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After the third inning, I needed to hit the head, so on the way I remarked to my wife (who was reading in the bedroom) “Man, it’s about time the Rangers had a game like this, we’re winning 10-0 in the third inning”. Since our daughter was born, my wife has kind of tuned out on Rangers games. That’s fair, since she spends so much time taking care of our girl that when Samantha is asleep, Mommy usually wants to pass out. Last night though she watched the first inning with me, and the Rangers were up 2-0. So when I walked by her last night saying we were winning, she remarked that she needed to watch them more. She also remarked in the inning she did watch, “Wow, I don’t know any of these guys”. I did inform her about what I wrote about her in the Rusty Greer entry from yesterday, which is what made her say she didn’t know anyone.
The game started off nicely, as Miguel Batista (who normally pitches well against us) was really putting up a stink in Seattle. He threw I think 47 pitches in the first inning, walked several, and had virtually no command to speak of. To be honest, he should have given up more than two runs in the first inning. If I remember right, we left the bases loaded, and it just felt like we should have nuked Batista a lot worse, although that was still to come.
Sidney Ponson, who seems to be the 2008 “Lightning in a Bottle” pitcher for Texas so far started off the bottom of the first with a walk and a single, and you thought – “Uh, oh – here we go”, but he ended up getting out of the inning with no runs scored. Good. So Batista goes back out there for the second, and gives up just a single run, which wasn’t too bad for the Mariners. 3-0 is still manageable, even if your starter is stinking worse than the animal barn during the State Fair. Ponson follows that up with a 1-2-3 in the bottom of the second. Then the Rangers come out for the third.
Batista is still out there – at this point having thrown about 6,453 pitches. Not surprisingly, Milton Bradley leads off with a walk. David Murphy followed it up with a home run to right field. It was a line drive home run from a ball rather high in the strike zone (if not out of). Was nice to see it go out – because off the bat, it didn’t have the trajectory that looked like a home run – it looked like a double in the gap. Batista did get Boggs to strike out, but then walked Catalanotto (Batista’s SIXTH walk), which prompted John McLaren to finally pull Miguel Batista. In from the pen comes Cha Seung Baek, a guy who has traditionally in the past done extremely well against Texas. Not tonight – Baek was just as bad as Batista (in this inning, anyway). Saltamacchia flies out to Ichiro, but Ramon Vazquez followed up with a single. Michael Young singled, scoring both Catalanotto and Vazquez. Funny thing about Young’s single is that it looked like an out – was heading up the middle, but Seattle second baseman Jose Lopez had the ball go just under his glove. Really – it looked like an out, and then – whoops – there it is in center. Lopez probably REALLY wished he had caught it a few minutes later, because it would have ended the inning. Instead Lopez watched with everyone else as a Josh Hamilton hit ball was deposited WAY up in the upper deck in right – it was a SERIOUSLY impressive home run. The kind that you just watch and go “HOLY CRAP – Look at that!” Josh & Tom were both impressed with it. I didn’t hear it on the radio, but I suspect Eric & Victor were also impressed. If you click on the MLB Game Recap for this game, there’s video highlights there, and you can hear the Mariners call of the home run too – even they were impressed with it. Milton Bradley finished up the inning with a ground out (he was the first and last batter in the frame).
That home run restored Hamilton to the major league leading lead in RBI’s with 36. Josh is looking quite good, and boy, I hope he stays on the field. I know Volquez is looking good in Cincinnati now (at this point, 6GS, 4-1, 1.27 ERA), but Hamilton has been equally as good on our side, so it’s nice to see this trade working so well.
I watched through the fourth, and at this point did something I didn’t normally do – I turned off the game when we were winning. I did that because I wanted to play some Grand Theft Auto IV – if I waited till the end of the game, I’d be too tired to get in some gameplay. Peeked in on the game from time to time, but I was confident in the win – turns out (for once) I was right about it – the Rangers didn’t score any more this game. The Mariners did pick up a lone run in the fifth on two consecutive doubles by Balentien and Ichiro.
Ponson got the win, and is now 2-0. Sidney went seven innings, gave up seven hits, one walk, one run. Didn’t strike out many (two), but had a pretty decent, if not dominating outing. Can’t argue with one run over seven innings, no matter what the rest of the numbers were.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention a catch by David Murphy (which is in the video highlights on the MLB Game Recap link above) later in the game. I missed it live, but I did go back and watch it a few more times. Nice rolling, diving catch. I’ve said it a few times already, but I really like the acquisition of this kid. I expect the emergence of David Murphy has really kind of negated the acquisition of Frank Catalanotto, who hasn’t done a whole heck of a lot since his return. I know Cat is signed through next year (with an option for 10), but it wouldn’t surprise me if Murphy keeps going like this if Cat isn’t moved or released after this season.
Funny thing is with ten runs, you’d think we’d have a boatload of hits. We didn’t. The Rangers only had eight hits all evening. Granted, two were doubles, and two were home runs, and the Mariners pitching staff gave up 10 walks (all the walks came early, too), but still – you’d think we’d have like 17 hits or something. Nope, just eight.
Very efficient evening, very nice to see a night like that. It also keeps the Mariners with us tied for last place. Two more games in Seattle – be nice to take both, and not leave Seattle still tied for last place.

I was busy working on another website tonight, so I flipped on the radio and listened to the first inning. OK, we’re down 2-0 early, not great, but not bad.
I then had to go do something else, so I turned off the radio. Came back to my desk, turned it on again, and when the KRLD coverage came back from a commercial, I heard “..and the Rangers are down 7-0”. I actually said “Shit!” out loud, and turned off the radio – that was it I was done for that game.
I’m really tired of 7-0 games early where I have to hope we’ll come back. There’s too many of them, and I’m getting burnt out hoping we’ll have a comeback (that almost never seems to happen anyway).

• Rookie pitcher Greg Smith was quite dominating for the A’s.
• Josh Hamilton lost a fly ball in the seventh which led to Oakland’s three runs.

Those are about it for the two major points to this game. Scott Feldman started the game, and took the big hard luck loss. His first six innings pitched, he allowed NO runs, and only three singles. Then in the seventh came the non error error that led to the three runs Oakland scored. That was a shame, as Feldman deserved better than that. At least call it an error so the runs are unearned.
Offensively, there was only one thing to talk about for the Rangers. That was German Duran’s solo home run in the third inning. The Rangers had just four hits total. German’s home run, a double by Brandon Boggs, and singles by Michael Young & Gerald Laird. That’s it. This was of course due to Greg Smith. Smith went six innings, striking out ten Rangers, walking two, and allowing just three hits. A quite masterful performance. Smith’s bullpen mates followed him up by not allowing any more runs, but Houston Street almost blew that. He obviously felt he was being squeezed, and got into a minor shouting match with the home plate umpire. I was a bit bummed he didn’t get ejected, as it might have turned the tide.
Duran’s home run gave us a 1-0 lead at that time which held up for awhile. However, as the game progressed, you kept getting that feeling (well, I did) that one run was not near enough – you kept waiting for the meltdown. Normally, those meltdowns involve the other team getting five to seven (or more) runs, so the fact it was just three was nice, but still. Never thought we’d win 1-0.
Still, we took the series, and that’s always a positive thing.

A.J. Murray was called up to start this game on Saturday. I generally don’t like once we start going into the minors for guys to start games, who aren’t likely to start more than a game or so. It just “feels” like panic. Oh, I know all the rational, factual reasons for why it’s done, but once we start having these kinds of subs (and especially on May 3rd), it just feels like desperation and/or panic.
Still, Arlington John Murray started this game, and actually pitched pretty decently. He went 5.1 innings, giving up six hits and two walks. Gave up three runs, although one was unearned (oh look, another Ranger error). Our bullpen threw another 2+ innings of shutout ball, so that was nice to see, although CJ Wilson did not get the save opportunity – must have been unavailable (missed that point when I was watching).
Offensively, we had about as spread out an offense as you could get. We had nine hits overall, and each Rangers player (there were no subs this game) had exactly one hit. David Murphy’s though was the biggest – a three run home run in the first inning – which pretty much set the tone for the whole game. Chris Shelton had another home run, his first as a Ranger – that came in the ninth for an extra insurance run at that time.
Jarrod Saltamacchia and German Duran connected on a strike ’em out – throw ’em out double play, which was nice to see.
Milton Bradley had a caught stealing, and a pickoff in his ledger this game. Makes you wonder if there was a lapse of attention on the bases for him tonight.
I suppose the biggest news of this day was not the Rangers win (which is good), but the fact that Josh Hamilton was named the American League player of the month for April 2008. That hasn’t happened to a Ranger in many a season. It was nice to see him get that award in his first month as a Ranger. Based on his spring training numbers, it’s nice to see it carry over into the regular season. As a Christian, I rejoice in his story of salvation, but as a baseball fan, I rejoice in his performance. Praise be to God that Josh is in the place he is in, and has the skills he has to get noticed, and be able to deliver God’s word from a place you don’t normally see it delivered from. Good for Josh.

This game was a game where you took advantage of the situation. The Rangers had just seven hits overall (and three by the same player; Milton Bradley). There was not a lot of concentrated offense here.
In fact, of the seven runs total in the game, just three of them were earned. Vicente Padilla was hit with that more than Joe Blanton was. Padilla only gave up one earned run, and the Rangers only had one error. The A’s, on the other hand had FOUR errors in the game, although one of them was that bogus foul ball where nothing actually happened foul.
Milton Bradley and Gerald Laird doubled, but everything else was a single, so there were no longballs here to account for the “efficient” runs. Joe Blanton only walked one. Heck, Ian Kinsler’s RBI was on a groundout to second base. Those kind of runs. :)
Josh Hamilton took an ofer this game, but made a quite spectacular catch in centerfield, to double off Daric Barton, who had gone all the way to third. It was quite the highlight catch, and I think a bit more cool than Gary Matthews catch from two seasons ago.
Our pen was good, too (Wright, Guardado, Benoit, Wilson). No runs allowed by those guys. Nice to see after the recent shaky appearances by Benoit.
VIcente Pidente earned the win, going 5.2 innings, giving up just five hits and four walks (too many walks). He was not as crisp as he has been in his other wins (VIcente threw 108 pitches), but it was enough to get the win.
We’re still not that great at 12-18, but the last week or so has been much improved over earlier in the season. Perhaps some of the local talk about Ron Washington’s head can go away for now.

Uh, hello? Is that really Sidney Ponson who did that? Did my ears deceive me? Perhaps it was because I was at work, and not listening as intently as I do at home. No way could Sidney Ponson go eight innings, give up just one run and striking out five. Not THAT guy. No way. That had to be some sort of typo.

Turns out it really was Sidney Ponson – the guy who couldn’t “pitch his way out of a bleeping paper bag” (Thanks Tom) for awhile now. It was his first win in the majors in a full calendar year. The same guy who last had what could be qualified as a “good season” in 2003 when he split the year between Baltimore and San Francisco. It was quite impressive to hear. Probably better to watch.

There were just eleven hits total by both teams. Nine of those were singles. The other two were solo home runs by the Rangers, accounting for all of our runs. The first was a leadoff home run by Ian Kinsler in the first, and the other was a shot from Ramon Vazquez in the sixth. The Royals pushed across their run in the third. But that was it. Little offense to speak of. We turned two double plays against Kansas City, which always helps.
The biggest surprise to me (sadly) was that we didn’t make any errors. There were a few lineup changes. Michael Young DH’ed, and Vazquez played short. Milton Bradley did not play at all, and Brandon Boggs started in left.

The game was very short, by far the shortest of the season, lasting just two hours and ten minutes. Given how much games cost anymore, I prefer longer – I feel like I get more value, but 2:10 is always nice to see from time to time.

This game got off to the start you want to see in a home game. Seven runs and multiple home runs before the second inning. We were up 7-0 after two, and 9-1 after five. But as some baseball players might tell you, a ton of runs (even 22 of them) isn’t always enough.

The Rangers got out to a 9-1 lead due to the longball. This was an extremely windy night, and even the changing of the wind with the Gold Club probably wasn’t responsible for this one – it was REALLY windy. It was one of those games where hot dog wrappers and All Star ballots were blowing all over the place. Not quite like that footage from Pittsburgh from the 80’s where it was a mini tornado, but there was enough of it. Kind of like this picture from the August 6, 2005 game…

That’s significant, since several of the home runs balls (David Murphy’s to left in particular) were severely assisted by the wind. Now they weren’t all windballs, but most were. One that was not was Josh Hamilton’s first career grand slam, which came in the second inning. That was Josh’s only hit of the night, but it was a good one.

There was a lot of offense, as the score would indicate. Every Rangers starter except Chris Shelton had at least one single. There were five home runs in all (Bradley, Murphy, Hamilton, Boggs, Laird). In addition to Hamilton’s first career grand slam, it was Brandon Boggs’ first ever major league home run. The other eight hits were singles.

Things were going great until the seventh inning when we couldn’t get anyone out. The Rangers threw out three pitchers in the seventh (Millwood, Francisco, Wright). Didn’t seem to make much difference. We gave up a five spot that inning, which made things 9-6 at that point. OK, nowhere near as good as 9-1, but we’re still winning. We got the lead up to 5 again with a two spot (Murphy’s HR) in the bottom of the seventh. Then we got to play nail biter again, as we gave up three more in the 8th and 9th, to make the game’s final score what it was.

Don’t like endings like that. Like when we get out 9-1, and the margin stays that way.

Still, a win is a win, and we’re now 10-18.