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The 4th of July brought with it this year the usual things. Stirring ceremony at the beginning with a bunch of kids being sworn into the Air Force, those little mini planes behind centerfield, a flyover (which was timed perfectly this year), fireworks, and the Seattle Mariners. My mini plan gave me a ticket to this game, and while I did not stay for the fireworks show, the game was great. I wasn’t expecting much throwing Victor Santos out there against Freddy Garcia, Seattle’s #1 pitcher. However, it turned out better than I thought.
Santos was wild in the first inning, tossing 34 pitches (by my count), and allowing a few runs to score, as well as another in the third. Santos had a total of 5 walks in his 4+ innings of work. However, in the bottom of the fourth we blew the game open – batting around, and scoring 5 runs, powered by a 3 run Juan Gonzalez home run. In fact, the Rangers as a team hit for the cycle that inning. We tacked on two later on on a couple of sac files to make the game 7-3.
Our bullpen threw scoreless baseball, although it got dicey in the ninth when Ron Mahay let a couple of guys get on. Mahay was brilliant in the 8th, striking out the side with some really dominating looking stuff. As was said on the postgame show, our lefthanders this season (Shouse, Mahay, Fultz) have done extremely well, and I remember there being talk of there not having much from the left side this year – a great surprise.
I ended up not staying for the fireworks because up until this year my wife and I have seen just about every fireworks show that the Rangers had over the last 5 years or so. I think it’s safe to say “I’ve seen the show already”. Plus it got me home faster. :)
One last comment. We’ve won two in a row and are now only 20 games back from the Mariners. After winning two in a row, isn’t this the place where we usually lose the next 4?
Game notes here.

It was a good night to be a Ranger fan (something I don’t get to say much anymore). Tony Mounce looked really good again. He had a curveball that reminded me of Barry Zito’s at times – it had some wonderful movement. I’m not claiming he’s Barry Zito of course – I’m not that naive. It’s just he looked awfully good at points. He went 5.1 innings, and got his first major league win. Rosman Garcia slipped a bit, giving up a couple in under an inning, but Shouse, Cordero, & Urbina gave up nothing, with Urbina getting his 22nd save. I know Urbina will be gone, but I wish we were a bit better – I’ve really enjoyed his time here.
However, I think the biggest story was Hank Blalock getting two home runs tonight, one to each side of the field. Juan Gonzalez came through with a two RBI hit (might help his rumored trade to the Dodgers with Mike Lamb). Overall, it was a good game to be a Ranger fan, and while we let the Angels back into the game, we hung on and got the win.
We split in Anaheim, won in Houston before that, and had a winning road trip. This can’t be our Rangers, can it? :) Now we’re home for awhile, and we play the Mariners. We’re 21 games behind them in the standings. It could be much uglier after this weekend.
Game notes here.

Well, we got shut out – not much more you can say. Only four hits, scattered. Our seventh shutout of the season. Not good, but then again we knew the 03 Rangers weren’t going to be good, I guess.

Well, we lost this game, and it got out of hand in the first couple of innings, as Ismael Valdes gave up a bunch of runs again. He gave up 7 in 5 innings, and while the linescore says he only had 5 earned runs, that’s still too many, and he really deserved all 7. RA Dickey, Brian Shouse, and Jay Powell (!!!) didn’t give up anything, so I guess that’s good.
We tried to mount a comeback in the 8th inning when we got the second home run of the game from Mike Young, as well as one from Arod to bring the game to 7-5, but all that did was bring out Troy Percival, which means there’s nothing else to do except make outs.
However, the news of the day was the trade of Carl Everett to the White Sox. I have to admit, I really didn’t want to see him go, and while I know it will help our club, I have had a major turn of heart on Everett. I still think he’s too slow to play centerfield, but he’s been a great citizen here, and hasn’t caused any problems. I really was kind of hoping he’d stay. Instead, we’re stuck with Gonzalez and no Everett for the rest of the season.

OK, we’ve won two in a row. This time John Thomson didn’t have the ball up and all over the park, giving up just three hits and three runs over seven innings (98 pitches). He pitched pretty decently, and our offense worked, as opposed to the barely being able to get two runs a game crud we’ve been seeing a lot of lately. It was capped by home runs by Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. What’s better is that we got it against Ramon Ortiz, someone who has pretty much owned the Rangers, going 9-1 lifetime against us before tonight’s game.
These 9PM starts are rough, as my wife and I had company over for dinner, and I didn’t get to start watching the game until 11:30 – by that point I was so tired, I just started skipping through several sections on my TiVo – probably watched the whole thing in less than an hour. I really wish Hicks had let us move to the AL Central a couple of years ago when we had the chance.
The season is now halfway over. I said that to my wife last night. I said “That’s it – it’s just downhill towards the end of the season now” :)
Game notes here.

Ramos was wild early, walking 7 in 3.1 innings, hitting one, yet only giving up 3 runs, on two hits. Had he had better control, he probably would have stayed in this game, and done well. After the three we gave up in the first inning, we didn’t give up any more again until the bottom of the ninth. In the meantime, we scored 8 runs (all from the 5th onwards).
It was powered by home runs by Kevin Mench, Rafael Palmeiro, and a nice triple by Arod that Craig Biggio fell down running after. We also scored a couple on 2 RBI single by Juan Gonzalez in the 9th.
Victor Santos & Rosman Garcia pitched well – a combined 3.2 innings giving up nothing. That’s nice to see. Cordero was good his first inning, but not good the second, which allowed Urbina to come in and get a save, which he was good at this time (no heart attack saves).
That’s it for Interleague this season. We had a horrific record this time around, going 4-14. :(
Game notes here.

Well, I didn’t see much of this game – I came home and fell asleep watching the game. Woke up in the 9th inning, didn’t see the point in backing up the TiVo to watch it. Didn’t miss much, although Tony Mounce pitched really well again – that’s promising.
Oh yeah, we formally lost the Silver Boot trophy today.
Juan Gonzalez is still a Ranger; he needs to go – release him!
Game notes are here.