I had a choice between going to a game on Monday or Tuesday.  I picked Monday.  Bad move.

That’s because Yu Darvish took the hill on Tuesday.  And pitched like a man with that kind of contract should pitch.   He threw 7.2 innings.  Allowed just FOUR hits and one run.   Walked two.  Struck out seven.   Even his pitch count was respectable (118), given the number of innings (7.2).   A full nine inning game at an accepted number of pitches per inning comes out to be 135 for the whole game, so he’s doing OK there.  I always sort of felt that Yu Darvish would do OK before he started, but one never really knows.  It’s nice to see him do so well out of the gate.  Come August or so, it’ll be nice to see if teams adjust to him enough and how the cat and mouse game goes and all of that.   [Read more…]

Ugh.  First series sweep the wrong way of the season, and it’s against Kansas City.   I mean UGH.  Don’t feel like writing about this.

I was at this game.  Had some free tickets from a friend (thanks, dude!), and figured with it being the Royals, we’d have no problem.   The Royals threw out Bruce Chen, a (until recently) journeyman starter who has pitched for several major league clubs (Atlanta, Philadelphia, NY Mets, Montreal, Cincinnati, Houston, Boston, Baltimore, Kansas City, & Texas).   His time as a Texas Ranger was but a blip.  He pitched just five games here in 2007, all in relief.  Left Texas with an ERA of 7.20.  In fact, after his time in Texas, he didn’t play anywhere in the majors in 2008. [Read more…]

The Rangers were tied 2-2 in the bottom of the third.   Adrian Beltre singled.  Michael Young doubled.  David Murphy walked.   Then..

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We got an oddity in this game – CJ Wilson started the game, the night after he started the game Friday.  Now granted, on Friday he only threw less than 20 pitches or something like that, and he probably campaigned to go again, or maybe Mike Scoscia was swayed by the fans chanting “We want CJ” towards the end of Friday night’s game..  Whatever the reason, “Phone Book” Wilson took the mound on Saturday’s game, and set up the possibility that he could lose two straight games in a row on the schedule as he started both. [Read more…]

The amusing thing about this game is that I almost didn’t go.   The weather reports said all day that it was going to be raining for awhile, into the night and into the next day.  It didn’t look promising, but people out by the team I was watching on twitter were all about the game going on.  So around 4:15 or so I decided to just pick up and go.  I was out at 4:30, and it’s good that I left that early, because almost immediately there was wall to wall traffic.  Normally I don’t pick up that kind of traffic until I get down near downtown and the mixmaster (or at least the Fair Park area), but this started way back in Mesquite, and it was wall to wall traffic going pretty much out to the main Post Office.  I didn’t get out of my truck and start walking to the ballpark until 5:54 – one of the longest drives to the park I’ve ever had.  When I was walking in, it was quite sunny, so I was pretty confident the game would come off.  Turns out it was a good thing I went, because I saw a really fun game.   [Read more…]

Despite Ron Washington’s assertion that he “hates” doubleheaders, I love them.  I wish we’d get them back as regularly scheduled parts of the schedule.  I remember when I was young there used to be intentionally scheduled doubleheaders.   That’s what we got today, a doubleheader, and a classic one to boot (not one of those day-night jobbers).   The last time we played a doubleheader in Baltimore, we unloaded and won 30-3 (at least I think that was the last DH there).  While we didn’t have anything quite as epic as 30-3 in this doubleheader, we did at least pick up the win in Game 2 to get a split.   That ended the road trip 5-5.  Considering how hot we were before that, it’s a bit of a letdown.  However, it’s generally considered good if you go .500 on road trips.   So I’ll take it.   [Read more…]

Colby Lewis took the hill to start this game, and I have to say his line is one of the more strange ones I’ve ever seen.  Check this out:

7IP, 5H, 6R/ER, 1BB, 12K, 5HR, 114P

That’s right.  Five hits, and five home runs.  Struck out twelve.  It was quite bizarre to listen to.    The first three Orioles hit solo home runs, which during the game I saw was the first time that’s ever happened in major league history.   It took eight pitches, and the Rangers were down 3-0.   However, after that, Colby Lewis settled down. Colby then put down the next 18 Orioles hitters in a row, 10 of which were by strikeout.   [Read more…]

Josh’s pursuit of the extra base hit consecutive record has been postponed, as Wednesday’s game was rained out.  There will be a straight up doubleheader on Wednesday to make up for it.  None of those day-night double header nonsense moves.  A real honest to god double header.  Granted, since they’re only drawing 11k people, they won’t even half fill up the place if 100% of the sold tickets showd up anyway, so there’s no incentive to split the gate!

Josh did, however lead the charge in sliding on the tarp in Baltimore.   For a guy who is injury prone, it’s probably good I didn’t see that.  I would have likely stressed out about it.  :)