Rangerfans.com

What a game!
I was watching early on while eating dinner, and when the Rangers went down 3 nothing early, I kind of sort of started not paying attention, as my wife had to go out to the store, so I was on baby watching duty. By the time I noticed it was 7-0, I was OK, I’m done, let’s go do something else.
So my baby went to bed, and I checked the score, and uh-oh, it’s 7-5, so I tuned in to see what happened, and bam – a grand slam by Rod Barajas, who won someone $25k in the Sonic Slam inning. The Oakland starter was pulled, and Steve Karsay came in and pitched to Ian Kinsler who was back from the DL tonight – and BAM! Second Ranger HR of the game, and it was a no doubter to left. You had the feeling that we’d come all the way back.
In the bottom of the seventh, Mark Teixeira got his first home run in ages (a solo), one to right field, just over the wall past the wedgie. Then in the bottom of the eighth, Ian Kinsler stepped up and jacked another no doubter to left, his second home run tonight in his first game back – it’s as if he never left. Granted it’s just one game back, but Ian was in a groove when he went down, and this just felt like the next game.
Kevin Millwood was not good at all. He gave up all 7 Oakland runs in his 5IP. Our relievers (Mahay, Bauer, Otsuka) pitched scoreless relief. None of the Oakland pitchers (Halsey, Karsay, Calero, Street) escaped without giving up some runs.
That brings us back to the Rangers power bats. In the bottom of the ninth, Ranger DH Phil Nevin, who is barely hanging onto his job according to the press stepped up and jacked a Houston Street pitch over the center field wall for a game winning walk off solo home run to win the game 8-7.
What a comeback. I admit, I had given up on the game, but it was hard not to be excited, even if I didn’t pay much attention early. We were led by Rod Barajas’ grand slam, and Ian Kinsler’s two solo home runs. In all we had 5 home runs, and that provided the runs we needed for the win.
We’re now up two games over the A”s in the West. So far, the 2006 club has that 2004 feel to it. Nice win. I’m going to the game tomorrow night; hopefully we still have that magic while I’m there. :)

UPDATE: I had a few queries about this picture – I did not take it. This was a wire photo which I thought was cool enough to put here. It was originally taken by a guy by the name of Tony Gutierrez with AP. You can now click on the photo for a larger version.
UPDATE 2: I also have two other angles from the mob scene at home plate, both taken by the same guy. I didn’t inline image them as I thought the one I used was better, but if you want to check ’em out, you can click here and here.

I’m not going to be writing about the Angels series. The webserver that this site is housed on was compromised, and while no data appears to have been lost, the security breach has taken up most of my time in plugging holes.
No time to write.

For Saturday’s game, I wrote about pitching and shutouts. Well, that applies two days in a row, as the Rangers were shut out by Houston pitcher Taylor Buckholz. I remember this guy from when he was a Phillie (as I follow them too), he never stuck me as quite this good.
He tossed a complete game shutout, going all 9, giving up just five hits and striking out 6 with no walks. Quite a masterful performance. Couldn’t get anything going all day. The only one close was Kevin Mench who had two of the five hits, but that was all.
John Koronka took the hill for us, and wasn’t really that bad, IMO. He technically threw a quality start (6IP, 3ER, 5H, 3K, 4BB). The walks were not good, too many. But he didn’t really strike me as having a bad start. Problem is that when you have the kind of game that Buckholz had thrown against you, it’s almost impossible to win.
Interesting that two of the games in this series were shutouts, one going to each side. Astros are up 2-1 games wise for the Silver Boot award for 2006.

Whenever there’s a shutout win, you will always look to the pitching in the game. This one was no different.
Kevin Millwood went seven innings, allowing no runs on just four hits, while striking out six. Rick Bauer & Francisco Cordero finished up the last two innings allowing no runs on just one hit (Cordero). The cool thing is that all three of our pitchers allowed no walks combined. That’s always good.
Andy Pettite on the other hand was a victim of the kind of game we usually have against us. Pettite gave up 12 hits in his 6 innings, and 5 of the 6 Ranger runs. Without going back and counting, and awful lot (I’d say about half) of the hits probably shouldn’t have been, they were bloop hits, and ones right on the line, and things of that nature. While we only needed one run from the way our pitching went, we got a lot more than we probably “deserved”.
Still, a win is a win, and I’ll take it.

Aw dammit. This was looking good too. Tejeda was pretty decent if not great through the first four, and got through the fifth, although he was clearly out of gas. He only gave up one run on two hits through five. Struck out six, walked four. As I said, decent if not great. Given some more stamina, he might have gone further.
He was matched up against Roy Oswalt. You know what that means. You’re expected to lose. Especially when you throw a “kid” (Tejeda) against him. But Oswalt seemed (for him anyway) pedestrian. His total line was 6.1 IP on 11 hits, 2 BB, and 3K. He gave up all thee (earned) runs the Rangers scored tonight. Could have been a lot worse as we left a ton of guys on base. The frustrating part of that is that we got twice as many hits as the ‘Stros got (12 to 6), but lost the game 5-3.
Our relief pitching was an odd lot tonight. Rick Bauer couldn’t hold the lead, giving up the tying run (at 2-2) in his inning of work. He was followed by Scott Feldman who looked really great during his .2 IP. Problem was he was making a running tag on a runner down the first base line, and twisted his ankle – and had to leave the game. Joaqun Benoit came in, and in the 8th gave up the 3 run double to Adam Everett that lost us the game.
Shame, as it felt like a game would would triumph over Roy Oswalt.