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First off, I wanted to draw attention to the image with this entry. Given I can’t watch games on TV much anymore, this is how I’ve been “watching” games. Via the MLB At Bat app. Depending on where I am, it’s either iPhone or iPad. This particular game was on the iPhone. Checked in during the 8th, and saw this status update for Ian Kinsler. I cannot say I was surprised to see that. Capt Uppercut has returned, going 0-4 this game.
The Rangers pounded out ten hits this game. Couple of doubles (Hamilton & Torrealba), and a pile of singles. It was enough to plate a run in the fourth & fifth, as well as a pair in the eighth. Josh Hamilton went 3-4, pulling his average up over .300 (304) with a triple and a double. Actually, Hamilton was the home run short of the cycle.
Michael Young & Mitch Moreland each had two hits.
Matt Harrison was solid this game. Went 7.1 innings, gave up eight hits and a walk (a little high on the hits, but not alarming). Just one run in the sixth (to Thome). Came out with 114 pitches thrown. The relief core behind him was solid. Tateyama (0.1 IP), Arthur Rhodes (0.1 IP), and Neftali Feliz (1 IP), were all perfect. Nothing allowed by those guys.
Well pitched game.
Not thrilled at Capt Uppercut making a comeback, though.

It was easy with last night’s game to pass off a review with just “Shit”, since that was frustrating. This one was out of reach most of the game, despite the score not being too far beyond “close”. Just “felt” like we weren’t in this one from the get go. Can’t point to anything for that feeling, it’s just that. A gut feeling.
Colby Lewis gave up eight hits and walked two during his 6.2 innings of work, leading to four earned runs given up. That’s pretty much the game there. Mark Lowe also gave up three unearned runs in relief. Bah.
Rangers left seven men on base. Bah.
Just Bah. :(

I’m going with one of my one word reviews..
Shit.

Well, it’s a blowout. The kind of game that makes you want to start quoting all kinds of statistics regarding what happened in the game. :)
I’m not going to do that, except to say this. Of all the starters, Chris Davis is the only person who didn’t have a hit, going 0-6, striking out twice. David Murphy also had an ofer, but he was a sub, going 0-2.
Oddly enough, the only Ranger with a single hit was the other sub, Omar Quintanilla, who came in for Michael Young, playing second this game. Omar had just a single hit, but it was a triple. Everyone else had two, three, or four hits. Cruz & Kinsler had four. Andrus, Young, Moreland, & Chavez had three each, and Hamilton was the only one with two.
Two home runs, one triple, eight doubles, and sixteen singles!
OK, I did end up doing a bunch of stats, but I really didn’t mean to. It’s just hard not to get into that when your team scores 20 runs and gets 27 hits.
Lost in all the offense was the fact that there was a total of seven errors in the game. Four by Texas, and three by Minnesota. Two errors were by Chris Davis (both fielding errors), one was by Elvis Andrus (missed catch), and the other was Neftali Feliz (fielding).
Derek Holland got the win, going six innings, allowing five hits, and just one unearned run. He came out of the game with 90 pitches, which for six innings, wasn’t a lot, but given how hot it was, and the huge lead we had, I guess I can’t be too surprised. Oddly enough, each of the four Rangers pitchers (Holland, Feldman, Rhodes, & Feliz) gave up at least one run. Holland & Feliz both had unearned runs. Feldman gave up one, and Rhodes three in his one inning.

There’s not a lot to say about this one. When your club is shut out, it means their pitcher was doing darned well. Which was definitely the case with Toronto’s Brett Cecil.
He threw a complete game shutout. Nine innings, 121 pitches, four hits, two walks, seven strikeouts, but zero runs. This for a guy whose era doesn’t reflect that kind of pitching. Still, when a pitcher throws a game like that, you have to tip your cap. Hope we do better when we face him again later on in the week. :)
Our offense was limited to four singles. Two of them by Craig Gentry, the others by Michael Young & Nelson Cruz. That was IT.
On the other side, Alexi Ogando did fairly well himself. 6.2 innings pitched, allowing three runs on two walks and seven hits. All three runs came in a six batter span in the 6th inning. Single, out, Double, out, Double, double. That was the game right there. Other than that Ogando was quite good. On a normal night, we probably could have compensated, but..
Brett Cecil.

Sometimes there are games that are blowouts, and some are pitchers duels. Most are in between. This one was inbetween. Nobody terribly stunk up the joint, but it wasn’t dominating, either.
Matt Harrison took the mound and went 6.2 innings. Gave up four runs on no walks and eight hits. Also struck out eight. Was actually doing fairly well, until he gave up a “team cycle” to the Jays, giving up three runs. What I mean by that is the inning started off with a home run to JP Arencibia. Then was a double to Yunel Escobar, followed by a triple by Eric Thames. Finally Jose Bautista singled, completing the cycle in four straight batters. That was by far Harrison’s worst inning of the game, although he did also give up a run in the first on a pair of doubles by Thames & Lind. I want to call this an “OK” game for him, but when you give up four and don’t get past the seventh, it’s hard to do that. Still, it was’t awful.
On the other side, the Rangers got a run in each of the third, fourth, and fifth innings. That put us up 3-1 at the time, and then we went down, 4-3 via the aforementioned three run inning the Jays got.
That got us to the bottom of the ninth when we managed to go with three sacrifice bunts. Mike Napoli walked to start it off. Moreland got the first bunt, but reached on a throwing error. Ian Kinsler then bunted, and it went like it was designed. Next batter was a suicide squeeze, pulled off well as Elvis bunts again, scoring Napoli. The Jays intentionally walked Hamilton, and then Michael Young brought in the winning run via a single.
I remember being fairly annoyed when the Rangers lost the lead (I’m writing this a week after the game happened), but the walkoff certainly made up for that! :)

This game had a lot to enjoy. First and foremost, it was my Friday night once a week TV game.
Second, Nelson Cruz had a hell of a night. Eight RBI’s, including a three run home run. He went 4-4.
Omar Quintanilla made his Rangers debut.
Rangers scored twelve runs on thirteen hits, including three doubles.
Rangers had four multi run innings. A two run second. A three run fourth. A three run fifth, and a four run sixth.
But the biggest down side of this game was that we lost Adrian Beltre. In the bottom of the fith, Beltre was headed towards third, and limped in, doing the often seen, but never wanted “I pulled my hamstring hop”, followed almost immediately by the even less desirable grab of the back of the leg. That’s a huge blow. While it doesn’t seem like he’ll be out for the rest of the season, he certainly will be out for awhile.
It will allow for Chris Davis to come up, as to whether or not he plays third base during all this time is unknown.
While it was a great game to enjoy for all the positive, the Beltre injury is definitely brings a huge downer to the game’s events.
As a final note, the Blue Jays designated for assignment the starter from this game, Jo-Jo Reyes the next morning.

This was an even more annoying game than the 9-8 loss the night before.
It’s rough when you have four times the number of hits as your opponent, yet you score nothing and still lose the game. CJ Wilson was pretty darned masterful. He allowed only two hits the whole game. One was a double to Macier Izturis, and the other a single to Mark Trumbo. However, the big deal was an error by Endy Chavez in the second, allowing Howie Kendrick to score. Chavez just dropped the ball, allowing Kendrick to score. Kendrick was on base due to being hit by a pitch, and then going to second on a wild pitch by CJ. So it was a short sequence of bad there, but it was the only time they had anything like that.
CJ was awesome other than that. Complete game loss, going eight innings, allowing just the two hits, one unearned run, walking one, and striking out eight. It lowered his season ERA to 2.94, but man. This loss hurt. More than the 9-8 one, because had our chances.
The Rangers had eight hits, including a 3-4 night by Elvis Andrus. Nelson Cruz was also 2-4. I mean in the first we had two men on with one out, and didn’t score. The sixth was worse, as we had the bases loaded. Blew it.
1-0 pitcher’s duels are usually a good thing to watch, but this felt more frustrating than the usual 1-0 game out there.

This game was annoying. I was tempted to write just “shit” because of the way the team lost the game.
Derek Holland and Dan Haren both stunk up the joint tonight. Holland gave up 7 earned runs in his 5.1 innings. Haren gave up 7 earned runs in his 4.1 innings.
Still… Shit. Rough way to end the 12 game winning streak.