When you write a headline like that. you think of one thing. The Rangers won this game early on, and rode Tommy Hunter to the win. And to an extent that is right, but..
The pitcher that Seattle sent out there was Felix Hernandez, and to be honest, through the first six innings, it was a total pitcher’s duel. Neither team amounted much of anything, and to be honest, it was a game that was easy to watch, as it moved quickly, and had some crisp pitching.
Until the seventh, when Hernandez broke down. Vlad led off with a single, and after at Cruz fly out, David Murphy homered to left field, giving the Rangers all they really needed for the win. The Rangers tacked on another run this inning after a Moreland walk, a Blanco single, and an Andrus single. And then Felix Hernandez came out of the game. Tommy Hunter was still in the game.
We put up another three spot in the eighth. That was with singles by Hamilton & Guerrero, followed by a double by Cruz, scoring Hamilton. We got the other runs on a sac fly and a wild pitch. So we went up 6-0 in a very short span there late in the game, pretty much making most people forget that the Rangers had nothing until they got into the seventh inning.
Tommy Hunter, however, got his ninth win of the season, going to 9-1. He went 6.1 innings, actually less than Hernandez and gave up the same number of hits, too (8), and one more walk than Hernandez (2 vs 1), but the all important runs column was a big old donut. That was what made Hunter a far more dominant pitcher than Hernandez was. Seems weird, and when you examine the numbers, it doesn’t play out, but when you “feel” it, Tommy Hunter was better than Felix Hernandez.
So we got out of Seattle winning the series 2-1, but we probably should have swept ’em. Still, we have a huge lead over Oakland and Anaheim, and have a shot to put a dent in the A’s starting on Friday night.

This was a totally spectacular game, and one of the best days ever during my time running this website for the Rangers. I mean, we’ve had great wins over the now 12 seasons that have been during my time running this site. And truth be told, in terms of wins, this doesn’t really rate THAT high on the great wins list. But when you combine it with the events back in a Ft Worth courtroom, and what happened at the exact moment that GnR got their winning bid in, it elevates the game itself to a bit higher status.
Didn’t start out that great. After four innings, we were losing 5-2, and I wasn’t feeling that great about the game. It was compounded by the fact that at the time, things weren’t looking so great in the ol’ courthouse. But in the top of the fifth, David Murphy popped a huge home run out to right field scoring three. It was the big exclamation point to a five run fifth inning, that put us up 7-5, and we never gave up that lead.
The Rangers gave up another run in the bottom of the sixth, which let the Mariners back in the game a little, but we crushed it completely in the top of the seventh when Jose Lopez slacked off on a grounder to third, and he allowed the bases to be loaded, when they should have been off the field.
The next batter was Michael Young, and on the first pitch he saw, he deposited it into the bullpen for a grand slam. The coolest part about that slam was at the same time, the GnR group put in what turned out to be their winning bid for the Rangers in the Ft Worth courthouse. It was quite a cool moment overall. Obviously, at the time, you didn’t know of the connection, but it was figured out not too long after that.
I mean, that was the “end” of the day’s festivities. It wasn’t really, as there was a little more court time, a little more game, but the Michael Young grand slam was the spiritual “end” of the events of the day.
You gotta love that. That it’s the 10 year serviced Michael Young too makes things that much sweeter.
And after this night, I dared to entertain the thought that we might be able to keep Cliff Lee next season. Dreaming high, eh? :)
I will write about the sale of the transfer of the team in a separate post, but I will add this – thanks again to Scott Lucas for the idea.

The Rangers head to Seattle feeling good, and then early on we got the usual Seattle moves.

1. The footage of the train out back of the park.
2. Weather remarks.
3. Demolition footage of the Kingdome
4. Footage of Bill from Seattle, the old Mariners fan in the blue hat.

Sadly, early on in the broadcast, they showed the seats that Bill and his wife used to sit, and they were empty. They mentioned that Bill had died about three months ago or so, which was sad, because he was ALWAYS there. They mentioned that Bill had been put on the jumbotron at the Mariners park, so he must have been their version of Zonk or something like that. Shame, as it really will seem weird not seeing him there. Perhaps the Rangers TV team can show a clip of him anyway, just for old times sake when we go there. What made it sad for me I had just sent a tweet to Josh Lewin saying they should send John Rhadigan over to talk to him, as they don’t often take their own stadium guy on the road. and then almost immediately, that’s when Lewin talked about Bill having died. So I had to delete my tweet. I’ll still post this, however:

As for the game itself, the Rangers sent Colby Lewis out there, and was pretty decent, but wasn’t totally dominating. He sadly though pitched well enough to get the win, and didn’t. Went a total of six innings, gave up nine hits and one walk. Did strike out nine, and that was the mostly dominating part, but for me it didn’t feel like a totally dominating performance. Nothing I can point to, just a gut feeling sort of thing.
It’s hard to get much support for Lewis when the Rangers get only four hits total. Three singles (Elvis, Cantu, Molina), and a double by Mitch Moreland. Interestingly, both of the RBI’s we got were on sac flies (Molina, Young).
The Mariners didn’t dominate offensively, either, as they had three innings with single runs. But what they got was pretty much from their pretty darn awesome center fielder, Franklyn Guiterrez. He drove himself in with a solo home run, and another run on a squeeze play.
Colby Lewis did strike out nine. :)
Didn’t like losing to Seattle. They’re bad. We’re not this year.

I’ve spent the weekend of trade deadline mostly sick, so I’m taking a pass on writing about this one.
Some runs for Cliff Lee would be nice.

I’ve spent most of trade deadline day sick, so I’m taking a pass on writing about this one.
But still, wow. Where was this Rich Harden all year?

I’ve spent most of trade deadline day sick, so I’m taking a pass on writing about this one.

Today was an interesting day, the Rangers announced a trade for Jorge Cantu, who was announced as a right handed complement to Chris Davis at first base. However, due to 25 man roster considerations, the Rangers called up Mitch Moreland to play first, according to some stories just for this game until Cantu got here. Well, Moreland looked good, went 2-4, and guess what? He’s staying, and it was announced after the game that Chris Davis was going back to AAA. An interesting little circle there.
Speaking of this game, Moreland got his first major league hit in the game (and his second, too). But the first one had some funny video if you were watching. It was a single to right, and when the camera from center field was watching him you could see 4 or 5 players from the dugout trying to get him to do the “claw” gesture, which he obviously wasn’t up to speed on. He eventually got it, and it was a great piece of video. You can see the hit here on mlb.com. There was video of the claw stuff, but I can’t remember where I saw it.
Anyway, Moreland looked good at the start. I feel bad for Chris Davis, as I like him, but all these moves make me think the team has soured on Davis, or at least aren’t willing to wait for him to figure out his bat at the majors.
CJ Wilson got his 10th win of the season, but he was not like he was the last two starts (which were great Cliff Lee like outings). This was a lot more laborious, he wasn’t quick and crisp, his line bears that out. 5.2 innings, 7 hits, two walks, and three earned runs – all with 105 pitches. Not godawful, but certainly not on the good side of things.
Offensively the Rangers were led by Michael Young and Josh Hamilton. Young had four hits, and Hamilton had three. David Murphy had a really long home run (almost totally over all the seats behind the wedgie (Former Section 43). But the big note of the offensive side was a two run home run by Taylor Teagarden, who hit just his second hit of the whole season with that. His batting average was .034 before that hit.
But most importantly, we won the game, and we’re 8.5 games up on Oakland in second place, and 9 games up on the Angels (who are amazingly just 52-52 at the moment). We’re headed out to California for a series with Anaheim. It could bury them if we swept the Angels. What an amazing thought. Don’t think it will really happen, but still.

This bit from the line score summarizes the game.
Four hits
Three errors
That’s about it. The Rangers managed only four singles, and managed to get two of them together in the 9th for the one run we got. We barely avoided the shutout, and given we had just two hits through eight innings, the only story of this game was Trevor Cahill.
Granted, Colby Lewis was good too (7IP, 5H, 1R, 8K) is nothing to sneeze at, but it was not what Cahill did.
Fortunately, the Angels lost too, but they were jumped by the A’s in the standings, and the Angels are currently in third place.
Hats off to Trevor Cahill.

Cliff Lee was freakin’ fantastic! Nine innings pitched. Five singles allowed, no walks, and THIRTEEN strikeouts. He did allow a run, but it was unearned (due to an error by Kinsler when he didn’t cover second on a steal attempt). Nine innings, and 118 pitches. I felt sad for him when we didn’t win it in regulation. He should be perfect in wins and losses since coming here, but we have developed an inability to score any runs for Cliff Lee. I hope that’s not his legacy.
The Rangers went up 1-0 early on when Vlad Guerrero doubled in Michael Young. It sat that way for awhile until the unearned run scored in the top of the sixth, and then there was no more scoring.
Until Nelson Cruz crushed a home run way over the left field wall for a walkoff home run, which is always a good thing.
I was going to go to this game, but I was so beat I wasn’t in the mood to drive to Arlington. Which turned out to be a good thing as I fell asleep on the sofa from 7PM till 8:30PM.
But the Rangers won the game. Which is the bigger deal, but man, you feel bad for Cliff Lee. Really.

Tommy Hunter is now 8-0 in his first eight decisions with the Rangers. That is a record that no other Rangers pitcher has ever had in the history of the franchise. That’s quite an accomplishment, and something to build on. He’s looking like a huge part of the rotation if we go into the playoffs. Six point one innings of work, three hits, three runs, and it’s home runs again – the Angels had two home runs. Still, it’s a quality start, and you just got the feeling that Hunter was all over the game.
Offensively, the Rangers had a nice pile of hits (13), and it was almost all singles, as the only extra base hits were two doubles by Elvis & Chris Davis, and a triple by Josh Hamilton which was a cool one to watch, as it just squibbed over the second baseman, and slowly rolled out to the 407 spot in the right field power alley. As it rolled, you thought perhaps it might be an inside the parker, but he ended up with a two run triple, which was nice to watch.
Feliz made it a little more interesting by giving up a run in the 9th, but still it was all about Tommy Hunter to me, and that’s a cool thing.
We’re up seven games in the West. Wow.