Rodriguez, C. Davis and J. Borbon scored
– H. Blalock singled to center
– I. Kinsler walked, H. Blalock to second
– J. Bennett relieved M. Garza
– D. Murphy doubled to center, H. Blalock and I. Kinsler scored
– I. Rodriguez singled to shallow center, D. Murphy scored
– C. Davis singled to shallow left, I. Rodriguez to second
– J. Borbon singled to shallow right, I. Rodriguez scored, C. Davis to second
– E. Andrus walked, C. Davis to third, J. Borbon to second
– J. Hamilton doubled to right, C. Davis, J. Borbon and E. Andrus scored
– M. Byrd walked
– D. Thayer relieved J. Bennett
– H. Blalock flied out to center
I enjoyed the grand slam. Heck, I enjoyed the bottom of the fifth. Too bad there weren’t more games like this the last month, or we would have been actually playing for something this night.

What are the highlights here?
Gabe Kapler hit a solo home run. No wait, that would have been a highlight 9 years ago, but he did hit a home run in this game. The home run the mattered here was Ian Kinsler’s, his 30th, which made him a 30/30 guy. The only other person to do that was Alfonso Soriano, a couple of years back. He took 20 games and 78 at bats to get this milestone. It’s nice that he got it, but man has he been in a slump the last month or so. I hope he can realize there’s another direction to hit the ball besides straight up in 2010. We’ll need it.
Josh Hamilton also returned, but at this point, it doesn’t mean much – I think he should just sit, given there’s only a single digit number of games left, and they don’t count for anything (even though I suppose technically they do).
Derek Holland was better than he’s been the last 6 or 7 games or so, but not like he was when he first started. Probably out of gas, or overwhelmed, or any other rookie adjective you can send over. I bet Hannah Baugh still loves him.. wait, given Hannah’s age, I should say “Hannah hearts him”. ;)

I didn’t watch any of this game, but I did hear some of it while driving around. Yesterday I went to the Stars exhibition game, and before that I picked up the couple of friends I went with early, and we went out to dinner. Because of that, I had the Rangers game on.
Needn’t have bothered, really. The Rangers were blown out because Scott Feldman was worse than Mark Clark. He needed to win them all to get to 20 wins. It didn’t happen when trying for #18 on Thursday. He could still get to 19, as I count he’ll get two more starts. But not if he pitched like this.
The new scoreboards in the American Airlines Center are QUITE nice. Very good looking.

Hank Blalock had two doubles and a home run. It helped. We needed it, too. All of it. Barely squeaked out a run. I didn’t see any of the game, I was playing Animal Crossing with my daughter on the Wii, then put the kids to bed, and well, I had already given up on the season anyway. Rangers will pitch a perfect game, and I’ll miss it, most likely. :)

I didn’t watch any of this game, to be perfectly honest.
I got a new BluRay set in from Amazon today, it was Season 2 of the original Star Trek series. I immediately sat down to watch “The Doomsday Machine“, probably one of the most iconic episodes of the original Star Trek series. Even watched it with my four year old daughter, so it was her introduction to the original Star Trek.
Then after she went to bed, and the Rangers game came on, I delved into the “Tribbles” disc. There were several things on here. First, was the original “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode, the Animated series episode “More Tribbles, More Troubles“, and finally the Deep Space Nine episode, “Trials & Tribble-ations“. Enjoyed all of them. Enjoyed the set. If you’re a fan of the original Star Trek, and have a Blu-Ray player, get these. You’ll be glad you did. Review of this new set is here.
When it was over, I noticed the Rangers game was done, I peeked, saw we had lost 9-1, and went “meh”.
Random other comment: Today I thought the World Series will be Philadelphia vs either Boston or New York, probably more likely Boston.

I spent most of this game working on one of my other websites. I had the game on the radio, but it was background noise. I did, however also have the MLB Gameday thing up in another Firefox tab, when I’d peek in from time to time, but I wasn’t paying attention for the most part.
I did, however, happen to notice one of the more expensive double plays in team history. It was this one, which was the moment that Kevin Millwood’s $12 million contract vested for 2010. So much for the conspiracy theorists who spent a lot of time thinking the Rangers should sit Kevin. Think of a way to save the museum at the ballpark, instead.
Anyway, here’s a shot of the expensive play..

It did, however, guarantee that we would have a winning season. But I think most Ranger fans (even me, given my attitude at the end) would prefer a season record that was indicative of the general good play we’ve had this season, and not just finish with like 84-85 wins.

The Rangers lost. I barely peeked at the game. I was busy watching the Eagles – Saints game at the time. Then at 3PM I watched the Steelers – Bears game. Both my Pennsylvania teams lost. That’s a drag.
However, in the evening, the Cowboys lost, which really REALLY brought me back up. If a stadium that garish could possibly be “deflated”, it certainly was in the last 15 seconds of the game.

After Friday night’s shutout, I had mentally given up on the season. I have to say, I wasn’t interested in this game. I mean I cared somewhat, it’s not like I’m shutting off completely, but I was disinterested in watching the game.
Right around 7:10 or so, I fired up the MLB AtBat app on my iPod Touch to see who was starting the game, and discovered the game was already in the fourth inning. At that point, we were winning 1-0, and I have to say I was surprised at the fourth inning. I watched a little on the iPod Touch app, and then passed out on my bed, as I had been up since 5:30 when woken up by the baby.
When I woke up, I went and played some “The Bigs 2” on my Xbox 360, and wasn’t even interested in watching the game, to be honest. Was having fun with Home Run pinball in Times Square. :)
When I checked back in on the Rangers game, it was over, and we had won. Which is good, I suppose, but it really REALLY feels like “too late, guys”.
We did score three runs, which is a major uprising, given last week’s offense. However, it still isn’t a major offensive production, three isn’t terribly great. Good thing Feldman was there to win (his 17th), otherwise we would have lost yet again.
Speaking of Feldman, he has an outside shot at winning 20 games this year. By my count, he can get three more starts this season, the third coming on the actual last game of the year. It would be quite an accomplishment for him to do that, it’s been quite awhile since we’ve had a 20 game winner.

Half a dozen seasons ago when the Rangers came out with their then new logo, the circular Texas Rangers logo… A lot of people were kind of “meh” about it. Some people (like myself) didn’t care for it. To be honest, I said at the time it looked too much like the Montreal Expos logo. I thought it lacked imagination.
But this morning, I realized the real reason they chose that. It looks like zero! Which is the number of times this team has won in the post season, and also the number of runs they seem to like putting up in late 2009 – when it matters! I mean look at it. It LOOKS like a zero, it’s like we’re being mocked. MOCKED I TELLS’YA!

Pretty darned sad. It’s what, about 600 innings in a row now without a run? And 1,433.2 if you add in David Murphy’s solo home run from a few days ago?
Five in a row.
Zero for five games (27) with runners in scoring position.
One run in the last 46 innings
7 1/2 back in West with 16 to play
7 back in Wild Card with 16 to play
The Angels Magic Number is 9
The Red Sox Magic Number for the Wild Card is 10
If anyone was still holding out hope (I kind of sort of still was even though I said they were done after Tuesday), forget it..

The only thing I’ll say about this game individually is that catch that Nelson Cruz made in right with the bases loaded in the second was really quite good. Kept things from getting out of hand, really. Like they weren’t already in the larger scale.