Rangerfans.com

The Rangers lost to the Twins, 7-1.
Sammy Sosa had a solo home run, his career 598th, accounting for all our offense. Ian Kinsler & Mike Young both had two hits. Kinsler a single and a double, and Young a single and a triple. Nothing happened with them. That was it for our offense.
Johan Santana was pretty masterful outside the Sosa home run. He went 7, for a total of 21 outs. 13 of those outs were strikeouts. In seven innings. We then struck out five more times for a franchise record 18 strikeouts in a nine inning game. We struck out so many times, you’d think Brad Wilkerson was up there every at bat. :)
There really wasn’t a lot to write about with this one.

Yeah, OK, you have to do math in my title for this entry. But if you’re reading my website, then you probably will already know the score of the game before you came here anyway.
Where do I start in talking about this? I was at the game, and sat through a 28 minute rain delay that started during player introductions. It wasn’t so bad since I was in the 200 level, and you’re pretty well protected there, plus the food is better than the regular food stands I think. Even if it’s not the place just looks better. :)
Padilla started off looking like the 1-63 record he had, tossing 31 pitches in the first inning, but surprisingly only allowing one run in the first. His overall line was pretty decent, going 5.2IP, giving up just two runs on 5 hits with two walks. He was one out away from a quality start, when his hand got grazed by a batted ball, and he was pulled from the game. Padilla did throw 99 pitches, so he was probably coming out of the game after the sixth anyway, but it would have been nice to see him get the “qs”. Willie Eyre followed Padilla to the mound, and did give up two runs, but both of them were unearned. Frank Francisco & Aki both pitched scoreless innings to finish up things. Overall, it was good pitching. 9 innings, just two earned runs, and no home runs.
Can’t say the same for the other side. Carlos Silva stunk up the joint going 4.1 innings, giving up 7 earned runs on 9 hits and one walk. As bad as that was, the guy who followed him used even less deodorant, as he stunk up the place even worse! DePaula went just one inning, and gave up 7 runs of his own (6 earned) and two home runs. One was a grand slam to
Fortunately, the grand slam came when Victor Rojas was doing play by play, so we got to hear Vic’s grand slam call, which really does sound like he’s about to jump out of his booth and flail around while on fire or something. Either that, or scream so hard, his lungs will come out of his mouth. Vic gets very excited about his home run calls. :)
We had a few other home runs, too. Frank Catalanotto had solo shot in the second in his first at bat off the DL. Nelson Cruz also had a solo shot. Sammy Sosa almost had one, and had it been July or August, he would have. Sosa did have two doubles. Lofton, Cruz, & Laird also had doubles. Like last night, with 14 runs on the board, there’s plenty of offensive stats to share. Every starter had at least one hit, but nobody had more than two, so it was well scattered. Somewhat amusing that the three subs (Diaz, Kata, & Mahar) all were hitless, so the 15 hits we did get were all starters.
I did sit through the entire game, as I have only been to three games so far this year, which is very unusual for me. By the time the game was over, I had moved around to the area right under the radio booth, and said Hi to Vic. As I was listening to the game on the radio, it was quite weird to watch him talk, and see the voice come through my radio just a split second later. They’re not truly live, although it’s much better than the 7 second or so delay they had last year. The delay seems like one second, although Vic said at the start of the season it was two.
Speaking of Vic, I know he reads my site, so here’s a link for ya big guy :)

Eighteen hits. Fourteen runs. Six walks. Three doubles. Six home runs. There was offense all over the place for the Rangers this game. Kind of reminds me a game a couple years ago where we scored a boatload of runs in the final game down in Houston. If I remember right, Hank Blalock had a grand slam and a three run home run in that game.
Mark Teixeira had two home runs in this game, which is nice, he looks like he’s getting on track, which might help increase his trade value should we choose to go that route. Victor Diaz also had two home runs, both of them to right field, which was nice to see.
We had several guys with great days. Mark Teixeira was 4-6 with 2 home runs, 3 RBI’s. Victor Diaz was 4-5 with two home runs and 3 RBI’s. Gerald Laird was 3-4 with a walk, and Ramon Vazquez was 3-3 with 5 RBI’s. Nice bunches of offense there, plus there was enough to go around. Of the starters, only Brandon McCarthy had no hits, but he’s a pitcher. :)
Speaking of McCarthy, he had a good outing. He went 6, giving up just four hits and one run. This is probably the guy we traded for. Not the launching pad who was wearing #20 on his back in April. Brandon also struck out two, and walked two. His ERA is finally under 6, and I think has made what three, maybe four good starts in a row? That’s good to see.
Hopefully this kind of stuff can translate and stick on the road, as we need a LOT more road wins to get back to respectability.
I was hoping Sammy Sosa would have gotten a couple of home runs in Houston, so he would come back home with 599. I’m going to the game Monday night, so I was hoping he’d go into the game needing just one, as I doubt he’s hitting three of ’em on Monday night when I’ll be there to witness it. :)

John Koronka came up on Saturday for a spot start, and wasn’t terribly good, going 5 innings, giving up 6 hits, 3 walks, and 3 earned runs. Not exactly horrible, but not a great line, either. Wandy Rodriguez was already here, and threw a good game against the Rangers, going 6 innings, 4 hits, two walks, and just one earned run.
Once again, that’s the story of the game, our offense couldn’t get anything going. In all, we had just six hits. Two were by Ian Kinsler, who seems to have come out of his uber slump a bit. The other hits were scattered amongst four other players (Young; a double, Cruz, Laird, Mahar). Cruz’ single was responsible for the lone Rangers run.
I also have to admit to not having the patience to watch entire games all the way through now considering how generally crappy the team is. I don’t think I watched more than a few minutes of this, I just skipped forward on my TiVo to see the end score.

Well, after the team left Orlando with just about every Rangers fan in existence feeling about as bad as you can probably feel, they headed to Houston to begin the first of six annual games against the Astros; Interleague play is back. I like Interleague play. Victor Rojas does not. It’s a good thing then that mlb thinks (they actually may) make more money during these games, that means it’s a lock that it won’t go anywhere.
Before the game started, we got the news that Hank Blalock is going to have to undergo that same “remove a rib” surgery that Kenny Rogers did a season or so ago. This will sideline him for quite awhile, they say 10-12 weeks or so, but realistically, it’s the season, I would think. Couple that with the fact that they put him straight on the 60 day DL, you figure it out. They don’t expect him back any time soon. So the parade of new callups continues. I have more roster pages to make. :)
Robinson Tejeda turned in a good outing. He took a no hitter into the sixth inning, which was busted up by Craig Biggio – no shame in that. Odd though that you take a no hitter into the sixth, don’t survive the inning, and only give up one run (which was actually given up by Scott Feldman). Just seemed odd that he would be brought out then. But Tejeda got the win, going to 4-3, with a season ERA of 4.53. Not awesome, but not as godawful as some of the other ERA’s we have on our staff. Frankie Francisco followed Feldman and gave up two runs (on top of Feldman’s run), and made the game feel closer than it really was. For the first time in ages, this FELT like a game we should win. Which is amusing, giving how hapzardly the lineup was put together (or so it felt).
Offensively, we were led by Ramon Vazquez, the callup from a day or so ago. In what I believe is his first action as Ranger, he went 3-4 with a home run. Actually, now that I look at the stats, he had one RBI, and one run. The solo home run. So his 3-4 wasn’t really THAT productive, but 3-4 always looks good in the box score. Nelson Cruz and Sammy Sosa both had two RBI’s, as did a few others (Vazquez, Lofton, & Young). The five spot in the third was the backbone of this game for us. Was nice to see that up there. And on the road no less, which I think brings our road win total this year to two. ;)
Also, Eric Gagne got a save. It was only his second opportunity all season, and this was Game 42. Bleargh.
With all the injuries, we’re about to see some strange lineups going forward. I wonder if all those changes will have any impact on our bottom line.