Recently in 2000 Game Recaps Category
Well, the Rangers did get to play October baseball this year, but unfortunately, it wasn't the kind we were looking for, it was just the final game in a very dismal season.
Ryan Glynn pitched like he was the ace of the staff yesterday. He went toe to toe with Oakland starter Tim Hudson, going a total of 7 innings, and giving up 2 runs on six hits. Two of the runs were in the final inning he pitched, when he seemed to be getting the ball up, Oakland hit two solo home runs. Other than that, he was masterful. Pitch count was good, he walked four, struck out four, and generally pitched awesome.
Problem was that Tim Hudson was even more awesome. With the division crown on the line, and going for his 20th win, Tim Hudson pitched like a CY Young winner. He went 8 innings, giving up no runs, striking out ten, and giving up only four hits. There were two walks, but one of them was intentional. Tim Hudson was totally awesome, and from the looks of yesterday's game, he was a big part of the success the A's have had this year.
My hat goes off to the A's - they are worthy champs, and I hope they go further than we were able to in the last couple of years in the playoffs against the Yankees.
I did notice on the TV coverage that after the A's had won, you didn't hear anything from Tom Grieve anymore. I wonder if he was on the field or in the A's clubhouse to congratulate his son or something. Again, I can't express how glad I am it was the A's that won the division, and not the Mariners. I don't dislike the Mariners, but I like the A's - great young team, great heart. Also, I'm from Philadelphia, so there's that tie too (Although when I was born, they had already left for Kansas City).
A big two THUMBS DOWN! Could it get any worse on the final game tomorrow? Look at this box score!
Line Score
AL FINAL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
TEXAS 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 9 0
OAKLAND 9 0 1 0 5 0 8 0 x 23 24 0 (FINAL)
BATTERIES: TEX - DARREN OLIVER, BRIAN SIKORSKI (1ST), MATT
PERISHO (5TH), FRANCISCO CORDERO (5TH),
JONATHAN JOHNSON (7TH), DOUG DAVIS (7TH), JEFF
ZIMMERMAN (8TH) AND RANDY KNORR, BJ WASZGIS
(8TH)
OAK - BARRY ZITO, SCOTT SERVICE (7TH), TODD BELITZ
(9TH) AND RAMON HERNANDEZ, SAL FASANO (6TH)
WP - BARRY ZITO (7-4)
LP - DARREN OLIVER (2-9)
SAVE - NONE
HOME RUNS: TEX - NONE
OAK - RANDY VELARDE (11) OFF SIKORSKI IN THE 1ST, 1 ON
JASON GIAMBI (43) OFF SIKORSKI IN THE 3RD, 0 ON
MIGUEL TEJADA (30) OFF CORDERO IN THE 5TH, 3 ON
RYAN CHRISTENSON (4) OFF D DAVIS IN THE 7TH, 2 ON
TIME: 3:32 ATT: 35,546
PROBABLES: TEX - RYAN GLYNN (5-6, 5.84)
OAK - TIM HUDSON (19-6, 4.31)
Box Score
TEXAS (2) VS OAKLAND (23) - FINAL
TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
Sc Green cf 5 0 1 0 0 1 5 .242
R Clayton ss 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 .241
M Young 2b 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 .000
R Palmeiro 1b 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 .288
Dransfeldt ss 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .115
Curtis lf 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .275
a-Valdes ph-rf 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 .260
Sierra dh 4 1 1 0 0 0 2 .237
Ledee rf-lf 2 1 1 0 2 1 0 .238
Sheldon 2b-1b 4 0 2 0 0 1 1 .289
Lamb 3b 4 0 2 1 0 0 0 .276
Knorr c 3 0 0 0 0 0 5 .303
Waszgis c 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 .222
Totals 36 2 9 2 2 10 17
a-singled for Curtis in the 8th.
BATTING: RBI - Lamb (47), Waszgis (4). Runners left in scoring
position, 2 out - Sc Green 2, Knorr 1, Sierra 1, M Young 1.
Team LOB - 9.
OAKLAND ab r h rbi bb so lob avg
Long cf 4 3 3 3 1 0 0 .290
b-Porter ph-cf 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 .154
R Velarde 2b 5 3 3 2 0 0 2 .277
Menechino 2b 2 1 2 2 0 0 0 .255
Ja Giambi 1b 3 3 3 3 2 0 0 .334
Je Giambi pr-1b 2 0 1 0 0 1 1 .253
Saenz dh 3 0 1 1 1 0 1 .310
J Ortiz pr-dh 2 2 1 1 0 1 3 .182
d-Hinch ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 .250
Tejada ss 4 1 1 5 1 0 4 .275
c-Byrnes ph-rf 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 .300
Grieve lf 4 1 1 0 1 1 2 .279
R Christenson pr-lf 1 2 1 3 0 0 0 .248
Piatt rf-3b 6 2 4 0 0 1 2 .299
Chavez 3b 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 .280
a-M Bellhorn ph-3b-ss 4 0 0 0 1 3 5 .154
Ra Hernandez c 2 1 0 1 1 1 2 .238
Fasano c 3 1 2 2 0 1 0 .214
Totals 48 23 24 23 10 10 24
a-walked for Chavez in the 2nd; b-walked for Long in the 7th;
c-singled for Tejada in the 7th; d-struck out for J Ortiz in the 8th.
BATTING: 2B - Long (34, Sikorski); Grieve (39, Cordero); Fasano
(6, Cordero); Piatt (5, Jo Johnson); Menechino (9, Jo Johnson).
HR - R Velarde (11, 1st inning off Sikorski 1 on, 2 out); Ja Giambi
(43, 3rd inning off Sikorski 0 on, 2 out); Tejada (30, 5th inning
off Cordero 3 on, 1 out); R Christenson (4, 7th inning off D Davis
2 on, 2 out). RBI - Ja Giambi 3 (137), Saenz (32), Tejada 5 (115),
Ra Hernandez (61), Long 3 (80), R Velarde 2 (40), Fasano 2 (19),
Menechino 2 (26), J Ortiz (1), R Christenson 3 (18). 2-out RBI -
Ra Hernandez, Long 3, R Velarde 2, Ja Giambi, J Ortiz,
R Christenson 3. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out -
Ra Hernandez 1, M Bellhorn 1, Tejada 2, Hinch 1. Team LOB - 11.
--------------------------------------------------
Texas - 010 000 001 -- 2
Oakland - 901 050 80X -- 23
--------------------------------------------------
TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era
D Oliver (L, 2-9) 2/3 5 6 6 1 0 0 7.50
Sikorski 3 1/3 4 4 4 4 2 2 5.73
Perisho 1/3 3 4 4 1 1 0 7.46
Cordero 1 2/3 3 1 1 2 2 1 5.35
Jo Johnson 2/3 5 7 7 2 2 0 6.21
D Davis 1/3 2 1 1 0 1 1 5.38
Je Zimmerman 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 5.30
OAKLAND ip h r er bb so hr era
Zito (W, 7-4) 6 5 1 1 1 7 0 2.72
Service 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 6.38
T Belitz 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 2.70
WP - Perisho. Pitches-strikes: Zito 100-62; Service 34-22; T
Belitz 16-10; D Oliver 29-18; Sikorski 73-38; Perisho 29-19;
Cordero 39-21; Jo Johnson 37-20; D Davis 20-13; Je Zimmerman
28-21. Ground balls-fly balls: Zito 6-5; Service 2-2; T Belitz
1-1; D Oliver 2-0; Sikorski 1-7; Perisho 0-0; Cordero 0-3; Jo
Johnson 0-0; D Davis 0-0; Je Zimmerman 0-1. Batters faced: Zito
24; Service 8; T Belitz 6; D Oliver 8; Sikorski 18; Perisho 5;
Cordero 10; Jo Johnson 9; D Davis 3; Je Zimmerman 5.
UMPIRES: HP--John Shulock. 1B--Brian Runge. 2B--Rocky Roe.
3B--Ian Lamplugh.
T--3:32. Att--35,546. Weather: 72 degrees, sunny. Wind: 7 mph,
out to right.
The final series of the season. I hope going into this series that we actually lose all three, and let the A's win it. We have nothing to play for at this point - the season is just about a total loss, we're way in last place, and the only point in winning now would be to help the Mariners. Given a choice between the Mariners and the A's, I'd rather the A's get the division crown.
Well, we followed up on this plan in Game 1, losing 7-5. As losses go, it wasn't the worst, we didn't lie down, but a loss is a loss, and in this season, there's a ton of 'em. 89 losses. That means we have to win both the last two to avoid a 90 loss season - don't think it's gonna happen. :)
We used seven pitchers, Kenny Rogers going 4.1, giving up five hits, and 3 earned runs. No one else pitched more than a single inning (Perisho had a 0 for IP). Francisco Cordero gave up two runs in 2/3 of an inning, and Jonathan Johnson & Mike Venafro each gave up a run, but neither was earned. On our side of the stick, we had a few decent nights by Scott sheldon, who went 2 for 3 after coming in early for Luis Alicea (Luis never played the field), Royce Clayton, who went 3 for 5, and Randy Knorr, who went 3 for 4.
Johnny Oates also fired Dick Bosman, which was a surprise, as they'd been together 9 years over two teams. Be curious to see who we bring in as a pitching coach. My initial vote - Bill Haselman.
Well, I was really hoping to come out of Seattle winning two of three and hurting Seattle - I really want to see the A's win the division. Didn't happen. No change in the standings at all during this series - Seattle is still 1/2 game up on Oakland going into the final three games of the season.
I had forgotten this game was on at 5:30, and didn't see much of it, as I tuned in late. I did get to see Ruben Sierra's home run - I was really really hoping he'd get one, on the (fairly decent) chance he won't be here next season. He was all kinds of smiles in the dugout, and that was very nice to see - my wife even commented that it's great to see players smile like that.
The other notable about this game (other than the fact we trounced on the Mariners) was the 5 stolen bases by Scarborough Green. I really think he should be given a shot at a 5th outfielder position. It's too bad he can't hit - because he plays passable defense, and has some ungodly speed - he could be a great leadoff hitter.
This weekend Tom Grieve has a chance to see his son's team clinch the division with him announcing it. That must be cool for him.
As this season draws to a close, I'm finding it harder and harder to sit and watch an entire game without flipping channels, looking at something else on my TiVo... This game was no exception.
We lost, and we had chances. We couldn't follow through and beat the Mariners' closer for the win. Oh well.
Not much to talk about here. We lost 5-0 on a complete game shutout by our traitor old friend, Aaron Sele. He pitched a 6 hit complete game shutout. We couldn't get anything going at all. Period.
About the only highlights on the other side was a pickoff of Rickey Henderson by Ryan Glynn early in the game, and the fact that our bullpen didn't make the game any worse. :)
The final home game of the 2000 season played out pretty much like the rest of the year. Rather irritating weather, and rather irritating performance by the team on the field. After yesterday being 97 degrees with like 80 percent humidity, it was about 60 degrees at the game. Since I'm from up north these temperatures don't bother me, but the day after 97, it's very noticeable.
Kenny Rogers started off by walking the first three batters of the game, and surprisingly only gave up one run that inning. Kenny went five innings, and only gave up a single hit, but he also allowed a career high eight walks. Given that many walks, it's surprising he only gave up two runs in these five innings. When he left, I was feeling pretty good about our chances to win the final home game. However, our usual problem reared it's head. Jonathan Johnson came on and pitched a couple of innings, but gave up two consecutive solo home runs for two more runs allowed - those were his only two hits though, he didn't pitch all that bad. Then the fun began. Tim Crabgrass came in and only pitched 1/3 of an inning, but he walked two, and with an error, ending up allowing four runs, because of Mike Venafro's gopher ball to Mo Vaughn - a towering grand slam into the second level of the upper deck. That was the epitaph for the Ranger's home season. Brian Sikorski came on for the ninth, and was the only pitcher not to allow any runs, but he too walked a batter - bringing the total walks allowed by Ranger pitching to FOURTEEN!!
Offensively, we didn't have much - we had the solo home run by Randy Knorr, and an RBI bloop single by Ruben Sierra in the fourth, scoring Scarborough Green. That was it. Speaking of Ruben, he'll be a trivia question - he made the final out of the home 2000 season, a come backer to the pitcher.
When the Rangers were coming off the field, they got (what I felt to be) a fairly decent standing ovation. Hardly anyone came back out onto the field after the game was over, but I can't be surprised at that - they probably just wanted to get out. Raffy came out, and Scott Sheldon did, and I thought I saw Ruben Sierra, but I wasn't sure. I was very pleased to see the fans give the team applause after the season was over. Given the usual Cowboy mentality that this town has, I figured they'd get booed - but they didn't. I liked that.
Speaking of Raffy, he was given a special framed Rangers jersey before the game in honor of his 400th HR. It looked normal, except the number on the back of the uniform was #400. Was a nice gesture, for sure.
Well, it figures. The one game that I don't have tickets for this series is the one where Raffy gets #400. My wife and I were in Baltimore last year when Cal Ripken missed getting his 400th by about two feet - and we missed this one, too. :)
However, Raffy was the only thing going last night. In this 15-4 loss, all four runs were driven in by Raffy. We had a total of four hits, three of them by Raffy (the other one a single by Ricky Ledee). Rick Helling was bad. Matt Perisho was fair. Darwin Cubillan was awful. Francisco Corder was fair to poor.
Was just an awful night all around - with the lone expection of Rafael Palmeiro who hit his 400th home run. I was watching, and when I saw him hit the ball, I hit pause on my TiVo (man these things are awesome). I went to get my wife, who was in the other room on the phone. When I came back, and backed the game up a few seconds so she could see it all (God, I really love TiVo). I had hit pause without even seeing it go over the fence. It was just one of those shots you could tell was going out off the bat. They shot off the home run fireworks 3 times for this one - which was cool. There was a rather large standing ovation, a curtain call from Raffy, and some nice family moments with his wife and kids who were in the first row behind the on deck circle. One funny note about the home run - a fan in the first row in the lower home run porch had the ball in his hands, and dropped it back onto the field. :)
Was a nice moment in a completely forgettable game. Oh wait, there was one cute thing. The Angels tied an AL record for using four pinch runners in an inning, and the two teams combined to set an AL record by using 5 pinch runners combined in a single inning. :)
My wife and I were at this game - and we had tickets to Sunday's final game, too. We're thinking before we show up, you know, as we don't have tickets to the middle of these three games, that's when Raffy will hit his home run. And of course, I was right. He hit his 400th on Saturday.
Anyway, about this one - Darren Oliver was on the mound tonight, so I just assumed a big loss. Well, Darren didn't pitch all that badly. He went 6.2 innings, allowing six hits, and two earned runs. Was actually a great performance, and really, he deserved a win. However, Anaheim pitchers were better than us. All five of them combined to allow only 8 hits, and 1 earned run. Hard to win when you're outpitched like that.
The frustration of this season played out late, when Frank Catalanotto was ejected for tossing his helmet back out onto the field after arguing a close call. Every replay, and all the announcers said that he was ejected after arguing, but no one seemed to notice that it didn't happen until he was in the dugout already, and his hat had been tossed back out onto the field.
On the injury front, Ricky Ledee was scratched from this game due to stepping on glass at home, and cutting his foot. Rusty Greer was officially shut down for the rest of the season due to the current foot problem he has. I doubt he'll go on the DL now, but that makes yet another player (I think it's 9 without looking it up) that have been finished for the season due to injury.
I skipped back and forth between this game, and some other television I was watching.
It was very cool to see an extra inning win. I tuned back into the game right as Scott Sheldon was about to swing for a home run to tie the game in the ninth. That was cool to see - and then we went ahead in the 11th, but gave up a run, so the game continued.
This was a game that was started by a total of 13 rookies on both teams, out of a possible 20 players total. Rather a lot!
Was nice to see Ruben Sierra get some hits and a few RBI's in this one - I'm really hoping he can hang around for next season, although my gut says he won't.
This was our only win in the Metrodome all season. Sigh.
Hmmm.. A 15-7 loss to the Twins. About the only thing worth talking about in this one was Raffy's 399th home run. :)
No real commentary here either - I was watching Monday Night Football. I checked in during the Ranger game from time to time, but there wasn't much going on.
Rick Helling was the hard luck loser in a game that really was the Joe Mays show. We got shut down 3-1 by the Twins, who have surprisingly had our number this year. After beating the Twins every single game in 1999, it certainly feels like it's a complete opposite this year.
Gabe Kapler continues to hit the ball well, going 2 for 3 and a walk. His average is now .306. I really hope he keeps it together at the start of next year. I've seen too many players figure it all out, get good at the end of the season, only to totally lose themselves the start of the next year.
No commentary on this game, as I was driving back to Dallas from Houston when the game was on.
Was nice to see in the box scores a gob more RBI's for Kapler, though. :)
The Rangers were officially eliminated from playoff contention tonight with this loss. Anyone surprised? :)
I didn't see or hear any of this game, as I was in Houston checking out the new Enron Field (which has some things that are better than the Ballpark - and some worse, but it was an awesome park, an awesome night for baseball, too).
Now this game I was at. I drove to the game actually not knowing who was starting for the Rangers, which is odd for me - as I'm usually up on this. Been rather busy with a few things of late, and haven't been paying as much attention to the Rangers at this stage of the game (let's say that a crappy season wears on the fan web sites too - it's hard to write about a bad team as much. I suppose if I was getting paid for it, I'd be doing it, but since I do this for my own fun, eh..
Anyway, when I found out that Darren Oliver was pitching, I thought "OH god, we'll be down 7-2 by the fourth". Well, guess what? We weren't. Darren actually pitched well, and looked like he belonged here. Darren gave up a bunch of hits, but seemed to get the outs when he needed 'em. When he came out of the game, I felt like he could have stayed in - which was an odd feeling for 2000 - or for 1998, too. :D However, our bullpen was crap. Darwin Cubillan was totally ineffective, and when Jeff Zimmerman came on, he inherited three baserunners. One pitch later, and all four were home, along with the batter - a first pitch salami ball to Damon. Mike Venafro, who came in later, threw one pitch - that pitch hitting Damon (who later scored). What a mess.
We blew our rather large lead, which we had built up with a 5 run first, and a few runs over the next few for a 9-1 lead in the top of the 6th. Our first five batters all scored - it was 5-0 with no outs in the bottom of the first, and with no outs, too! After the fifth, we were up 9-1, and life was feeling pretty good. Then the rails fell off - we gave up a 7 spot in the top of the 6th to bring the Royals to within one. We then topped off the fiasco with two more runs in the top of the 8th, giving the Royals a lead - setting up the worst loss we'd ever given up a lead to get.
However, we came through with one run in the bottom of the 9th. Just when we were feeling good about ourselves again, the Royals went and got yet another run in the top of 10th off and increasingly ineffective John Wetteland. Given the way we usually perform in extra inning games, I figured that was it. Another Wetteland gaffe, and we lose.
However, we showed some spirit in the bottom of the 10th when Pedro Valdes reached first on an infield single, and then went to third on a double by Raffy. Gabe "Mr. RBI" came up, and sac flied to right, scoring Valdes to tie the game. After Ricky Ledee was intentionally walked, Kelly Dransfeldt came up, and slapped a single to left, scoring a rambling Rafael Palmeiro, who chugged all the way from second to score the winning run.
We used a ton of players in this game - we used every position player except Bill Haselman, who was unofficially done for the season anyway with surgery scheduled for Monday. Boy, I have to say that if we make a coaching change with Dick Bosman, I'd love to see Bill Haselman take over - I think he'd be a great pitching coach.
Overall a great game to sit in the ballpark and watch - but I would have rather won without giving up quite so many runs.
Didn't watch any of this game - was busy late at work.
Didn't get to see any of this game, I was taping some other things on the TiVo, and besides, I had just sat through a double header the night before. Starting to reach the point of burnout for the season. Probably would be less burnout if we were playing better, I suppose. :)
Was nice to see that Cal had a great night - too bad it didn't happen last night when I was there, though.
Aaahhh.. Nothing better than a doubleheader. Two games. Same night. Gotta love that. And we won both of them!
The Rangers and Kenny Rogers won the second game of the doubleheader against the Orioles by a 6-5 score. Our offense again provided the thrust of this game, and it was capped off by a 3 run home run by Pedro Valdes in the first inning - his first ever home run.
The lineup for this game was different than the first, the only two players that were the same were Raffy & Alicea. All the other starters were different players than the first - including Randy Knorr who I had never seen before. Given the sparse crowd (24,000), we were able to move around, and ended up three rows from the on deck circle, which afforded my wife a great close up shot of Gabe Kapler when he pinch hit in the bottom of the eighth. :) (She'll probably kill me for saying that)
Heart Attack Wetteland came in and gave up two runs, making the final score much closer than the entire game was. We won, which was great, and the Rangers were handing out free passes to anyone who walked in the door for a game in April or May of 2001 season. Gotta love that. :)
Well, my wife and I got to the doubleheader right as the game started. We figured we'd be there for like 6 or 7 hours anyway, so there was no point in sitting around for an hour before the game started - it's not like we don't know the Ballpark pretty well, anyway. :)
It's been awhile since I went to a doubleheader, and while my wife likes going to games with me, I thought a doubleheader would be pushing it with her. She didn't seem to have the dreaded "Wife/Girlfriend totally bored look" that I've seen on several women in the stands on TV. That is good.
Anyway, it was a nice game. Rick Helling had a bit of the long ball scare early, with a leadoff home run, but that was the only run he gave up, and the only hit till the seventh inning. He pitched wonderfully, and I felt should have pitched a complete game, as his pitch count was way down, leaving after eight innings. Tim Crabtree came on, and didn't give up anything for a change, and preserved the 9-1 win.
Offensively, we had a lot - we tied the game in the bottom of the first to match the longball by Baltimore. We then busted it open with a four spot in the second inning against rookie pitcher John Parrish, two coming on a double by Raffy. Bill Haselman added a solo home run later in the game to cap off a really nice game on both sides of the coin. Too bad we couldn't do this more often this year. :(
Not available - no time.
Not available - no time.
Not available - no time.
Didn't watch this game past the first few innings - however, the 2000 Rangers bullpen did it's usual thing - totally blowing a lead. :)
Well, Rick Helling was the Rick Helling of last season tonight. Gave up a lot of home runs balls, and put us way behind 7-0 in the first inning, and then we were down 10-1 after two.
That set the stage for Scott Sheldon. Johnny Oates had been threatening to play Scott Sheldon in all 9 positions in a game this season, but the word was that it was going to be at home. However, with being blown out so early in this game, that let Johnny have some fun with the lineup.
Scott Sheldon came in during the fourth inning at catcher, and over the rest of the game, he moved all over the place, with the last two places he played being pitcher and third base. Scott even struck out the only batter he faced! :) Scott was the third person in history to do it, and is the FIRST player ever to do it in less than 9 innings (he did it in 5).
I couldn't see the game, due to my long problems with my lame ass cable company, Optel. However, I probably would have tuned out anyway before Scott started his historic moves around the diamond. :)
Dammit - why are we winning against the White Sox? Stop that! I do not want to be helping the Indians. Because we've beaten Chicago the last two nights, their lead is now only 6.5 games. Should be 8.5, if it wasn't for our winning. :(
This was one of those games where both my wife and I expected a big Ranger loss, mostly because of who was pitching this night - Dead Arm Oliver. It took 3+ innings for dead arm to give up a run. In fact, it was his only run. He pitched 6 innings, and probably would have gone further, but his pitch count was way up there. A rather interesting surprise there - I doubt anyone expected Dead Arm to pitch well at all. However, let's see if it happens a few times in a row - remember that dazzling start he had in rehab at AAA, just to be followed by the pasting he got at Tulsa. :) Jonathan Johnson went two innings to get the win in relief, and Wetteland got a save, although he lived up to his reputation of not making it easy at all.
Offensively, we didn't have much else - we only scored two - and neither was an easy run. One in the 5th on a Scott Sheldon double, scoring Ledee. The other was in the top of the 9th on a Chad Curtis single, scoring Frank Catalnotto.
It was nice to get the win, but it was not nice to get it against the White Sox. I also found it interesting (although I can't say why) that two "names" from earlier in Ranger history were playing in the same game, Ruben Sierra & Harold Baines.
You know, with all the losses we've had lately, I actually game into Chicago wanting the Rangers to get swept. A few more wouldn't make any difference now. Why? Lord knows I don't want to help the Cleveland Indians by beating the White Sox. The Indians need to be out of the playoffs. They're starting to become rather annoying just like the Yankees by winning all the time.
This is one more game I missed - I got called into work on an emergency situation when the game was on - I only got to see the start of the game, when we went down 2-0 early.
We called up four players from AAA Oklahoma who finished their season on Monday the 4th. The four are: catcher Randy Knorr, Darwin Cubillan, Kelly Dransfeldt, & old time Ranger Ruben Sierra. Will be interesting to see Sierra up in the bigs. I'll have to make sure to watch the pre-game show Tue night, I'm sure there will be something on him.
Not available - This is the third game in a row I missed. Why? I was out at Texas Stadium seeing the Cryboys get annihilated by the Philadelphia Eagles. Boy, it was a thing of wonder, wasn't it? I hate the Cowboys. :)
On the Rangers side, it was nice to see Ryan Glynn put up this kind of start. Looked good from the box score.
Not available - I didn't see or hear the game at all, I was out at a cat show in Ft. Worth. My wife and I lost our cat to kidney disease a couple of months ago, and we were checking out some of the breeds we were looking at relative to getting a new cat.
Not available - I didn't see or hear the game at all, I was out at an Iron Maiden / Queensryche concert this evening. :)
How come they couldn't have done this the night before when I was there? :)
I'm sorry, but I don't have the time today to write about this - but it was nice to see the Rangers get out there with a big win for a change. I found myself rooting against Wetteland in the top of the 9th, though - I wanted the game to break the all time record - it missed by just a minute. :(
Well, I went to this game, and given the way the Rangers were playing, I wasn't expecting much in the way of attendance. This was one of my season ticket games, and I had heard on TV the other night that the Rangers were offering complimentary upgrades to folks who had tickets in the upper levels. Normally, I sit in Section 326, but I got a free upgrade to Sec 237. What was funny was that the section Lynn & I were in was the most populated section in the stadium it looked like (as it was one of the upgrade sections). Just 20 minutes from game time, it seemed like there was only 5,000 people in the stands. It eventually filled up to 24,000, but still - rather empty. I wasn't a season ticket holder (or even a Ranger fan) the last time the Rangers were playing this bad in the late 70's, but I can just imagine. Hell, I wonder what the players feel like in Montreal night after night.
Anyway, a third straight solid performance by Doug Davis led the Ranger charge. He pitched wonderfully through the first six innings. In the seventh, he ran into a little trouble, giving up two runs, and then our bullpen led the charge to defeat. Crabtree gave up the other three earned runs, although sitting in the stands, it didn't feel like he pitched that badly. Dave Burba on the other side pitched better, unfortunately. He went 6 innings, giving up one (unearned) run, and the other Cleveland bullpen pitchers pitched well (except for Ricardo Rincon). It was just hard to get anything going offensively.
Raffy was ejected in the bottom of the 8th, giving some rise from the spartan crowd. In reading about this game, someone said that it was the first time in Raffy's career that he was ejected (I find that hard to believe), but it was definitely the first player ejection of a Ranger this season - that's not bad at all, considering this was game 132 of 162.
Overall a very warm night, and even though the Rangers lost, and it was a spartan crowd, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I just wish that it wasn't so hot down here - would make coming out more enjoyable, I would think.
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No commentary on this one either. I was on the highways of Texas headed towards the best sausage I've ever had in my life from the Southside Market & BBQ. It's "Elgin Hot Sausage". Check it out.
This is the kind of loss that makes you want to say "Oh, it's not all that bad, we only lost by one, if we had that one extra hit, if we..." But we know better. This season is just bad, so this is the kind of thing that happens all the time. Our bullpen crashed yet again, and we lost the game late.
Wait a minute. Didn't I just say the same thing about yesterday's game? Yeah, I did. This one felt exactly like yesterday's game. Same feel, same thing. We lost to the Yankees in the Bronx by a one run score. Sigh again.
This is more like the Rangers of 2000. That 1-0 win last night had to be a dream. This team couldn't sustain that for more than a game at a time, and even then, only once in awhile.
I actually didn't see any of this game, I was at the Dell Diamond seeing the Round Rock Express beat up on Darren Oliver in a rehab start. If you get a chance to get down to Round Rock next season, go for it. It's a great little park!
I did tune in for a minute to listen to the Rangers game, but they were losing 4-1, so I turned it back off, and watched the game in front of me. :)
I saw the last few innings of this one. Lynn & I were down in the Austin/Round Rock area to see the Drillers play the Round Rock Express on Saturday. We went down on Friday, and after we got in from dinner, and a look around 6th Street in Austin, I caught the end of this one. Going into it, I figured we'd get blown out. David Wells always pitches good at the Ballpark against us, and Doug Davis was the inexperienced rookie going up against him. I figured we'd lose something like 8-1 or so. I was rather shocked to see the score 0-0 when I tuned in around the 8th inning.
Wells went eight innings, giving up eight hits, and no runs. However, Doug Davis was even better, going 8 innings, giving up only four hits, and no runs. For a change, our bullpen managed to keep it going - Wetteland pitched two innings, giving up just one hit, one walk, and nothing else. Mike Venafro came on to pitch the 11th, and didn't give up a thing.
We managed to get to Billy "I have the stupidest beard in all of baseball" Koch for a run in the bottom of the 11th to pull out a 1-0 win in extra innings. A win this season is rare. A win in extra innings is even rarer! This was a spectacular ballgame, one I wish I could have seen in person. The game winning hit was by Rusty Greer, who delivered a game ending winning hit for the 17th time since 1995.
One funny thing - it looked odd to see the umpires in makeshift uniforms - their equipment hadn't arrived, and one of them wore a Rangers cap. It looked silly. :)
This is the kind of loss that makes you want to say "Oh, it's not all that bad, we only lost by one, if we had that one extra hit, if we..." But we know better. This season is just bad, so this is the kind of thing that happens all the time. Our bullpen crashed yet again, and we lost the game late. Sigh.
Man, did it look like Rick Helling was going to cruise to a no hitter. I haven't seen him look so dominating in awhile, and he has been pitching pretty well lately. Unfortunately, he got done in by his old nemesis, the long ball. The Yankees led off with a double to start the game, but then Rick set down the next 17 in a row. However, NY scored three runs on two jacks in the 6th. They added another in the 7th, and Rick was pulled. I felt awful, as he really deserved the win, even though he didn't get it (Crabtree did).
Our offense was in the first, when Denny Neagle pitched really wildly, and we were assisted by two errors, although all four runs in the first inning were earned. We batted around, and had the chance for more (we left two on). Still - I'll take whatever we can get in the Bronx. Raffy put us back on top with a solo home run in the 8th - driving Neagle from the game.
From that point on, there wasn't any more scoring, and John Wetteland had a moment of brilliance to get a save (his first in about a month).
Well, at the start of the game, Brian Sikorski looked like the same pitcher we had on the mound a few days ago in Arlington. Today in the Bronx, he was - for the start of the game, and that's about it. He got bombed by the Bronx Bombers 12-3. It started out OK, and we even got off to a 1-0 lead (on a Raffy home run). However, the 2000 Rangers quickly reared their heads.
We committed two errors, allowed SIX unearned runs, and basically shot ourselves in the foot the entire game. I thought we had a chance at the start of the game, but that quickly went away. Actually, after the score got to 9-1, I had to stop listening, because this game was on during the day, and I was listening at work.
Good thing, as I didn't miss anything.
Doug Davis started this game, and based on his performance in the last few starts of his, I was expecting another problem. Well, this time, we didn't get a problem, we got a really well pitched game from Davis. He pitched the first complete game win of the season for a Rangers pitcher - we had two complete games from Rogers, but they were 8 inning losses.
A complete game win - Quite frankly, at the start of the game, that's what I felt we'd get pitched against us. Not that I'm a big fan of Jeff Fassero, but I was feeling the curse of the former Ranger pitcher pitching against us. However, we finally broke through that in the fifth inning, and took a 6-1 lead.
Of the two runs that Boston did get, only one was earned, so the line will really help Davis' ERA. I'm really hoping that Davis can build on this, and do some other good stuff between now and the end of the year.
What can you say about this game? Pedro Martinez pitched, and that was about all she wrote. We gave up 9 runs, and Pedro gave up nothing at all. End of story. :)
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Figures. David Cone gets it together against us. He was 2-10 before this game. Not anymore. :(
Was nice to see Gabe get his hit late, though.
Well, I thought this game was well in hand, but our 9th inning heart attack (John Wetteland) came in again. And again he blew a game. That's too bad, because Rick Helling got robbed - he should have gotten a win in this game. Actually, it wasn't totally Wetteland's fault, either. Royce Clayton committed an error with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, giving the Red Sox another out, and a win (eventually).
I'm a bit busy in writing this, but I did notice that Bill Haselman got a nice round of applause when he came up to bad (he was a Red Sox catcher for 3 years 95-97).
Of all the things I thought would happen this series, what happened this night is NOT what I ever expected to happen. When this game started, I was feeling pretty down on the Ranger rookie pitchers. I was starting to think "Oh god, there isn't going to be any real help from the farm at all". I was feeling pretty bad about our rookie pitchers.
Then comes Brian Sikorski. The man runs onto the mound and pitches an absolute gem. Is it beginner's luck? Is it that the Yankees don't know anything about him? I'm sure that has something to do with it. However, it's always nice to see such an awesome performance by a kid making his first ever start in the majors. Going 7+ innings, giving up four hits, and no runs. You really can't ask for better than that. It also saved us from being swept at home in a season by the Yankees in our entire club history! Gotta love that, too. :) It was very cool that he got a standing O when finally taken out of the game in the 8th. I loved that Sikorski came in, pitched well, and looked like he belonged there. He didn't look frightened - but if his first start was in Yankee Stadium, that might have changed things.
However, Gabe Kapler's hitting streak came to an end, unfortunately. Still, it was a great light in the recent darkness that is our season. I hope that it didn't get to him so much that he goes back into his shell - he's been awesome since the All Star break, and I hope it continues.
Well, it's the Yankees. We always lose to them, and in a season like this, I expect to get swept in all the games we play (except possibly tomorrow's game - as David Cone is pitching almost as bad as Jose Lima this season). Anyway, the Rangers didn't disappoint.
We were losing 9 pitches into the game 2-0. Actually, I felt Matt Perisho pitched OK the first couple, but couldn't hold it past the 5th. We were only losing 3-0 after 5, and then it was 6-0. At that point, I stopped watching the game, and watched a couple of Star Trek episodes that had piled up on my TiVo. I tuned in late to see that we had scored 3 runs, but as usual, it wasn't enough.
We're now 0-9 in our last 9 games against the Bronx bombers, including last year's sweep in the playoffs. :(
This game lived up to my usual expectations for a Rangers / Red Sox game. Close game, where both teams had chances, and the final score wasn't a 1990's artificially inflated score. The final was 4-2. What was interesting about the scoring was that both teams scored all their runs at once. All the other innings were goose eggs - although the Rangers tried.
I saw the inning where Kenny Rogers gave up four runs. It was the top of the third. As usual, it seems that Kenny was just "this much away" from getting out of the inning and then it breaks open with something. This was the same. It didn't really feel like an inning where he should have given up four runs. But he did. We managed to tack two of our own on in the fourth, but I didn't see that.
The reason was that I was on the Jumbotron for the birthday announcements after the fifth inning. I left my seats in the top of the fourth to make sure I was there at the top of the fifth for the setup for that. If anyone was at the game, I was the guy with the small sized Pooh bear doll dressed in a small baseball outfit.
Anyway, the rest of the game was rather uneventful, with the sole exception of Gabe Kapler's further extending his newly owned hitting streak record to 26. He got a standing ovation from what I could see. We had a shot of getting back into the game, as we had the bases loaded - but a pop out into the Red Sox dugout was caught by a falling Ed Sprague for the final out of the inning - and our final chance at some runs for this game.
When a knuckleball pitcher is on the mound, he's either totally unhittable, or gives up a ton of runs. On this night, Tim Wakefield was both. For the first three innings, Wakefield put up donuts on the board. Then in the fourth, it came apart for him. Wakefield walked the bases full (two of them on 4 pitch walks). He went 2-0 on Ricky Ledee, and then Ledee jacked a pitch into the right field stands for a grand slam, and a quick 4-0 lead. Wakefield then promptly walked the next batter with four pitches, and was yanked. Those four runs were all we needed for the win, which was nice.
Rick Helling deserved it, after getting screwed in a 2-0 loss the last time out. Rick's now alone in second place with wins in the AL, and is in third place in ERA with 3.61. I'm glad Rick is pitching this well - if he keeps it up next year too, he's in for a great payday as his contract is up after the 2001 season. :)
Gabe Kapler was the other big story of this game. He broke Mickey Rivers' 24 game hitting streak, and now stands alone in the Ranger record books with that hit. In watching the hit, it was the kind of play that Nomar Garciaparra always makes - a little part of me wonders if Nomar didn't intentionally let the ball go under his glove, knowing what it meant to Kapler.
Usually, when the Rangers play the Boston Red Sox, we have a great game. We win, or we lose, but we always seem to play a good game. Not tonight - this game was an exception to that rule. My wife and I love it when we play the Red Sox, as she can cheer for Nomar (she got into baseball in 1997, when Nomar was in his rookie season), and the overall good play we always seem to get when playing the Red Sox.
There wasn't much to cheer about in this game. Especially when Ryan Glynn came out of the game. The next inning started, and someone was passed out on the ground. After seeing what happened with Larry Dierker last season, I wasn't too thrilled at seeing it happen again - much less in our own dugout. The game was stopped, and since I have TiVo, I paused the action (gotta love that feature), and went and got my wife to check this out. We watched as they worked on Ryan in the dugout - and the one thing both of us had to say was this.. If he was passed out unconsious on the dugout floor, why on earth was everyone cramming around him? Wouldn't giving him more space be better than crowding him? Yeesh. Anyway, he eventually got up off the floor, and was wheeled out on a wheelchair - they didn't use the truck that had driven in from left field with a stretcher. It was a bad thing to see - I wouldn't wish anything like that on my most disliked player (mostly Atlanta Braves), hope it all works out well for Ryan.
Anyway, the only really great thing that happened this game was Gabe Kapler tying Mickey Rivers' 20 year old Ranger record for 24 consecutive games with a hit. That's a nice thing to do - hope he breaks it tomorrow night. This was by far the brightest spot of the night for the Rangers.
No update available from me. I had a hard drive crash on Wednesday, which took me two days to recover from. No time on Friday to do an update for this game.
No update available from me. I had a hard drive crash on Wednesday, which took me two days to recover from. No time on Friday to do an update for this game.
You know, after we loaded the bases the first time and didn't score anything, I had a feeling that it probably would come back and haunt us. After the second time in two innings we loaded the bases and didn't score, I was sure it would come back and haunt us. It did.
We got shut out by the Indians 2-0 in a game that Rick Helling really REALLY got screwed into a loss. He pitched probably the best, most dominating game I've seen him pitch probably all year, and he got nothing at all back from our team. For some reason, we always seem to pitch well in Cleveland, unfortunately, so did they tonight. This is one of those games you don't mind losing, because it was a great game of baseball - but DAMMIT! We couldn't push anything across.
The tag by Haselman in the 7th that was somewhat controversial looked to either be a tie or a good call by the ump in calling him safe. It was one of those calls that could really have gone both ways. Either side would have argued.
Some good did come out of this game. A wonderfully pitched game by Helling - Rusty Greer got his 1000th career hit - and Gabe Kapler extended his hitting streak to 21. The longest in the majors this year is 22, and the longest by a Ranger all time is 24. Just a couple more to go - that would be very cool, considering how poor his first half was hitting wise.
A nice win. Ryan Glynn pitched really well, I thought - and other than the gopher balls to Dave Martinez & Carlos Delgado, he kept the ball down, got outs, and generally pitched like he belonged here. Was nice to see him get teh win, even though our bullpen tried to blow it for him.
Gabe Kapler extended his hitting streak to 20 this game, which is very cool. He's hovering at about .280 - which would be a career high for him. Mike Lamb got three doubles in the game, and B.J. Waszgis had a lot of firsts.. First major league start, first major league hit, first major league RBI, and first major league run scored, and first major league win. :)
Not a whole lot else to say, but it was nice to keep ourselves from losing our first four game sweep since 1997.
I didn't get to see much of this game, as I was at a surprise birthday party for a co-worker's wife during the afternoon.
However, I appear to not have missed a lot. We got beat by David Wells (again). From looking at the scores, it didn't appear that we were that bad, and Doug Davis wasn't awful, but he needs to learn.
Gabe Kapler got his hitting streak to 19 - which is very cool. Team record is 24.
Well, another game that's indicative of the problems of the 2000 Rangers. Our bullpen.
Matt Perisho pitched OK, if not awesome as a starter. He went 6 innings, allowing 3 earned runs (2 unearned). He walked three and struck out two. Then comes our bullpen. Fransisco Cordero (who to me is starting to look like he needs to spend extended time at AAA), only pitched one inning, and gave up three earned runs. Venafro (who got the loss) pitched only 2/3 of an inning, and gave up two earned runs. Sigh. The only person not to give up any runs was Crabtree, who only pitched 1/3 of an inning.
Offensively, we scored 8, which isn't bad, but when you give up 10.... We had two home runs (one by Haselman, one by Raffy), two doubles (one by Raffy, one by Kapler), and a bunch of singles. Speaking of Kapler, his hitting streak is now at 18, passing Todd Zeile on the Rangers list (Todd had 17).
We are definitely a mediocre team. That's for sure. The goal now has to be .500 for the end of the year.
After the game, we traded Dave Martinez to the Blue Jays - his fourth team this year - for the infamous PTBNL. We called up outfielder Pedro Valdez at the same time.
There's not a whole lot to say about this one. We were outpitched. Plain and simple.
Gabe Kapler blasted a solo home run in the second inning - extending his hitting streak to 17. However, that was it for our offense. Nothing more.
Kenny Rogers pitched fairly well, going six innings, allowing two earned runs, but got no run support and lost the game. Frank Castillo pitched extremely well, and the Kapler jack was the only blemish of the day for him.
One of those games you don't mind losing, was a great game.
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I was at this game, and going into it, I felt like we'd get shut out 2 or 3 to nothing. James Baldwin always seems to kill us. And for the first several innings, it felt like that was going to come true. We were shut out for about 4.2 innings. We finally managed to scratch a run out of him in the bottom of the fifth with a Haselman double, and a Lamb single. That tied the game at one.
Ryan Glynn pitched equally well as Baldwin - also giving up just 1 run on 5 hits. Unfortunately, he was matched against Baldwin, or he would have gotten a win. Glynn went seven innings, allowing 6 hits and one run. An outstandingly excellent performance. Then came the downfall of the 2000 season - the bullpen. Doug Davis came in to only two batters (a strikeout and a single). Zimmerman came in and was awful, allowing the inherited runner to score, as well as one of his own. Actually, Zim probably should have had a lot more runs scored on him - he just didn't have anything.
In the bottom of the 8th, we managed to get to Baldwin a bit - we got some runners on, and then the Chisox started playing bullpen magical chairs. Kelly Wunsch came on, only pitched 1/3 of an inning, and then Bobby Howry came on - and we got to him. We managed to load the bases, and then Gabe Kapler came through with a single, scoring two runs to tie the game up. However, Raffy made another ill advised attempt to take an extra base, ending the inning at third.
In the ninth, John Wetteland came on, and gave up a gopher ball - but retired the three outs in pretty quick fashion. However, the longball by Ranger killer Charles Johnson won the game for Chicago - we started to mount a comeback in the 9th, but Scar Green was thrown out when he overslid second base on a successful steal attempt.
I totally forgot this game was on, I was watching the Pittsburgh Steelers whoop the Dallas Cowboys' asses. :) That was fun.
I saw the ninth inning - that was it. Was nice to come back against a pitcher who hadn't given up a run since May, but our rally fell short.
I didn't see much of this game - as I was out shooting pool with a few friends. In reading about it, the only really interesting things were these:
Gabe Kapler extended his hitting streak to 13, and is now batting over .270. B.J. Waszgis made it into his first ever major league game, and Ricky Ledee got into his first Ranger game.
That's about all I have to say about this one. :)
The club continues to play good the last week or so. This game had a lot of things, except great starting pitching. Ours was OK, theirs wasn't good at all. Rick Helling looked positively Loaizaish in this game. He didn't have anything going, he couldn't strike people out, and was generally sloppy. Quite frankly, it's amazing he didn't give up more than he did. Detroit's starter, Brian Moehler, was a pitcher that the Rangers always had problems with in the past - not tonight. We put up an eight spot in the third inning - which was the main offense of the game. That was our largest single inning output of the season so far, and it's always nice to see things like that in person. We probably would have had more, but Jerry Narron waved Raffy around third, and he was way WAY out - not even close. That out was the end of the inning.
However, those weren't the only fireworks of the evening. In the 7th, Tim Crabtree came on, and was pitching to Juan Gonzalez. His first pitch was pretty inside - and Juan extremely over-reacted. He jabbered and pointed at the mound, took a step towards the mound, then Bill Haselman got in front of him, and then both of them started shouting at each other. At this point, both dugouts and both bullpens emptied. That's about all that happened. Both him and Crabree stayed in the game - to some EXTREME booing from the stands. I felt that all the goodwill that was created by Juan the previous night with his helmet waiving, and the cheers were wiped out. Juan eventually made an out that inning, and it was one of the loudest cheers I'd heard for an out in a long time.
One other thing. I was at this game, and had written down the lineups - and then a minute before the game started, I noticed 3 or 4 people had changed. So, I made the changes, and noticed Segui wasn't there. I thought something might be up, so I had my wife get out the small portable radio I have in our "Baseball bag", and started listening. Eric Nadel said Segui was scratched 12 minutes before the start of the game - which really led to me thinking he was gone. It wasn't till about the 6th inning or so that they announced Segui had been traded for Ricky Ledee. I announced that rather loudly in my section, and it got quite a reaction from the folks around me - I was apparently the only person who was listening on the radio, in addition to watching the game. :)
Gabe Kapler kept his hitting streak alive - I think he'll be the new #5 hitter in the lineup now with Pudge out, and Segui traded. Was a nice balanced offensive night. Every starter had at least one hit, and everyone except Raffy scored at least one run. In addition, everyone except Alicea drove in a run, too!
Overall, was a great game to watch in person. Always nice when your team wins, and the added flavor of Juan in the other uniform (despite the fracas in the seventh) made it for a really enjoyable game.
We're now 3-0 in the Post Pudge Era. :) Gabe Kapler has also homered in the last four straight games, tying a club record - in addition to having a 10 game hitting streak. Looks like he's finally come out of his shell.
Ryan Glynn looked pretty good - his only mistake was a home run ball served up to Juan Gonzalez. I kind of figured he'd hit at least one home run during this trip back - didn't think it would be in the second at bat.
Speaking of that - Juan's tip of the cap to the fans was pretty nice - I wasn't sure what kind of reception he'd get - the TV guys said there were a few boos, but I didn't hear 'em on TV. I'm going to Friday's game, I wonder if the reaction will be the same.
Was the night of home run balls off your former club. Juan did it, as did Gabe Kapler & Bill Haselman. Raffy also joined in with a three run home run of his own to match Juan's.
Surprisingly, the entire AL West lost besides us - we've made up three games on the Mariners in the last 3 days. I still don't think we have a shot at doing anything, but it's nice to see us not roll over and die after the Pudge injury.
There's been a lot of talk in the press lately about bringing Juan back. Quite frankly, if we bring him back, I see it as at the expense of Gabe Kapler. If they can figure out a way to keep Kapler and bring back Juan, I'd be for it. Otherwise, I don't want him back.
We're now 2-0 in the Post Pudge Era. :)
I didn't see most of this game, as I fell asleep on the couch (I'm still on the medicine my doctor prescribed a few weeks back - it makes me sleepy sometimes). I did get to see the start of it, when we jumped out to a lead early, and I saw the end of the game. Disappointing to see Wetteland blow another save, but it was great to see the win in the bottom of the ninth from Rusty. He was overdue for that kind of thing. :)
It was also funny to hear Tom Grieve getting hysterical over the "They're in hot pursuit" (over the Cat triple that went careening across the outfield).
It was really nice to see the big sticks come out last night. It was not nice to see Darren Oliver not be able to hold anything. Darren is turning out to be a big disappointment - which is a shocker, considering he pitched fairly decently in St. Louis this past season. I'm no expert here - I just have the gut fan reaction, but I don't know what his problem is. He really seems like the pitcher we sent away in 1998. I'm sure he'll last this season - I doubt anyone would want him now - he doesn't have a lot of trade value - but next year? Who knows.
I was a bit disappointed when the Angels got off to a one run lead in the first, but we took it back in the bottom, with the first of our two jacks last night - one from Catalnotto, and another from Raffy (a second level shot). We had another home run in the third from Rusty Greer, and we were up 5-1. However, that's where Oliver couldn't hold the lead. He was pulled before the lead got totally away, but before he could get a win. Gabe Kapler followed up with his second home run in as many days (looks like he's finally gotten it together) in the fourth - but that was it for our scoring (and our baserunners actually) until the bottom of the 8th.
At that point, we were tied at 6, and Bert Green got on as a pinch runner for David Segui. Bill Haselman hit a single to left on a hit and run, and Green made it all the way to third, arriving at the same time as the ball, more or less forcing the throw to be off, and the ball to get away, allowing Green to run home and score. Personally, I felt Green should have been out for being so wildly out of the basepaths, but I'll take it. :) Gabe Kapler finished off the scoring with a two run triple to put us up three.
Wetteland came in, got three outs, and another save. Was a nice win - the first without Pudge.
This might very well be the worst Rangers game I've ever watched. Both from the loss standpoint and from the Pudge standpoint. I also felt that this game was a very good microcosm of the problems the Rangers have had the entire season.
I felt we had it won early, there was just a good vibe, even after the Pudge injury (which we didn't know the severity of yet). It just felt good. Then Wetteland lost the save in the ninth, and I felt that we caught a break with the balk call in the 10th. Then it was reversed, and I just felt that we'd lose the game after that - we did. It was interesting to see Scott Sheldon in as catcher in the extra innings. He didn't look all that bad out there, and almost gunned down a base stealer - was a pretty close play!
Plus Pudge being announced as being out for the season was just horrible. We've lost a lot of players for the entire season this year - and whatever thin thread the Rangers were still hanging on to this year was just cut. Start for next year. And make it work next year, as there may very well be another player's strike after the 2001 season. :(
Due to work pressures, I won't have time to write about this game.
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I didn't get to see the game again due to the oft told incompetence of my cable company. I was so irritated, that I didn't want to listen on the radio. I eventually did, and heard Gabe Kapler's home run, and the rest onwards. Was nice to see the bullpen hold on to one after awhile. Gabe's home run was the first in awhile, and the first one he's hit (as a Ranger) that my wife and I didn't witness with our own eyes. :) His new bald look must be doing something, as he's batting something like .370 since the All-Star break, and has raised his batting average to .261.
Also, it seems that the Rangers made the right decision with the Scar Green / Jason McDonald choice a few weeks ago in keeping Scar. I'm hoping he can hold on beyond this year - I've always liked him for some reason - although his numbers have never set anyone on fire. The throw he made in the bottom of the ninth to win the game was awesome!
The night before this, I only got about two hours of sleep - I was dead tired before the game even started. About 11:45, I couldn't take it anymore, and fell asleep. When I went to sleep, we were winning, but Rick Helling had just come out. We eventually lost Our bullpen gave away another game.
That's a shame, because Rick Helling looked masterful. I felt he deserved to win his 11th game of the season. However, our bullpen couldn't hold it again. I know I said yesterday I wanted to keep John Wetteland, and I still do. I hope he survives the pending shakedown. I really want him to stay. I'd like to keep Segui, too, but I can't see both of them staying.
Anyway, it was an awesome pitching matchup in both sides until we finally broke through in the 7th inning. It almost wasn't, that close, but with men on 2nd and 3rd, Mike Lamb made a spectacular play. Chopper to third, and he managed to tag the runner off the base at third, and then toss to first for a double play. One of the better plays made by a third baseman this year (well, at least a Ranger player).
This loss puts us back to 9.5 games back, and I think that unless we manage to sweep Anaheim & Seattle, that's it - we're done. Sure, some miracle could happen in the second half once the pressure is off, but even if we got that far, I don't think the 2000 Rangers have what it takes to make it anywhere in the playoffs, anyway.
About halfway through this game, I said to my wife - "That's it, season's over, let's start on next year". My gut feeling is that this is it - we're not going to make a big run at it. In spring training, I felt that this was a year for rebuilding (not a lot of it, just a little), but this year wouldn't be our year. That's been obvious both by the play all season, and by the play last night.
We almost pulled off our second most spectacular comeback of the roadtrip in the top of the 9th, but we fell two runs short. Our bullpen is just a mess now, totally unreliable.
In the forthcoming cleaning, I sincerely hope we keep one player. John Wetteland. I really want to keep him. A lot.
Pac Bell Park looked great. Esteban Loaiza did not. That about sums it up. :)
I have to say, the one thing I wanted to see in this series was Barry Bonds hit a ball into the water outside the park. Well, I did see that, but it was a foul ball. I didn't think the Rangers played all that bad this game - I liked Chad Curtis in this game (despite the bobble in the outfield), but our pitching gave it away again.
I'm really starting to think that if we keep Loaiza, it'll be in the bullpen - but I'd be curious to see what his reaction to a permanent move to the pen would bring. Worked for Burkett - it might work for Loaiza, too.
This was David Segui's 1000th game played in his career at first base. Because of that, he can now count in the all time first base stats, which moves him into second place all time in fielding, behind Steve Garvey.
I didn't think we had a prayer against Randy Johnson - but Matt Perisho pitched well enough to keep the game from getting out of hand. We actually managed to come back and tie the game against Randy Johnson. The Rangers have always hit him at the very least OK, if not great.
Pretty strange lineup against the Big Unit. What surprised me is that Haselman had two RBI hits off of Randy - that was impressive for a guy who doesn't play a lot. I hope that Bill stays after this year. I know he deserves to have a great front line job, but I think he's the absolute best backup we could get for Pudge.
That's another game when Luis Alicea makes a great comeback come true with a late inning hit and RBI. I wonder if we'll consider signing him again next year. Be curious to see what happens there.
There's not a whole lot to say about this one. We were shut down by Armondo Reynoso. With the exception of Scott Sheldon's fluke home run - we didn't do jack on offense.
This doesn't bode well, because tomorrow we face Randy Johnson. :(
All through this game, I kept thinking to myself, I'm going to be writing about how Jay Bell did us in, and how we were outpitched by Brian Anderson. Well, that did happen, but something else amazing happened. We pulled off a giant comeback in the 9th inning against B.H. Kim. It's so amazing that I'm not even going to write about it - I'll just post the game log from the top of the 9th. :)
TEXAS 9TH: T Lee at first. Conti in right. Byung Hyun Kim relieved Brian Anderson. Greer walked. I Rodriguez struck out swinging. R Palmeiro hit by pitch, Greer to second. Catalanotto hit for Curtis. Catalanotto singled to shallow right, Greer scored, R Palmeiro to third. Segui hit for Kapler. Segui tripled to center, R Palmeiro and Catalanotto scored. Sc Green ran for Segui. Lamb intentionally walked. R Clayton struck out swinging. Da Martinez hit for Je Zimmerman. Da Martinez walked, Lamb to second. Alicea singled to right, Sc Green and Lamb scored, Da Martinez to third. Dan Plesac relieved Byung Hyun Kim. Greer flied out to center. (5 Runs, 3 Hits, 0 Errors) TEXAS 6, ARIZONA 4.
Not available. Barely have the time to update the page. The thing at the beginning of the game where the players had their kids on the field with them for announcements was cool, though.
ATLANTA (TICKER) -- It's not the first time a Yankee celebrated in Atlanta.
Derek Jeter became the first member of the New York Yankees to earn All-Star Game Most Valuable Player honors, going 3-for-3 with two RBI and overshadowing a strong performance by Atlanta's Chipper Jones as the American League All-Stars posted a 6-3 triumph over their National League counterparts.
"Taking into consideration all the great players that have been in the Yankee organization, you'd think in the past that one would win," Jeter said. "But if you're in a game like this, you have to be in the right place at the right time, and I was very fortunate.
"In due time, when I sit down and get a chance to reflect on it, then you realize how special it is. And I wasn't aware that no Yankee, no other Yankee, had won this award, and it's kind of hard to believe."
Further frustrating the 51,323 in attendance at Turner Field, Yankees closer Mariano Rivera allowed a meaningless run in the ninth to preserve the AL's fourth straight victory in the series.
Since Turner Field opened in 1997, the Yankees are 6-2 here, including two World Series wins last year.
The 26-year-old Jeter, a cornerstone of the Yankees' three world championships over the last four years, had a pivotal two-run single off New York Mets lefthander Al Leiter in the fourth. It gave the AL a 3-1 lead which it never surrendered.
"We've been watching that ever since (Jeter) came to the big leagues," National League manager Bobby Cox said. "And somebody in the clubhouse asked me if he was getting better. He was just good when he first came up, so you know why he is here, he's an All-Star."
"Derek Jeter is a Yankee," said Yankees manager Joe Torre, who improved to 3-0 as head of the AL squad. "If there ever was a young kid that even the veteran players looked up to, it's Derek Jeter. So I think it's a very proud time for the New York Yankees, because their future did a good thing tonight."
Jeter's heroics offset a great night by fan favorite Jones, who also had three hits, including a homer in the third inning off James Baldwin of the Chicago White Sox, who ended up the winning pitcher.
"It was awesome," Jones said. "I mean, it's every little boy's dream. I've said it so many times this week, it's not often that a player gets to play on his home field in an All-Star Game, much less start. To go out there and hit a home run, it was just awesome. I can't explain it. It was something I'll never forget."
Jeter hurt Leiter with a single in a two-run first inning on Friday night in the opener of the "Subway Series" and did so again tonight in a two-run fourth. Kansas City's Jermaine Dye led off with a walk and Cleveland's Travis Fryman lined a single past the glove of San Francisco's Jeff Kent at second.
Mike Sweeney, another first-time All-Star, bounced a potential double-play grounder to shortstop that Cincinnati's Barry Larkin booted to load the bases. Leiter got Cleveland's Roberto Alomar to pop out but Jeter looped a single into shallow left-center field for a 3-1 lead.
"The cutter, he throws it every time I face him," Jeter said. "I try to lay off it. I didn't hit it well, I just hit it in the right place. He's a tough pitcher."
The NL got within 3-2 in the fifth and delighted the crowd in the process. Gary Sheffield opened the inning against Oakland closer Jason Isringhausen with a walk and one out later Jones singled to right field. Braves teammate Andruw Jones, in his first All-Star bat, singled softly into center field to slice the deficit in half.
Isringhausen preserved the lead by retiring Sammy Sosa on a fly to right and, after falling behind former teammate Edgardo Alfonzo, came back to retire the Mets second baseman on a foul popout.
Neither starter factored in the decision as Arizona's Randy Johnson, who pitched on Sunday, needed just eight pitches to get through a scoreless first inning. AL starter David Wells of Toronto allowed two hits over two innings in his second career All-Star start.
"Pitching on Sunday, I didn't know how I was going to throw," Johnson said. "So you can go out there and throw eight pitches, and you have to be pretty pleased about that."
Preceding the game was a celebration of family as the All-Stars took their positions with their children. With wives along the third-base line, players were introduced with their children at their sides. The biggest ovation was reserved for hometown hero Andres Galarraga, who has overcome non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma to earn a spot on the All-Star team.
Galarraga, named as a starter when St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire pulled out, was greeted with standing ovations when he was announced in the lineup and when he first came to the plate in the second inning. He wiped his eyes and tipped his cap to the crowd before hitting a rocket to left that was caught.
Galarraga earned a final standing ovation after a one-out single in the fourth. He was pulled for pinch-runner Todd Helton and the crowd roared as he left the field.
"No words can explain how happy, how excited I am today," said Galarraga. "That's a great moment in my career in baseball. Walking on to the field with my kids, and the ovation they gave to me, my fans here in Atlanta, that's a really special moment."
The AL used a three-run ninth against San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman to give Rivera some breathing room. Chicago's Ray Durham and Boston's Nomar Garciaparra opened the inning with singles and Minnesota's Matt Lawton grounded an RBI single to right through a drawn-in infield. Chicago's Magglio Ordonez lofted a sacrifice fly for a 5-2 lead before an error by Montreal second baseman Jose Vidro scored Lawton.
The NL countered with a run in the bottom of the ninth on Steve Finley's RBI single but Rivera induced St. Louis' Edgar Renteria to bounce into a game-ending double play.
Jeter got the first of his three hits in the opening inning, lining a double down the left-field line off Johnson. But the Arizona ace rebounded to retire Williams on a groundout and strike out Giambi.
Jones singled up the middle with one out in the first but Wells got Montreal's Vladimir Guerrero on a line drive to second before striking out Home Run Derby champion Sosa looking.
"When you get ahead in the count you can throw anything," Wells said. "If you have command of your pitches, they can't sit on a certain pitch, and I had a good curveball working."
The AL pushed across a run in the third against Kevin Brown, taking advantage of a rare bout of wildness by the Dodgers' ace.
Pinch-hitter Mike Bordick of Baltimore was retired on a long fly ball to center field that Jim Edmonds of St. Louis ran down. Alomar walked and Jeter singled before Williams' grounder forced Alomar at third. But Brown lost the plate, issuing consecutive free passes to Giambi and Boston's Carl Everett to force home a run.
Brown had not issued a walk in his previous 3 2/3 All-Star innings before losing the plate tonight.
The NL got even in the bottom of the third on Jones' first career All-Star homer. Jones became the 33rd player to record three hits in an All-Star Game, one inning after Jeter became the 32nd player to accomplish the feat.
Leiter took the loss for the NL, which still holds a 40-30-1 lead in the all-time series, which began in 1933.
Not available.
Since I'm writing this almost a week after the game, I'm not going to say much except this..
Back to 500 for the first time in awhile. Was nice to win for Rick Helling, too. :)
Since I'm writing this almost a week after the game, I'm not going to say much except this..
A grand slam for Pudge! Would have been awesome to see in person. I had tickets for this game, but wasn't feeling good, so I stayed home. Damn. :)
Was our first extra inning win of the season.
Oh man - it's been quite some time since I've been able to use this graphic!
A nice sweep of the Oakland A's last night concluded with a 9-4 win held up largely by a massive 7 run first inning. What's really interesting about this 7 run inning is that all 7 runs were unearned. I've always felt that if an error leads to an unearned run, and the same error was committed by the pitcher, that it should then count as an earned run. I know that isn't a terribly original thought, but one that I've held for a long time.
Was nice to see (well, listen, I couldn't get the game due to my ongoing cable problems) the seven run first inning - we haven't had one of those in a long time. We sent Kenny Rogers to the mound in the second inning with a 7 run lead. The last time I can remember this happening in the first was a game last year against KC where we scored 9 in the first. Still, it was nice to see, and we could have used some of these against Seattle.
Anyway, it seemed like just about everyone got in on the action in the first inning - I like it when the action is spread around, not just a big jack by one player with everyone else making an out. Everyone in the starting lineup scored at least one run (except Pudge). Mike Lamb continues to be my best surprise player of this year, going 3 for 5, and is nipping the heels of .300.
Pitching wise, Kenny Rogers was good, if not awesome - Crabtree wasn't out there long enough to create another problem, and Zimmerman looked like Zimmerman - it seems like he's coming around, finally.
Hopefully some of this can continue beyond this series, as all we did was pick up one game in the standings after going 6-3 against the AL West the last few games. We see the west again in two weeks when we visit Anaheim & Seattle. I'm hopeful we will be on a really good roll by then.
Well, as much as last night's game was about Ryan Glynn, tonight's game was about Eric Gagne. He shut down the Rangers with only a few hits, and when we had a chance, we couldn't follow through.
The only good thing tonight was Pudge, who went 3 for 4 with a solo home run in the 8th for our only run. Most everyone else was silent. In fact only three Rangers had any hits at all - Pudge (3), Segui (2), & Raffy (1). That was it. Scarborough Green almost had his first major league home run, as he hit a ball, and it was called a HR. The fireworks went off, the music from the Natural played, and there was thunderous applause. However, about halfway through the trot, I saw the umps standing in the basepaths conferring, and I knew it would be taken away - it was. That was a shame, even if it really was a foul ball - it would have been nice.
I sat in one of two remaining places in the ballpark that I'd never sat in before. Far left field. I sat in Section 301 row 1. To tell you the truth, it wasn't all that bad after the second inning. For the first two innings, I had to sit with my head down and my cap's brim over the sun, as it was very sunny out there. But for $6, it wasn't all that bad really - even though I missed seeing the out of town scoreboard. :)
I was at this game, and at this game, and at this game. Geez - a 3 hour 50 minute game! That coupled with the fireworks afterwards led to some huge traffic clogs afterwards. Since I'm writing this a few days after the fact, I'm not going to comment on the game much, but I will comment on some of the other things that happened.
My wife and I have attended the several July 4th games - they're always a big deal for the both of us. During the pre-game ceremonies, they brought out the latest batch of Air Force cadets, and they were sworn in on field. That, coupled with the "July 4th" feeling, and the honor guard with the flag, and everyone else there is an awesome feeling for me personally. Then they hit us with the song God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood, and I just end up crying.
However, the most entertaining thing of the night had to be the marriage proposals. You know, the thing where some guy proposes to a woman on the Jumbotron. Well, they had one of those at this game. I'm always the guy who stands there shouting "No - don't do it - Save yourself!" I personally don't like these things, I think they're trite. Well, a few innings after that, there was another one. And this one was awesome. The woman shook her hands no, tossed her coke on the guy and started to run away. The guy followed her, and they disappeared down a tunnel. Well, that got a lot of laughs, and shocked reactions from the folks in the crowd. The day after, I called Chuck Morgan (the PA and entertainment guy for the Rangers), and asked him about it. To make a long story short, it was a setup. Chuck said that they've been doing these things for a long time, and that the Rangers get like 30 or 40 requests a day to do something like that. He said he'd been threatening to do a fake one for a long time, and tonight he did it. He also told me that the two kids involved were interns at the Ballpark.
The fake marriage proposal was one of the funniest things I've seen at a ballgame in quite some time - and this was before I found out it was a fake in the first place. :)
No commentary available.
Sigh.
This game started off as an awesome pitcher's duel - until the top of the 7th. I thought Matt Perisho, despite some walks in the first, pitched an awesome game. Then came the Rangers' 2000 problem, the shaky bullpen. Gave up 7 in the 7th, and that was about it.
At this point, since we were so behind, I fell asleep during the game, as I was watching it timeshifted on my TiVo (I was out for the evening, and didn't start watching until about midnight).
If we lose 2 of 3 or get swept by the A's, that's probably about it for this season.
I was right (see last game's commentary). It didn't last. We lost to the Mariners 6-3, although it wasn't from a lack of trying. We had the usual offensive problems, leaving too many men on base, and in scoring position, no less.
Ryan Glynn started the game, and looked damn good, I thought. I'm glad he's come up to the bigs this year, and has pitched great. However, a potential problem reared his head during the game - a blister (which they showed on TV) on one of the fingers on his pitching hand. He had to come out in the 4th, and that was bad for two reasons. First, Glynn was pitching well. Second, Mark Clark came in. After Clark's appearance, I would tend to think that this is the final appearance for him this season - I think he'll be released before the All-Star game in a week. That's too bad, I really wanted him to succeed when he came here first, but he's done nothing to warrant his salary. Bye Clark. Francisco Cordero didn't pitch much better (actually, his line was worse).
This season really feels like 97 again. Even if we make the playoffs, I doubt we'd go anywhere - I say cut our losses and start prepping for next season now.
Gabe Kapler had a good night (about the only one), going 2 for 3, scoring two of the three runs we got (Pudge scored the other). Gabe's average is now up over .250. That's not really setting the world on fire, but it's a helluva lot better than the .190 he had not all that long ago. I'm glad to see him coming around with the stick, and as well in the field, too.
After the game, Glynn was put on the 15 day DL to help him get rid of the blister for good. Doug Davis was called up to be a left hand reliever in the pen.
It's about time we busted out like this - and it happened at a good time, too! This is the first time we've won three in a row since June 5th!
Our most consistent pitcher of the year, Kenny Rogers was on the hill, and looked fairly decent, if not totally overpowering. He went 7 innings, and gave up only 3 earned runs - a "Quality Start". One of our most inconsistent pitchers took over for him (Crabtree), and threw two scoreless innings, giving up only a single hit. My gut feeling is that it won't last. I've kind of lost faith in Crabtree this season - so much so, I dropped him from the couple of fantasy teams of mine I had him on.
Raffy really looks like he's coming out of his funk - he went 3 for 5 tonight, driving in two, and scoring three himself. Offense was the name of this game, as we scored 13 for the first time in awhile. Rusty was 2 for 5, and has raised his average 80 points in the couple of weeks since he's come off the DL. Chad Curtis was 3 for 4.. I could go on. Was a great night for the offense.
However, my gut feeling says it won't last.
This game was on during the afternoon, and sometimes I don't get to pay as much attention to them as I like, because I'm at work. This was one of those games, but I did hear the important things..
I heard Rusty's big two run home run in the first, I heard the amazing tagout at home of Jason Giambi, and I heard the other two runs score in the game, so I guess I was listening during all the important bits. :)
Was nice to get two against the A's - hopefully we can do the same against the Mariners, and against the A's again, we wouldn't be all that bad off if it happens.
I bet I wasn't the only one who finished this game thinking "Miguel Tejada, Miguel Tejada!!". Due to two excellent defensive plays by Miguel Tejada, the Rangers rally in the 8th and 9th innings were snuffed out. In the 8th I felt we were in the groove, coming back well, and then Tejada made a play he shouldn't have, causing a double play, effectively snuffing out our rally.
I felt the error in the first set the tone for the game - we never caught up after that, although we hung tough. We played good for the most part, but the error early put us in a hole we never escaped (sounds like a version of the entire season, eh?) Anyway, that was about it. Matt Perisho was "ok" - nothing stellar, but he wasn't totally horrible, either. He'll pitch again, I'm sure.
We did a few things cool. Pudge set a new franchise record for doubles by a player, and Rusty Greer extended his record of consecutive multi hit games to 9. Let's hope we can win tomorrow night, otherwise it might all be over early.
I bet I wasn't the only one who finished this game thinking "Miguel Tejada, Miguel Tejada!!". Due to two excellent defensive plays by Miguel Tejada, the Rangers rally in the 8th and 9th innings were snuffed out. In the 8th I felt we were in the groove, coming back well, and then Tejada made a play he shouldn't have, causing a double play, effectively snuffing out our rally.
I felt the error in the first set the tone for the game - we never caught up after that, although we hung tough. We played good for the most part, but the error early put us in a hole we never escaped (sounds like a version of the entire season, eh?) Anyway, that was about it. Matt Perisho was "ok" - nothing stellar, but he wasn't totally horrible, either. He'll pitch again, I'm sure.
We did a few things cool. Pudge set a new franchise record for doubles by a player, and Rusty Greer extended his record of consecutive multi hit games to 9. Let's hope we can win tomorrow night, otherwise it might all be over early.
Due to work pressures, I won't have time to write about this game. Was nice to get a win, however.
Due to work pressures, I won't have time to write about this game.
Due to work pressures, I won't have time to write about this game. However, I will say this. That bizarre running play by the Twins cost us the game. That's too bad, as it was a great game of baseball - we lost, but a great game as a "fan of baseball" to watch.
I didn't see this game, as Fox Sports Southwest showed the Astros game last night - plus with the storms, the satellite feed was screwed up and half that game wasn't watchable - so my wife and I watched a 007 movie on DVD. :)
Was nice to see two wins in a row - which is rare anymore (sadly). In looking at the box score, I see that Pudge went 1 for 5, dropping his average to a mere .369 :), David Segui went 3 for 4, and Gabe Kapler had an ofer. Loaiza went 6 innings, giving up 3 runs, which technically qualifies for Quality Start, but my guess is that it didn't really come down like that. :)
Let's hope we can get a sweep tomorrow. Would be nice, given that 30 day edict that Tom Hicks gave the other day.
This was a nice win on all factors. I was out at the Temple last night for the game, and it just felt good coming in. You know, that feeling you get when you go to a game, and you're just having a good time? I had that feeling. This was the first game I went to with my wife in almost a month (as she was out of town for a few weeks). That alone makes me feel good. The Rangers came out, and for some reason, just looked like a team that wanted to win, not a team that was "OH crap, how are we going to win?" which was the vibe I'd seen the last couple of weeks.
Kenny Rogers came out, and wasn't totally dominating in the first two innings, but after that, owned the game. He had about 40 or so pitches the first two innings, but then figured it out, and retired 13 straight batters before walking the leadoff guy in the 9th, then giving up a double, and coming out of the game in the 9th to a standing ovation. He looked great, and pitched an awesome game, going 8+ innings, 5 hits, and 2 runs. A great performance. John Wetteland came in, and retired all the batters he faced (although one was a sac fly). He too looked good (although not dominating). This performance dropped Kenny Rogers' ERA to under 4. These days an ERA that starts with 3 means you're a $10 million pitcher. :D
Gabe Kapler continues to make up for lost time after being on the DL. He went 2 for 4 again, with his fourth home run of the season. All four of his home runs have come at home, with the first three being all in April. I've been there for all four of them with my wife. Pudge had an off night for him, going only 1 for 4. Mike Lamb was 2 for 3. Everyone had at least one hit, which is nice to see. I like evenly spread stuff like that.
Again, I had a great time at the game last night - was nice to be back out at the Temple. The only thing I don't like about the place is that it's 38 miles away from where I live in Garland.
Due to work pressures, I won't have time to write about this game. However, it was cool to see Luis Alicea get the first Ranger hit inside the park home run since the Ballpark opened in 1994.
Our short winning streak of one game is over. :( I missed a lot of this game due to falling asleep on the couch from some medication my doctor has me on. Didn't look like I missed much.
Rick Helling got burnt on a really bad throw by Luis Alicea leading to the four run inning the Devil Rays put up late to put the game away. Other than that, this really didn't seem like all that bad of a game, despite the score. Rick only allowed two earned runs, but had to leave early because we were down 6-2. That's too bad, as Rick has turned into "Mr. Lack of Run Support" this year. He could be up near 11 wins if it weren't for the lack of run support. :(
Kapler went 1 for 3 - I'm really pulling for him to get his average up (he's at 238 now). Pudge "only" went 1 for 4, and Rusty went 2 for 4. All coming along nicely.
Oh well, back home against the Twins. Let's see if we can win any of those. (Grumble, Grumble)
Perhaps the solution to Matt Perisho is to put him in the rotation. Hmm.. If we can get this from him, and what we got from Ryan Glynn a week ago or so, our pitching would be much better off! This is a Matt Perisho I don't think we've ever seen in the show at all.
Matt went six strong innings, giving up only two hits, while striking out 6, and walking three. An excellent outing for him - in fact, I'd wager he'd pitch more, but he hasn't started at all this year, so his pitch count was a big deal, I'm sure. Crabby and Wetteland finished out the final three frames, allowing only one hit between the two of them, with two more K's. An extremely well pitched game, the kind of game that makes the rest of the games look particularly annoying, as the pitching is there, we're just not executing all the time.
On the other side of the coin, we had Pudge going 2 for 4, Rusty going 2 for 5, and Gabe Kapler going 3 for 5. Gabe's got his average up about 35 points since coming back from the DL, Rusty's is up, too, and Pudge continues to hover around 385 or so. Our hitting looks like it's starting to come around (although Dave Martinez is now 0 for his last 18).
Overall, an excellent game - we needed a win.
Nine in a row. One more, and we hit double digit consecutive losses. Blech. And quite frankly, with Matt Perisho pitching tomorrow, I'm thrilled with our prospects of winning.
The start of this game felt like the end of the last one. A ton of runs. It was as if we didn't stop playing. Down 5-0 immediately, and we didn't recover. That's about all I have to say about this one.
With eight in a row in the loss column, it's getting harder and harder to write about losing. If I were a paid sportswriter, I'd probably try harder, but since I'm just a fan doing it for the hell of it - it's getting harder to write about a game where we lose 10-1, and quite frankly, didn't seem to really show up at all.
The only thing that I thought was really good was the fact that Esteban Loaiza came out again after a 2 hour rain delay and pitched again, and was better than before the rain. Unfortunately, after he left, we gave up like 8 walks and a hit batter in two innings, including another grand slam to Albert Belle (he had one last night).
About the only good thing I have to say about last night's game is that Gabe Kapler played hard, and is looking like he's finally coming around - and that the two home runs Albert Belle hit raised $100,000 for prostate cancer research (according to the TV guys).
That's about it.
They say bad teams find a way to lose. I guess we must be a bad team, because we've lost 7 in a row, and lost the game last night 11-10. :(
This is one of those game that we just flat out should have won, and we blew it. About half way through this game, I started feeling like this was a repeat of the 97 season. On paper, we have a better team, but we never seem to find that one thing that binds everyone together and makes us play like a cohesive unit (can someone say Yankees?). Anyway, the loss saddens me, as we had a great night, a wonderful comeback, another awesome night from Pudge, and we pissed it away.
Pudge is about the only great thing to talk about from last night's game, even though we scored 10 runs. No wait, Gabe Kapler had two doubles last night, and is starting to look like he's finally coming around. Pudge had two doubles and a home run.
I just can't get jazzed about writing about this game.
While I was watching this game, I kept thinking of what I would write about. I'm watching Scott Erickson pitch, and the phrase "Wild Wild West" kept coming to mind. Well, Erickson was wild, but unfortunately, we couldn't take advantage of it, and our slide continues, with our sixth straight loss.
Scott Erickson walked a ton, including walking the bases loaded in the third. In fact, our two runs came because of his walks, but that was our only scoring of the whole night. The Orioles managed to turn several double plays, effectively killing off a lot of the walks that Erickson put on base. We only managed the two in the third, and that's all we got.
Rick Helling pitched a really great game I thought. Unfortunately, he grooved a few fastballs to BJ Surhoff and Charles Johnson, and that accounted for the only three runs that Baltimore got. While we lost, I felt it was a great baseball game, and was a treat to watch.
Before this season started, I didn't feel like the Rangers would win the division - I felt this would be a "rebuilding year", and the way they've played, that's more or less is what's happened. I don't think this group will really gel until next year. Would be nice if they won, but I would tend to doubt it for 2000.
A couple of interesting notes. Frank Catalanotto ended up in right field because of a couple of managerial moves by Oates and Hargrove played (it burnt Chad Curtis from the game without him doing anything). Also, this was Rafael Palmeiro's 2000th Major League game. Pudge went 2 for 4, and continues to lead all players in vote getting for the All-Star Game!
Ugh. Another loss. Heading out to pick up my wife from the airport in a few minutes - she's been out of town for about 3 weeks, so I don't have time to write anything tonight.
This is much more like a Colorado Rockies home game. 12-6. I have to admit to paying more attention to the Dallas Stars game tonight, so I didn't see a whole lot of this, but I did see the best parts for the Rangers - and that was not Esteban Loaiza. It seems like the crappy Esteban Loaiza has resurfaced again, unfortunately. :(
On the positive side, Pudge had his fourth multi home run game of the season so far. Also, Pudge hit home runs 20 & 21 tonight - he hit #20 & #21 last year on the same day - bit it happened on August 4th last year! Man - by the end of his career, Pudge should be hitting .800! :)
Anyway, new Ranger Dave Martinez made quite an impression with a home run and a double as well as two walks in his first game as a Ranger - that's always nice to see. Gabe Kapler went 1 for 4 last night, and didn't look like a slouch in his second game back from the DL.
Jason McDonald was designated for assignment - I'm surprised by that - I figured they'd designate Scarborough Green, although I'm glad they kept Green.
Well, this was an interesting game for several reasons. It was a very low scoring game at Coors Field. Both of our teams have a habit of scoring a lot of runs, and it didn't happen tonight.
Although I felt it was going to be a big scoring game, as Raffy hit a home run in teh first, giving out a good vibe about the game. Unfortunately, that was all I saw of the Rangers scoring. I'm still getting over what had me in the hospital a week ago, so the medication I'm on put me to sleep during the late night game. When I went to sleep, we were heading to extra innings and it was tied.
Unfortunately, John Wetteland blew a save, which broke a big string of his. Kenny Rogers pitched really really well tonight I thought. It was a shame we couldn't get him any runs - which seems to be his lot this season - he's 2000's "no run support" pitcher.
Gabe Kapler returned to the lineup and went 2 for 6 in his first game back - and other than a bad throw missing the cutoff man, he didn't look all that bad to me.
We also traded for veteran Dave Martinez today - he'll start tomorrow night - meaning we'll have to designate someone for assignment.
The last day game in Arlington until September. I didn't get to hear much of it as I was at work, but from what little I heard, I didn't want to be listening. Blech. Don't really feel like writing about it, either.
Well, as much as last night's game was about Ryan Glynn, tonight's game was about Eric Gagne. He shut down the Rangers with only a few hits, and when we had a chance, we couldn't follow through.
The only good thing tonight was Pudge, who went 3 for 4 with a solo home run in the 8th for our only run. Most everyone else was silent. In fact only three Rangers had any hits at all - Pudge (3), Segui (2), & Raffy (1). That was it. Scarborough Green almost had his first major league home run, as he hit a ball, and it was called a HR. The fireworks went off, the music from the Natural played, and there was thunderous applause. However, about halfway through the trot, I saw the umps standing in the basepaths conferring, and I knew it would be taken away - it was. That was a shame, even if it really was a foul ball - it would have been nice.
I sat in one of two remaining places in the ballpark that I'd never sat in before. Far left field. I sat in Section 301 row 1. To tell you the truth, it wasn't all that bad after the second inning. For the first two innings, I had to sit with my head down and my cap's brim over the sun, as it was very sunny out there. But for $6, it wasn't all that bad really - even though I missed seeing the out of town scoreboard. :)
Good lord - where was this Ryan Glynn hiding last season? This really doesn't look like the same guy who was up here last year. Out dueling Kevin Brown - what an accomplishment. I really hope this is the Ryan Glynn that will continue to pitch for us. I'm sure Ryan's performance last night will earn him a slightly longer look than was originally anticipated. He was supposed to come up just for this game, and go right back down. However, he was so good, you never know when he'll show up again, which now my guess would be pretty quickly, especially if his next start at AAA is decent.
There really isn't much to say about this one - Ryan Glynn took a no hitter into the 6th, and only gave up two hits over 8 innings pitched - totally masterful! Kevin Brown didn't give up much, but what he gave up was enough to beat him.
The story of this game is by far and away Ryan Glynn. Don't know what else to write about this one except this.. This was our first shutout of the season. We were the last American League club to throw one, and this was the shortest game of the season so far at 2:22.
No commentary - don't have the time to write it up today. Sorry.
No commentary - don't have the time to write it up today. Sorry.
Back home against the Diamondbacks. I'm a bit disappointed in that neither Randy Johnson or Mike Morgan will pitch (at least Morgan not as a starter). I was going to go to the Sat evening game should Morgan have started, but they said he wasn't. Oh well. We got behind early, and while we had a good rally in the bottom of the 9th against Arizona closer Matt Mantei, it wasn't enough - we lost 5-4, even with two home runs (one by Raffy & one by Royce).
However, that wasn't the story of this game. The story here was that we lost Ruben Mateo for the season. I watched it happen in the bottom of the seventh - the replay was quite bizarre (the TV guys said it wasn't for the squeamish - more on the TV guys in a minute). It was a pretty ugly thing - he tripped over the base and went down in a heap face down. From the looks of it at the time, it looked exactly the same as the injury that knocked out Pittsburgh's Jason Kendall last year for the season. He came back strong this year, but Ruben has a history of being hurt - I wonder how much that will impact this injury.
Also, TV guy Tom Grieve is out for a few games, apparently he had some sort of outpatient surgery to "remove a growth from his ear" - I can't find any more info other than that. His replacement is the radio post game call-in guy Steve Busby (who used to do TV coverage from 1982-1994). I immediately thought Steve Busby was way more chatty than Tom Grieve was. Nothing against Tom, but Steve seemed to talk more than Tom normally does. Also, with Craig Miller not being there for the pre-game show, Ranger games have an odd feeling to 'em. I also want to bring back John Rhadigan for the "man in the ballpark" things - he was really funny.
No Juan again. My gut feeling says we'll never see him in a Tigers uniform, as the Tigers come to Arlington the last four days of July (aka the trading deadline). I'd be surprised if he's going to be here then. I could be wrong, but my guess is that he'll be somewhere else (probably Baltimore).
Anyway, we clobbered Detroit tonight 13-5. Rafael Palmeiro got it started early with a home run in the first inning. He then proceeded to get a couple more hits and RBI's for a total of 3 hits and 4 RBI's. Luis Alicea continues to be a most pleasant surprise this season, now batting .333 and going 3 for 4 tonight with 4 runs scored, two walks, and two RBI's. I really have to admit that I was leery about him, but he's done a great job this season (so much so that I picked him up on two of my fantasy baseball teams
Pitching wise, we had another "eh" performance by Darren Oliver, who might be taking a trip to the disabled list if this "dead arm" thing keeps up. He gave up five earned runs in 5.2 innings. However, our pen was great again - Crabtree & Perisho combining for 3.1 innings of shutout ball. That looked good, especially from Perisho.
We come back home for the Diamondbacks this weekend. That ought to be a tougher challenge, and the way we played on the road this trip doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence.
Blech. Although the score wasn't a blowout - it felt like it. It felt like we never got it together ever in this game. :(
What an awesome game! Kenny Rogers is becoming this year's version of "The Ranger starter who would have an awesome record if he had some decent run support". I really felt this is the way this game was going to go last night. However, Kenny kept it to two runs, and won the game thanks to some longballs from Luis Alicea (!) and Rafael Palmeiro.
There was some awesome defense in the outfield by Detroit's Bobby Higginson. He made one diving, rolling catch, and two others that he really had to haul to catch up to - in my opinion, the best player on the field last night. A nice, well pitched game on both sides, some great defense, and just enough offense to win the game. Couple that with a great looking ballpark, and you couldn't ask for anything more (except maybe the pitching performance from Yankee Stadium on Sunday night
No Juan Gonzalez in this game - or anyone else from the Gonzalez trade on either team last night - that was a bit disappointing. I'm hoping that Juan plays when Detroit comes to Texas in late July. However, that's the last series before the trade deadline, so if Detroit is going to ship Juan, we may not get to see him in a Tiger uniform.
Blech. I hate writing about games like this. So I won't. Except for one thing.
Rusty Greer was activated today, and came in late and hit a pinch hit double. :)
Blech. I hate writing about games like this. So I won't. Except for one thing.
Boy, Bertram is lighting up everything the last two days. As Rusty Greer was held back a bit longer, Bert got a reprieve. And he made use of it, pulling off a straight steal of home. It was awesome to see - although I was listening on the radio, I did get to see it on SportsCenter. Way to go!
Who's Bert? That's Scarborough Green - Bertram is his real first name, Scarborough is his middle name. When he was a replacement player with the Cardinals in 95, he went by the name Bert.
I thought coming into this game that we'd light 'em up. If I recall correctly, Mac Suzuki was the pitcher on the mound that game in Seattle last spring where Pudge had 9 RBI's in one game. I wonder if Pudge thought that at all. :)
Scarborough Green, playing in what is probably his last game before Rusty Greer is activated again really lit up the stage. He was awesome in the field, saving some runs, and then contributing with a bat. Doesn't really look like he was one of the spring 1995 replacement players (for the Cardinals), eh? :)
I'm not writing much about this one, as I fell asleep again - I had my pet cat Flash buried today, so it's been pretty stressful for me. :(
Well, you never want to lose, but if you do, it's not all that bad to lose to this kind of game. It's always nice to see a well pitched game, you just hate it when they come against you. Still, it was really nice to see Jeff Suppan pitch this well - I'm hopeful the Royals can make a turnaround and be a real team again. They've got a great young team (as does Montreal).
Kenny Rogers was no slouch either, giving up just one earned run over 6.2 innings. He pitched well, too, but Jeff Suppan pitched better. There's not a whole lot you can say about games like this! :)
Last night was a bad night for me. I had to put my pet cat Flash to sleep in the morning, and because of that, I was so stressed, I fell asleep on the couch watching the Rangers game. I missed about half of it, but from what I saw, Helling pitched OK, if not dominating. The long ball won it for us, and we've won 7 games in a row and tied for first.
Rusty Greer's wife had her twins last night - Tom Evans is out for the season - Gabe Kapler reinjured himself, and baseball is talking about raising the mound for next season. A lot happened yesterday! :)
Well, my wife is out of town visiting her parents, and since I was sitting around the house all day Sunday anyway, I decided that since I had nothing else to do that I'd head out to the Ballpark. Bought a $5 ticket, and sat in the first row of Section 344 - and you know what? These seats, while obviously not as good as the ones down below near the dugout aren't as bad as people would have you believe they are. For some reason, when I sit here, I get more of an "old time pure baseball feel" than any other place I sit in the park. I don't know, maybe it's something about walking up to the ticket booth, buying a cheap seat ticket, and scoring the game while listening to the radio broadcast. :)
Anyway, yet another comeback for this team, that's what, about 100% of our wins this season?
Jason McDonald committed a throwing error early, but made up for it with two outfield assists. One was pure, tossing out a runner at the plate, and the other was an "assist", where he missed a cutoff, and the ball went all the way to Pudge, who then threw out the runner at first, who strayed too far off. McDonald leads all major league outfielders with assists at this point.
Two sweeps in a row, giving us a 6-0 homestand (the fourth or fifth time that's happened in team history). We next head to Kansas City, where we should pick up a few wins, but KC has the best home winning record, and we got blown away there last September.
Good lord! An awesome pitching battle that we didn't choke on, give up too many late inning hits, or a home run somewhere to blow it. It's our first win of the season in a one run game when we don't score at least 5 runs. We're something like 1-16 this season that way, if I remember what I heard on the radio correctly.
There's not a whole lot that can be said about 2-1 games, other than "great pitching", and "just enough offense". We finally won one for our hard luck pitcher, Esteban Loaiza. Usually, he's the one that turns in an awesome performance, and loses it late, because we couldn't hold it, or he made one small mistake and got burnt on it. Mike Mussina, who is having a surprisingly horrible year, went the complete game for the loss, making him now 1-6. Loaiza went 7 innings, giving up just one earned run on 6 hits. Venafro & Wetteland pitched shutout relief again, and Wetteland earned another save (his 9th), giving him a lot of saves in a very short period of time. I had concerns he wouldn't get 40 again this year, but if this pace keeps up, that won't be a problem.
Offensively, we got a solo blast by Rafael Palmeiro, and a sac fly by Chad Curtis, scoring Jason McDonald, who has been very surprising in his time with the Rangers. My guess is that he stays when Kapler and/or Greer are ready to come back, and Scarborough Green goes back to AAA.
And to top all of this off, the way the game ended was awesome, too. Rich Amaral was attempting to steal second, and Pudge tossed him out to end the game, what a thriller!
What a game!
Second rainout of the season - this one will be made up on September 12th as part of a doubleheader (that I will be attending).
I was at this game with my wife, and I have to say - a damned exciting game. The entire thing was under a constant threat of rain, and in the bottom of the 8th, it started. We disappeared into a sheltered area, and watched the bottom of the 9th. As soon as we got in our car, it down poured something fierce.
The game itself was awesome - a spectacular comeback. I do have to say I'm a bit surprised that the Ranger fans booed Will Clark. Sure, he's not Rafael Palmeiro, but he did a hell of a lot in the five years while he was here. I was disappointed in my fellow Ranger fans for that. I'll boo Canseco alright, but I felt that the Thrill deserved better than that.
Rick Helling had probably his worst outing of the year, going 6 innings, giving up 7 earned runs (raising his season ERA to 3.14, still awesome by today's standards). However, our bullpen seems to be coming around, as they pitched the final three innings giving up only a single hit, and one run (Cordero, Venafro, & Wetteland). We seem to finally be coming together after a disgusting April. And, we're doing it without Rusty Greer & Gabe Kapler (who wasn't exactly burning things up when he went on the DL). I have to imagine that things will get even better when we're all back together and healthy again.
Mike Lamb was awesome, going 3 for 4, with three doubles. Royce Clayton was 2 for 3, and everyone except Jason McDonald had at least one hit (Sc Green was a defensive replacement late, and didn't bat), but McDonald did lay down a nice bunt - was an awesome team game, and a great comeback, after being down 7-2 as late as the 6th inning. However, the name of the day was Frank Catalanotto, who went 3 for 5, and set a few new Ranger records, too. He had hits in 10 consecutive plate appearances, setting a new record, as well as getting on base for 12 straight times, also setting a new Ranger record!
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles.
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles. One comment about this game, and it's a picture. :)
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles.
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles.
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles.
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles.
A couple of highlights were Royce Clayton's grand slam, and John Wetteland's 300 career save. However, the way he pitched this game, I didn't think he really deserved this save.
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles.
Was not good to hear of all the problems to Kent Mercker, though. Hope he recovers. That's two years that pitchers pitching against the Rangers appear to have ended their career on the mound against us (last year, it was the guy from the Devil Rays who blew out his arm, and was in the most pain I'd ever seen a pitcher be in on the field).
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles.
I'm not doing commentary on this game because of my being out of town for the better part of a week for the 2000 E3 convention in Los Angeles.
I'm going out of town on a business trip Wed morning, and as I write this (Tue morning), I don't have the time for a full write-up. Sorry about that.
I'm going out of town on a business trip Wed morning, and as I write this (Tue morning), I don't have the time for a full write-up. Sorry about that. If you're reading this, you'll have to get by with the wire stuff below. :)
As I sit here on Sunday morning 30 minutes from today's game, I'm finding it hard to figure out how to write about the game (as I burnt out on writing about this game yesterday), so I'll write about what was around the game for me...
Two in a row! My head is spinning - because I was at both of these! I was walking out of the stadium last night, and I said to the friend I was with, "Last night, I used up all my wow stuff for the 17-16 game, how am I going to write about this one?"
It's true - this night seemed like a carbon copy of last night, except with a lower score. Last night we scored 33 runs, tonight 21. Last night there were 37 hits, tonight there were 31 hits. Last night there were two errors, tonight there were four; there was five, but one got changed to a hit after the game. I really never thought I'd get to see this kind of ending two nights in a row - even down to the really bizarre fielding set up by the A's (two outfielders, the third in the infield as a fifth infielder) in the bottom of the ninth.
I was there with a friend (Paul, who runs ballparks.com), and his brother. We had a great time, and for the first time in my life that I could ever recall, I had a glove at the game (I was sitting in section 220) - didn't catch anything though. If you've ever visited Paul's site, you'lll know that the focus on his site is on the parks themselves, and not so much the game. Paul spent a lot of time taking pictures of the place, and was marvelling at the architecture of the Ballpark. He even gave it better reviews than some of the new parks this season which he's seen, which is high praise considering
One other cool thing - when I was on the 200 level, I got to say hello to Chuck Morgan, the Rangers' ballpark PA guy (among other things). He invited me and my friends into his booth for a few minutes - that was VERY cool, getting to see Chuck Morgan's booth, as well as the control room for all the signs, computers, etc in the park. I took pictures (of course), and I'll be putting those online Tuesday most likely).
That's about it for me, time to get off the computer and watch Sunday afternoon's game. Doug Davis, a rookie makes a start, let's hope he fares better than Oliver & Helling have lately.
Good lord! What a game! I was actually at this one, and for the last three innings, I could do nothing more than shake my head. This game was so bizarre, it was a complete roller coaster of emotions ride. This was one of those games where you didn't seem to notice the pitching - this was an offensive game all around.
It started off strong early - with the Rangers getting out to a 5-0 lead with our first 5 spot frame of the year (I think). It felt good, actually. I thought the five runs we scored in the seconnd inning would be enough to win the game.
In comes Matt Perisho. Everyone seems high on Matt, but my gut feeling has always told me he won't be a big league pitcher all that long. I still can't get the 98 appearance (when the Rangers also tried Todd Van Poppel) where he gave up 11 or 12 runs in less than two, and he more or less did exactly the same thing again. Matt was bad - walking four guys in the span of his time (could have been more, I don't have my notes here). The first inning he pitched, he walked the bases full, and then Grieve doubled, scoring all three walks - just to complete it, a home run to Jeremy Giambi brought the A's to being up by 3 with a 2 run home run. Perisho's next inning was worse, giving up five more runs, putting us down by a score of 15-7.
At this point, it felt really bleak. However, the next pitch up, Pudge hit a home run on the first pitch of the 7th, and just that one seemed a big momentum builder. Funny, scoring 16 runs, and this was the only one that came off the long ball. We went on to score two more runs in this inning to bring it to 15-10. Still five down, but feeling "Well, maybe it could happen". Zim gave up the home run to put us 6 back again, and it was like "Oh well". However, the Rangers didn't give up (but a lot of fans did; it seemed to empty out after 15-7), put put up a 6 spot (our first of the year) in the bottom of the 8th. Oakland used a ton of different pitchers that inning (four I think), and it didn't matter - we kept hitting. Singles everywhere, along with a good sac bunt by Jason McDonald in the middle of it, and we had tied the game up. The moment they tied it up, sitting in the stands, you felt that the entire crowd was really proud of the Rangers - I just got this very cool vibe when the score was tied up.
The 9th was also a blast, because Wetteland came in and shut down the A's, allowing no runs with a strikeout, and a few fly outs. In the bottom of the 9th, however we got it going right away with a single off the bat of Chad Curtis. Pudge grounded into a fielder's choice (a close call - was almost a dp), and then after a walk, and an error by the pitcher, we had the bases loaded. At this point (and especially after their pitcher ran the count to 3-0), the place was as loud as I had ever heard it - and the place was about half full at this point. It was a great moment, the anticipation. You know everyone wanted to just bust out and do something. Mike Lamb was brought in to pinch hit for Tom Evans (who went 3 for 4), and worked the count to 3-0. The A's had done the extreme defensive positioning of having only two outfielders, three fielders on the right side of the diamond, and two on the left (all five on the grass). After a strike call, Lamb hit the ball out into the right field gap for the win! I did see him with his arms in the air, and at this point the place went )@#%)@$% nuts! Words couldn't really explain this one - it was just such an emotional rollercoaster, I felt drained at the end of the game waiting for the (real) post game fireworks. I was really really glad I was at this one in person. Driving to the game, I felt it was going to be rained out. It wasn't, and boy am I glad of that.
A few notes.. This was the largest come from behind win in club history, coming back from 8 runs down to win. Every Ranger scored at least once (as did all the A's). Every pitcher in the game except Wetteland (there were ten of them) gave up at least one run, with Matt Perisho having the worst line (2 IP, 16 batters faced, 10 of them scored (7 earned), and Jeff Zimmerman gave up what appears to have become his one home run per appearance. Of the 17 runs scored by the Rangers, only one came via long ball. This ties the total number of combined runs in a game at 33 (the Rangers beat the Orioles 26-7 a couple of seasons ago). The only game I ever witnessed that had more runs was a game back in 1976 where the Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 23-22 in Wrigley Field. :)
Lost in all this is the fact that David Segui didn't play due to an injury - oh great. Another one. :( :(
Coming soon - if I get the time Friday afternoon to write one. In case I don't... What heartbreak. Coming back TWICE to get in the game, and then losing it on a solo HR in the bottom of the 11th.. Ughhhh...
No runs given up - we've seen that several times this year. Kenny Rogers, Esteban Loaiza, Rick Helling... But Mark frickin' Clark? About the only thing this did was probably jack up his trade value - which right now seems to be with the Phillies for Ron Gant, or to the Reds for one of their OF surplus. I personally wish he would have been pitching this way the whole time he was here. When he first signed, I thought it was a great idea, and I was still pushing him come the start of this season, but I think I'm headed towards the bandwagon of "Big failed experiment". It's great when he gives us this pitching, but my gut says that he's not capable of it all the time - last night was an aberration.
I didn't get to see very much of this game - Wed is my bowling league night, and the TV near my lane had the stupid Country Music Awards on (wretch). I did pop my head down about 25 lanes or so where they did have it on a few times, but I couldn't watch any of it for more than about 30 seconds. I got home in enough time to see Wetteland come in, but that was it. It was nice to get three in a row finally, and Wetteland did one of his two inning, five out saves. Clark went 6 innings, giving up 6 hits, and no runs, with one walk. Jeff Zimmerman & Doug Davis (to only one batter) also pitched between Clark & Wetteland. Overall, and pretty good pitching night - although it's quite possible that's the last we'll ever see of Mark Clark. Royce Clayton did home a home run - I didn't see it, but that's always nice to see in the box score.
Injuries continue to mount - Gabe Kapler goes on the DL, and Luis Alicea comes out of the game hurt, Raffy didn't play at all. Ughhhh...
Oh man, what a cool game.
From the start - this felt great. I felt that something good would happen when they said that Jose Canseco wouldn't play - he always seems to be in a groove against the Rangers. Rick Helling confirmed this feeling and pitched a complete masterpiece. He went 7.1 innings, and gave up no earned runs (dropping his ERA under 3 to 2.82), and only a single hit - a single to the Crimedog. His pitch count was extremely high - in the 130's, but that might have something to do with him walking six D'Rays. One run did score on Helling, but it was unearned due to an error by Mike Lamb. Otherwise, Helling was completely masterful (if a tad wild).
On the other side, the game was tight until the 6th when we went from a 2-0 lead (on two solo shots in the 2nd & 5th from Raffy & Curtis) to a 4-0 lead (via a 2 RBI single by Raffy). I know 4-0 is still considered by some to be "tight", but the way Helling was pitching, it seemed like a huge lead. We then piled on some more runs with a three spot in the 8th, and another in the 9th on a home run by Pudge - his what, 40th in the last three games? :)
Gabe Kapler left the game with a strained muscle in the 6th - I'm really hoping he doesn't go down for long - we have enough problems with injuries this season - we just "feel" like we're coming around, we can't afford to lose anyone else - even if he's only batting around .200.
We just looked really good this game, I felt. This is the Rangers that we were supposed to be getting out of spring training. Unfortunately our modest winning streak is in jeopardy as Mark Clark takes the mound on Wednesday.
The slide is over - at least for now. :)
The Rangers broke out of their funk today with a very well balanced win over the Orioles, 8-4. Well balanced because everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. Mateo had two and Pudge & Segui had 3. Speaking of Mateo, he had two hits in all three of the Baltimore games, and looked pretty good behind the plate. I hope he can hold himself together and avoid injury, because it looks like he's starting to come together at this level finally. Pudge had the biggest day with two home runs, and three RBI's (although Segui too had a couple of RBI's). Kenny Rogers looked pretty good going 7.1 innings allowing four runs on 9 hits. Zimmerman & Venafro came in and pitched one out each in the eighth before turning it over to Wetteland in the ninth.
Wetteland lost a save opportunity when Pudge hit a two run home run in the top of the ninth, giving us a four run lead. Everyone looked good out there, there were no major blunders, and I enjoyed watching this game, unlike the last few.
Also, I wish we could have seen all of the pre-game Cal Ripken festivities. Our local coverage only showed a few minutes, and seeing that was cool, but I would have liked to have seen all of it. Also, when the Ripken family gets home, I wonder if Cal's wife will be mortified to see that her son was picking his nose on national television? :)
Well, this was another game in the slide, but this one was one of those really well pitched games on both sides. The kind you want to win, but don't terribly mind losing. Mike Mussina was perfect the first time through the lineup, and we didn't get anything going until the fifth - and then it was snuffed out. We had to work hard for the one run we got, and we did have a threat going in the ninth - we loaded the bases, but we came away with only one run in that inning.
Darren Oliver pitched pretty well, too. Went 6 2/3 giving up 6 hits and three runs. Not all that shabby - Doug Davis came in to finish the rest of the game and gave up nothing in his 1 2/3 innings of work - looked good, especially compared to his 1999 appearances.
Not a whole lot else to say about this one other than it was some nice pitching, and it'd be nice to see the offense show up again.
Well, this was another game in the slide. We lost in a most bizarre fashion, balking in the final run. We missed opportunities again, and basically let the game get away from us. Our team is backwards this year from last year. Last year, we had great offense & a great bullpen, and just "so so" starting pitching. This year it's the other way around - great starting pitching, but our offense is gone, and our bullpen is unreliable.
Loaiza pitched a great game - 8 innings, 6 hits, three runs. Our bullpen lost it again. Loaiza did give up two of his runs late, and via the longball, but other than that, he looked really sharp. Turning out to be one of our better pitchers - I'm glad - so our trade for him eventually turned out good. :) We left 7 on base again - far too many.
Raffy had to come out of the game early after sliding into second base attempting to steal. He didn't look that bad to me, but you can never really tell with these things. Hopefully he won't be out very long.
I got a laugh out of the ejection of B.J. Surhoff. He really looked like Paul O'Neill up there - which is not a good thing. O'Neill whines about everything (hence my calling him Mr. Whiny) - and thinks that every pitch should be a ball unless he swings at it. This is what Surhoff looked like when he was ejected in the first inning.
I could write about this one - but I just don't want to! :(
No time to write about this game - way too busy at work. Sorry. Was nice seeing Pedro Martinez in person!
I love playing Boston. It's always a great game, even if we lose. They're probably my favourite opponent to play period. My wife loves it when we play Boston too, because one of her favorites is there, Nomar Garciaparra. Lynn also has a thing for Gabe Kapler, and we had brought the binoculars last night, and when Gabe was at second base, she could see Nomar & Gabe at once. :)
Anyway, enough teasing of the wife. It was an awesome game last night. After a shaky early start, Kenny Rogers got settled down, and other than the home run ball to Carl Everett, he looked pretty solid. He made the usual Kenny Rogers defensive plays that he makes, including one in the 7th that forced him out of the game early and to the X-ray machine (as I write this, the results have not been disclosed). Tim Crabtree came in and gave up a couple of runs, but was throwing some major heat last night. Even John Wetteland got in on the act, not allowing any runs, and getting a save. There was a bit of drama when he walked a batter, which brought Nomar up to the plate in the 9th as the go ahead run. Fortunately, he popped up the first pitch, and we won the game.
On the other side of the plate, our offense can really be chalked up to two players. Rafael Palmeiro and Luis Alicea. Raffy got us started with a two run home run in the third. Later on, Tim "Knuckleball" Wakefield (who we never do anything against) came in, and loaded up the bases. Recently, we have a very disturbing trend where we do nothing with the bases loaded (see the Twins series). Anyway, Luis came through with a two out two run single off of Wakefield. It felt good, and the radio show on KRLD after the game said that Luis had a big smile on his face - he deserved that one. Raffy came through with his 8th home run later in the game (a solo shot), which turned out to be the cushion we needed to win the game.
Overall, an awesome game, the weather was great, had some nice fans around me to talk baseball with, and it wasn't too crowded (just a tad over 26,000). Plus it was $1 hot dog night. :)
Tonight I'm going back for my third trip to the Temple in three days, and it'll be a treat. Pedro Martinez pitches, and while I'm not expecting to win this one, I expect I'll really enjoy it.
Well, our early season slide continues. I remember saying when we started the season that we'd at best do .500, and it turns out I'm going to be more than right. We'd need to take 5 of the final 6 games of the month just to get to .500, and the way we're playing, I don't see it happening.
When I read that we'd be playing against Brad Radke, I kind of figured it would be a good pitching game, as Radke is the best they have, even though he hasn't been terribly dominating against us lately. Still, he went out there and pitched really well, allowing only one run and a few scattered hits through the 8 innings he pitched. He allowed the first two batters in the 9th to get on, so he was pulled. Royce Clayton (more on him in a minute) hit a three run home run in the bottom of the 9th to make it 5-4, but quite honestly, the game was nowhere near as close as this score indicates. Most of our innings were 1-2-3, or if not, we only sent 4. Radke never pitched more than 16 pitches in any one inning, and he was not completely dominating, but dominating enough to keep the Rangers from getting on any kind of track offensively.
On the other side, Darren Oliver pitched, and also seemed to be pretty much in control. As I recall (I don't have my scorecard with me now) the runs he gave up weren't really of the bad nature - I know there was a bloop single to left that scored two runs with the bases loaded, but that was the worst thing that appeared to happen. I felt that Darren pitched a pretty good game, but was again the victim of no run support.
Frank Catalanotto was placed on the DL after yesterday's game, and Mike Lamb was brought up, and he started third. He got a bloop single in his first ever ML at bat (which they announced at the Ballpark after it happened); however he also made his first ML error in the game. Was nice to see Lamb in his first at-bat. My wife loves rooting for underdogs, and new players, and she got a kick out of this. Two defensive gems - an awesome running catch by Gabe Kapler in right early in the game, where he dove for a ball got big applause. There was also a nice diving catch by Jason McDonald in left field. The Rangers also turned a few more double plays, which we seem to be doing a lot of this year. Raffy had his usual one triple per season this year - he barely missed a home run to left center - their left fielder missed the ball on the wall, and it rolled away from him, allowing the triple.
Even though we lost, I enjoyed the game, because I was there on free tickets (remember that contest the Rangers ran recently in the paper where you could win season tickets? I didn't win, but I got four free tickets from them as a "Hey, thanks for entering" consolation. Gave two to a co-worker and friend of mine, and he brought his son), and even though it was a bright sunny day game, my seats were in the shade, so it wasn't too bad. :) Can't beat free tickets ever.
It's really REALLY nice to see Esteban Loaiza come around to become the pitcher that everyone thought he could be. I know we tried to trade him last season, and now that looks like a great move that it didn't happen. So far, he's been our most consistent pitcher this season, as well as the end of last year.. He's been spectacular so far in 2000, with an ERA of 2.74. He should be 3-0, but he got some low run support, as well as a letdown by John Wetteland. Still, it's awesome to see him pitch this well, I hope he keeps it up all season, and we sign him to a longer contract than one year at the end of this year.
Matt Perisho finally got into a game, but didn't do anything to solidify his chances in the Ranger pen once Justin Thompson is ready to come back in a week or so. I'm really starting to wonder who will be here once Thompson is ready. For awhile it seemed like it was an easy choice, trade Mark Clark, but then he pitched well, and now he's not, and no one from the left side is really dominating in the pen. Will be an interesting choice for Melvin & Oates.
Anyway, it was nice to see us get back into the win column tonight. I really had nightmares in the first inning, when an errant throw by Pudge let two runs score. However, we came back with two home runs in the bottom of the first for a 3-2 lead that we never gave up again. Chad Curtis had a great night, going 2-5 with 4 RBI's. I'm actually afraid of him doing well, because it will be hard to sit him when Rusty is ready to come back in a month or so. Overall, the team went 11-33, a nice batting average for the evening.
Tomorrow is Darren Oliver & Brad Radke - I'll be at the game, it looks to be a good one. Hopefully we don't get rained on. Speaking of rain, boy I hope it doesn't rain for the Red Sox today - they've had three straight rainouts, and if they get another, we'll get Pedro Martinez. The first two were great, because it meant we'll miss Pedro, but if they get another today - we'll get him. :(
You know, I think during the off day we had yesterday, the Yankees came back to town and got dressed up in the Twins uniforms. It certainly felt that way. We went 12-0 last season against the Twins, we beat up on 'em in spring training, everything pointed to a big win by us to get over our 4 game losing streak. However, no one told the Twins. They played like the Yankees, I thought.
I don't know what it was. Was it Mark Clark? Was it our defense? Was it the new Twins cap? Was it our bullpen? Or was it just the natural law of averages saying "It's time for the Twins to win one". Whatever it was, we were roughed up 10-5.
And to make matters worse, Frank Catalanotto went on the DL after this game, which is no good - Mike Lamb was recalled to fill his roster spot.
I'm writing this on Sunday morning, and I've got to get read to go to the game today, so I'm going to have to cut this short, but I can't believe we lost this bad to the Twins. :(
It's Sunday morning as I finally get around to writing this update. After being swept by the Yankees, I quite frankly did not feel like writing this update. Yeah, I'm a fan, and I'm not the kind of fan that gives up on a team, but I felt drained after this series. Then I got too busy on Thursday and Friday at work to write it. I'm sure I could have found the time, but I didn't really find the desire to write about a third straight Yankees win.
Especially after the way it ended. Pudge came in in the bottom of the ninth, and hit his first ever pinch hit home run - a two run shot off of Mariano Rivera of all people to tie the game. I was jazzed, as I'm sure Jeff Zimmerman was when he promptly gave up a home run in the top of the 10th so the Yankees could beat us.
The good side of this is that we don't play the Yankees again until August. The bad side is that we play more than we should due to the rainout the other day. :(
Bring on the Twins!
I'm driving away from the Ballpark last night, and I'm thinking.. "You know, I didn't mind losing this one". You never WANT to lose, especially against the Yankees, but this one didn't seem so bad as last night's obscenity. Sure, we got beat, but we didn't quit trying it seemed (we didn't last night, either), but for some reason, this one didn't bother me.
Not a whole lot positive on the Rangers side, as we were more or less shut down by El Duque, who pitched a complete game. Gabe Kapler looked good, going 2-4 with a home run, two RBI's, and two runs scored. Pudge was also 2 for four, but that was it. Kapler's monster two run shot off of Hernandez early was a big crowd pleaser, and gave us some life. However, when we put two on with no out in the bottom of the third, and didn't do anything with it, well, that seemed to be about it for our offense. Kenny Rogers was rather inconsistent last night, he had two really great innings of 4 and 8 pitches, but then there was an obscene 34 pitch inning, and he just didn't seem to be that sharp at all. He was really beat by the long ball, giving up a solo jack to Jeter in the first, putting us in the hole immediately, as well as a two run shot to Jorge Posada in the fourth (as part of the 34 pitch inning). We had some momentum after the second, but it was gone come the top of the fourth. Francisco Cordero & Mike Munoz in relief did look good, though. Gotta like that.
On the interesting side, my wife and I usually hate going to Yankee games at the Ballpark, as it tends to bring out the overzealous jackass Yankees fans. For a change, the Yankees fans near us were well behaved. Sure, the cheered for their people, and that's OK (we did it in Baltimore for the Rangers), but when you're obnoxiously in favor of our team (excessive needling, swearing, etc), it's not necessary. Have to tip my hat to the Yankee fans near us tonight - it was most unexpected. Furthermore, every time a ball was hit foul, the fans were all screaming "Foul Ball" and whatnot - pretty funny. Also, the ump from last night behind home plate was at third base, and there was a close call there once, and he got a big rash of boos - in fact, when the umps first walked onto the field, they got booed pretty good.
As a side note unrelated to any of the game, I now have a problem whenever I hear the phrase El Duque. If anyone knows the current Budweiser "Wazzzup" commercials, there's a bit in one of them where they go "Hey Dook?" I cannnot help but think of "Hey Dook?" whenever I hear "El Duque".
I don't want to even write about this game. I'm so annoyed at the ending, I can't believe it - even after a night's sleep. I said to my wife as we came up with bases loaded and no one out - "Watch, something will happen, and we'll blow it". When we get a chance to beat the Yankees, it blows up in our faces - if we can't win it, the umpires will take it away.
An awesome game. A totally depressing game. Esteban Loaiza by all accounts pitched the best game of his major league career, allowing no runs and only 4 hits over 7+ innings. He left the game with the lead, not having given up much of anything. Jeff Zimmerman came in, and after a minor tense moment, shut down the Indians, and we handed the game over to John Wetteland in the bottom of the 9th. He got the first batter out on one pitch, but then proceeded to give up back to back solo home runs to Manny Ramirez & Jim Thome to allow the Indians to walk away with a 2-1 win.
This was a most spectacular game on both sides of the coin. I am just disgusted at the ending. I really don't know what more to say about this one. Was an awesome game to watch, but the last 2 minutes of it I am still shaking my head over almost 24 hours later.
Hopefully Esteban can keep this up all season, it was a total masterpiece by him.
An awesome game. Pitching wise, save for one mistake to Jim Thome, we were really top notch. Mark Clark was perfect through the first 11 batters or so, and then he only had one bad inning, giving up a three run home run to Thome. He looked sharp, he looked in control, and was pulled in the 6th while he still had the chance to get the win. Our pitching the rest of the way was great, too. Francisco Cordero, Tim Crabtree, & John Wetteland all gave up no runs following Clark. John Wetteland got his first save of the year (finally). The HR by Thome was his 200th of his career, and the save for Wetteland was his 297th.
On the offensive side, we struck quickly and often in the first inning, putting up five runs. Always nice to see us strike this good so quickly. The five spot turned out to be all we needed for the day, although we added one more later. No home runs at all too which I like. It's nice to see a five spot without the aid of a longball. Gabe Kapler had two RBI's, Pudge had two RBI's, and Luis Alicea had a triple and the Rangers just looked overpowering early.
Hopefully, I can bring out my sweep graphic tomorrow afternoon. :) A short review, as I'm headed out for the afternoon, and wanted to get something in before I went out. :)
First off, a complaint. Listening to the radio coverage of this game today, the Ranger announcers talked about "protesters" outside Jacobs Field who were complaining against the Indians use of the "Indian symbol" as their team logo. I mean, this team has been around for what, a zillion years - and people are just NOW complaining? Why is it all of a sudden a problem? Political correctness, that's why. To me, anyone who complains about useless things like this deserves to be horsewhipped themselves. Stop wasting everyone's time, and protest against REAL problems. What a waste of time. I know my mother reads these things, so I won't truly say what I'm feeling here. Suffice it to say it's much stronger than these words. For these people, I present this group of images.. Wish I could find out where they all live, I'd sign 'em all up for Indians mailings. :)
On the Baseball front - oh man.. Rick Helling! And in April! :) 8 innings pitched (132 pitches), 4 hits, two earned runs. What a performance! The only mistake was a long ball to Omar Visquel in the first inning - Rick's first allowed HR in 2000. At this point in 1999 he had given up, what about 100 of them? Actually, Rick never allowed an Indian runner to second base after that. He had 9 strikeouts in 8 innings as well as two walks. Overall, a totally dominating performance by Rick. This is the kind of game he used to pitch all last year, and never got any run support for. Hopefully he'll get some better stuff this year - would be nice to be more like the 20 game winner from two years ago.
On the other side, for a change, we started out the game with the lead - which hasn't happened much so far this season. David Segui had a home run in the first for two of the three runs in that frame. We had a couple more runs in the third with small ball, which was nice to see. Our remaining two runs came off of solo home runs by Raffy & Pudge.
Was nice to see former Ranger Bobby Witt on the mound, and pitching fairly well, going three innings, allowing two hits and no runs with a strikeout. Fortunately, that wasn't damaging to us.
One final remark - where was all of this when we were in New York? Sigh.
No time to write commentary for this game, didn't even get to do this until 5PM Friday, after the first game against the Indians has already been over for about two hours. :)
Besides, it's the Yankees, what more do I need to say?
It's the Yankees again - what can I say? We always seem to find a way to lose to them. The Yankees themselves don't bother me - it's the fact that we can't beat them that bothers me.
Actually, I liked the game - went back and forth, and never really totally got out of hand - although it was a sloppy game. Perrenial Ranger killer Bernie Williams killed us again with another home run. I didn't like that we lost, but I did like that the game was close the whole way along - one of those see-saw games.
Couldn't watch on TV - listened on the radio, and it appeared that Mr. Whiny (O'Neill) was being his usual self at the plate. Always love when he flares up like that, and even David Cone was getting into the act.
I also liked reading in the DMN this morning about Kenny Rogers getting booed during player introductions, and then tipping his hat to the fans. Wish I could have seen that. :) We seem to be stuck in a Win lose win lose pattern right now. Still early, our division is all right next to each other, probably won't start to break apart until the end of April, I would think.
Rainout - and it was called the day before - almost 24 full hours before the game. This game will be made up in August - exact date is as of yet undetermined. Tomorrow's game time will be changed from 7PM to 1PM (NY Time).
A very nice day at the Ballpark for a game. Sunny, cool, a perfect Sunday afternoon. Of course, I left with sunburn on the right side of my face because I never remember to use sunblock. :)
Anyway, Rick Helling came out and threw a LOT of pitches. I was scoring the game, and for some reason, the number of pitches really seemed to concern me - he was at 75 through the first three innings. Rick gave up runs in the top of the first, a disturbing trend in just about every game the Rangers have had so far this season. However, that was about it for him. He did give up another run later in the game, but he seemed like he was never totally in control. He had 7 strikeouts in 6 innings, but really seemed to have to work for everything he got. What I didn't realize is that I looked at the line score right before he came out, and realized that he had only given up four hits over 6 innings - and one of the runs was unearned (via one of three Alicea errors on the day). It didn't really seem like he was overpowering at all at the game, but the line score shows it - only 2 earned runs over 6 innings, and 4 hits. A "Quality Start" by the technical defintion of the word. :)
On the other side of the coin, we got a long ball from Raffy, but the rest of the game was hits here and there that happened to be bunched together at the right time. We had three doubles and a triple in the game - coupled with some walks, we got more than enough runs across the plate. I liked the offense today - we scored runs, but it wasn't all on the longball (in fact, Raffy's solo HR was the only run from a long ball).
Relief pitching was great, too. Venafro only pitched to one batter, but Francsico Cordero looked great, and Jeff Zimmerman looked the most dominating I've seen him all year so far (including spring training). John Wetteland should have had an easy inning, but the third Alicea error of the game allowed two unearned runs to score, making the game a bit closer in the score than it should have been.
Overall a great game on a Sunday afternoon. I love my new season ticket seats - they have such a great vantage point - there's nothing you can't see from where I sit. On to the Bronx on Tuesday. Ugh.
What can you say about this one? Kenny Rogers pitched well, but made one or two minor mistakes, and paid for them. David Wells made none. Not a whole lot more can be said about this one - David Wells shut us down, and he also stopped Kenny Rogers' home winning streak of 19 games, which dated back to mid 1997 when he was with the Yankees.
This team is certainly up and down and all over the place so far this season. We win the first two games big, then we lose the second two, and we bounce back with a big 5 home run filled drubbing of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Mark Clark took the mound for the first time since last June, and to be honest, after the first two innings, I didn't feel he was a whole lot different. Sure, he pitched fairly well during spring, but Florida's games are a lot different than the ones that count. After two innings, we were down 4-0 (although one of the runs was unearned). However, that was it for the Blue Jays (except a solo HR by them in the 9th). From this point on it was all Texas.
What was interesting about this game if you check the line score, is that someone scored in all nine innings. The Jays scored in innings 1 & 2, and we scored in innings 3 through 8, and Toronto did in the 9th. However, we belted a total of five home runs, led by Royce Clayton, who had his first ever two home run game ever. Just about every one of our runs came from the long ball - was nice to see that, although I would not like to have to rely on it, as I can't believe we can sustain that over the course of a whole season.
Mark Clark, after the first two innings, settled in, and became the pitcher he was supposed to be when we first obtained him. He looked good, and was pulled probably out of concern based on his past - he didn't look thrilled sitting in the dugout after being pulled. However, he got a win for the first time in a long time, and he's got to feel happy about that.
I'm really busy at work today, but I can sum up what I wanted to say about this game in two words.. "James Baldwin". Man, he killed us last year, and he did it again last night! Not a whole lot more needs be said about this one. :)
Day games during the week are always tough for me to deal with, as I don't usually have time to pay attention to the game. However, I did a little today - I went into the company lounge, turned on the DSS, and sat in the sofa and watched the first two innings of the Ranger game. I had tickets to this game, but couldn't go because I had no one to go with - everyone I would have taken had to work. :)
Anyway, our pitching wasn't great again - seems like start of season jitters to me, as our pitching staff was excellent during spring training - people might be trying to prove too many things. At least I hope that's the case. Our bullpen is already overworked, having used a gob of pitchers the game before, as well as this one. Darren Oliver struggled the whole time he was out there. It appeared he had figured it out, but then fell apart again.
I was listening over the net at my desk, and when I heard that we had loaded the bases for Pudge, I ran into the lounge again to watch the game
We had brought it all the way back with a 7-7 tie in the bottom of the 8th, but it didn't last. Zimmerman gave up a solo home run in the top of the 9th, and then the Chisox added a few more, for a 12-7 lead after 8.5. We did pick up a solo home run in the bottom of the 9th by Chad Curtis, but that was it.
A rather disappointing loss, especially after coming back from a 7-1 deficit to tie the game.
Opening night - not as exciting as opening day, but it's still a great game - especially after the high from yesterday's game. When I was driving home from work, I was thinking - HEY - there's a baseball game on TV in about half an hour. After not having that for 6 months, it was a strangely weird feeling. I love baseball (as I think you know), but the fact that there was a Rangers game seemed strangely odd to me. Still, with Pizza on the way, you gotta love that.
Anyway, the first three innings of the game reminded me a lot of yesterday. Superb pitching from our starter, a big longball to jump out to a nice lead early. Rafael Palmeiro launched a three run monster shot into the upper home run porch (and almost out a walkway - that would have been cool) for a 3 run HR (his first of 2000) in the bottom of the first. Rick Helling looked sharp in the first three. However, that was it. In the top of the fourth, the fiasco started. Rick couldn't keep the ball down at all in the top of the fourth frame, and gave up three straight doubles, followed by a triple, and two singles - knocking Rick out of the game. A parade of pitchers followed Rick from this point with no one pitching two full innings. Venafro, Cordero, & Munoz followed Rick, and neither was particularly effective, although neither was bad, either. Our last two of the night (Crabtree & Wetteland) both pitched well. Chicago didn't do much better either, using a total of seven pitchers. Kip Wells, the starter, went 4 1/3, but no one pitcher pitched more than a single inning after that. Overall, an extremely sloppy pitching performance by both sides after the third inning. One of those "fiasco" games (my term), and we slugged it out. Our reputation this season is that we're not supposed to have games like this, but when we do, it's nice to come out of them with the W. Although this early in the season, it makes for some silly looking ERA's. :)
Babe Kapler also continued to smoke this game, going 3-5 on the night. No RBI's, but he did score a run, and looked good out there. The immediate breakout name of this season, I have no doubt of that. I'm also taking a much greater notice of Rudy Jaramillio this season - everything I've read and heard about makes me think he's the one coach we cannot afford to lose. Our staff has been together now for 6 years without losing anyone. No staff has been together longer, and each year I doubt that we'll keep it all together. I really think we'll lose a coach after this season, and I don't want to to be Rudy. Don't want to lose anyone, but especially Rudy (or Bucky, either - although Bucky is probably first in line for a managers job from any of our coaches).
Ah yes. Opening day. With it brings kids and gloves, hot dogs and beer, balloons & jet plane flyovers, big deal first pitches & lots of goodwill, shivering fans and 25-30 mph winds?!?! That's right - it was a rather cold opening day in Arlington. The place was packed, the lineups were introduced, and former president George Bush threw out the first pitch (high and outside to Pudge). Everything seemed set, but unfortunately, the wind was insanely bad today. The game was really cold, the temperature said it was 59, but it felt more like 40. By the end of the game, my wife was sitting with her jacket all buttoned up, and her legs and hands underneath a towel we happened to have in the trunk of the car for extra warmth.
However, it was a wonderful game. During the player introductions, virtually every player (except possibly Tom Evans - who is a virtual unknown to the average D/FW baseball fan) got a huge ovation - the largest seemed to go to Johnny Oates, Pudge, Raffy, & Gabe Kapler. And that was before Kapler even did anything! Kenny Rogers took the hill at the Ballpark, and pitched an excellent game. He went 8 innings, allowing 6 hits, 2 walks, & one earned run (for an era of 1.12). He never seemed totally dominating, but Kenny was Kenny, making two or three great fielding plays, getting four inning ending double plays, and generally making the fans feel good about the pitcher. Our pitching in the ninth inning wasn't so great, though. Tim Crabtree came in, and gave up three hits, loading the bases. All three of those guys scored in the inning (although Munoz & Zimmerman followed him) - all three were earned. However, that seemed lost in an otherwise great pitching day.
The other side of the coin.. Wow.. Not much happened through the first inning, and the first two batters of the second. However, Gabe Kapler stepped up to the plate, and just whacked the first pitch he saw over the fence for a solo home run, giving us a 1-0 lead. When the inning was over, the fans out in right field gave him a rather nice ovation, to which Gabe waved back at. We gave the lead back in the top of the 3rd, but in the bottom of the third, Luis Alicea singled, followed by an error allowing Clayton to get on. Rusty struck out, but Pudge followed and smacked a three run shot off the left field foul pole giving us a 4-1 lead, which we never surrendered. Gabe Kapler came up again in the 4th to much applause, and again hit the first pitch he saw out over the left field wall for his second home run - the first Ranger ever to hit two home runs in his first two Ranger at bats. This second home run prompted many calls of "Juan Who?" from Section 332 (most of which were coming from me, followed by laughter from others). Gabe got an even louder ovation from the right field porch after this inning, and when he came up again in the 5th, he got a stadium wide standing O, to which he followed with an RBI single. He came around to score in a very Pete Rose fashion in the inning, plowing through the catcher, making him drop the ball, and having to run back to the plate to score. Couple this with two really awesome (and I mean AWESOME) throws from right field to keep runners from advancing really made this feel like Gabe Kapler's day, even though Pudge had 5 RBI's, and two homers, this day just felt like Gabe's in Section 332 - or at least for me.
Of course, one game does not a season make, but damn.. If this is any indication of what is possible from these guys, this season ought to be fun. Might debunk just about every national sports coverage who picks the Rangers third or last!
My wife's nickname for Gabe Kapler - "Gabe the Babe".
Man, Enron was gorgeous! Can't wait for my trip down there in September to see an Astros / Pirates game. I initially did not like the choice of color for the new Astros logo & uniforms, but seeing it live in action coupled with their new park - it's an excellent choice. Their uniforms really match the look of the new park - especially the dirt, which my wife commented looked more like clay than dirt. I'm headed down there in September for a game, and I have to say, I'm looking forward to it even more so now than I was before - Enron looked awesome on TV, and I bet it's a hell of a lot better in person. One thing doesn't look good - that's Jeff Bagwell's ZZ Top impression. Just looks BAD. Although I'm sure they'll get some promotions out of it.
Esteban Loaiza started off the game, and looked good through the first two innings, not allowing a whole lot of activity. However, the third, he didn't do as well, allowing three runs to tie the game, but that was it. He came back and pitched and excellent fourth and fifth. The final four innings were taken up by Venafro, Crabtree, Munoz, & Zimmerman, all who needed one last look see before the season started. Overall, and excellently pitched game by Texas, which is supposed to be our forte this year.
Offensively, it was the long ball. Royce Clayton hit two home runs, one down each side of the park - the first one out to left, almost cleared the train tracks and hit the big window over left field. His second went over the right field wall, and between the two, that was 5 RBI's. The other jack was from David Segui, a three run blast, accounting for 3 more of the runs. Only one run was not from a long ball in Houston.
Overall, another great game by us - long balls providing the offense, good to great pitching, and a beautiful ballpark. About the only thing I would have liked more was for the game the actually count - that comes on Monday. :)
Got to the Ballpark early as most everyone did last night to see Big Mac take a few swings. He was in the third group of Cardinals that took BP. When he stood in, he got an ovation, which I'm sure he's used to by now. Anyway, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but he bunted his first pitch, which was amusing. :) Mac didn't play in the game, which I'm sure annoyed several people. I'd seen him before, but not since the big 70 HR season. Would have been nice, but oh well... The game itself was nice from the aspect of seeing the Texas Rangers live again. The fact that I was sick probably forced me to not enjoy it as much. Was blowing my nose the whole night, it seemed. However, I did take notice of a lot of things at the Ballpark itself...
It was a cold night at the Ballpark. I was (am) still sick with a cold, so that didn't help, but it was awesome being back at the park again after almost 6 months (for a game, anyway). It felt kind of weird, as I was rusty at watching live baseball, several times I had to get my bearings - that coupled with a move to a different section for season tickets (Sec 326 Row 7 from Sec 39 Row 43), my usual "places I looked for things during a game" were all different. They didn't have the whole thing going yet, as some of the usual things they do during a game weren't active (several scoreboard animations come to mind). The Ballpark itself is largely unchanged from last season in terms of signs and whatnot. The KXTX 39 is now a KDFI 27 sign. There is a new AT&T sponsored front to the triangle down in the right field corner. Nolan Ryan's retired number is moved. It used to be at the base of the second level of the Home run porch. Now it's (along with Jackie Robinson's number) is above the Diamond Club windows above left field. Replacing the old location for Nolan's number is a huge string of advertising running the length of the home run porch. It's not that large, but it's very visible when you look that way. I know that sounds confusing, but when you see it, you'll see what I mean. A Southwest Airlines "billboard" on the right field wall is different. The foul poles themselves look much yellower - they were probably painted. Also, the grass itself seems VERY green, but it hasn't had time to be burnt out by the Texas heat yet.
Also, the Jumbotron had a bunch of problems - there's several display issues, like a bunch of bulbs were burnt out or malfunctioning, and some of them were inthe spot that the player pictures were, so it looked like they had a big white bandage on their noses. :) It also went to color bars for about two minutes at one point during the game. Some more work needed there for the boys in the control room. Also, those new membership cards they have for the Rangers & Stars had their machines there you could swipe. Some might not like that stuff, but I rather did. Got a free coke out of it that would have cost me $3.75, so I can't complain about that at all. The new Commissioner's box section at the end of the Rangers' dugout appeared to have simply folding chairs in there. I hope that's not permanent - I'd be pissed off paying $100 bucks and getting a folding chair! Give me those seats in the 200 level. Since I can't get in there, I can't comment on the new club behind home plate - although I'm sure the air conditioning will be nice come July & August. The kids stuff out in Vandergriff plaza looked pretty cool. The wiffle ball park was like an even smaller version of the Ballpark (than is in the Dr. Pepper kids park across the street). Most of this stuff seemed to be geared towards kids, but that will make for some really nice memories for those who use 'em, I'm sure.
I picked up a Media Guide and a Yearbook - I'll be updating the roster probably on Sunday to bring everyone up to speed now that the 25 man roster is all but 1 player decided. We play the Astros in Enron this afternoon, and then it's on to the regular season on Monday!
I personally never understand the point of playing your own minor league club. You're supposed to shellac them. If you lose, it's an embarrassment. I didn't get to catch this game at all because of it's non coverage on the radio or TV. Probably the one game of the season I didn't care about. :)
The Rangers' final Florida Spring Training game was today - a win over perennial spring opponents the Minnesota Twins.
John Wetteland got yet another start, and pitched one inning, giving up just a hit. Also on the positive side was 5 innings of no run, 3 hit baseball from Kenny Rogers (whose next game should be Monday - the opener), and an inning of no hit no run ball from Mike Munoz. Matt Perisho didn't fare as well, all the runs we gave up came from him (all earned, too). Without a game log, it's hard to tell how they scored, but overall, it didn't seem like that bad of a pitching performance based on the box score.
On the offensive side, our eight hits were scattered over eight different players. Scott Sheldon made the most of his one at bat, getting a three run home run in the seventh to give us the lead in the game, and the win.
Now that we're breaking camp, we should start to see the final roster cuts made. Once the final 25 are announced, I'll be updating my roster page with that info. I'm also hoping they'll have the Media Guide for sale - a ton of my roster info comes from there. :)
Can't wait! I'm headed out to Arlington to see the Cardinals game. It's so close, I can smell it!
I was pretty sick yesterday, and that coupled with the Tornadoes in the area yesterday evening didn't leave me feeling like writing about baseball at all.
As much as I love baseball, when it comes down to something like your life, baseball just doesn't seem that important.
The Rangers hang on to get a 9-8 win over the Cincinnati Reds today in the final radio broadcast game from Florida this spring.
Double for Pudge in 1st, good base running by Chad Curtis - Pudge seems to be coming together offensively late in Spring.
Sloppy third inning on both sides allowing to a few runs for each team. Errors, wild pitches, etc led to the Reds taking the lead in the inning. We took the lead back in the bottom of the third with a double by Raffy. Aaron Boone followed up with his second error of the inning, allowing the Rangers two extra outs in the inning. This led to a triple by Segui adding another run, followed by a single by Kapler. The Rangers did bat around this inning, sending 10 men to the plate.
Segui later hit a 2 run HR (his first as Ranger) in the 6th, giving us a 4 run lead at the time. Gabe Kapler then follows with an opposite field HR for back-to-back with Segui. Segui had a great day - he's really starting to look like a great pickup. :)
In the 9th, R.A Dickey couldn't close the door, and Edwin Diaz made a bad play turning a double play that allowed the Reds to creep back into the game one run behind the Rangers. The Rangers finally turned a double play to hold on to a 9-8 win.
Loaiza wins, now 3-0, although he didn't dominate at all. The box score said Wetteland got the win, the radio guys said Loaiza. I'm not sure which is the actual winner at the moment I write this.
Unfortunately, I don't have time to write any commentary for this game. I've been sick most of the weekend, and I don't remember very many of the details of this game on Monday morning (when I'm writing this).
Unfortunately, I don't have time to write any commentary for this game. I've been sick most of the weekend, and I don't remember very many of the details of this game on Monday morning (when I'm writing this).
Unfortunately, I don't have time to write any commentary for this game. Barely have the time to update the page. :)
Yesterday was an eventful day even though the Rangers had their lone "off day" of the season. The new TV contracts were announced (finally), and the 2000 TV Schedule was published (I updated my 2000 Schedule with that). Shortly after the 23-9 game on Tuesday, seven roster changes were made. Lots happening.
Today, we got back into action with a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins. From looking at the box score, today was a somewhat pitcher's duel - there were total of 15 hits from both teams (Rangers with 6). Each team had an error, although the Rangers error didn't appear to cost us any runs. Mark Clark on the other hand, went 6 innings, allowing four earned runs and 9 hits. The other two Ranger pitchers (Perisho & Crabtree) didn't give up anything in their two innings. Mark Clark gave up a long ball in the first for two runs, and then gave up another in the first, and one more was added later.
We lost, but it doesn't seem like we were in that bad of a condition. We were outpitched it seems, and our pitcher made a couple of small mistakes where theirs didn't.
From the looks of the score, not having seen or heard the game, it doesn't look like a game worth getting to bent out of shape over the loss over.
Where do I begin with a score like this? When I saw this game on the wire score after the fourth inning, it was already 15-0. I couldn't believe the score. I'm one of these people who likes games when they happen against us, because I love seeing how large the score can get, because once it gets this bad, the team is usually demoralized, and they give up a ton more runs, too. Plus, games like this tend to be a magnet for runs, and a team usually doesn't do as badly it seems after one of these.
Anyway, we had hits all over the place (20 of them), runs (23 of them, 9 alone in the third), home runs all over the place (6 of 'em), and some excellent pitching by Wetteland (who started, actually), Loaiza, & Cordero. Not so good from Zimmerman & Glynn (who was sent down after this game). Ruben Mateo had an awesome game, going 4 for 5 with 5 runs scored, and three RBI's. Gabe Kapler was 3 for 4 with 4 RBI's, Rusty Greer was 3 for 3 with 3 RBI's.. I could go on and on, just check out the box score below for a list of that stuff.
What more can you say about a game like this? Offense all over the place, and overall some great pitching. Our runs were all given up by Zimmerman, who continues to have a bad spring, and Ryan Glynn, who is already gone from camp. I'm really excited about our starting 5 this year - even Mark Clark. :)
Naturally, we didn't get to see or hear the game. I'm a bit worried now about TV coverage, as it's less than two weeks away, and I haven't seen an announcement on TV coverage, and I'm wondering if we're going to lose the three scheduled pre season TV games we had slated for this coming week.
There's no game on Wednesday, as it's our only day off of the Spring. Johnny Oates sent down 7 players to the minors, and in one of the least suspensful announcements, named John Wetteland opening day starter. He also has decided on a lineup for the most part for the upcoming season:
Clayton
Greer
Pudge
Raffy
Segui
Mateo
Kapler
Evans/Lamb
Alicea
I kind of like that, but I'm a bit concerned with the lack of a "big name" at the bottom. I liked it last year when Lee Stevens batted seventh - kind of the second cleanup spot. However, we have to protect Palmeiro, so fifth is a good spot for Segui, I suppose. 9 more days till the first game at the Ballpark - the return of Fernando Tatis. I'm really surprised the Rangers aren't pushing that more. I know McGwire is the big magnet (especially with women - "Chicks dig the long ball"), but I know there's a lot of hardcore Ranger fans around here more interested in seeing Tatis again.
I'm not writing anything about this game, as I've had a few personal problems today. Found out a co-worker of mine had a heart attack Sunday night, and is in ICU. Also had another personal matter I don't care to discuss here.
I forgot about the game until I saw the TV highlights on the 10PM news tonight. Nice to see Darren Oliver strike out Junior on TV. Nice video clip. :)
Sorry - just not in a mood to write about baseball right now.
The annual Phillies games against the Rangers in Spring bring up my usual thoughts that I don't know who to root for, with both of my home town teams playing against each other. :) The Phillies ended up on top at the end, so I liked the win from that aspect. They just seemed to want it more than Texas did this day from the sounds of it on the radio.
Even though we had four runs, we only got four hits - we were really shut down for the most part by Philly's pitching. Randy Wolf, a borderline pitcher shut us down completely - allowing just one hit over 5 2/3 innings, and one earned run. Carlos Reyes, who relieved him was really wild, throwing two straight wild pitches, leading to our first run (which I think was charged to Wolf). We fared a bit better against Jeff Brantley, scoring three more runs against him in one inning on three hits - but that was it. Actually, our first hit should have been an error, but Philly 2nd baseman Marlon Anderson was spared the call of an error.
A couple of notable things: David Segui made his Ranger debut in this game, wearing uniform #9. He said he'll wear that until Spring's over, and he sees what uniform numbers are available. Rick Helling struck out Scott Rolen swinging twice, which was about the only bright point for him in an otherwise blah appearance. Bill Haselman was hit on the knee with a pitch, and had to come out of the game. The Rangers hit into two double plays to end innings. Ruben Mateo showed some patience at the plate, which is uncommon for him to this point - he went 2 for 2. The other two hits we had were a hit by Edwin Diaz, and a solo home run by Jason McDonald.
Overall, a roller coaster game for me personally. The Rangers probably did not deserve the close score they got in the final tally in the box score - they seemed to be playing asleep to me.
This game was a contrast in pitching. We had some great pitching, and some not so great pitching. On the good department was Kenny Rogers, who continues to shine during the pre-season. It almost seems like he didn't even need it, and was ready for opening day from the first day of camp. Was it wanting to prove himself after the walk against the Braves in the playoffs? Whatever the reason, he certainly seems ready to go. Someone who is NOT ready to go is Jeff Zimmerman. Jeff allowed four earned runs yesterday in 1 2/3 innings pitched. Yes, I'm aware baseball rules say that two of the runs got charged to Kenny Rogers, but to be honest, the way Kenny pitched, he didn't deserve that. Joaquin Benoit came in, pitched only 1/3 of an inning, and then the game was called due to rain. Kenny Rogers got an obscene amount of his outs on ground balls, and continued to back up his reputation as one of the best fielding pitchers out there. Can't wait for opening day!
On the flip side, the Pirates starter gave up everything - 7 earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. It really seemed that after being called for a balk in the third, Jimmy Anderson just fell apart. After the balk, he allowed a sac fly (Greer), a double (Pudge), a home run (Raffy), a ground out (Curtis), another home run (Mateo - his second of the day; the moonshot), a double (Kapler), and a single (Lamb).
Michael Lamb continues to not gain ground on Tom Evans in the 3B race with another error today, as well as going 1-4 at the plate. Bill Haselman had a passed ball (why aren't these counted as errors?), but that's about the end of the defensive miscues toda
The big stick of the day was Ruben Mateo who hit two home runs, one of which from the sounds of Eric Nadel just about cleared the pond out in left. I saw this home run on a TV replay late in the evening, and you couldn't even see the ball go - the Pirates' left fielder just stood there, didn't even move. :) What's interesting is that no Pirate pitcher had given up a home run at all in Spring training before this point - and we hit three in less than two innings.
A big disappointment was the lack of Kettle Korn - Eric & Vince were bemoaning the fact that the Kettle Korn guy was not at the game yesterday.
Tomorrow we play my home town Philadelphia Phillies. Don't know who to root for when this happens.
This is a game where I'm glad I didn't have to listen to it, because I probably would have been disgusted with the home run balls against us, the errors, and the generally sloppy game from the looks of the line/box scores below.
From the looks of the box score, it appears we didn't take a lot of regular players with us on this trip to Baltimore's park. There's a few names in there I've never seen before (Who is Podsednik in RF?) We had a total of 15 hits, pretty evenly spread out from all the Rangers who played - everyone had at least one hit except the two players I never heard of (the other was a Salano at SS).
It was a slugfest for sure - a total of 26 hits, but there were also seven errors between the teams (we had 3 - Salano, Palmeiro, & Diaz). Probably could have been a whole lot worse, as we left 10 men on base, too. Kelly Dransfeldt led the charge in the 6 run 7th inning with a grand slam - a total of 6 runs were scored that inning.
Mark Clark didn't look sharp today, though - giving up 4 earned runs on 5 hits in 4 innings. Our starting pitching has been excellent to awesome so far this spring, they can't all be that way, I'm sure. Clark overall seems like the pitcher we thought we were getting last year. Let's see if that holds up.
Tomorrow we're back on the radio against the Pittsburgh Pirates. :)
No time at all today to write a commentary - I'm way too busy today at work. I barely have the time to do this. In fact, the only reason I'm even updating at all is I wanted to have something online about Lee Stevens being dealt away today. :)
DUNEDIN, Florida (Ticker) -- Charlie Greene hit a two-run homer and DeWayne Wise doubled in two runs as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Texas Rangers, 6-2, in a Grapefruit League game overshadowed by a three-team trade involving the two clubs.
The Blue Jays acquired Brad Fullmer from Montreal and sent David Segui and cash to Texas, which shipped Lee Stevens to the Expos.
Segui started the game as the designated hitter but was removed in the sixth inning after the deal was completed. Stevens was the starting first baseman before leaving for a pinch hitter in the sixth.
Wise's two-run double in the fifth inning came off former Blue Jay Tim Crabtree, who took the loss after he was tagged for three runs and five hits in two innings.
Greene allowed the Blue Jays to move out to a 5-2 lead in the seventh inning and Kevin Witt added a solo homer in the eighth.
Clayton Andrews pitched four scoreless innings in relief for the victory. Starter Chris Carpenter allowed one run and four hits in two innings.
Mike Simms hit a solo homer in the seventh inning for Texas.
Doug Davis got the start for the Rangers and hurled three scoreless innings, striking out four.
Three days in a row we go with awesome pitching, winning today 2-0. We won yesterday 3-2, and the day before that 6-1. Pinch me, I must be asleep. :)
We got some awesome pitching again today from the Rangers staff. Darren Oliver, who so far has been spectacular this spring went 4 1/3 innings, throwing 58 pitches, and giving up no hits, one walk, and no runs. In fact, he was perfect through the first 3 innings, I believe. The rest of our pitching for the afternoon (Zim, Glynn, & Benoit) only gave up three hits the rest of the way, preserving the shutout. It wasn't as great as Boston's perfect game yesterday (by 6 total pitchers), but given the way the Ranger pitching staff has been giving up runs the last few years, this is a godsend! The Orioles didn't get a hit until the top of the 6th on a bunt single towards third off of Ryan Glynn.
We got some nice D in the field, too - from Kapler & Evans in the first two innings. From what's been said in the media the last 48 hours, it's starting to seem like Tom Evans will start the season at third in Arlington. I think Lamb might have been rushed too much - we'll see.
Chad Curtis scored both of our runs today - the first being in the first inning when Pudge singled him home from second, and the other in the 6th when Albert Belle misplayed a ball in right, allowing Curtis to score on another hit by Pudge.
Wind was a big factor today, taking away a two run home run by Raffy, as well as two home runs by the Orioles, as well.
Pitching! Pitching! Pitching! Two days in a row - Woo-hoo! :) We also got our first back to back wins of the spring, too.
I always love it when we play the Pirates or Phillies in spring, because I'm from PA, and both of these teams seem more interesting to me for some reason. Wish I could have heard it, though. Hell, I wish Interleague play lets us play them, but it doesn't. Hopefully Bud will work something out for next season.
Anyway, we got decent pitching again today. Starter Rick Helling went 4 innings, scattering 6 hits, and allowing only 1 earned run, while walking one, and K'ing 4. Zimmerman, Munoz, Cordero, & Chuck Smith went the other 5 and gave up no earned runs (although one unearned was scored against Smith, who got a save). On the flip side, Pittsburgh got great pitching too, with one exception. Jason Phillips, who only went 2/3 of an inning gave up all three runs the Rangers scored, walking three with only one hit - but three walks (including one with the bases loaded to Stevens) is never good. The rest of their pitching went 7 1/3 innings, giving up no earned runs, and only 3 hits. There's been some buzz about Pittsburgh being better than most people think - if they get pitching like this all the time, they will be.
Speaking of that, the Rangers only had four hits all day - two by Frank Catalanotto, and the others by Gabe Kapler & Bill Haselman. Not really a whole lot there, we didn't really win this game, it was handed to us by Jason Phillips.
Today's game is on the radio, that'll be cool. I wish the Rangers would get their act together with 2000 TV coverage - read something in the paper today that there will be NO spring games on the TV, there are supposed to be three according to the published schedule at the start of spring - I'm hoping they still happen.
Pitching! Pitching! Pitching! This is what the 2000 Rangers are supposed to be all about, and we got it today. Big time!
What a game not to be on the radio. A two hit masterpiece by Kenny Rogers, followed up by three innings of shutout, no hit ball from Tim Crabtree & Doug Davis. The only mistake Kenny Rogers made in his six innings was a solo home run to Shannon Stewart in the fourth. Other than a single elsewhere, that's all Kenny (or Crabtree/Davis) gave up all game! My - I would have loved to have seen this sucker, these are really fun games to watch, unless of course you're the team it's being done to. :)
Royce Clayton continues to rise to the leadoff challenge this spring, going 2-4 with a double and a couple of RBI's. Ruben Mateo also went 2-4, the remaining 5 hits we got were scattered among 5 other players. We were assisted by two Toronto errors, but for some reason, this just "feels" like a game where we got timely hitting. We did get a solo HR from Chad Curtis who could turn out to be our starting left fielder for awhile if Rusty isn't ready. If Sele falters in Seattle, it'll make the Rogers signing look that much better (at least to me)...
Bad news about Rusty Greer - he's back in D/FW to have himself checked out - could be bad, let's hope not. Not much movement with Wetteland or Venafro, either. :( Venafro might solve the "What to do about Mark Clark & Matt Perisho" issue (Stick Perisho in the pen, let Clark start unless he sucks the rest of spring) with his injury.
I did listen to this game on the radio - or at least most of it. This weekend was a big social weekend for me (saw Weird Al on Sat night, and Mission to Mars on Sunday). Since I got disgusted listening to the Rangers drop another one to the Twins, I bailed out after the Twins scored two more in the 7th - and started to get ready to go out for the evening.
However, there was some interesting stuff in the game. Our first run came rather interestingly, on a fielder's choice, an error, and a passed ball. The next pitch after the passed ball, Lee Stevens went yard for a two run home run, pulling us within two runs. However, we gave them right back, and I got disgusted. It turns out the Cat hit a home run in the 9th that I didn't hear (but read about in the box score). Was nice for them to pull it back and make it interesting, but hopefully when we start removing some of the pitchers that aren't going to be with the club when we break camp, we might start getting some more realistic pitching from the folks who will be pitching after March.
Our boys in the field were rather sloppy in the second, giving up three runs this way: Infield hit, stolen base allowed, error (on Pudge), a walk, a wild pitch, a double, and another infield hit. Blech.
We're back on the radio Wednesday against the Orioles - Just two more weeks (from yesterday) till the return of Ranger baseball to TV, and three weeks until the start of the new season! :)
A Ranger game on the radio during the Spring, but unfortunately, I couldn't listen. I was headed out to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert. I got to hear the first two innings, but there wasn't much there to listen to.
I am listening to Sunday's game as I write this, so I think I'll just skip commentary on this game short of this.. "Doh! 0-3 against the Reds in the Spring."
Back on the radio! Coolness. :)
A roller coaster game for me listening on the radio. We got out early and big, and I was hoping that unlike a lot of other spring games so far, we'd be able to keep the lead. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. We got out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning thanks to the second grand slam of the pre-season for the Rangers; this time by Tom Evans, who really has to be given a look for third if he keeps this up for another couple of weeks. Evans' slam (he was 2 for 3 today) was his fourth homer so far, the 13th by the Rangers, and the second slam (the other was Kapler). There were also two triples in this inning, one by Gabe Kapler, and the other by Royce Clayton. We did score a fifth run when Clayton was hit in by Rusty Greer, I believe. We batted around this inning, and I felt good.
However - after a masterful appearance by Darren Oliver (3 IP, 40 pitches, 1H, 1K, 3 broken bats), he left, and the Jays caught up with home runs in the 4th (Segui off Crabtree), the 5th (Lopez off Munoz), and the 6th (Bautista off Benoit). There goes another big lead. However, the back end pitching was perfect - Doug Davis & Chuck Smith combined to pitch three perfect innings - retiring all 9 they faced.
During this time, we picked up four more runs - one more by the long ball (McDonald who was 2 for 2 off former Ranger Eric Gunderson) in the 8th. I was busy during this time, and didn't get to pay much attention, I only heard the long ball score personally.
One other highlight was a spectacular catch (going by the radio guys' voices) by Ruben Mateo to end the 7th inning.
Was a nice win - hopefully our relief pitching gets it going before the season starts. So far they've been less than stellar this spring, but that's not a whole lot to worry about yet. Still feeling good (if different) about 2000.
Another spring game not on the radio. :(
This score looks awful familiar. 8-6 in extra innings. Unfortunately today it went the wrong way. We lost to the Red Sox in 11 innings, 8-6. Rick Helling continued his bad trend of last season by giving up two home runs today - he gave up far too many last season in my opinion. Pitching was overall pretty bad today. Helling went three, giving up three hits and three earned runs. Glynn went two giving up two earned runs and hitting a batter. Corey Lee & David Elder both gave up an earned run. Jonathan Johnson & David Sikorski did not, but neither of these figure to be with the big league club when we head north anyway.
We had two errors, one by Scarborough Green and Mike Lamb.
We hit 250 for the day, going 10 for 40 as a team, leaving 6 on base. Our ten hits were spread out all over the place, the only person to have more than one hit was Jon Shave, the other eight were by eight different Rangers. We had two doubles (Evans & Pudge) and a triple (Clayton). A little surprising (to me) speed on the basepaths, with steals by Curtis & Mateo, although Gabe Kapler got caught stealing. Speaking of being all over the place, all six of our runs were batted in by six different Rangers!
Not a whole lot else about this one to say. Disappointing loss (aren't they all?) - but tomorrow we have a game on the radio again (KRLD). Yay!
If we keep up these losing ways, the Yankees might overtake us in the Grapefruit league standings! :)
Another spring game not on the radio. :(
Twenty hits. 10 inning win. 5-6 with a HR for the Cat. 4-6 with a 3B for Mike Lamb. Every Ranger pitcher today had at least one K. Those were some of the good things about today's game.
Fifteen men left on base. 0-4 & an error for Dransfeldt. 3H, 2ER, 1 Inning for Munoz. These were some of the bad things about today's game.
I don't have much time to write about today's game, as I'm leaving the office for the day in a few minutes (tonight's my bowling night). 20 hits, eh? When I saw that on the line score (before I saw the box score), I thought... "Man, there must have been a lot of blown opportunities for runs". With 15 men left on base, yeah, I'd say there was. That's never good. I tend to go on a lot about how spring doesn't count, but damn.. FIFTEEN? Nice to see the Cat bust out with a really awesome day. Would have been nice to see.
Gotta run, but I wanted to add that it's always nice to see an extra inning win, instead of an extra inning LOSS!
Another spring game not on the radio - even if it was, I wouldn't have been able to pay attention, was busy with work today.
However, a 3-1 score isn't that terrible of a loss. I just hate ones where we lose giving up more than 5 or 6 runs. We were out-pitched, I'd wager (not having seen or heard the game). Both teams had only 5 hits, although one of Tampa's was a home run off of Benoit. No dingers for the Rangers today, after going deep five times yesterday.
A pitcher I'm not terribly fond of beat us today, Chad Ogea. Being a lifelong Phillies fan, I've kept tabs on them, and Chad was in Philly last year - and was really really bad there. It would be like getting beat by Todd Van Poppel now. :) Mark Clark pitched three scoreless innings, allowing only one hit. I'm really hoping he'll be the dark horse and pitch really well this year. Last spring, I wished he would do as advertised, which he didn't. I was a fan of him coming here before, and I'd love for him to do well, although I'm not optimistic.
Of our five hits, two of them came from Royce Clayton, who seems to be stepping up to the challenge of taking over the leadoff spot so far this spring (going 2 for 3 today, but with a caught stealing). The other three were from Luis Alicea, Kelly Dransfeldt, & Ruben Mateo. Of the three runs the DRays scored, only one was earned - there was an error by Tom Evans in there (not seeing a game log, I can't specifically comment).
Wish I could have seen this on TV, I like pitching duels - although a pitching duel tends to be a bit more boring on the radio. :) Tomorrow is another day for no radio from the Rangers. Next scheduled radio game is Friday.
Figures. Those of you who followed me last season should be familiar with my irritation with Spring training games on the radio being passed aside in favor of (ugh) Dr. Laura. Anyway, today's one of those days that really pisses me off more. We have a great game like this, and I can't hear it. For these games that aren't on the radio, I tend not to write a lot, because my writing usually comes from notes that I've taken while watching or listening to the game. Since I can't listen to this, I can't say a lot. That annoyance aside...
The Rangers bust out in a big way for our first win of the pre-season with a 13-6 clobbering of the Boston Red Sox. We did it with the long ball, a total of five home runs! Of those five, the highlights were a home run by Luis Alicea off of Pedro Martinez (!), and the other being a grand slam by "Gabe the Babe" (my wife's term)! The other homers were Raffy off of former Ranger Jeff Fassero, a second home run by Luis Alicea (is he using Royce's Sam Bat?), and Jason McDonald. Gabe also hit a triple in this game - that's always cool to see - let's hope he saves a lot of these for the regular season! :)
From what I can read about the game, it appears that Loaiza pitched well - which is a common theme in the four games so far this pre-season. Our projected starters pitch well in their two innings, then leave. Kenny Rogers is slated to pitch a bit more second time out - let's see if that holds up.
Tomorrow is another day for no radio from the Rangers - I wonder if we'll be able to get the feed from the Devil Rays' radio coverage.
Well, the second straight loss in a row to the Reds leads now to our 0-3 Spring Training record. Not a terribly great start. They don't count, of course, and most of these players won't be with the team when we head north, but 0-3 is never good.
It started off good enough, with Darren Oliver on the mound. In the first inning he struck out Ken Griffey, Jr. - a great moment. In fact, Oliver pitched two shutout innings - which seems to be the norm for our starters the first three games of Spring training. Unfortunately, the next three pitchers didn't fare as well - Zimmerman giving up 1 run (although in fairness to Zim it was a solo home run to Griffey), Cordero giving up one run, and Kolb giving up three. RA Dickey pitched the 8th, and had a shutout inning.
Zimmerman actually sounded good, and with the exception of the long ball to Junior, pitched two good innings. Francisco Cordero was wild, with three walks and a hit in there, but lucked out in only giving up one run during his one inning of work. Danny Kolb fared much worse, giving up three earned runs (even though there was a Scarborough Green error in there). What I took away from this game was that Oliver, Zimmerman, & Dickey pitched well, and Cordero did not (he was really wild), and Kolb was behind a lot of batters (as Cordero was), and wasn't all that great, either. Cordero sounded like what his reputation was like. Insanely fast stuff, but has control problems. In fact, he lucked out leaving the bases loaded in the inning he pitched.
The first inning brought a hit by Chad Curtis right away, but that was it. In fact, that was the story of the first three innings - a single hit, but nothing more. We never really got anything going offensively all day - our hitters were swinging at first pitches a lot, and we only got the two runs we did because Lee Stevens & Tom Evans connected, and hit solo home runs. Our bats didn't sound too hot over the radio today at all.
Some other highlights: In the fourth, Pudge had his somewhat disturbing problem of losing the bat out of his hands two straight pitches - the second one went into the stands. In the seventh, Scarborough Green got an infield bunt single - however, that memory was erased by a poor through he made while in the field for an error, allowing a run to score.
One thing that struck me as funny was the SHORTNESS of the game. When it was done, I walked into my kitchen, and saw the time was 2:20! It started at 12:05 - this was a very short game! Some other stuff to take out of this that I liked - For the third straight game, our starters pitched extremely well, and Tom Evans hit another jack - leading the Grapefruit league in these. If he keeps this up, he'll have to be a serious contender for the club's opening day roster.
Tomorrow, we play the Boston Red Sox, and Esteban Loaiza pitches for us, and Pedro Martinez for the Red Sox. Rusty Greer could return tomorrow from his right ankle inflammation.
Unfortunately, tomorrow begins the annoying habit of no radio games on during Spring. The next radio game is FRIDAY. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I found out why there aren't as many games on the radio during Spring Training at the recent Rangers Winter Carnival. I asked Eric Nadel that question, and he rolled his eyes and said "Dr. Laura". It seems that when Ranger games are on during the week, the KRLD switchboard lights up with complaints from Dr. Laura fans. What we need to do is call up and complain when she is on - there has GOT to be more baseball fans than Dr. Laura fans (ughhh) - I can't imagine SHE ALONE is the reason we don't get to hear more pre-season baseball. KRLD's number is 817-543-5400 in case anyone's interested. :)
Well, we're now 0-2 after the first two games of the Grapefruit league. Today's loss came in the form of an 8-1 lackluster effort against the Cincinnati Reds, our regular opponent, it seems. We tend to play the Reds a lot.
I was cleaning the spare bedroom closet today while the game was on, so I didn't terribly pay attention to the game, but to be honest, from what I heard, it wasn't worth paying attention to - it just seemed like a half effort from what I heard on the radio. Pitching was just "eh", and we never got anything going offensive wise. Actually, Helling & Munoz gave up most of the runs, we had a few pitchers in the middle who went scoreless too, but it just "felt" like an "eh" pitching effort. We also seemed to have several defensive miscues in the 8th inning. The Reds had 16 hits - rather a lot, and we only had 8. The one run we did get came in on a double play ball hit by Raffy, I believe.
This seemed to be another game like yesterday, with a big shuffling of players, both off the bench, and in the field. The radio guys made a comment about Johnny Oates "clearing the bench" at one point, and then they seemed to move players around in the field in the later innings, too.
It's hard to come up with a lot to write when you weren't paying a lot of attention (I could tell you some of the cool junk I found in my closet, though), and when you turn in a big loss like this. I know, I know - it's still very early, but it's never nice to see a loss, no matter how early in March it is. Oh well, better luck tomorrow when we play the Reds again at their park. Should get to hear Junior then - was kind of hoping that'd happen today.
Well, the annual "best day of the Spring" happened today. The first baseball game of the season. Yeah, yeah, I know the Rangers played an intrasquad game yesterday, but that doesn't really count, does it? It's not a true "game" against another team. Today, we opened the season in the Twins camp, and lost to them 10-9, in a really thrilling game. Last year we opened with a loss too, and I didn't care. I didn't much care about this one, either. Even if we lost 35-1, I'd still be into it, because baseball is back on the air!
I also started the season with my own personal tradition - a baseball lunch brought to me at work by my wife Lynn. This year, it consisted of hot dogs with kraut and my favourite Jalapeno mustard, home made potato salad in a Rangers cap (the kind you get ice cream at when at the Ballpark), a Texas Rangers cup, and special 'Texas Ranger cookies' (which were chocolate chip cookies with Red & Blue M&M's in them). There was also a real baseball thrown in - it was again a quite cool thing for her to do (there's a picture of the lunch below).
The starting lineup was a bit different than usual, both with the influx of new players, plus two minor injuries to Rusty Greer & John Wetteland. The radio guys (Hi Vince & Eric!) both said it wasn't anything major, though. The starting lineup was:
Clayton SS
Alicea 2B
Mateo CF
Palmeiro 1B
Kapler RF
Simms DH
Haselman C
Lamb 3B
McDonald LF
Rogers SP
Royce seemed eager to prove he belongs in the #1 hole by starting off with a single and stolen base, but we couldn't do anything with it. Kenny Rogers seemed sharp, pitching two shutout innings, throwing 22 pitches. He was replaced by Ryan Glynn, who also pitched two shutout innings, including 2 of the first 3 batters being K's. Unfortunately, that's about the end of the great pitching for the Rangers today. As I write this, the wire stories aren't in yet, so I'm not sure who all pitched, but Jonathan Johnson, Brian Sikorski, Chuck Smith, & Corey Lee pitched. Base running boo-boo by Jason McDonald, being picked off to end the third with Ruben Mateo on base.
Shortly after this, Johnny Oates started playing musical chairs - the only player from the starting lineup to finish the game was Mike Simms - everyone else was out after only a few innings - most of the names who played the game won't be with the club in the spring, but some late inning power might change some opinions, if they hold it up over all of camp.
In the fourth, we had two leadoff singles, a walk, a double for Simms for 2 RBI's - then Haselman was hit. We did score the two, but totally failed with the bases loaded to do anything more than that with 0, 1, & 2 outs. Not good. As the game progressed, it seemed like this was going to be the bane of the loss. You could say it was, but it didn't feel like it to me.
The fifth inning I didn't hear, because I was busy with some other stuff at work, which was good, because I came back, and it was 5-2 Minnesota - I missed all the junk with the Twins teeing off against Johnson. The Twins added a 6th run in the 6th off of Corey Lee with a solo home run.
We started to come back in the 7th with a two run home run off the bat of Tom Evans, making it 6-4, but those hopes were dashed when the Twins scored 3 runs in the bottom of the frame pulling back out to a 9-4 lead.
The 9th brought another HR for Texas, this time by Edwin Diaz to make it 9-6. Tom Evans hit his second of the day with a totally monster home run to make it 9-7 - Eric Nadel's voice was insanely loud over his regular speaking voice on this one - must have been a real blast. Sheldon got a single - the fourth in a row with no one out, and was followed by a Kelly Dransfeldt home run (the third of the inning) to tie up the game STILL with no one out. I was sitting in my chair with my hands in the air for the Dransfelt home run - a cool feeling on a Friday afternoon. :)
Unfortunately, the Twins pulled it out in the bottom of the 9th with a 10-9 win with "Alphabet (Doug Mientkiewicz (sp!)" scoring from second on a 2 out single to left. While the game was a loss, it still felt like a good game, and the pitchers most likely to be with the club during the season (OK, Glynn is probably a long shot, but still) pitched well.
I'm glad to have Ranger baseball back - and it's now only four weeks until the first game at the Ballpark when Mark McGwire & Fernando Tatis return with the Cardinals in an exhibition game. Can't wait!
