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We got an oddity in this game – CJ Wilson started the game, the night after he started the game Friday.  Now granted, on Friday he only threw less than 20 pitches or something like that, and he probably campaigned to go again, or maybe Mike Scoscia was swayed by the fans chanting “We want CJ” towards the end of Friday night’s game..  Whatever the reason, “Phone Book” Wilson took the mound on Saturday’s game, and set up the possibility that he could lose two straight games in a row on the schedule as he started both. [Read more...]

The amusing thing about this game is that I almost didn’t go.   The weather reports said all day that it was going to be raining for awhile, into the night and into the next day.  It didn’t look promising, but people out by the team I was watching on twitter were all about the game going on.  So around 4:15 or so I decided to just pick up and go.  I was out at 4:30, and it’s good that I left that early, because almost immediately there was wall to wall traffic.  Normally I don’t pick up that kind of traffic until I get down near downtown and the mixmaster (or at least the Fair Park area), but this started way back in Mesquite, and it was wall to wall traffic going pretty much out to the main Post Office.  I didn’t get out of my truck and start walking to the ballpark until 5:54 – one of the longest drives to the park I’ve ever had.  When I was walking in, it was quite sunny, so I was pretty confident the game would come off.  Turns out it was a good thing I went, because I saw a really fun game.   [Read more...]

Despite Ron Washington’s assertion that he “hates” doubleheaders, I love them.  I wish we’d get them back as regularly scheduled parts of the schedule.  I remember when I was young there used to be intentionally scheduled doubleheaders.   That’s what we got today, a doubleheader, and a classic one to boot (not one of those day-night jobbers).   The last time we played a doubleheader in Baltimore, we unloaded and won 30-3 (at least I think that was the last DH there).  While we didn’t have anything quite as epic as 30-3 in this doubleheader, we did at least pick up the win in Game 2 to get a split.   That ended the road trip 5-5.  Considering how hot we were before that, it’s a bit of a letdown.  However, it’s generally considered good if you go .500 on road trips.   So I’ll take it.   [Read more...]

Colby Lewis took the hill to start this game, and I have to say his line is one of the more strange ones I’ve ever seen.  Check this out:

7IP, 5H, 6R/ER, 1BB, 12K, 5HR, 114P

That’s right.  Five hits, and five home runs.  Struck out twelve.  It was quite bizarre to listen to.    The first three Orioles hit solo home runs, which during the game I saw was the first time that’s ever happened in major league history.   It took eight pitches, and the Rangers were down 3-0.   However, after that, Colby Lewis settled down. Colby then put down the next 18 Orioles hitters in a row, 10 of which were by strikeout.   [Read more...]

Josh’s pursuit of the extra base hit consecutive record has been postponed, as Wednesday’s game was rained out.  There will be a straight up doubleheader on Wednesday to make up for it.  None of those day-night double header nonsense moves.  A real honest to god double header.  Granted, since they’re only drawing 11k people, they won’t even half fill up the place if 100% of the sold tickets showd up anyway, so there’s no incentive to split the gate!

Josh did, however lead the charge in sliding on the tarp in Baltimore.   For a guy who is injury prone, it’s probably good I didn’t see that.  I would have likely stressed out about it.  :)

I almost don’t even know how to begin with this one.  This one is all about the night that Josh Hamilton had.  Since there’s SO MUCH to say about that one, let me get the rest of the game stuff out of the way first.   Lost in all the hoopla was a decent outing by Neftali Feliz.  He went six innings, allowed just four hits and one run.  Walked two, and punched out EIGHT.   He’s only 2-1 as of May 9th, but I’ll take that.  His ERA is 3.38 and he has respectable if not gaudy numbers after his first month as a starter.   I would have been ecstatic if he had the same kind of numbers that Ogando did at this point last year, but what he has is not bad at all, so I’m OK with that. [Read more...]

When you look down the Rangers’ roster, you see all kinds of names that you’d expect to lead the offense and have a six RBI game.  Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre, Nelson Cruz, Maybe David Murphy if the stars aligned.  But Brandon Snyder?  You wouldn’t expect Brandon Snyder to lead the team offensively.  And on a night when there was a ton of offense as well (14 runs, 19 hits), his totals were the best of all.  You actually have to feel good about something like that.  Even if you’re an Orioles fan.  When the game was over and I looked at the stats, I thought, “Good for him – GOOD for freakin him”.   [Read more...]

Rangers lost to the Indians on Sunday afternoon, handing Yu Darvish his first loss.  That was our second consecutive series loss.  Nothing to panic about at all – in fact, see my remark about Rangers fans panicking too early that appeared on TXA 21.  :)

Still, you’d rather see wins than losses.

Still, UGH.

Ugh.  Thanks blue.

Matt Harrison started this game and made everything nice that people have been saying about his pitching lately look like crap, as he stunk up the joint pretty good.   He didn’t get out of the fourth, and in that time, gave up EIGHT hits, coupled with two walks for EIGHT big earned runs.  Blew up his ERA to 5.40.   There wasn’t much good to say about this outing.  Also, as I’m writing about it almost a week later, I don’t remember it that well, either.  Not sure I want to look up the details behind an 8 earned run 3.1IP performance, either. [Read more...]

Well, shit.

Due to an odd tech quirk, I was able to see a couple of innings of this game, and from what I saw, Yu Darvish is getting better.   I saw just up to the point where he gave up the home run to Encarnacion.  Before that, I was ACTUALLY thinking no hitter.  That didn’t happen, but we did get a stellar performance from Yu Darvish.   He went seven innings, giving up just four hits, and walking two.  Struck out NINE, and of the four hits, three were singles, and one was the solo home run.  As the old saying goes, if you’re gonna give up home runs, make ‘em solo shots.  His curveball was popping, he got some of the Blue Jays to swing and miss like I’d swing and miss at a slider or some other pitch.   Darvish improved to 4-0, and has now won four of the five starts he’s made as a Ranger.  Although, I have to confess, I didn’t think he’d win that first game I was at.  Not after the first inning.  That inning seems like somewhat of a distant memory now, which is odd, given he’s only thrown a total of 33 innings as a major league pitcher.  How fickle our impressions can be, eh? [Read more...]

Taking a mulligan on this game, ran out of time to update.

Let me start off this review by saying this.  I knew we were in trouble instantly when the first pitch of the game was hit for a single.  Which didn’t bother me too much.  Why?  Although I was at this game, I wasn’t there to watch the game.   The Monday previous to this game was my daughter’s 7th birthday.  As is a tradition I picked up from my own mother in the 70′s, I like to take her to a game around her birthday as her “Birthday Game” each year.   This was the game I chose to take her to due to the extended road trip over the last few weeks.  On top of that, there was a brand new play area for her to explore and run around in, so I figured I wouldn’t be in my seats long.   This recap will be more about the time with my daughter than the game as such.  :) [Read more...]

In the rubber game of the Yankees series,  Scott Feldman took the hill against Phil Hughes.  Feldman was pushed into service due to the doubleheader a few days ago.  It’s the perfect use of the spot start.   One feels bad for Feldman sometimes.  On one hand, he pitched his way out of the rotation after his 17 game win season a few years ago.  But, with all the increased pitching we have lately, he’s the prime guy to have the short stick, and stuck in long relief.  Good enough for a major league team, but not good enough to crack the rotation.   Still, he was making a spot start here, and given his lack of being stretched out, it was unlikely that he was going to get a ton of innings, perhaps not even enough to qualify for the win. [Read more...]

In spring training, Yu Darvish had some mediocre outings, and got better as March rolled along.  When he came out to start the season, he was positively atrocious to start the game, and within his first outing, he improved as the game went along.   That was just a smaller version of his season overall.   He’s gotten better with each outing since the first, and was absolutely stellar last night.  The amazing thing is that he’s 3-0 now.  Given how awful he was in the first game, and how much he treaded water in the others, you’d think he’d be 0-2, or 1-1 at best.  Not 3-0.  But he’s 3-0.  We’ll take that.  What I’ll really take is the way he pitched last night. [Read more...]

As is my policy for the last several years or so, I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.

I will however, write about Pudge separately during this week some time.

Bit of a disputed call for the deciding run, but I’m super busy at the moment, I’m taking a mulligan on this game.

Well, OK, we know we weren’t going 160-2.  Bound to lose sometime.   But even the loss we had in this game was’t awful.  Sometimes there are losses where your team just doesn’t show up, and gets run over.  There’s times when you’re bludgeoned to death with too much offense.  There’s games where you have 4 or 5 errors and give it away.  This loss was like none of those scenarios (or half a dozen other I could name if I felt like it). [Read more...]

You know, that pun in the title was so awful, I considered not doing it, but it just screams to be used, so I had to.  :)

Game 1 of the day/night doubleheader started at noon, and I was in full daddy mode at that point.  My wife works Saturdays, so I forgot the game was on until it was in the third inning.  When I turned it on, the Rangers were already up 9-0!   Mildly disappointed when I saw I had missed an eight spot in the first inning.   I was a bit more annoyed when I found out that Adrian Beltre came out of the game with that big ugly word – hamstring.   That will be evaluated tomorrow, but one NEVER wants to hear that word associated with injury. [Read more...]

Friday’s game in Detroit was rained out.  Was bummed about that, as it was the one game a week I get on regular TV.  My wife had made one of my favorite meals (a buffalo chicken dip), and I was gonna settle in and watch.  Watched the whole pre-game on Channel 21.  Then..  Rain.  Half an hour later (fortunately I had some buffer on TiVo, only took five minutes), it was called.

A bonus is I ended up playing with my kids in the living room before they went to bed, so it’s not all bad.  :)

Makeup is tomorrow, in the cheapskate doubleheader.  One at noon, one at 6PM.  Fortunately, the 6PM game is on Channel 21, so I’ll watch that.  Just won’t have my good buffalo chicken dip to go with it.  :(