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Let’s see, lots of strange stuff in this game.. 13 innings, a balk, a streaker in the field, Juan Gonzalez ejected for arguing balls and strikers, a Ranger reliever being tied for the team lead in wins with 6, a Wetteland blown save, and 6 different players batting in the 7 runs we scored (Raffy was the only person with two).
Quite a bizarre game. Took four and a half hours, and we finally pulled it out. I thought we were dead in the bottom of the ninth, but we got away with a double play that, to my eyes on TV, lookd like something we shouldn’t have gotten. There was a strike-em-out throw-em-out double play, but it appeared the Royce Clayton pushed the Dodger runner off second and then tagged him out. We got the call, which is good, because right after that, John Wetteland gave up a solo home run to tie the game. Call hadn’t gotten our way, we would have lost there (there’s a picture of this below in the photos section). A couple other interesting things was that Goodwin had three stolen bases, Mike Munoz got his first save as a Ranger, and the Rangers left fourteen men on base!
Mike Morgan came off the disabled list (pushing Kolb back to AAA), and pitched well in the first two innings, throwing a total of 18 pitches for the two innings. Total of 8 for for first four outs of the game. However, that was about it. He didn’t survive the fourth. For a change, our relief pitching wasn’t godlike. Was enough to keep us in the game, though, and was by all accounts still good.
A thought occurred to me last night, if Morgan is still with us next year, it’s entirely possible that he will be a teammate that wasn’t born yet when Morgan made his first major league appearance in 1978. This morning, I looked through the Media Guide, and saw that this isn’t true, but it’s fairly close. Unless some really young kid comes up next year, the most realistic to Morgan would be Ruben Mateo, who was born on Feb 10, 1978 (Morgan’s first appearance was June 11, 1978). Ruben Mateo was only 1 day short of four months old when Mike Morgan first appeared. Yikes!
There’s also Cesar King, who was born on Feb 28, 1978, but I doubt he’ll get to the majors with Texas, he’s too good to be a backup. Carlos Pena is actually younger (May 17, 1978), but I doubt he’ll be up next year, and I don’t see Morgan being with us beyond 2000 (if he even gets there).
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
I had trouble getting the KRLD version of the game on RealAudio last night so I spent most of the game listening to the Dodgers’ XTRA team of Vince Skully and Ross Porter. It was actually quite nice as both announcers – especially Skully – had nice things to say about all the Rangers. Skully is as good as it gets behind the mike and his knowledge of the game is nothing short of astounding.
It was the same story as has been the last few days for Texas. Rafael Palmeiro was once again the hero as he drove in a run with two outs in the 13th inning to give Texas a win.
On the pitching side – and it sounds like a broken record – Jeff Zimmerman pitched 2 scoreless innings to pick up his 6th win with no losses. John Wetteland however blew a save (just his second blown save of the year) in the 9th when light-hitter EY (Eric Young) hit a solo homer.
I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the extremely valuable pitching effort of Danny Patterson, who provided 3+ innings of scoreless relief after starter Mike Morgan faltered in the middle innings.
Patterson, who most think will be sent down when Mike Simms is ready, may have changed a few minds with his last two efforts, both being long, effective outings.

The TV guys gave Raffy player of the game, and while he did do a lot, I felt Todd Zeile deserved it. If it wasn’t for Todd, we wouldn’t have gotten rolling, and he too was 3 for 4. Don’t get me wrong, I like Raffy, but I just felt for Todd Zeile last night.
Again, we got really great pitching. 7.0 (plus a batter or two in the 8th) out of Aaron Sele. Jeff Zimmerman wasn’t his most crisp (he allowed an inherited run to score), but he still pitched really well, and I thought Wetteland look like he was throwing lightning bolts out there.
This was very much a picher’s duel until the 8th inning, and even then it was still well pitched. These are great baseball games, I just wish they didn’t start at friggin 9:15PM.
I’m hoping that when the player’s agreement is up for renewal after the 2000 season (I know 2001 is an option year, but it still has to be agreed upon), they make some sort of realignment, and get the Rangers out of this double time zone mess they’re in. I also want to see different Interleague teams, specifically NL East. Yeah, yeah, I know, people want to see the Astros, but I’d rather see the Phillies, the Expos (Vladimir Guerrero), and the Braves down here.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Aaron Sele and Raffy Palmeiro powered the Rangers over the LA Dodger$, 3-2, Monday.
Sele, who probably pitched his best game since the second game of the season, had the Dodgers way off-stride.
Meanwhile, Palmeiro, who was only supposed to be available for pinch-hitting duties on this Interleague road trip, has started the last 3 games – and by his bat alone, has lead the way to two victories.
Palmeiro, having a career year, is on his way to putting up numbers no Ranger player ever has, even surpassing Juan Gonzalez’s fine seasons.
Jeff Zimmerman and John Wetteland (both putting up fairy-tale like numbers) shut the door in the 8th and 9th innings, respectively, to nail down a fine victory.

I’ve had a pretty long and tiring day at work Monday – I don’t feel like writing commentary for this game.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available.

I didn’t get to see a whole lot of this one, I was out for the evening with my wife. Came home, and when I started paying attention to game was after Raffy had already hit his grand slam. Bombs away for Raffy! A Grand slam and a two run homer. Boy, will that help my fantasy teams. :)
This game was more typical a Ranger win than the last few wins have been. This was a “slug ’em into submission” type of game. Ryan Glynn had a way too high pitch count again, but still didn’t pitch that bad, and Raffy played the field for the first time this year. He still looked rusty out there, but wasn’t all that bad, considering it was his first time there all year.
Wetteland also got his ML leading 19th save.
Commentary from Jim Meeks:
Not available.

What can we really say about this one? Two streaks came to an end, our 9 game winning streak, and Pudge’s 20 game hitting streak. Both because of the same thing. Randy Johnson.
Boy, did the Big Unit look on top of his game. It was scary how good he lookd early. He was throwing a perfect game into the fifth, when he walked a batter. Juan Gonzalez broke up the no hitter next inning with a sharply hit ball (that was the first well hit ball of the whole night, actually) past the second baseman for a single. The only real offense we had was a home run by Royce Clayton (into the swimming pool in right) scoring Roberto Kelly who was on second after a single and a Johnson wild pitch, and a Juan Gonzalez solo homer off of a reliever in the 9th. That was it.
Mark Clark gave up four home runs for a total of 8 runs in the first couple of innings. John Burkett may have found his niche now in long relief. Since going there, he looks good. He pitches 3, 4 innings, and then starts to break down. This might be a good spot for him. I know everyone wants to crucify him, but I think he doesn’t look all that bad in the pen.
Danny Kolb made his major league debut (wearing #52), and seemed really nervous. He pitched 2/3 of an inning on a walk, a bobble by Zeile, and a single. That loaded the bases, and then there was an infield grounder to score a run, and then he reloaded the bases with a walk. That was about it for Kolb. Kolb sounds like a good kid from Jamey Newburg’s reports, I’m sure he’ll do better before – this seemed like stage fright.
Johnny Oates threw an all righty lineup against him, made for some strange positionings. Jon Shave played first, and Mark McLemore played Left field, with Roberto Kelly in center. Tom Goodwin did come in as a pinch hitter for John Burkett, but hardly a lefty all night. No Raffy, No Rusty, and no Lee Stevens. Was an interesting lineup for sure (see the game log below for the full starting lineups).
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available.

I didn’t get a chance to listen to the entire game as I was busy with work issues. It was a nice win, and started out like the last two, with nothing getting going until the fifth inning. Gregg Zaun played with poison oak, and was ordered not to shake hands with anyone. :)
Gregg did come through with a nice game. What I heard sounded really good. Unfortunately, as I’m in the middle of work, I won’t be able to say much.
We swept three straight series (DRays/Twins/Royals). That’s 9 in a row. That’s the record for any team all year so far, it’s now second longest in the Rangers history (record is 14 in 1991). We’re on a roll. Tim Crabree lost his consecutive appeareances with no runs scored, as he gave up two. He’s still pitching damn well this year. We did use the big bang theory to win this game, with a 6 spot in the 5th inning.
Next up is the Big Unit on Friday in Arizona. We’ve shown we can hit him in the past, let’s see what happens now.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Bases on balls will kill you. It’s an old story and man, is it ever true.
Kevin Appier, long the nemesis of the Rangers, knew it was true – and learned again the painful reality of four balls to a batter.
The Rangers, a virtual punchless team offensively until an opponent makes a mistake these days, were able to pounce on Appier’s 3 bases on balls on Wednesday, in a 6 run, 5th inning.
Until the walks, Appier had shut down the Rangers and held a 1-0 lead. But as of late – and the Rangers ride a nine game win streak – the Rangers have capitalized on every mistake made by the opposition. In the Devil Rays, The Twins and the Royals, they have found a mountain of miscues to catapult them to victory.
Two nights in a row during this streak, it was the wild pitch they used.
Another time, it was an error.
Many of the games were decided by a terrible bullpen blowing a starter’s lead in the late innings.
And Wednesday, it was the base on balls.

The Rangers set the highest current winning streak in the majors, and have the best team winning streak since 1991. The Diamondbuck$ lost yesterday, so that leavs the Rangers alone with an 8 game winning streak.
The Royals starting pitching shut us down again for the second night in a row, and the Royals pulled their starting pitcher after six innings, which I thought was weird, since we were being shut down again. The replacement picked up where the starter (Witasick) left off. However, in the eighth, the wheels came off. Matt Whitesant walked a batter, and then proceeded to hit two batters (althouh the call on Shave didn’t look like a hit batter to me). Then Mark McLemore, who is having a kick ass season, came through with the game winning hit, a double into center, scoring two runs and giving us the win. Rusty Greer singled again after Mac had moved to second, scoring Mac. A great night for Mac – that’s for sure.
A great night for our pitching again. Rick Helling gave up only one run, and got another no decision, but he is pitching really awesome lately. He’s gone into the 7th inning or later in his last four starts. Unfortunately, we’re not getting the job done with the bats for him. Case in point – Jeff Zimmerman has as many wins in relief as Rick Helling does as a starter (Rick’s 5-5, Jeff’s 5-0). Wetteland was a god in the 9th. Only a couple pitches and perfect relief from him (and Zim, too). Wetteland got his major league leading 17th save of the season, too.
Pudge also extended his hitting streak to 20 games, setting a personal record and setting the AL season record. The NL is around 30, I think – some guy from the Diamondbuck$.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Feasting on never-beens and pretenders like the Devil Rays, Twins and Royals, the Texas Rangers have now won 8 straight games.
The Rangers’ bullpen has been the key. They’ve won each of the past four games. The relievers have allowed one run in 25.2 innings, an 0.35 ERA during the streak. That’s nothing short of incredible.
Tuesday’s bullpen combo of Superman Jeff Zimmerman (the league leader in ERA, if he were eligible) and John Wetteland (the league leader in saves) stopped whatever thoughts the Royals had of adding any insurance to what was a slim 1-0 lead.
Let’s compare the Rangers’ pen to that of the Royals. KC relievers lead all of baseball with 11 blown saves in 19 opportunities (58% blown). The Ranger relievers have won their past 11 decisions and are 13-1 with four blown saves in 21 chances.
Tuesday evening, Rick Helling pitched his best game so far. The Rangers’ offense, which has been sputtering as of late – until they HAVE to score, let Helling down. In 7 innings, they couldn’t score. Helling allowed just 3 hits and 1 run.
Yes, the Rangers’ win came gift-wrapped again (gee, how many games in a row now has that happened?) by a lousy bullpen giving away a lead.
Yet a win is a win.