G138: Rangers win behind Millwood, 5-2

As I'm also a Phillies fan, I follow them, and I remember well Kevin Millwood's no hitter a couple of years ago, so it was with great interest that I was watching the first few innings of this one, once it became obvious that Millwood was on this game.

Kevin Millwood was perfect through 4.2 innings, until he ran into the Kevin Kouzmanoff juggernaut. Kouzie homered off Millwood to break up the perfect game, no hitter, and shutout all at once. Yeah, I know he's only been in two games, but he has two home runs in 8 at bats in the majors. :) However, Millwood adjusted, and only gave up one more total hit (a double to catcher Martinez in the seventh). In all, Kevin Millwood gave up 1 run on two hits over his eight innings. He also struck out ten batters, which is a bit of a generally unattainable stat for Rangers pitchers. He was strong in every way, a commanding performance - and at our ballpark. Course it wasn't 100 degrees out, which might be the key to Kevin pitching in Arlington.

Offensively, we had a bunch of hits, but the only ones that mattered were all in the seventh inning. After Kinsler & Laird singled, Nelson Cruz hit a ball to short too far in the hole for Peralta to do anything with; it loaded the bases. Gary Matthews followed with a ball that looked like a clear double play, but his hustle kept it to just a fielders' choice and an RBI. Mike Young singled for his 181st hit of the season, scoring Gerald Laird, and driving Paul Byrd from the game. That brought in Fernando Cabrera to face Mark Teixeira who has found himself again in the second half of the season. This at bat was no different, Tex deposited a pitch from Cabera over the wall next to the Rangers' bullpen for a three run home run, extending our lead to 5-1. That was it for the Rangers' scoring this day.

The Indians faced CJ Wilson in the top of the ninth who allowed one unearned run (on a Michael Young error). With a run in, it made it a save situation, bringing in Aki who did allow a single after coming in, but did manage to get the Kouzmanoff juggernaut to ground out to end the game, getting the win and his 30th save of the season.

While we're not mathematically out of the race, we essentially are, it's a shame great games like this will be lost to the season in a month spent trying to figure out 2007. Oh well. I guess there's Mike Young's march to 200 hits.

Has Eric Young actually played yet since being called up? That seems like a bit of a surprise to me.