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‘Topes Win! ‘Topes Win! ‘Topes Win! :)
The losing streak is over, powered by a rather balanced attack – everyone had at least one hit, plus we had four home runs (Raffy, Teixeira, Young, & Blalock). Teixeira’s one was quite impressive, going halfway up Green’s hill – for a distance I think of 445 feet. The furthest by a Ranger this season.
Our pitching was pretty decent, except for Jay Powell, who I think is on the same train that Yan & Van Poppel rode out of town. Powell gave up 3 hits, three earned runs in ZERO innings pitched. His ERA was 9.9 before that, now it’s 11.25. I think he needs to go, too. Thomson gave up 3 over 6, Fultz gave up 1 in 1.2, and Urbina had a four out save.
Not to mention I was sitting in the leather seats in the Gold Club – I won the KRLD Golden Moment contest, and had these seats. They were very cool in terms of comfort, both in the chair and the air conditioning. What I didn’t consider at all before the game is that you can’t hear Chuck Morgan in there, and while they do put the KRLD coverage on, the general chatter from the bar is so loud, that you can barely hear that. While it’s a comfortable place to watch a game, it’s certainly not the best in terms of baseball. You also cannot see the Jumbotron from in there. They do have TV’s which can be switched to the Jumbotron coverage, but it’s not quite the same. The tickets had a face value of $60 on them. I don’t know if I’d ever actually buy them, but as a freebie, it was definitely worth checking out.

Sigh. Nine losses in a row. Too many sweeps in a row. Don’t really need to write about these losses. Although we probably should have won.
I think a lot of changes are going to come soon, including some fans won’t like. :(

Sigh.

I listened to the beginning of this game, but I was on my way to get my hair cut this evening, and when I got there, I stopped. I came back out, turned the car on, and we had just gone down 13-4, so I didn’t bother to listen to any more of the game. I probably should have, as we scored 6 more runs, but didn’t win. Oh well, major slide – I didn’t think we’d slide this much when we were within one game of 500. /me sighs.
Anyway, I was a bit bummed, but I understood why we traded Ruben Sierra yesterday. We’re trying to get younger, and he wasn’t doing what he was supposedly here for (offense off the bench). He did take some shots at us on the way out of town, but I can’t imagine he’ll get a lot more playing time in New York – I think Ruben thinks he should be top of the line every day player, and I don’t think he’s that good anymore. Oh well. Maybe in a couple of years if he’s still around, he could do a Rickey Henderson and come back for a fourth go around. :)
There’s a story about Juan Gonzalez’ return home for this series here.

Another game I didn’t get to listen to, as I was working. I caught some of it, but I was distracted by work, so I hardly even remember any details.
I will say this. From what little I remember, Victor Santos didn’t do too bad. Didn’t set the house on fire, but he didn’t “Chan Ho Park” up the joint, either. :)

Sigh. Actually, I thought all I was going to write was Greg Maddux’ name. He was absolutely dominating until the 7th inning when he became a bit human and gave up two runs (almost three, but Juan was thrown out at the plate on a nice play by the Braves D). Maddux needed something like 48 pitches to get through 6 innings – rather amazing in this day and age.
John Thomson was – well, John Thomson. He wasn’t horrible, but he wasn’t great, either. And with Maddux on the other side, giving up the runs we did was too many, unfortunately.
Additional news on this game from mlb.com here.