Recently in 2005 Game Recaps Category
It's always a sad day when the last game of the season arrives. There's no more (meaningful) baseball for another 5 months or so. So it was with both sadness and joy that I headed out to the Ballpark for the final game of the 2005 season. Sadness because it was the last game, we had a sub 500 record, and we would probably lose this one, too (we did).
Joy because I had won a contest a few days ago from the Rangers for a luxury box for the final game of the season. I rounded up some family and some friends, and hit the ballpark. Due to having a box, I wanted to be there when the gates opened, so I could get maximum use out of the time in the box. It was good because I had a 5 month old daughter and my mother in law was with us. Both do much better not being in the heat. So the suite AC was nice. In fact, whenever I'm in a suite (this was only my fourth game in one), I rarely pay much attention to the game. I spent most of my time talking to my guests. I did see however Mike Young's hit and removal from the game, which was a nice touch (screw you Yankees for whining about it). Was nice to see the ovation he got when Chuck Morgan announced that Young had the batting title. Congratulations to Mike Young for that. He became a father and was AL batting champ. Nice year for him, although I'm sure he's saddened by not being in the playoffs.
I will write about the season in general later on, but I wanted to say I had an awesome time at the game.
It's a sad thing when you can say that up until the sixth inning, the most interesting thing that happened at the game was when Rangers Captain visited your section.
Juan Dominguez didn't even get out of the first inning, giving up four runs on 6 hits with 1BB in 0.2IP. Not good. Set a tone for the night. As I said above, not much good happened until the sixth except for Rangers Captain showing up. In the sixth we had a quick strike score, when Soriano hit a three run home run (a no doubter, too). We did score one in the third, but I think I was paying attention to Captain at that time. We did make it interesting in the bottom of the ninth with two triples, but couldn't finish the job off, losing 7-6, guaranteeing a losing season. :(
Well, three games to go. I was at this one, as I tend to panic when there's single digit games left in the season, and I need to go to them. :)
RA Dickey was all over the place with his knuckleball, and didn't have any kind of control in the first inning, and it cost him. He gave up two runs in the first, and it could have been a boatload more. It was an ugly inning. He actually settled down until the fifth when it fell apart again, and he gave up three more runs. Edison Volquez, one of the relievers also tanked, giving up two runs in 0.2IP. Ramirez, Shouse, & Feldman also pitched, and were good. Problem is that John Lackey was a lot better. He only went 5 innings, but gave up no runs on three hits. Kelvim Escobar followed that with two shutout innings of his own. We only got a run against former Ranger Esteban Yan.
We only had 5 hits this game, and two of 'em were from Kevin Mench. Unfortunately, none of them were from Mike Young, so his hitting streak stopped at 25 games. He's almost assured of winning the batting title, unless he has a complete ofer the rest of the season, and Arod gets like 15 hits.
On the really good side, Alfonso Soriano stole second base and then third in the same inning, and became the only 30/30 guy in Ranger franchise history.
We lost. Kenny Rogers got a "quality start" in his final performance as a Ranger (barring some major change of Hart (har-har) somewhere). He went 6, giving up 4R (3ER) on 9H. He ended up losing the game, as Ryan Franklin who we usually destroy pitched well. That leaves Kenny with a record of 14-8. Probably not what Scott Bora$ wanted going into what is likely Kenny's final contract negotiation. At this point, I think the only way Kenny comes back is if Hart moves aside. Not that Hart would move aside for any player, but that's probably what will have to happen. I personally wouldn't mind Kenny coming back. As has been said many times in many places, he knows how to pitch in Arlington, and doesn't seem to mind being here (except in contract years).
Things aren't looking good for finishing with an over 500 record. That means we now have to sweep the Angels at home over the last three games, which will give us a record of 82-80. If we take two, we end up at 500. Offensively, only six hits. Four were by Dellucci & Tex. The others were Mike Young & Shrek. Not much happening offensively for us really. Except we got a home run from David Dellucci in this one. We now need 6 over the last 3 games to break the all time record. Fairly doable, but we have to be consistent about it, don't want to have to go into the last game needing five.
No time for an big update, but we're back to .500 again. We're falling behind in the race to get the home run title. We had better tee off at home in the last three games if we still want that. Mike Young's hitting streak is at 24 games now. I'm tired of the Phil Nevin watch.
Great article in the DMN about Mike Young being a new dad. As a new dad myself, I can relate.
No time for an big update, but it was nice to see some good pitching in this game. Was also really nice to see Mike Young take care of business and break his own hit record for the Rangers in his first two at bats. He's a virtual lock for the batting crown.
I started watching this game, but tuned out because I am not a fan of watching Rangers games with other broadcasters. I don't really have anything against Morgan & Miller, but they have to make it seem like the person watching the game has never seen the game. I don't need a basic education on the Rangers when I'm watching their games, I know what I'm watching already. Not only that, they do the interview the managers in the dugout stuff, which I could do without.
We took the rubber game of the Oakland series 6-2, behind a great performance by Juan Dominguez, who went 7.1IP, giving up just 2ER on 8 hits, and 0 BB. Benoit & Cordero finished up, giving up nothing, was a good pitching performance from the guys in the Texas uniforms. On the other side, Kirk Saarloos got knocked around a bit, giving up 5ER on 8H in 3.2IP. Not a great performance there at all.
Offensively, we were led by Mike Young (2-3), Jason Botts (3-4), and Rod Barajas (2-4, 3R HR). Back to two games under .500 with 6 games to go. We should do OK in Seattle, the final three games at home will be the tough ones.
Mike Young watch: 2-3, now batting .333 (.14 points ahead of Guerrero), 215 hits - needs two hits to break own franchise record for hits
Phil Nevin watch: Back to the bench after going 0-4 yesterday, got another $58k
HR watch: 1 (Barajas), Team total: 258. Needed to set record: 7. Games left: 6
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Another game I missed due to a screw-up on my part - I saw the score when it was over before I watched the game on the TiVo, so I didn't bother to go back and watch.
RA Dickey did well enough, going 5.2IP, giving up 2ER, while walking 5, hitting one guy.. OK, it wasn't stellar, but he pitched well enough for a win I thought. However, our bullpen which has been respectable if not great lately reverted to their earlier season form. Even Mark Teixeira talked about it, saying "all this year we've been finding ways to lose". He's right about that, our pen let this one away. We had gotten to Zito as well, forcing him to give up 5ER on 7H over his 6 innings. Not a shellacking, but definitely un Zito like. It was wasted.
Tex also went 2 for 4 with a double and a home run. Mike young went 3 for 5. That's 5 hits, we had a total of nine, so it wasn't a terribly balanced attack.
Mike Young watch: 3 for 5, average up to .332, hitting streak of 21 games
Phil Nevin watch: Off the bench, but went 0 for 4 for that 58 grand he earned in this game.
HR watch: 1 (Teixeira), Team total: 257. Needed to set record: 8. Games left: 7
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Kenny Rogers won in Oakland. What a shocker. He has a record of about 600-2 in Oakland's stadium. Formally, he went 6.1IP, giving up 1ER on 5H and 5BB. A high amount of walks, but it didn't affect his bottom line. And the run they did get was a solo home run in the first by Kotsay. Beyond that, the A's were pretty much kept under control.
Offensively, we had some hits (nine), but it felt like one of those games where we couldn't get it all going. The only person with more than one hit was Blalock (two). Everyone else who got one got that, one. One of them was Mike Young who advanced his hitting streak to 20 games with a home run. If Young runs the table for the rest of the season, he'll tie Gabe Kapler's club record of 28 a couple of years ago, which will be frustrating since he'll be on a roll, and the only thing that stops him will be the end of the schedule. Since we open at home next year, it will make for an interesting celebration of a new franchise record, what with it being the home opener - that's always an electric crowd anyway.
Since I covered Mike Young above, the Phil Nevin watch was another 58 grand spent on a right handed bench warmer.
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Well, we got swept by the Angels. Before this series, we got back to 500, now we're three below again. I knew that with 12 games left and 6 against the Angels that it'd be hard to stay at 500. Right now there's 9 games left, so we'll have to go win 6 out of the 9 to end the year at 500. Not a great proposition, imo.
This was another game I missed most of due to night time daddy duties. From looking at hte box scores, Chris Young had an OK start, going 5 innings, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and three walks. As many walks as hits generally isn't a good thing, and it probably cost him in the ER department. Volquez on the other hand came in and got bombed, giving up 4 hits and 3ER in 0.2IP. That was pretty much the deciding factor.
We had no home runs, so we had better start getting things in gear if we want the major league home run record, I think we need as many HRs as there are games left at this point. Given the way the season has gone, it would be nice to end up with that. Mike Young seems to have locked up the batting championship, barring a meltdown.
Mike Young watch: 2 for 3 with an RBI on a sac fly. Batting 330.
Phil Nevin watch: Still on bench. Collected another $58,596 warming the bench.
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There's not a whole lot to say about this game. The outcome is what I think most people expected. Bartolo Colon beat Juan Dominguez. But it took a 20 game winner and potential Cy Young candidate to beat Juan Dominguez. That's a good thing. Their pitching lines were:
Dominguez: 7IP, 6H, 2R (1ER), 2K, 2BB, 98NP
Colon: 7IP, 4H, 1R (0ER), 4K, 0BB, 85NP
If you like pitching, this was a game to watch. In fact, the run we got was a gift. Colon & the Angels surived three errors by third baseman Macier Izturis. We had a total of five hits in the entire game, most definitely scattered. We couldn't get anything going against Colon, which is no big surprise, we never seem to be able to do that.
Mike Young watch: 1 for 4 with 1 run scored. Hitting streak at 17 games.
Phil Nevin watch: $58,596 paid to Nevin to warm that bench. (That's taking his 2005 salary of $9,492,689, and dividing by 162).
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I didn't get to see any of this game. If you read my commentary for Saturday night's game, my wife and I were holed up at a motel a couple of miles from our house due to our AC being broken. We got a call in the middle of the morning Sunday on my cel phone from the AC repair guy who wasn't scheduled to come out until Monday morning. He says he can make it out. So I flew over to the house, and got the AC repaired. After we were all done with that, I went back to the motel, at this point we were about 30 minutes away from checkout time, and getting billed for the second day. We had a majorly huge scramble to get all of the stuff for us, the baby, and our two cats out of the motel and into the truck to get back home. We were fortunate that we got done in time. When we got home and finished unpacking, football was on, and I started watching the two games I had TiVoed on the Sunday Ticket package. As I pay a lot for that package, I feel compelled to watch them.
We're all back home and safe, and cool. Which is good given the current heat wave we're having here (to those reading outside the DFW area, it's about 10-15 degrees above normal for this time of year, we should be at 82-85, and it's around 95-97 now). I'm grateful for the guy who nice nice, friendly work for me on a Sunday morning no less. I didn't get taken too, which was always good. :)
Anyway, about halfway through I realized the Rangers game was on as well, but at this point the game was already over. We got a sweep which let me use my sweep graphic which I haven't done in awhile. The win also got us back to .500 which is a big goal. Now I wanted two games above .500 which seems reachable now. There's twelve games left in the season. 3 vs the A's, 3 vs the Mariners, and 6 vs the Angels. To finish 2 over .500 we'll have to go 7-5 over that span. Doable, but with 6 against the Angels, one never knows.
Mike Young watch: 1 for 4 with 2 runs scored. Hitting streak at 16 games.
Phil Nevin watch: Still on the bench, still whining about it.
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This game was one of my season ticket games. Unfortunately, I could not attend due to an emergency at home. It was cool in the morning, so I decided to save some electricity for a few hours and air out the house by turning off the AC. I did that. But once it got warm again, I turned the AC back on again, and it never came on! Well, the unit outside never came on, I should say. Due to that, it kept getting hotter and hotter in the house. My wife got done working at 4, and when she got home, I wanted to move her and the baby over to a motel about a mile and a half from our house. So we started doing that around the time the game was getting started. I came back home to bring a few loads of things we'd need for the baby, and then decided I was going to move myself and the cats over there, too, as the house was about 90 degrees inside.
Due all of this, I only got to hear the briefest of bits when I was going back and forth from home to the motel, although I did get to hear the winning run score. As much as the site and going to games is, taking care of my family is definitely the priority in life there. If I had been there, I'm sure I would have a lot to write about given the way the game finished, but my mind was elsewhere this night.
Mike Young watch: 2 for 5, with 1 RBI, and 1 game winning run scored. Hitting streak at 15.
Phil Nevin watch: Still on the bench, still whining about it.
Jason Botts watch: 3 for 4 with an RBI in the Nevin DH spot.
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This game was billed as a Ranger kid getting a look-see with a major league debut against the Mariners' Godlike phenom. The way it was in the press, we were going to get a perfect game thrown against us, and give up 13 runs or so. Hernandez went 3IP, and gave up 5ER on 8H, and 3BB. Not a good outing. Josh Rupe went 5IP, and gave up 2ER on 6H, and 1BB to get his first major league win in his first major league start. That was good. He also was the 30th different pitcher we've used this year, tying last year's record. We are still a few behind the number of starters we used last year, and I don't think we'll get to that one, though.
We added another home run (Barajas) to continue our assault on the team home run records this season. Offensively, we had a total of 9 hits, which was less than the Mariners had, but ours worked better, as we got the win.
Mike Young watch: 2 for 4, with a run scored.
Phil Nevin watch: Still on bench. Still whining about it.
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The Rangers won their second game in a row, which very recently is something unusual. Our streaks lately have been mostly in the backwards direction.
Kameron Loe started this game, and with the exception of one really unusual statistic, had a great line. 5.1IP, 2R (1ER). He did allow 6 hits, walked four, and committed three errors of his own, yet still left with the lead, and got the win. The errors is the unusual bit. It definitely was a tightrope walk, but the damage was minimal. Shouse, Benoit, & Wilson kept it scoreless until the ninth. Coco came in, and was 2005 Coco, not the really shutdown one from last year. He gave up another run. Stats say his season ERA is 3.75, but wow it feels like it's 6 or 7, he seems to give up a run most every time. Obviously that's not true, but that's what it feels like, anyway. The Mariners left 13 men on base for the game.
Offensively, we had no home runs, but had a couple of doubles (Mench, Blalock). This was another game where we didn't have a lot of offense. We had a total of five hits in the game. The aforementioned two doubles, plus three hits. One of the hits was by Michael Young who extended his hitting streak to 13 games. It also was his 200th hit of the season, which was a nice milestone to get at home. He continues to lead the batting race, but if you read this article on ESPN by Jayson Stark, the actual batting champion should be Placido Polanco of the Tigers. Read it. Folks who hate Bud Selig and the way Interleague play has "eroded" statistics will get a kick out of that.
Anyway, we got a win, and are back to three under .500. Josh Rupe makes his major league debut on Friday night. Odd that after going so long this season with the initial 5 man rotation we broke camp with that since June, we seem to be in a hurry to make up ground on the record 17 starters we used in 2004. I think (without looking it up), that Rupe will be #13 this year.
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Usually on day games during the week, I don't get a good listen because I'm busy doing something at work. Well, on this one, I forgot the game was even on until it was two hours into the game. I turned it on, but only got to listen for about 5 minutes, and had to bail - too busy at work yesterday. I had the game on my TiVo at home, so when I got back home from my bowling league I turned it on and watched from the bottom of the 9th onwards. Kind of nice watching the end of a game knowing you're gonna win. :)
But we can thank David Dellucci here, for his pinch hit, two out, bottom of the ninth, two run, game tying home run. That's pretty much what this game was about for me, not having seen the vast majority of it.
Again, attendance was listed as 18,077 - it looked like half that from what I saw on TV.
We're back to four games under .500. There's 16 games left in the season, and to reach my goal of two games over .500, we'll have to go 12-4 over the remainder of the season, which is unlikely, as six of the 16 are against the Angels. Even ending at .500 will require 10-6. Ugh.
2004's Home Opener starting pitcher R.A. Dickey finally made his first appearance of the 2005 season, in game 145. Only this time he showed up with a different pitch, a knuckleball. Something the Rangers haven't really (seriously) had since Charlie Hough last was in a Ranger uniform in 1990. My wife and daughter were with me in this game. We had some comp tickets in Sec 229 Row 2. We almost got a foul ball, the closest one came was that it hit the red railing right in front of us, and the bounced back downstairs. The section two to our right got about half a dozen fouls over the night.
Aside from the first inning, Dickey was pretty good. His total line was 7IP, 5H, 3ER. Two of those runs and three of the hits were all in the first inning (along with a walk). So yeah, I'd say Dickey did pretty good. I'll write off the first inning to jitters, as it was the first time he'd pitched in the majors with a knuckleball. The problem this game had was that the Orioles kid was better. John Maine went 6.1IP, giving up just two hits - both solo home runs (Mench, Blalock). In fact, outside of those home runs, we had only two other hits total the whole night (double - Soriano, single - M Young). We were pretty inept at the plate.
Still, I had a great time at the game with my family. Took some pictures of that, they're online here if you want to see 'em.
The attendance was listed at 21,167. It looked like a lot less than that to me.
Another game I didn't watch much of. It was Monday Night Football. I was doing the same thing that I'm sure Kevin Mench would have been doing had the Rangers been off, watching the Eagles on Monday Night Football.
It was surprising to read in the local press that Rafael Palmeiro was "sent home" to rehab an injury, and then when his team gets here, he doesn't hang out with them. Seems odd - I'd be stunned if Raffy plays another game with Baltimore. Sosa wasn't there too, probably for mostly the same reason, they're doing better without them. Sosa & Raffy was one of the primary reasons I wanted to see the Orioles in town this year. As it stands, it's a couple of fading teams playing a mostly worthless game in mid September.
This game was mostly lost on a big two run error by Kevin Mench in right field. Edison Volquez went 4 innings, and gave up just 1 earned run (3 total, due to that error). But the real reason I suppose was Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera, who only allowed 2 earned runs, and the 4 relievers who followed him gave up none. Mike Young kept his hitting streak going with another hit.
No home runs, though.
Didn't watch much of this game, as it was Week 1 in the NFL, and I was watching the Steelers / Titans game on NFL Sunday Ticket. Yeah, I'm a bigger baseball fan than a football fan, but there's something about first weekend that makes the games "unskippable" to me. Given there was early, late, and night games, I didn't TiVo the Rangers game, as I wouldn't have time to watch all of it.
Was nice to get a win, though - although we should have won the other two in this series, too. Kenny Rogers got the win, his first in awhile, going 6 innings, giving up 7 hits and 3 ER. John Wasdin tossed three scoreless innings behind Rogers for the save.
Mike Young went 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI. He continues to lead the AL (not sure about the NL too) in batting average, he's about 6 or 7 points above Arod and Johnny Damon with a couple of weeks to go. The other player we have in the lead or close to it is Tex who is close to the HR lead, and is leading in RBI's. Tex only had one hit tonight, but it was a three run home run. Mark DeRosa also had a home run again, showing some surprising consistency. I know bench player is always a role that's hard to fill, and there's lots of candidates - I wonder if he'll return next year. He's been really solid whenever he's been used.
This was one of the windier nights I've been to at the ballpark in quite a long time. And thanks to Mr Hicks' quest for more money, the A's won the game tonight. I speak of course of the jet stream created by the Gold Club behind home plate. It most DEFINITELY gave Dan Johnson a grand slam in the second inning. He hit a ball to right that was admittedly well hit, but was NOT a home run off the bat. Watching Mench glide backwards and keep going was an "uh-oh" moment. In fact, I said that as soon as he hit the ball, and I was right. Wind assisted grand slam. Where have you gone, Tom Schieffer?
Anyway, other than that grand slam ball that shouldn't have been, I thought Kameron Loe was good. If you take away that hit, his record would have been 6.2IP with 7H and 1ER, but that's not how it played out. He gave up 8 hits and 5 earned runs. I felt he got ripped off by the conditions. His apparent appendage reliever CJ Wilson came on and finished the game, with 2.1IP and no hits, no runs. But we couldn't get it done against their pen. Witasik, Rincon, & Street didn't give up any runs. Oakland starter Joe Blanton did give up 4 though.
Our home run barrage continues unabated. We had three (Young - 1st, Dellucci - 3rd, Teixeira - 6th). I forget what the number is at the moment, but we've set a new team record for "home" home runs. At the rate we're going, we will pass the all time major league record. Fat lot of good that does. But remember, chicks dig the longball, and they'll come to the park and spend money in the Gold Club, right?
My wife said the other day I seem more sarcastic than usual lately. I don't see it, do you? ;)
When the schedule was announced for this weekend's series, I was jazzed, as originally Barry Zito was to pitch on Saturday night against Kameron Loe, which was a game I had a ticket for, and wanted to see. However, Zito got switched to tonight's game. While Zito's numbers don't show dominance (4ER over 7IP), he looked good. His obscenely good curveball was in show tonight (8 strikeouts). Our only home run against Zito was by a guy whose play has changed my opinion on him, Mark DeRosa. In all, we only managed 5 hits off of Zito, but they were well placed, scoring 4 off of Mr. Teddy bear.
Juan Dominguez was not good. He only went 3.1IP, and gave up 7 hits, 8 runs (5ER), allowing three home runs. Erasmo Ramirez gave up the other run in his 2.2IP. Shouse & Karsay also pitched, not allowing anything.
We tried to make a charge late, scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth, capped by a three run bomb by Mark Teixeira, but it wasn't enough, and our race towards 500 continues in the wrong direction. Three games under now.
This game happened on the 7th, I'm writing this in the 15th, I don't remember much about this game, that's a danger when you let updates slide too long. :)
I watched the first five innings of this game. Things were good. Michael Young got a home run (barely) in the first inning, and then David Dellucci smacked a towering grand slam in the second. Life was feeling good. Kenny Rogers, however, wasn't crisp, and let the Twins creep back into the game. He gave up two runs in the second, and two more in both the fourth and fifth. That tied the game at 6-6 in the fifth inning. It was at this point I got called away for Daddy duties.
When I came back to the game, I saw we were down 7-6, and then I got bummed, and decided to help out my wife with baby stuff, and washed bottles. During my washing of the bottles, I peeked at the game, and it was at the top of the 9th now, and we were up 10-7. That was a surprise, so I backed up on the TiVo and watched the ninth. All I could think of when Tex mashed the home run off the second level facade of the Metrodome was, "Well, the grand slam wasn't totally wasted". It's always annoying when you hit a grand slam and lose.
But David Dellucci was the star here. He went two for 5 with 5 RBI's - four of which came on the grand slam. Adrian Gonzalez chipped in with two doubles. The best moment was probably when Michael Young singled in the top of the ninth against Joe Nathan (whom we seem to have a lot of success against) to tie the game. It was a two out (and I think two strike as well) hit, something Young is adept at executing.
John Wasdin was great out of the pen, going 2.1 innings, giving up no runs and no hits. Coco did the same in the 9th for his 31st save, only he got two strikeouts as well.
One game away from being back at .500 - feels like forever since we've been there.
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Wow. Kameron Loe talked himself into the rotation a few starts ago, and boy has he delivered. Today he got his third win in a row in the rotation. He went 8 innings, giving up no runs on 5 hits, and one walk (plus 1 strikeout). He looked good. I watched him in Frisco when he was there, and told my wife at the time "This guy is going to be good, pay attention". Granted, it's still early, but he definitely has delivered on that promise I made to my wife two seasons ago. He looked great. If he can keep it going like this, he should be part of our rotation for 2006. His first three starts at least have earned him a spot for the rest of this season at least. CJ Wilson also followed up his streak of good performances by pitching a scoreless ninth to back up Loe. CJ certainly has rebounded after some horrendous starts earlier in the year.
Carlos Silva was let down by his defense. He gave up 6 runs, but only one of them was earned, so he pitched pretty well, too. Francisco Liriano, the uber pitching prospect made his major league debut in the 9th, and was greeted very rudely by Gary Matthews Jr who absolutely destroyed the fifth pitch into the last row of seats in left field. Homerdome, indeed. :) Other than that he looked good, but hard to get a feel based on one inning.
Nice to see a win, and we're close again to my revised goal for the season. At the start of the season, it was at least get the Wild Card. At the all Star break it was finish at least two games over .500, or at worst 500. I think those are reachable goals, if we keep playing the way we've been doing this past week.
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The less said about this one, the better.
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No commentary on this one, other than to say no home runs for Rod Barajas this game. Juan Dominguez looked good, going 7.1IP, giving up just two hits and one run. He had four walks, which isn't good, but when the end result doesn't show that, it's OK - so long as it doesn't become a habit for him to walk 4 each time.
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Rod Barajas was hot this game. He had two more home runs (that's 5 in the last 3 games), and 3 RBI's this game. Coco Cordero was not, blowing another save.
Chris Young looked good, even if his outing was short (5.1IP, 8H, 3R (1ER). Brocail & Cordero blew this game, forcing it into extra innings. We won on Barajas' second home run of the game in the 10th. John Wasdin nailed it down for the save. Shame about the blown save, as it would have given Scott Feldman his first major league win.
Again, nice to see a win, but it really feels like too little too late.
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Another game where the bulk of our runs (4 out of 5) came in a clump. We put up a four spot on the board in the fourth inning. It was capped off by Rod Barajas' three run home run following an RBI double by Hank Blalock. Rod also followed up with another home run in the 7th, so Rod himself accounted for four of the five runs we had.
Kenny Rogers got his first win since the suspension, and he had to dance to get it, as he gave up 11 hits and one walk in his 7 innings pitched. He did only allow 4 runs (3ER). Karsay, Shouse, & Coco combined to throw two innings of shutout ball to seal the win. Coco got his 30th save, and Kenny his 12th win.
It's nice to see a win, even though it's just the Royals.
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This was actually a pretty well pitched game through the first 5 and a half innings. The Sox were up 2-1 at that point, and both El Duque & Kameron Loe were pitching well.
Loe had gone 6 innings, giving up two runs on four hits with 3K, and 1BB. A pretty good outing. El Duque was just a little bit better until the bottom fell out in the 6th inning for him. His line when he exited the game was 5IP, 6 hits, 6 earned runs, 1 walk, 6K. He also allowed three home runs. Two of them came in the 6th (Young, Soriano). The other was a leadoff HR to David Dellucci in the first inning. We did tack on three more runs in the bottom of the 8th, but the game was essentially over.
Scott Feldman made his major league debut in this game, pitching the ninth. He was perfect. Struck out two, got a flyball out. Nice start there.
It seems we are back on a bit of a roll in terms of winning. Too bad it's too late.
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We had nothing this game. In fact, we didn't score any runs since the fifth inning of the first game of the DH. So our bats went pretty quiet for the last 12 half innings they batted. Jermaine Dye did Mark Teixeira's thing in this game, having two home runs and 6 RBI's.
Brandon McCarthy looked pretty good. He went 7.2IP and gave up no runs on just two hits. He was spectacular. I think the only thing that kept him from a complete game was his pitch count, which was 117 when he was pulled. It was nice to see Ranger fans applauding him - I know there were Sox fans there, but there was more applause than that. Hell, I applauded him, although I know he couldn't see me. :)
Edison Volquez, a guy who seems to make Jamey Newberg go all gooey made his major league debut last night. I was at the park for the recent major league debuts and wins of Justin Duchscherer & Brian Sikorski. But my luck didn't extend to Volquez. He looked like a rookie making his debut. He seemed to be trying to overthrow a lot of his pitches. There were flashes of brilliance, and as rookie debuts go, I would have to say it went pretty well. Not great, but not awful, either. Volquez went 4.2IP, allowed 6 hits, 5ER, walked two, and struck out three. I would hope he'd get another look before we sent him back. There were moments where you could see the electric stuff, and why the team is high on him. But he is after all a kid making his major league debut. Have to factor that in there as well.
From the "Oh, shut up" department comes another whine from the White Sox. This time it was the usual suspect, Ozzie Guillen who complained about Jermaine Dye being hit. I know you need to stick up for your players and all that, but I don't think anyone thought that we were throwing at the White Sox batters (in particular Dye). There was nothing to be gained by it, and the guy throwing the pitch (Erasmo Ramirez) wasn't even touched up by Dye - it made no sense. So Ozzie Guillen can join Mark Buehrle in taking a sip from a big cup of "Shut the hell up". Obviously the lights weren't working.
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This game can be summed up with just a few short words. Crappy starting pitching. Mark Teixeira.
Neither starter could hold a lead - both teams scored in the first 5 half innings, and through the end of the fifth, only the bottom of the third and the top of the fourth went scoreless. Jon Garland went 4.1IP, and gave up 7 hits, 8 runs (5 earned), and 3 walks. Not a stellar performance. Coudln't have been the lights, as it was all daytime. Joaquin Benoit didn't fare much better. He was pulled after three innings, and during his time, he gave up 5ER on 9 hits in 3IP. Not good on either side.
However, pulling Benoit was a good move, as he was replaced by CJ Wilson, who seems to have figured it out the last few apperances, as he's been outstanding. He was really great in this game, too. He went 5 innings, giving up just two hits and one run. He looked sharp, threw strikes - was everything you want in a pitcher. He even got his first major league win in the game, which was nice.
Mark Teixeira was the star of this one. He went 3 for his first 3 at bats. Two home runs, a double, and six RBI's. Definitely lead our team in this one.
Funny thing is that after the fifth, we couldn't score anymore. That continued into game, two as well!
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The kid vs. the Cy Young winner. That's how I started the report on Sunday's game. It's close to being the same for Monday's game, too. Juan Dominguez vs. Mark Buehrle was not something you expected a positive outing from, but that is definitely what we got. Here's another comparison of pitching lines:
Dominguez: 8IP, 7H, 2ER, 2BB, 3K
Buehrle: 7IP, 9H, 4ER, 1BB, 4K (3 unearned runs, too)
These lines just feel "backwards". But we've gotten good young starting pitching recently, and that's good. I think the goal now should be to end the season at .500.
We got to Mark Buehrle early, scoring two in the first, another in the second, and then three more in the fourth. We capped the scoring with an additional run in the fifth. Buehrle didn't seem sharp at all, and then came out in the press afterwards claiming the Rangers "cheat" at home. That seems like whining about losing to me. I'm not claiming any team is beyond cheating, but to claim the other team cheated right after you lost just strikes me as sour grapes. The White Sox didn't help themselves either by comitting four errors in the field, and allowing three unearned runs. That's probably where the difference in this game was.
Tex continues to be hot, going 3 for 4 with 2 RBI's in this game. One of the RBI's was his 100th, which makes him the fifth Ranger to have consecutive 100 RBI seasons. We had a couple more home runs this game, one was from Kevin Mench, and the other was one from Mark DeRosa which was most definitely wind assisted. DeRosa has done a nice job this past week. I'm not sure if he fits in for 2006, but for the remainder of this season anyway, he seems to be doing his job well.
Edison Volquez pitches today for the first time ever as a Ranger. I bet Jamey Newberg is more excited than he probably is letting on. :)
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The kid vs. the Cy Young winner. Who is supposed to come out on top in these? Yup, the Cy Young guy. Chris Young vs. Johan Santana was a match up that worried me. I figured as soon as we gave up a run or two, that'd be it. Santana would shut us down and that would be the end of the game. Yeah, I know if you're reading this, you know how the game turns out, but look at these numbers: Which of these pitching lines is which?
Pitcher A: 7IP, 3H, 6K, 2BB, 0ER
Pitcher B: 7IP, 3H, 6K, 3BB, 1ER
They're awfully close, the major difference is the earned run figure. The second one was Johan Santana and the first was Chris Young. In his last 3 or 4 starts, Chris Young seems to have rediscovered himself. Which is good, as he's about to break the Rangers rookie record for wins, he needs just one more. The only run the Twins scored was against Erasmo Ramirez who was called up in favor of Justin Thompson yesterday. But Chris Young out dueling Johan Santana was something I think most Rangers fans were not expecting to happen, so it's particularly nice to see.
We won the game on a walk off hit by Blalock, after Jesse Crain got himself in too much trouble. The Twins were playing double play depth instead of in, which probably cost them the game based on the ball hit. Nice win, nice series, even the loss felt good, despite it being 7-2. With the exception of the 11th inning on Saturday, I felt we dominated the Twins.
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There's two things to talk about regarding this game. First, let's talk about the game itself. Was a match up of veterans. Kenny Rogers vs. Brad Radke. Brad Radke went 6 innings, giving up 5 hits and just one run. Kenny Rogers went 6 innings, give up 6 hits and NO runs. We were up 1 to nothing going into the seventh, when John Wasdin gave up a run to tie the game. But we picked up a run in the bottom of the 8th to go up 2-1. Then Cordero comes on and blows the save by giving up a run in the ninth, tying it at 2. I generally dislike extra innings from the aspect of we tend to lose them. I like them because we get more baseball, though. :)
We should have won the game in the bottom of the 9th though. Gary Matthews led off the bottom of the 9th with a double. Sandy Alomar then tried bunting, and failed. Twice. He popped up a bunt foul, and then tried a second time and bunt popped up to the Twins' first baseman. Ugh. Dellucci and Young couldn't get the job done either, that was pretty much it. We didn't do much of anything in the 10th and 11th either. But the Twins did. They pounded Brian Shouse & Steve Karsay for 5 runs in the top of the 11th capped off by Jacque Jones' home run. We lost 7-2 on a game we SHOULD have won. :( To make matters worse, we had a stupid out in the bottom of the 11th as Phil Nevin did get on, but was doubled off first to end the game after a Sandy Alomar hit ball ALMOST went out in left, but Nevin had run all the way around to third by that point, and was doubled off first. What a way to end it.
The other thing to talk about was the heat. I was at this game, and this is the kind of weather that demands that we move our Summer games back to 7:30 at night. Why exactly are we playing all these day games in the summer? I remember a quote in the press a year ago by Buck Showalter about us supposedly trying to take care of our natural environment in that regard, but come on - this is nuts. I walked through the concourse, and it was surprisingly cool (it usually isn't). But the seating bowl. Wow. That was damn hot. It was hovering around 100 all day and mostly brilliant sunshine. Way too damn hot. They announced the attendance as 25 thousand something. Yeah right. There was at most 10,000, and unless they were all the way in the few rows down the bottom, they were all up in the shade. I know I was. My regular season ticket was 328-5-1. No way, I was up in 328 Row 22 (three from top). The folks who sit across the aisle from me in my regular season tickets were there too. Got a good idea from the lady that sits there. She had a cooler full of ice, and towels. Throw some ice cubes in the towel, and use it to cool yourself during the game. That worked surprisingly well. I figured it would be a "OK, that's nice, but I'm still hot", but the ice and the shade kept me pretty cool. But I shouldn't have to do that, we shouldn't be playing in heat this bad.
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Wow. This one was all about the pitching, which is something that is nice to see for next year, but would have liked to have seen more of it when it counted when we were still in the race. Kameron Loe got a start. According to the press, he'd been asking for a start opportunity. He'd been operating out of the pen his entire time in the majors. Generally when you ask for things, you had better deliver. Boy did he deliver. He went only five innings, but that was fine, given he hadn't been stretched out. The five he went was great. Only five hits, no walks, and five strikeouts; but NO RUNS given up. And then CJ Wilson came on, which wasn't a good sign given how much he'd been lit up this year. But he matched Loe, going 4 innings, gave up no walks, only ONE hit, and no runs. Wow. What a performance by both. Probably felt better for Wilson more so than Loe.
Offensively, we had three home runs, Mark DeRosa went 3 for 4, bla, bla, bla. This game was about pitching, and wow did we get some. The only downside is that it was against the Twins, who probably could be out hit by Rangers Captain at the moment, but a 6 hit shutout is something I'll take any day.
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This was another of those games I had to listen to at work, which means that I didn't get a good listen. Nice to see some good pitching from Benoit, though. Too bad it was wasted.
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Due to parental duties, I only got to watch till the sixth inning (and due to work duties I can't write a bunch either). But what I saw was pretty great. Juan Dominguez looked sharp. He went six innings, giving up just one run on two hits. His walks were high though (five), but he k'ed 3. Overall a pretty good performance.
Ryan Franklin did not have a great performance (5IP, 10H, 6ER), but then we always seem to do well against him. Nice home run by Kevin Mench.
The video of Jim Knox dancing with a large dog was very disturbing.
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I had tickets to this game, but I couldn't go - still haven't fully recovered from being sick, and I don't think a 100 plus degree day would be good for me, or for my 4 month old daughter, either. Stayed home and watched.
Chris Young continued his late season pickup and threw another good game, if a short one. He only went five innings, but gave up just a solo home run to Ichiro (no shame there) on the second pitch of the game. After that he settled down and allowed just three more hits over the rest of his time, and struck out six. Ichiro also did him in in the fifth too with an at bat that was about 15 or 16 pitches. Probably cost Chris coming back out for the sixth inning, as he topped out at 100 pitches thrown. Still, if you take away the 15 from Ichiro, that makes 85 which is still about 10 too many for the fifth inning. Our bullpen gave up 3 more runs, but we had enough tonight to hang on.
Mench homered in the fourth, Phil Nevin doubled in two guys in the 6th, and Tex had a solo home run in the 7th. The two home run balls were definitely wind assisted, as they both landed in the first row right over the fence. Neither looked like a home run ball off the bat.
I was kind of surprised that Jim Knox didn't turn up in right field to give a ball to the guy in the green shirt. If you watched the telecast, you know what I mean. They did however, talk to the loudmouth they showed around Section 226, though.
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Nope, wasn't any better than the rest of the games on the road trip. We got swept for the third time this series, going 1-12 on the entire trip. In fact, for the entire month of August, we're 4-15. Way to go, guys. Not much else needs to be said, really.
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August 20, 2005 was my 40th birthday. And I spent it sick. Wasn't a fun day, spent most of it horizontal or at the porcelain altar. The Rangers didn't fare much better, getting shut down AGAIN for the 11th time in the 12 games of the road trip.
Scott Kazmir, who is a guy I'd love to have (as I'm sure the Mets would too
On our pitching side, Benoit seems to indicate he isn't cut out for starting. He went 5 innings, giving up 4 runs on six hits with 2 walks. Not godawful, but not great, either. Brocail, Shouse, & Loe kept the Rays off the board for the rest of the game, but it didn't do much good.
Sunday's game is the last one of the road trip. Probably won't be any better.
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You know, when we lose 2-1 games, I tend to think along the lines of "Well, we were beaten by a better performance". That is definitely true, but in this case, this 2-1 loss felt like 10-1 loss, given all the other losses surrounding it in the schedule.
Juan Dominguez threw a shutout through 5 innings, but gave up a couple of hits and a sac fly in the 6th, which gave the Rays their two runs. It was enough because we got one in the first, and that was it. Seth McClung was brilliant, scattering just 3 hits over his 7 innings of work. It's hard to beat that no matter who the team is.
Steve Karsay looked pretty good again in this game, going 2.2 IP and giving up donut, while striking out two. Given the state of our bullpen, he's probably a candidate for the pen next year, too.
A loss is a loss, and we've got too many of them to recover from now.
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Ah well. That didn't last long. CJ Wilson ran out there and got murdered again. I know you need to run guys out there and let 'em take their lumps to grow homegrown pitchers. But boy is it ugly doing that, and it generally makes the natives restless, especially when you live in a sports town so hell bent on "Now now now".
Hank Blalock had another error today and went 1 for 3. He's been bumped down in the lineup, as he doesn't seem to be producing of late. All of our starters in this game got at least one hit, except for Adrian Gonzalez, who was called back up before this game (he played first, Tex DH'ed). We were led by David Dellucci (2-4, 2R) and Sandy Alomar (2-4). We had four doubles (DeRosa, Dellucci, Young, Alomar). But not enough for the win, because our pitching stunk up the joint again. Although if you took CJ Wilson out of the equation and put a zero in where he was, then we would have won.
Was really nice to see Justin Thompson back in the majors. A really nice story. I hope he sticks around and is effective for more than just the last 6 weeks of the season, as I would like to see all the work he took to get back here and all the loyalty shown on both his side and the Rangers side pay off for more than just six weeks of relief pitching.
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Last week when I got mad and said I wasn't going to do any more updates until the Rangers won, I figured it would be two or three more games. Maybe four. NOT EIGHT! It appeared I flew my "I give up" banner at the right time, because right after that, the bottom fell out, and our season was over. There's been griping about management by our top players, both privately and publicly, apparently. That's not good. Michael Young made the quote "I want to play for a winner". Uh-oh. It's getting really ugly, folks.
However, last night the ship was righted, if at least for just one night. Chris Young pitched the way he is supposed to - 8 innings of 2 hit shutout ball. Cordero came in, and got a no doubt save. We got just enough offense for the win. It was a very crisply played game. Looked good. Outcome was good. Too bad we didn't have more of these.
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I know I said a few days ago that I had given up on the season, and I haven't changed my mind on that.
But we've now lost 5 in a row to the Red Sox - Yankees, and I'm so miffed about it, I'm not updating again until they win.
That was so pathetic I don't want to even do updates for them.
Well, that was frustrating. After starting off the top of the first inning 3-0, it went downhill pretty quickly. Ricardo Rodriguez was out of the game in the first inning, which is never a good sign. Ricardo's ERA for just this game was 54.00 - ACK! I thought we had seen some stinking piles of pitching garbage before, but this one took the cake. In fact, due to the debacle that was last night's pitching, I'm ready to throw in the towel. As those who regularly read my site know, I've not been one to give up the season. Now I am. Given how horrendous our pitching situation has degenerated into, I see no hope, and even if we do make it in somehow, we'll get destroyed in the playoffs, so yeah - I've given up on post season for 2005. I could be surprised, and I'd be overjoyed if I was totally wrong, but I don't see any hope anymore for this year.
Offensively, we had hits all over the place. 16 of them, and every starter had at least one. Blalock had the most with three. Blalock also lead with 2 RBI. Also, in an interesting non Rangers kind of stat, we had no home runs - the first time that's happened in a game in awhile, and only like the third time all season, if I remember right.
On a fun note, it's always great to hear the clang of a ball hitting up against the Green Monster in Fenway. Is it me, or has that gotten louder lately? I wonder if someone has stuck a microphone out there to amplify the sound of when that happens. It's kind of like when a ball hits a foul pole, the sound we get on TV seems so much louder than you would think it should be.
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Chris Young showed the form that was having folks talk about rookie of the year today. He's slid a bunch the last month or so, but today it was early season Chris Young again. He went 7 innings, giving up no runs on five hits. A masterful performance that was marred by the appearance of Kevin Gryboski in the 8th who gave up all three runs the Orioles scored. Doug Brocail finished things up with a scoreless ninth.
Once again, Sidney Ponson continues to show why the Rangers would have been absolutely insane to trade for him. He leaves the second game in a row against the Rangers with an injury, and to hear Tom Grieve talk about him, he's a fat slob who doesn't care about himself and his team by not being in baseball shape. He just strikes me as an major career threatening injury waiting to happen. In fact, it wasn't just Ponson, the Orioles sent out four pitchers today, and they all gave up runs. Ponson gave up 3 in 2.1IP, Williams gave up 1 in his 1.2IP, Bydak gave up 3 in his 2IP, and finally Jorge Julio gave up 2 in his 2IP. Not a good day for the Orioles in regards to pitching.
It was a good day for Ranger bats. We had 14 hits, and pushed across nine runs. The charge was lead by Tex, Gary Matthews, & Kevin Mench who all had home runs. Tex and Matthews also accounted for 2/3 of the runs themselves driving in 3 apiece. Mike Young continues to make one think that he might take a run at the batting championship as well as the hits lead, as he's batting .331 and went 3/4 last night, raising his total hits for the season to 151 with 52 more games to play. I say 200 is pretty much a lock unless he gets hurt.
We move on to Boston, which could be bad for us, as we tend to never do good in Fenway.
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This was the game that The Rangers retired Johnny Oates' number at. I'm going to avoid talking about that for now, as I'm planning on writing something larger about Oates in it's own article.
We got out early in this one. We put up a six spot in the second inning, and never looked back. Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera had some major control issues that led him to give up four walks in the second inning. The inning was capped off by a David Dellucci grand slam to left field to cap the scoring that inning. We also put up a four spot in the fourth behind two home runs and a fielding error (Roberts). So we're up 10-1 after four.
John Wasdin turned in a pretty good pitching performance this day. He went six innings, giving up 6 hits and two runs with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Overall a pretty decent pitching performance. Following him for 3 innings was Kameron Loe, giving up no runs, and earning a save - something I don't understand, the score was 10-1 when Loe came in, so I don't get that at all.
Still, nice to see a good pitching on a day where Ranger manager Johnny Oates was paid tribute to. Nice to have a good game to go with a good ceremony.
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Mark Teixeira had a home run, his 29th of the season. So did Hank Blalock. So did Alfonso Soriano. So did Mark DeRosa for cryin out loud! All five of our runs came on the longball. Was a power night, although with a power night sometimes comes not much else. Which is the case, because outside of the home runs, we had just three other hits in the entire game. Most of this off of Bruce Chen, a journeyman who seems to have found some consistency with Baltimore, not unlike John Wasdin with us.
But that's not really the story of the game. Why did we lose this one? Oh yeah, C.J. Wilson really stunk up the joint. I mean, we've had some bad pitching this year, but wow, that was a steaming pile of... well, you know. His line was 2.2 innings pitched, 9 hits, 8 earned runs, two walks, no strikeouts. That's just positively atrocious. James Baldwin also gave up two runs, but over 4 plus innings, which isn't too awful. However, the surprise of the night was Steve Karsay, who went two innings, giving up nothing in his Ranger debut. That's something we need to see more of out of the pen.
We also put Mark Holtz & John Wetteland into the Rangers HOF this night. As per usual, local TV coverage totally botched it and didn't show us the ceremony. We saw pieces of it, but they cut away in the middle of people talking. Once again, local TV management needs to be shot, as I don't need to hear how Ford is the Best in Texas, and I don't need to hear how Dodge things I should be grabbing life by the horns. I should be watching the pre-game ceremony, you twits!
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I'm busy trying to wrap up a project today at work for the weekend, so I likely won't have time to update for the last two games in the Devil Rays series.
Was nice to see us find the can of whoopass and unleash it last night against the Rays. Too bad we couldn't actually do that regularly, we might have a shot at making a run at it, but this team is just too inconsistant for that.
Good to see Phil Nevin get in the groove last night going 3 for 4, scoring four times. He had a homer, a double, and a single. Good night for him. Hopefully the first couple of games were just jitters.
Baltimore comes in this weekend, minus Rafael "Giambi" Palmeiro. I'm also really annoyed that the Oates ceremony isn't on TV before the game (if you get the Newberg Report, I was the the reader he was talking about who told him it won't be on TV). Thanks Fox. By picking this game for national, we lose not only our own coverage guys, but we don't get the pre-game ceremony. That's doubly annoying as I can't go - even though I have a ticket, so I was hoping to see it.
I didn't have any time to write an update on this today, but even if I did, there wasn't much good to talk about. Blech.
Uh, hello? Do we have any pitching? I didn't think we'd fall apart this badly with Kenny out on suspension. Wow.
Chris Young seems to have hit a wall, and that's bad since there's two months left in the season. He went and gave up 7 earned runs on 8 hits (with one BB and 1 HR) in his 3.1 Innings pitched. He also had 82 pitches over this time frame. That's the mark of a really struggling pitcher. James Baldwin wasn't much better, giving up 2 ER on his 2.2IP. Brocail, Gryboski, & Loe weren't bad, but the first two did a bunch of damage.
Offensively, we tried to stay in the game. Was one of those "no pitching, score a bunch of runs back and forth" games. We pulled to within 9-8 after 6 innings, but that was it for scoring save for a lone run the Rays got in the top of the 9th. Carl Crawford was the start of this game - man can this guy fly. Was nuts watching him get triples to the left field corner.
Also, I see where there was a fireworks problem at the ballpark - a minor fire issue on the roof, and the Kids park in center field was evacuated. I wonder if that's what those two sets of fireworks that went off in center field was about during the game last night. When they showed the smoke, it seemed like a different kind of smoke than we normally see for fireworks (meaning the smoke is normally up in the air, not right off the roof like that shot was on TV).
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Saturday afternoons are my time to be with my daughter, as my wife works on Saturdays, so I don't always get time to pay attention to afternoon games on Saturday now. :) I did unfortunately get to see the collision that Gary Matthews had at first base. It looked pretty ugly. I really hope he's not down for any amount of time. Sunday's fine, but much past that and we'll have a problem. If that happens, we might have to bring up Botts to actually play something. :) Seriously, I hope Gary's OK, and he can continue, as he's had an incredible road trip (going 2-3 today before having to come out).
This was a pretty well pitched game. Jack Benoit went for us, and the Jays sent up Dustin McGowan, who was making his major league debut. The kid did pretty well, going 5 innings, giving up just one run on 2 hits. Not bad at all for a kid who had never pitched above AA. Jack Benoit did pretty much the same, going 5.2 IP, giving up 2 runs (1 earned). Gryboski, Shouse, Loe, & Cordero kept the Jays off the board, after they went up 2-0 in the first inning.
In fact, scoring was pretty sporadic. Jays scored twice in the bottom of the first, then we got one in the second, and two in the sixth. But I'm not going to complain. We've won 4 in a row now, and pulled back to 6.5 games of first place, and 4 games in the wild card, so we're kind of in it there.
I say "Pbbbbbbbt" to all of you who were proclaiming the season dead and gone a week ago. Sure, it could still be, but I refuse to believe it's over until it's over.
Finally, Phil Nevin didn't play this game, but he was in uniform in the dugout. Since he'll be here for a year and a half, let's hope he contributes more from his roster slot than the man we sent away for him did.
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Since this game started at 6PM, I was driving home listening to the start of the game. When Eric Nadel said that Chan Ho Park was a last second scratch, I figured he was going back on the DL or something. It would be par for his tenure in Arlington. Then when I got home, and listened to the start of the TV coverage, they mentioned "possible transaction", and boy did my ears perk up. Never did I expect that the move we'd make at the trading deadline would be to move Park. I figured maybe Soriano, maybe Hidalgo. But not Park. I was so overwhelmed by that possible move, I wasn't paying much attention to the actual game, just thoughts of no more Park in my head. In fact, after it was announced that it was to the Padres for Phil Nevin, I really didn't concentrate very much on the game at all, I was more interested in finding out details on the Park trade.
However, we did get pretty decent pitching for Wasdin, who had to make a last second start. He went 4.2IP giving up just one run. Brocal, Gryboski, & Cordero went 4.1 IP between them giving up no runs on just 2 hits (both Gryboski).
Offensively, Gary Matthews continued is torrid pace by leading off the game with a home run. He didn't get anything else this evening, but his leadoff HR kind of set the tone. Mark DeRosa also had a decent night, singling in Mench, and scoring later on a Mike Young single. No one really dominated offensively, it was fairly spread out.
Nice to take the first game in the series, and even nicer we won't have to see Chan Ho Park in a Rangers uniform anymore.
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This game was almost a complete opposite of the game from the night before. This game was crisp (2:38 vs almost 6 hours with rain delay), it had good pitching. If you put the two teams together, it was a total of 18 innings, and only 3 earned runs were given up. That's an ERA of 1.5.
The scoring was easy - the Orioles scored their run on a single to left. Our two runs came on solo home runs in the 6th and 9th (Soriano & Dellucci respectively). There was a total of 17 hits between the two teams, which you would think would account for more than 3 runs, but there you go. :)
However, the best thing to come out of this game was the fact that Sidney Ponson got hurt. Not that I ever wish hurt on people, but from a baseball standpoint, that will prevent him from being traded here, I would think. His name had been talked about, but to be honest, I don't want Ponson in a Ranger uniform. I can't see where he's any better than what we have. He might be an innings eater, but I can't get excited about him, especially given the Chan Ho Park type awful contract he has. So thank you Sandy Alomar Jr for that.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
I have to say, I gave up on this game twice. First time was in the first inning after we went down 4 to nothing. Chris Young seems to have hit a wall, and it showed in this game, he gave up a walk, a single, and two home runs in the first to be down 4, and then down 5 after a single came around to score in the second. I've dropped Chris Young from all my fantasy teams, he doesn't seem very solid at the moment, but neither do any of our pitchers (besides Rogers, but he's benched by Selig).
I tuned back in again after the third inning, just in time to see us bop three home runs to tie the game at 5-5. One of which was the first home run by Tex as a right hander. Looked an awful lot like the one he in the the All Star game, too. Then in the top of the fifth, we go up 6-5 on an Alfonso Soriano home run. Feeling good again. Not very confident, mind you, but good, as we'd taken the lead. Doug Brocail did a good job holding the O's down, as did Gryboski. It stayed that way for awhile, when in the bottom of the 8th the Orioles managed to push across a run against Brian Shouse to tie it. Still feeling good. Kam Loe came in and finished off Shouse's inning. So we're tied after 8. Soriano singles, then steals second and third. After Hidalgo walked, Mark DeRosa stepped up and delivered a hit to the left field wall, that got stuck underneath the padding which allowed Hidalgo to score from first. That put us up two. I was feeling really good.
Then in the bottom of the ninth, Matthews botched a play and allowed Sosa to reach, setting the stage for Javy Lopez to homer to left, tying the game. That's the second time I gave up on the game. I got so mad when he hit that HR that I turned off the TV. However, I couldn't stay away long, after a couple of minutes of Super Monkey Ball on my Xbox, I came back to the game, figuring I'd get mad again.
After an uneventful top of the 10th inning, Sammy Sosa reached again on a fielding error (this time DeRosa). Uh-oh. Getting ready to give up again, but I didn't. Javy Lopez just got a single this time, and after a couple of outs, Luis Matos singled to center. Gary Matthews picked up the ball and tossed it home on a laser to Rod Barajas. Sosa comes in to the plate spikes up, in a very Ty Cobb way of doing things. Sosa was tossed out at the plate, but immediately drew the wrath of Rod Barajas. Spikes up sliding is really uncool, and I'm not defending that, but from what I saw on the TV, it appeared Sosa was immediately sorry about it, and appeared to apologize right away. I later heard that he did, and also called the clubhouse to apologize after the game. Still, one has to wonder if the Ranger palyers won't knock Sosa on his ass with a pitch at some point in the future. Was a fabulous play to toss out Sosa and save the game.
That set the stage for the 11th, and an inning that would put the Rangers on top for good. Hidalgo walked, DeRosa singled, and then Matthews got the game winning home run to cap off a fabulous night for him. The error that allowed the O's to tie the game aside, Matthews made two spectacular plays in the outfield, one of which being the assist to throw out Sosa at the plate. He went 3-7 with 4 RBI's and two home runs plus a double. In fact we had 6 doubles in the game (Soriano, Hidalgo, Tex, Matthews, Mench, & DeRosa). DeRosa had a great game, too going 3 for 6 with 3 RBI's.
We had 20 hits and every starter had at least one. Every starter except Blalock scored at least once. Could have been a lot more as we left 14 men on base. But as bad as that sounds, the Orioles left 16 on base, with most of them coming in the last 6 innings.
Really really long game. The game itself ran 4 hours and 13 minutes, and to make matters worse, there an hour and 37 minute rain delay before it even got started. And it got started in the rain no less! It was nice to write about one of these fiasco games that we ended up winning. The win has us at 50-50 after the first 100 games. I think everyone expected a bit more out of this team at this point. It's definitely not over, but the storm clouds are floating around, a few buzzards are up there, let's hope our guys can keep all that at bay.
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What a waste.
Gary Matthews was 3 for 4 with a home run and a couple of doubles. Matthews also made a totally sparkling defensive catch in the outfield, crashing into the wall (it made the #1 Web Gem on Baseball Tonight). Dellucci, Mike Young, & Sandy Alomar
Kenny Rogers went 7 innings, gave up three earned runs. Made several good defensive plays in the field.
We lost the game on a home run given up by James Baldwin in the 8th inning.
What a waste.
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Hey, we got a win! Now, one could make the point that it's against a team that also had a 5 game losing streak, but a win is a win, so I'll take it. Joaquin Benoit started this game, and I have to say having him in our rotation in 2005 doesn't thrill me. Been burnt over the several years of his attempts at figuring it out. He was lights out in relief, so I was hoping he'd translate again to the rotation. He's had two starts in 2005, and the first one was "OK". This one he only went 5 innings, but gave up no runs on 4 hits plus 4 walks. Not a great WHIP, but the bottom line was no runs, so that's good. Hopefully he can continue that, as we certainly need the rotation help.
We used four relievers in the game. Ron Mahay didn't fare too well, giving up the two runs the Orioles got in his 0.2 IP. The remaining three (Loe, Shouse, Cordero) gave up none in their combined 3.1IP.
We actually were outhit 8-6 in the game, but Alfonso Soriano wasn't fooled. He had three of the team's 6 hits, including a solo home run, and two of the RBI's. He scored two himself, so he definitely was the most important player this game.
Was kind of odd that with a game without a ton of scoring and hits that it took three hours and twenty one minutes to play. Nice move by Channel 27 putting it in a 2:45 slot in their programming block. I fail to understand why they continue to do that - how long have they carried Rangers games? Why on earth do they slot games in places they know it won't fit? Doesn't make any sense to me.
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Not feeling good about the situation right now.
We stink. Not ready to give up, but we stink.