This game can be boiled down to just a few things. Kevin Millwood & Brandon Boggs.
Kevin Millwood came off the DL on Friday, and threw a gem, the kind of performance you don’t expect from a pitcher making his first start off the DL. I think his exit was probably due to the DL, as he left after six innings, having given up just five hits and a single run. He threw 86 pitches, so it must have been a “pitch count” thing. Eddie Guardado was quite good following up Millwood. Eddie struck out two of the three batters he faced in a 1-2-3 inning. Jack Benoit had a scoreless frame, as did CJ Wilson, who got the save. But most importantly to our pitching performance – NO WALKS! Yeah, no walks will always help out. But it was a really great performance by our staff We allowed just seven hits overall, and a single run. Really good stuff there.
Offensively, we had nine hits, and five of them were doubles. Two of THOSE doubles were by Brandon Boggs, who had all three RBI’s in this game. Two of the runs scored were by Josh Hamilton, who is usually involved with runs by his bat, not by his feet. :) Still, a win is a win, and it was a good, crisp (2:37) game, with fantastic pitching, and timely hitting providing us with the win.
The game ended cool, on a 4-3 double play where Ian Kinsler had to make a play after crashing into a runner who was trying to avoid being doubled off. Let’s see if we can get over .500 on Saturday – something we’ve had issues breaking through on.
Several moves announced
- P Kason Gabbard optioned to AAA
- P Robinson Tejeda purchased from AAA
- P Franklyn German refused AAA assignment, now a free agent
- P Dustin Nippert activated from 15 day DL
- P Dustin Nippert outrighted to AAA after clearing waivers [ Link ]
Rays Series
As you’ve noticed, I haven’t updated for the Rays series. I just haven’t had time. I planned on doing that this morning, but got handed a huge project at work, and can’t now. I’ll try and catch up over the weekend on those – although it might be my first series skip of the year if I get too far behind. :)
Update: I ended up taking the cheap way out and I didn’t do updates for the Rays series. I did go back and add marker pages, because the new way I do the site means that if I don’t have a marker page with at least the win/loss & score, the schedule page won’t have any results for that date. :)
Several moves announced
- P Kevin Millwood activated from the 15 day DL
- 3B Travis Metcalf recalled from AAA
- P Kameron Loe optioned to AAA
- 3B German Duran optioned to AAA
- P Franklyn German outrighted to AAA after clearing waivers [ Link ]
Mariah Carey cannot pitch
If you can’t see the embedded video, click here.
G55: Rangers dop finale to Tampa Bay 5-3
No time to write about this game.
This is a marker page so the schedule page will have the proper score update.
G54: Rangers slam Rays behind Hamilton, 12-6
No time to write about this game.
This is a marker page so the schedule page will have the proper score update.
G53: Rangers beat by Kazmir & Rays, 7-3
No time to write about this game.
This is a marker page so the schedule page will have the proper score update.
Mike Bacsik
Mike Bacsik will probably forever be known as the guy who gave up #756 to Barry Bonds. Locally, he’s known for a little more than that. He was up for a cup of coffee with the Rangers in 2004, and his dad (Mike Bacsik Sr) played for the Rangers over parts of three seasons (75-76-77).
There’s a good article up on ESPN now at the moment about Mike (Jr). It’s surprisingly not behind their “wall of pay content” (like so much of their stuff is). Go check it out.
Obviously, a good deal of it is spent on the Bonds thing. But the main thrust of the article is how Bacsik is trying to get back to the majors. Probably just to have something else besides “756” on his ledger.
Good read.
G52: Rangers win on Ben Francisco Treat, 2-1
Josh Lewin takes a lot of grief from some of the so called “hardcore” (read: no fun) fans that follow the Rangers. But I think even they have to recognize that one of Josh’s strengths is his wealth of fiddly and useless media knowledge. He also has a quick wit, which allows him to make really good off the cuff funny remarks. Such was the case yesterday when right after Ben Francisco gifted the game to the Rangers, Josh called the play “A Ben Francisco Treat”. My mind immediately leaped to the old “Rice-A-Roni” ad jingle, which is probably what Tom Grieve did too, as he was laughing at the time.
This game started off on paper to be a slaughter. Doug Mathis (who was not good first time out) was making his second major league start. He was going up against CC Sabathia (who is generally good to dominating). I was expecting a slaughter. But Mathis stuck with Sabathia. Mathis gave up a first inning run, and that was IT! Doug was quite good, going six innings in all, giving up seven hits and three walks, but only the lone run. Doug Mathis looked quite good this game. Shame he didn’t get the win, he certainly pitched well enough to deserve it.
Our pen was strong too, not allowing any further runs for Cleveland. Frank Francisco bounced back from some “meh” outings with a good one here, Jamey Wright threw two scoreless, and CJ Wilson got the save in the 10th, his 10th of the season.
Our offense was fairly limited, but we got just enough for the win. Our first run came on an Ian Kinsler smash down the left field line for a solo home run in the sixth. We had a few small rallies not go anywhere, until the 10th inning. That’s when Ben Francisco, playing right field for Cleveland paid us back for his good offense Saturday. Ben let a single by Ramon Vazquez get through his legs and go all the way to the wall. That allowed Jarrod Saltamacchia to score on the play for the second and winning run of the game. I didn’t think Francisco really misplayed that ball all that bad. Most of the time balls that get by a guy to the wall are really misplayed, and you can tell. This one he did all the right stuff, and it STILL went through his legs.
Still, I’ll take the Rice-A-Roni treat for the win.
On to Tampa Bay (still at .500), where I’m sure we’ll hear a LOT about Josh Hamilton’s time with the Rays.
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