G123: Rangers finally win again, 12-5 over Toronto

Rob Bell is starting to look like the player we traded away to get him. He's playing sloppy, has moments of brilliance, but hasn't ever put it together totally. However, I'm not down on him yet, I still feel he will be great, but with the performance today, it's hard to tell. Of the five runs the Jays scored, three were a direct result of Rob Bell's wild pitches. All three came with someone on third - who then scored. That is not good.

I missed the start of this game, as I was TiVoing the Astros/Pirates game, which overlapped the start of the Rangers game, so when I started watching, it was 1-0, and I came in just in time to see Bell's two wild pitch runs in the first. That didn't set me up in a good mood. However, I was OK with the game as it progressed - going into the bottom of the sixth, we were only down 3-1, with our sticks, I could deal with that. However, we then went down 5-1, which is also not that big of a deal, but the wind was kind of out of my sails. I started skipping through the game, but started watching again in the top of the 8th. Glad I did..

We put three across in the top of the eighth - although it should have been more, Raul Mondesi made a great catch on Pudge with the bases loaded in right, not allowing anyone to score, although Sierra came through right after that with a two run single.

Pudge got another chance in the ninth - Billy "I have the stupidest beard of all time" Koch was in, and I expected us to lose, being down 5-4. However, he was not himself. We scored the tying run on a Catalonotto single, and then after Arod was intentionally walked to load the bases, Raffy reached on an infield single, giving us the go ahead run. Then, Pudge coming up for the second straight inning with the bases loaded did not disappoint. A grand slam of epic proportions - it was one of those instant "Goodbye" balls - a serious grand slam, putting a major exclamation point on this win. I didn't get to see any more, as the program ended on my TiVo (there was something else I really wanted to watch at 6PM, which is about when this happened), but I see that there was another home run in the 9th, giving us two more runs, for a total of 12. Really nice finish, I'm glad I didn't bail out on the game earlier.