Recently in 2008 Game Recaps Category

After the first two games in this series, Rangers fans (at least the ones still watching) got excited, we beat the two best pitchers the Angels had. Could we three peat that? No, the local team went out there and reminded you that they're the Texas Rangers and not the Anaheim Angels.

Joe Saunders pitched the way I thought Lackey & Santana would. Six innings, two hits, no runs, no walks, and nine strikeouts. The three innings tossed by the three Angels relievers were no different. No more runs, and just one hit in all that, too.

So yeah, we acted like the Texas Rangers in a shutout tossed against us. This put an exclamation point on the 2008 season, I would think.

OK, last night we beat John Lackey. Tonight we're up against Ervin Santana, another pitcher who we never seem to be able to beat. Couldn't pull that off twice, could we? Yes we could.

In another surprising turn of events, the Rangers beat the Angels 8-4 behind Scott "We're reducing your workload" Feldman. Scott had a pretty good outing. Went six, gave up just one earned run (two overall) on five hits, two strikeouts, and no walks. He too is probably a real candidate to start the 2009 season in the rotation. He was pretty efficient with pitchers too, just throwing 82 over his six innings. Probably pulled him so others could get some work at the tail end of the season. I mean, they [b][i]ARE[/i][/b] trying to reduce his workload, you know.

The other side of the coin brought a second straight bad performance by an Angel starter not known for them. Ervin Santana went 5.2 innings, giving up 10 hits and one walk for eight runs. Not even close to being good there. We didn't have a massive inning - in fact, our runs were scored over three frames. One in the third, three in the second, and four in the sixth.

The biggest point I suppose of the offense was the fact that we broke the major league doubles record. Hank Blalock did the deed, giving us the record, and then Chris Davis added one on later on. On top of that, the Rangers passed 900 runs scored for the season for just the fourth time in franchise history. If that wasn't good enough, Josh Hamilton regained the lead in RBI's in the American League, with two on Saturday night.

Whie Vicente Padilla has been a pretty decent pitcher this year, I don't think anyone expected him to beat John Lackey. This is a guy that normally beats us (at least it feels that way). So I think it was rather a big surprise when the Rangers unloaded on Lackey, especially after the way we were mowed down the last time we faced him. Look at this:

Lackey on Sep 21st:
6IP, 0ER, 2H, 3BB, 12K, 110P

Lackey on Sep 28th:
2.2IP, 10ER, 12H, 2BB, 1K, 73P

That's a major difference. I was quite surprised when we started unloading on John Lackey, you just don't do that. It was so bad that in the third or fourth innings, every single Angel position player was changed. Only one player remained, and he changed position, but the eight other defenders in the field were different players. That really felt like a game played in March, not in late September.

It was bad (for Anaheim). Every Rangers starter got in on the hit parade. We had 19 in all. Six doubles, one triple, two home runs, and a pile of singles. The Rangers scored one in the first, seven in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth, and that was actually it. All the scoring was in the first four innings. However, the six doubles were notable as they tied an all time major league record. They now have 373 doubles for the season, which ties the 1930 Cardinals, and the 1997 and 2004 Red Sox for the all time lead. Given we still have two games left, one would think breaking the record would not be a problem. :)

The Rangers staff was quite good today, but that pretty much got overlooked by Lackey's (lack of) performance. Combined, the Rangers pitchers went 9 innings, gave up just five hits, and one run on five walks, and ten strikeouts. It's the kind of performance that wins you a lot of games, but it's the kind of performance the Texas Rangers don't normally get a lot of.

The win did clinch second place for the Rangers in 2008, something that the Rangers have never actually done, since the alignment went to a four team AL West.

Why o Why could we not do this more often than not during the season?

In the final game of the season against Oakland, we got out the whipping sticks and trashed 'em, 14-4.

The Texas scoring got started with a big three run home run for Hank Blalock, who has homers now in like three or four games in a row. We pushed across two more runs in the fourth with several singles, but then the big can of whoop-ass came out. This would be the bottom of the sixth when we scored eight runs. This is another one of those innings where I'll just post the text from the play by play from the game.

Rangers 6th (Rangers 13, Athletics 2) -- H. Blalock hit by pitch. N. Cruz hits a home run to left-center field on a 0-0 pitch, H. Blalock scores. Pitcher Change: S. Casilla replaces D. Eveland. G. Laird walks. T. Metcalf doubles down the left-field line, G. Laird scores. With G. Duran batting, wild pitch by S. Casilla, T. Metcalf to 3rd. G. Duran singles to left field, T. Metcalf scores. M. Young doubles to right-center field, G. Duran to 3rd. Pitcher Change: J. Gray replaces S. Casilla. J. Hamilton doubles to left field, G. Duran scores; M. Young scores. M. Bradley doubles to left-center field, J. Hamilton scores. M. Byrd grounds out, B. Crosby to D. Barton, M. Bradley to 3rd. H. Blalock singles to left-center field, M. Bradley scores. N. Cruz flies out to T. Buck. G. Laird grounds out, D. Barton to J. Gray. (8 Runs, 7 Hits, 0 Errors, 1 LOB)

Seventeen hits, five doubles, three home runs (Blalock, Cruz, Metcalf), nine singles, that's a lot of offense. Mike Young went 4-4, and six guys had two hits each. Was a lot of bat swinging going on. Just check out the box score, it's all there!

On the pitching side, Matt Harrison made his final start of the year, and came away with his ninth win. This I think makes him a serious candidate for the 2009 opening day rotation. I don't see how you can not include him. Matt was pretty good, going six innings, giving up two earned runs on six hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts. He's turning out to be a great pickup. Not that we didn't expect it from what was said when we acquired him, but it is definitely nice to actually SEE one of these deals work for us, instead of for someone else.

This game was pretty much evenly matched for quite awhile. Was 1-1 after 2, 3-3 after two, and then a pile of zeroes. The A's put up a run in the seventh, and then we retook the lead, retook second place as well.

Dustin Nippert took the hill today, and was "meh". I've written how surprised I was with his pitching the second time around, and this looks like a downswing, although it is his last appearance of the season, so it will probably weigh heavy. Dustin went 6.1 innings, gave up six hits, four earned runs, on three walks and four strikeouts. Two of the six hits were home runs (Jack Cust, Joe Buck), so he was done in by the longball. Our pen (Wright, Madrigal, Francisco) was pretty good, going 2.2 innings, combining for zero hits, zero runs, and zero walks. That was an nice performance.

Offensively, the big shot was a two run home run by Hank Blalock, whose shot came in the bottom of the seventh, and gave us the lead we never relinquished. We had several guys with multiple hits. One had three (Bradley), and four guys had two (Young, Byrd, Blalock, & Cruz). Three were doubles, and all the rest (save for Hank's HR) were singles. Of the starters, only Laird & Metcalf had no hits.

Was a pretty nice come from behind win to retake second place in the division.

The Rangers lost a good performance by Kevin Millwood in this one. Kevin went seven innings, allowed just two earned runs (one unearned). Few too many hits (eight), and just one walk. Six strikeouts. Pretty good performance. He's actually been pretty decent since his last stint on the DL. I don't think he's ever going to be the guy he was that one year in Cleveland while wearing Texas on his chest, but this end of year Millwood is a decent one. if only it could be harnessed all season, he'd be pretty darned good.

Hank Blalock continues to tear it up late this year, making people (myself included) if it actually might not be a bad idea to keep him in 2009. I know a lot has been said about we have other pieces we can use instead of Hank, but it now feels like he'll still be here in 2009 to me. Question is, first or third?

Hank led the offense with a 3-5 night, and two runs scored. However, the big blow was a home run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game. Frank Catalanotto got a triple (!) in a pinch hit role, and both German Duran & Milton Bradley had two hits. All the rest of our hits were scattered, with nobody getting more than one. 11 in all, we had one double, one triple, one home run, and eight singles.

Oakland played the carousel, using seven pitchers in all. Texas used five.

There was a lot of seesaw action early on. Rangers up 1-0, A's up 2-1, Tied 2-2, A's up 3-2 after the top of the third. Stayed that way for quite a long time, when the Rangers finally tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. However, Luis Mendoza gave up the winning run to the A's in the top of the 11th, and we couldn't tie it again.

Oh well. This did knock us out of second place, bit of a bummer there, everyone appeared to have assumed we were a lock for second place.

When you're doing recaps for games a week after they happen, and you see the same score two days in a row, it always makes you think, "Now wait, that can't be right". Not near impossible, but the same score two days in a row to the same team usually doesn't happen. That's what happened here.

Despite our scoring three runs, this game was dominated by John Lackey. He didn't even allow a hit until the fifth inning, and in his six innings of work overall, he struck out 12 Rangers. Gave up three walks and two hits, and no runs at all. It was quite the dominating performance, one we've seen from him many times in Arlington. I was there in person when he made his major league debut a few years back, and recalled then thinking this guy is going to be some kind of spectacular. If there was a downside to his game, it was that he wasn't efficient. He threw six innings, but also tossed 110 pitches. That's been a major plus to the 2008 Rangers, they're acting like the late 90's Yankees, or the A's. Take a lot. This is a good thing, and as I recall one of the things Ron Washington said he wanted to instill in our hitters when he took over as manager. Glad to see it is taking hold.

We had six hits in all. Two by Teagarden (one a double), two by Blalock (one a double), and just one hit each by Marlon Byrd (double), and Milton Bradley. That's it. The fact we managed to score three runs at all was a testament to efficiency. That and Mark Bulger's lack of command in relief, leading to the three runs all coming in the bottom of the ninth, making things a bit exciting there.

But this really was John Lackey's game. Simple as that.

Oh yeah, Scott Feldman is out of gas. They better start limiting his pitches.

Vicente Padilla got into the seventh, but really didn't pitch that well. His official line was 6 innings pitched, seven hits, five earned runs, and three walks. Not terribly great. Also gave up a two run home run to Garret Anderson. On top of that, he did throw two wild pitches.

Offensively we had five more doubles (and five singles). Hank Blalock led the way, going 4-4 with an RBI and a run scored. He's been on fire lately.

There really isn't a whole lot to write about this game. Fairly "meh" game.

Whenever I see a score like this, I am reminded of a game I've spoken of a few times over the years on this site. The Phillies / Cubs game from the late 70's where the Phils beat the Cubs 23-22. You'd think 13 runs would be enough to win the game. Not this time.

First off, I had tickets to this game, but could not go. I've been hurt lately, I had an X-Ray and now an MRI on my knee, so the walk from parking to my seat and all that would have been too much pain. So I stayed home. Rangers lost, but I certainly would have seen an entertaining game, had I been able to go.

We were down 7-0 going into the bottom of the third, and then we unloaded with a nine spot in the bottom of the third. Not long after that, the Angels put up a five spot, followed by a three run bottom of the fifth, so there was little pitching in the first five innings, as the score at that point was 13-12 Anaheim, and we hadn't gotten to the sixth yet!

In the final four innings, the Angels outscored Texas 2-1 in the final four frames. I'm not even going into details as to pitchers and batters. It was just scoring all over the place. If you want that level of detail, hit the MLB Recap link at the top of this story. :)

I don't have time to write a full commentary, but even if I did, I wouldn't have wanted to.

No time to write about this still, but a huge win in the bottom of the ninth sounds great. Wish I would have seen it. :(

No time to write commentary for this game.

No time to write commentary for this game.

No time to write commentary for this game.

Nolan Ryan's recent edict was that pitchers in our entire organization need to pitch longer into games. He must have loved this one. Matt Harrison pitched a complete game shutout. His line was specacular. Nine innings pitched, five hits, four walks, and ZERO runs allowed. The kind of line that would make any team president happy, but one with the pedigree of Nolan's? Oh yeah, he was loving that. It also was a historic win, too, as Matt Harrison is now a record holder for a lefthand rookie pitcher with eight wins.

Offensively Hank Blalock had another home run, and looked like he had a second (would have been a slam), but it didn't quite get out. Chris Davis hit a few balls around the yard hard, too. Taylor Teagarden also continued to shine offensively with another home run. Extra base hits were the order of the night, as we had six of them (out of 10 hits). Three doubles (Hamilton, Davis, Laird), one triple (Davis), and two home runs (Blalock, Davis).

But the night belonged to Matt Harrison. Nights like this will go a long way towards 2009. However, one always wonders about these kinds of things. I've seen a ton of pitchers have great Septembers, but by the time spring training comes around, they seem to have forgotten all of this. Hopefully it sticks around.

Dustin Nippert continues to prove me wrong. As I've said before, I really was in the "WTF" group of fans when he was brought on board late in spring. He stunk up the joint early, but lately has been quite good. His outing this Thursday won't win any awards, but you can't argue with the two most important stats, IMO, those being the win and the runs allowed (one). He was effectively wild, going five innings on 104 pitches, four hits, four walks, and as was said, just one run allowed.

That was the only run the Rangers allowed in all. Our pen shut down the Mariners for four innings, a nice job by Jamey Wright, Bill White, & Frank Francisco. All of them allowed no runs, but no hits either, which was very high on the coolness scale. But what was better was that none of them gave up any walks, either!

Offensively, the Rangers had 14 hits in all. Four doubles, one home run, and nine singles. On the negative side, Joaquin Arias was picked off first by a very nice pickoff move by Dallas Braden. Josh Hamilton was 3-4, Arias & Blalock were 2-5, and all the other hits were scattered. No Rangers batter (starter or sub) was hitless. That's the kind of thing that's nice to see.

Nice to get the series win, but I would have preferred the sweep - it is just the Mariners, after all.

The fact that Kevin Millwood lasted five innings in this game was the big surprise. Eleven hits, two walks, seven runs allowed (five earned), 103 pitches. He wasn't good. Meh.

Offensively, we jacked four home runs, but it was't enough. Millwood gave up too many. The home runs were by Nelson Cruz, Taylor Teagarden, Hank Blalock, & Chris Davis. Like to see all of those names (especially me who picked up Teagarden as a catcher in a couple of fantasy leagues). Taylor also had a double, but again, it wasn't enough. Interestingly enough, batting slots 2-3-4 had no hits the whole game, and the leadoff slot had just one.

Kind of interesting to see the Mariners throw out seven pitchers, that's a lot for one game.

Felix Hernandez certainly isn't looking like the great/awesome/whatever pitcher he has been touted the last few times he's played the Rangers. I don't have a list of all his games in front of me, but against us, he seems to not do as well. This game was no different. The Rangers got to him for the tune of six earned runs on six hits and four walks. Not very good at all. Certainly not "King like" to me at all.

Hernandez' downfall was of course due to the Rangers offense, which was led by Marlon Byrd & Taylor Teagarden. Each of them got three hits each (of the total 10 hits we got). Each of them had a double, as did Josh Hamilton. All the other hits we got were singles. Byrd was 3-4 with 3 RBI's, and Teagarden was 3-5 with 3 RBI's of his own. These guys were the game for us.

Another notable was Nelson Cruz going 1-3, but with two walks. Has Cruz really figured it out?

We ran a bit, with four steals in the game (Byrd, Hamilton, Young, Arias). Was nice to tweak Hernandez, mostly because his nickname irritates the heck out of me.

Well, the luster came off McCarthy's return, as he was blown out by the Red Sox. 5.1 innings, seven hits, three walks, and six earned runs. Not that I think anyone was expecting Cy Young here, but you got a gut feeling (or I did) that he figured it out and was going to be really awesome every start the rest of the year. Oh well, I guess that's just me being naive. That's the vibe you got when he was finally activated to pitch in the majors this year.

Paul Byrd kept the Rangers off the board, going six shutout innings on just three hits and three walks. Not much else to add to that.

Offensively, we had just six hits. One a Teagarden double, the rest all singles. None by Michael Young, either who took an ofer. He still needs 35 hits in 18 games. Not impossible, but unlikely; time appears to be running out on him for another 200 hits in 2008.

With a knuckeballer, you usually get shut down totally, or you light him up like several Christmas trees. In this game, we got both from Tim Wakefield. He started the game for the Sox, and through the first inning and two thirds, he was spectacular. Then after getting two outs in the second, not only did the bottom fall out, but the wheels came off too, and any other platitude you'd want to stick in there. He was horrendously bad there. In the last out there, he gave up four hits, four walks, and seven earned runs. The carnage was pretty bad. It set the tone for the game.

In addition to the seven spot in the second, we also had two in the third, one in the fifth, three more in the sixth, and a pair in the bottom of the 8th. There were runs all over the place. Nine of our sixteen hits were of the extra base vareity. I'll cheat and paste from the box score regarding extra bases...

2B: Laird 2 (21, Wakefield, Timlin), Davis, C (18, Smith, C), Catalanotto (23, Pauley), Cruz (2, Pauley).
3B: Boggs (4, Timlin), Hamilton (5, Timlin).
HR: Cruz 2 (3, 3rd inning off Smith, C, 1 on, 1 out; 5th inning off Timlin, 0 on, 2 out).

Matt Harrison threw for the Rangers, and did well enough. Not stellar, but not great either. Six innings, seven hits, one walk, and four earned runs. "OK", but not awful.

Was nice to see Nelson Cruz pop a couple of home runs. Makes you wonder if he really has figured it out for real, and will no longer be a AAAA player. If he has, it will make our outfield situation much more interesting next year, as it seems we will have an abundance of qualified candidates for the job next year. I suspect some worthy people will be sitting in AAA for being blocked.

After the last several outings, we wondered how well Millwood would do against the Red Sox, or at least I did. After three innings, he was down 1-0 on a solo home run to Mike Lowell, who just came off the DL this game. Nice for him to get back in the saddle that fast. However, going into the fourth, Joaquin Arias dropped a ball that was a routine grounder to second, and that opened the floodgates.

The Sox pushed across four runs in the fourth inning. Technically only one was unearned, but the fact that Millwood had to keep going seemed to rattle him - at least to me, this "guy on the couch at home".

Thing is, we were never really in this game anyway. Josh Beckett started, and like Lowell, was just coming off the DL. He allowed no runs in his five innings of work, striking out seven, and giving up just four walks. The guys who followed him were just as good. Manny Delcarmen pitched two innings, giving up nothing and striking out three. Justin Masterson followed with a scoreless frame (although he walked two). The Rangers finally got to a Sox pitcher, that being Hideki Okajima when he gave up two hits and a walk. That was a Nelson Cruz single which plated German Duran.

Bummer the Rangers lost. While the Sox are probably going to make the playoffs as the wild card, but it would have been nice for the Rangers to sweep the Red Sox and help 'em not make the playoffs. Be nice to have a playoffs without BOTH the Red Sox and Yankees.

When the Rangers aquired Dustin Nippert from the Diamondbacks at the tail end of spring training, most fans (myself included) were thinking WTF. This was not a name that made you think "Hey, let's bring him in, he's so much better than what we have". His April performances were pretty godawful (6ER in 0.2IP in the first, and 8ER in 2.1IP a few appearances later). He was banished after that, not to appear again for awhile. The guy we saw in this game was nothing like the guy we saw earlier in the year. If THIS was the guy the Rangers thought they were trading for, then hell yeah - that was a decent move.

Granted, it's just one game, but how can you not get excited about this? Seven innings pitched, ZERO runs scored, no walks, and seven hits and 99 pitches. It was quite the performance, and if this version of Dustin Nippert can be harnessed, this is a great pickup, if a bit delayed in results. OK, I'm a bit jazzed about this, but wow, it's hard not to be. Was a great pitching performance.

The one run was a sac fly by Milton Bradley, his 74th of the season overall. It came in the first inning - and it held up. That's the surprising thing. We don't get 1-0 wins at home very often.

The bigger surprise was the lack of fans in the stadium. OK, it was a weekday 1:05 game. I work - I have just about zero chance for coming out for those (except opening day). But the announced attendance was 12,882, and from several local reports, it was way less than that. My thoughts on why so many empty seats have been chronicled a lot, so I won't go into it here.

Still, 1-0 is exciting, even if hardly anybody witnessed it.

The Rangers offense woke up a bit, getting fifteen hits in all. Two of our starters (Byrd & Davis) had no hits, so the hits were scattered amongst seven guys. Laird, Bradley, & Hamilton had three hits each. There were no home runs, but four doubles and one triple came off Rangers' bats. Josh Hamilton's RBI jump seems to be in gear again, getting three of them tonight. He got out to a massively quick rate, but has slowed down a bunch lately. Still leading the majors, but not as many as quickly now.

But the more important bit for me from this game is the line of Brandon McCarthy. After "a chat" with Nolan Ryan about his pitching, McCarthy was activated, and has done well this season in his limited sample. Tonight, he went six innings, giving up just two earned runs on four hits and (more importantly), no walks. Still too many pitches (102 in six), but the overall numbers were pretty good. This is a guy who need to get it together, as we could use one of these trades for pitchers to go right, and not go bad. :(

Still, one would think we should have beaten the Mariners by more than that. We're not the greatest team around, but the Mariners are horrible. Would have been nice to have a 18-4 game again.

Young 200 hit watch: one hit

This game irritated me. We put up a five spot in the bottom of the fifth inning. It was all for naught, because after that, the Rangers did not score any more, but the Mariners did. Eight more times!

It's hard to win when your pitching staff gives up 20 hits. We got to the Mariners' starter (Carlos Silva) pretty well (4.2 IP, 10H, 4BB, 6ER). You had a good feeling with all of that. Didn't stick up, though. Bummer.

The best moment of the game though was the three run home run by Taylor Teagarden, who just arrived as a September callup. He wasn't even supposed to play in the game, but got in, and jacked a three run shot with his parents in Tom Hicks' box down front. Showing off Teagarden's medal from the Olympics, it was a great moment. But that was it. Game stunk after that.

The Rangers got out early with some power. Josh Hamilton finally got his 30th home run of the season in the first inning, giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead. In the second inning Marlon Byrd jacked a two run shot, putting us up 3-0. We never looked back. OK, we did, because it's the Angels, but we never lost the lead.

Kevin Millwood allowed two runs in the bottom of the second inning, but that was it for him. Kevin had another great outing, going 6.2 innings, allowing just the two runs on five hits, and no walks. Kevin also struck out seven in this game. It wasn't a complete game, but he's pitching as good as he ever has in a Rangers uniform.

Anyone else notice that Mike Scocscia (sp?) seems to be a manager who is constantly "confused" and seemingly gets mad if someone breathes the wrong way? You know - whenever something doesn't go the Angels way, Soocscia has that constipated look on his face in the dugout? Happens all the time.

Offensively, the Rangers had the two home runs, and also had three doubles. The other five hits were singles.

Young 200 hit watch: one hit.

Scott Feldman continues to prove that he's someone who probably deserves a serious look in 2009, and should be considered before some other (external) options. His game tonight was not one of his best, but at a point of his season where he is past a place where he was supposed to have been shut down (or moved to the pen), he continues to pitch fairly well. And that wasn't a runon sentence. He went six innings this night, gave up four earned runs on eight hits and one walk. The power wasn't there for the Angels, they had just two extra base hits this game, both doubles. But it was enough.

Jered Weaver pitched for the Angels, and pitched into the sixth, but left after the first two batters. He was let down by his reliever Jose Arredondo, who allowed two inherited runners to score, accounting for two of the three earned runs on Weaver's card.

Offensively, the Rangers managed just seven hits the whole game. Six of them were singles, and one was a double (Blalock).

Michael Young 200 watch: One hit.

Scores like 3-1 mean somebody pitched well. That's what happened here. Anaheim's starter was Ervin Santana, and he eight eight strong innings. He allowed just five hits and one walk. Just one run, too. It's hard to top that.

Dustin Nippert made the start in place of Vicente Padilla, and was "OK". Not bad, and not great. His overall line was 5.1 innings, with five hits and three earned runs. Thing is, most of that happend right at the end. He was great through five, keeping the Angels off the board totally. He just ran out of gas in the sixth, and the Angels got to him.

Still, 3-1 isn't the worst score you could lose by. Yeah, a loss is a loss, but 3-1 is less disheartening as say 17-3 would be.

The Rangers got off to a great start, a 4-0 lead to open the first inning in support of Brandon McCarthy. Unfortunately, that was our best moment offensively. We did pick up a single run in the fourth, but that was it for our offense.

We held the lead for quite awhile. Brandon McCarthy looked good again, and one HOPES that he has figured it out. HOPES being the key word there. Brandon threw 6 innings in all, giving up just one earned run (one unearned, too). Just one walk, and six hits. Not too shabby.

Thing is, our bullpen (mostly Jamey Wright) gave up a big ol' ugly five spot in the bottom of the 8th, which of course brought on Frankie Rodriguez. Bleh. We did look really good for most of the game, holding the Angels in check, and being powered by home runs from Milton Bradley & Crush Davis, but the bottom of the 8th kind of wiped out that good feeling.

HOLY CRAP! It's a game played on August 27th, and it's the first time all season I've been able to use that graphic. I've been using it on my site for years, but for the first time in 2008, it gets broken out. That's kind of sad, actually.

This was the second straight game with a pitcher's duel. Yesterday it was Millwood & Greinke. This game it was Matt Harrison & Brian Bannister. Harrison pitched into the 8th inning, and gave up two runs (just one earned). Bannister went into the 7th, and gave up three runs (two earned). Both pitched well. KC was done in again by an unearned run, which proved to be the difference maker.

This game was almost all Brandon Boggs (2-4, HR), Chris Davis (2-4, 2B), & Jarrod Saltamacchia (3-4, 2 2B). These guys had all our hits, except two.

The more amazing thing was a sweep - in Kansas City!

Even if I wasn't writing short entries for this week, there wouldn't be a ton to talk about with this one. It was the Kevin Millwood show. He dominated KC, giving up just one run in his 94 pitch complete game win. That makes two straight complete games for a Rangers pitcher - when the heck was the last time THAT happened?

Funny thing is that Zack Greinke pitched better than Millwood did because he allowed no earned runs. Neither did any other Royals' pitcher. The two runs the Rangers got were both unearned.

You feel bad for a pitcher when they give up no earned runs, and still lose the game. But not enough to not feel glad about the performance Millwood gave. Was spectacular. There's been some talk he might be traded to Boston before Sep 1, but I can't see that happening. If he stays, one gets the feeling we wouldn't see this Millwood in April, unfortunately. :(

Short commentary, I'm in catch up mode after a week of not doing updates..

The Rangers hit Kansas City, a town that despite how bad the Royals have been, it's a town where the Rangers have issues winning. This time, however was different. Nelson Cruz finally made it to the majors this year, and continued his torrid pace in the minors this year. Cruz went 3-5 with three RBI's, missing just the triple for the cycle. Was definitely his night.

Actually, given how many hits we had (19) you would have thought we would have scored more than nine runs. 19 hits usually means double digits in runs. Oh well, I'll take the win, since we usually don't get a ton of them in KC.

Scott Feldman got the win, going seven innings, giving up eight hits, but no walks. Two earned runs (three overall). Good win.

No time to comment. Starting to burn out on this repeat of April in August, as wel.

No time to comment. Starting to burn out on this repeat of April in August, as wel.

I did not see or hear any of this game. I was down at the Starplex watching Black Sabbath play (they currently go by the name Heaven & Hell, they're with Dio again). Due to this, I'll skip all commentary on the game, as I need to recover from the concert. :) I don't know if you know, but I do Black Sabbath's website too - you can see it here: http://www.black-sabbath.com. Doing that affords me the luxury of doing things like watching the gig from on stage. Here was my vantage point. :)

So yeah, I missed Hank Blalock's debut at first base. I was busy backstage with the band after the show, so by the time I finally got back home, I was in no shape to start watching a Texas Rangers game. :)

This game has two big things which would sum it up.

First was the pitching performance by Kevin Millwood. Kevin got a complete game victory, something rare in baseball these days. He looked good, scattering six hits over his nine innings. Only helped out the Tigers once (his lone walk), and struck out four. No Tiger had more than one hit, although four of the six hits were extra base jobs. I was there in person, and the performance by Millwood just seemed to blend into the background. I was't overwhelmed, nor was I bored. Of course, I was there with some friends, so my talking might have gotten in the way of my baseball perceptions.

However, the big story was the power. We had six home runs total. Only one of them was not a solo shot. That was Travis Metcalf's home run in the second - there was one runner for that one. However, we had five more solo shots, including two different back to back shots. The six home runs were by Travis Metcalf (two), Brandon Boggs, Michael Young, Josh Hamilton, & Milton Bradley. Nice fun night to be there, and actually is the first home game win I've been to this year.

A few other random notes..

The Rangers six shooters make me feel old. They sat down next to me at one point waiting for the time to go dance on the dugout. Wow, I'm probably double the age of every one of them. That was helped by the fact that I thought I was old enough to be all of their fathers from the looks of it. Plus I turned 43 today, which made it even more "fun".

The smoke from a Josh Hamilton home run hovered over the home plate area for quite awhile. Normally fireworks smoke blows away, but this one came to home plate, and just hovered there. I had major flashbacks to the original Star Trek episode Obsession where Capt Kirk is hell bent on destroying a cloud that was going around killing people.

The crowd wasn't terribly large, but it didn't seem to go anywhere, either. Guess six home runs will do that. :)

Driving out, I wasn't sure if the game was even going to be played. Came out from Garland where it was nice and sunny. Once I got past the big post office just west of Dallas, I ran into a major rain storm in Grand Prairie. It was nuts, I couldn't see two cars in front of me. Got to the ballpark, and it was nice and blue skies again. I know Texas weather can do things like that, but it was like three different types of weather.

Nice to have the Rangers back in town on August 20th. Since I was a little kid, I've had this tradition about going to a baseball game on my birthday. When they're not in town, I pick the next closest calendar date. But August 20th has been out of town for many years now.

Vicente Padilla started this game, and for the first six innings, looked like the good Padilla we've seen for the majority of 2008. Then the seventh inning showed up, which was the same place the Rangers fell apart last night, too.

Vicente Padilla & Warner Madrigal gave up a big time stinky pile of... in the seventh. The Tigers scored nine times. Was one of those stupid ugly moments, so I'll post the play by play..

Tigers 7th (Tigers 10, Rangers 3) -- C. Guillen walks. G. Sheffield singles to shallow center field, C. Guillen to 3rd. M. Joyce hits a home run to right field on a 1-2 pitch, C. Guillen scores; G. Sheffield scores. E. Renteria hits a home run to right-center field on a 2-1 pitch. Pitcher Change: W. Madrigal replaces V. Padilla. B. Inge strikes out swinging. C. Granderson walks. R. Santiago singles to center field, C. Granderson to 3rd. M. Ordonez singles to left field, C. Granderson scores; R. Santiago to 3rd. M. Cabrera grounds into a force out, M. Young to J. Arias, R. Santiago scores; M. Ordonez out at 2nd. C. Guillen singles to center field, M. Cabrera to 3rd. G. Sheffield walks, C. Guillen to 2nd. M. Joyce reaches on fielding error by J. Hamilton, M. Cabrera scores; C. Guillen scores; G. Sheffield scores; M. Joyce to 2nd. Pitcher Change: J. Rupe replaces W. Madrigal. E. Renteria lines out to J. Hamilton. (9 Runs, 6 Hits, 1 Errors, 1 LOB)

The only real good moment of the game was a three run home run by Chris Davis, who accounted for all the Rangers offense with that swing of the bat. We ran into our old (brief) friend Armando Galarraga. Take away Davis' home run, and Armando gave up no other runs, just those three, and looked pretty darned good.

I missed most of this game, fortunately I did not see the carnage in the 7th, but I did see Davis' home run.

Again. Meh.

The Rangers had 12 hits in all. Six of them were doubles. That's one of the few completely consistent stats we have this year. We're leading the universe in doubles. Wasn't enough.

Scott Feldman started, and technically thew a quality start (6IP, 5H, 3ER, 4BB), but it didn't feel like it. At least I don't remember it going that way as I write about the game three days later. Scott only had 94 pitches when he was taken out, but was apparently out of gas. His line shows six innings pitched, but he did give up three earned runs. Those were all in the seventh. That was the start of a couple of ugly innings, as the Rangers game up four spots in two consecutive innings. The second four were all unearned on the card of Jamey Wright. Those were due to a big ol' ugly error by Travis Metcalf leading to four unearned runs.

Offensively, there were the aforementioned six doubles, and the other six hits were all singles. The four we got in the bottom of the eighth was a morale booster, but the game just find of felt "gone" after we went down 8-3 in the top of the eighth.

Meh.

No time to write this one.

First off, I didn't see any of this game, so I can't tell you how Matt Harrison's pitches were looking. Didn't listen, either. I was out at a Grand Prairie AirHogs game. Was the first one of those I attended. Was a nice little place, but given that I didn't get home till about 11PM, I wasn't about to START watching the Rangers game, so I just checked out the score.

What's funny is on the ride out to the AirHogs game, I was discussing the Rangers pitching staff with the other guys in the car. I found myself preaching the line of "Well, you can't just throw any old kid out thre and expect them to go 13-4 with a 3.16 ERA. They're going to have 3-4 outings where their ERA is 18+, then one absolute gem. We got one of the gems tonight from Matt Harrison. Eight innings, three hits, NO WALKS, and eight strikeouts. Was a very spectacular outing. Which was needed, because our offense wasn't terribly special, although we led from the first pitch of the game, a big home run ball by Ian Kinsler.

Random note. If Michael Young wants another 200 hit season, he has to go on a tear. He needs 55 hits in the 38 remaining games. Not impossible mind you, but he needs more 3-4 games than 1-4's the way out. A lot of them.

To wrap it up.. Tom Hicks could learn a lesson from the AirHogs. FREE PARKING!

After our playoff hopes effectively died in Boston, we limped home, hoping that Kevin Millwood's return from the DL would make a change, coupled with being at home.

Nope.

They were just as bad as they were on the road. Well... It's not totally our fault. Matt Garza pitched a whale of a game. A complete game, 119 pitch, two hit shutout of Texas. It probably should have been just one hit, there was a play by the centerfielder that I thought should have been an error. At the minimum it was a rather rough call for the official scorer. Yeah, we have a few guys who can hit, but anyone knows you can be totally shut down by a pitching performance like that.

This makes two consecutive games we were shut out. 7-0 this game, and 10-0 in Boston. To add extra flavor that thought, the last home game before this one was a 3-0 loss to the Yankees, as well. :(

It feels like April again.

Anyone who has been watching my site for awhile has seen this graphic before. However, I think it's time to update it for the 2008 season. I would like to think this applies. While you're at it, take a listen to this wav file from the Simpsons. It too applies.

No time to write about this game, got too busy with other projects.

No time to write about this game, got too busy with other projects. I will add this picture, though.

No time to write about this game, got too busy with other projects.

Nope, I think the team still didn't find it's way to Baltimore, and the same imposters that were playing in their uniforms were out at Camden Yards getting mashed by the Orioles on Saturday night.

Unconfirmed rumors that the team was at the Aquarium in the Inner Harbor at game time could not be confirmed.

I'm not sure exactly what time the Rangers' charter plane took off from the Metroplex on Thursday night for their destination in Baltimore, but apparently, the Texas Rangers team wasn't on it. Oh, some guys were in Oriole Park wearing the Rangers' uniform, but the actual team did not appear to be there. Whoever was wearing the uniforms were lethargic, they didn't pitch well, and just generally looked like they were half asleep.

The guys wearing the Rangers' uniforms got just six hits against Jeremy Guthrie. Two were by the guy wearing #22. The lone run was from the imposter wearing "Metcalf" on his back. Not much to talk about offensively here at all.

Pitching wise - We got bad outings by the guys wearing #46 & #57. The third guy who happened to be wearing #60 wasn't all that great, either, but nowhere near as bad as 46 & 57.

Blah. Hopefully the Rangers can make the secondary flight and be there in time for Saturday's game. They certainly weren't there for Friday's game.

As per my policy of the last few years, I don't write about losses to the Yankees.

Although I will say this. Anyone else watching this game have flashbacks to the 1998 & 1999 playoffs? This game felt a LOT like those two games in our ballpark. The feel was exactly the same for me.

As per my policy of the last few years, I do not write about losses to the Yankees.

You know, after the euphoria of last night, I didn't know what to expect out of Marlon Byrd tonight. Sometimes after a night like that, you get a flat 0-4 or 1-5 or something like that. But tonight, Byrd continued his positive vibe from last night into this game. Marlon was 3-4 with a walk, and three runs scored. He also stole two bases. It was quite the night offensively for him. No big grand slam or anything, but he was definitely felt. One of the runs scored was a gamble shot - he was almost thrown out by Bobby Abreu. Nice night again for Byrd.

As good as Byrd's night was, it was positively awful for CJ Wilson. I know I'm jumping ahead (I generally tend to do my commentaries in game order). A lot has been said about CJ in the last few days. We're hearing quotes like "He's still our closer", and "we're going to work on a few things and get him back out there". These are not real strong votes of confidence. Of course, he's not helping himself. There's talk that he might be hurt a little, but he doesn't have that air of "closer" at the moment. Tonight's performance certainly didn't help things. 0.1 innings pitched, 1 hit batter (Arod), two walks, and one hit. A big one - a grand slam by Richie Sexson. Ugh. It was announced after the game that CJ Wilson was going to go on the disabled list. This could explain things, but he just hasn't that "swagger". Guess it's Guardado time for awhile.

We had another efficient night at the plate. Rangers had eight runs, and we had only eight hits. Three of them were Marlon Byrd, two were David Murphy, and the other three were one each by Hamilton, Boggs, & Crush Davis. We actually were held mostly in check, but Yankee pitching gave up eight walks. That is NEVER good, and it's hard to win when you give up that many walks.

One of the best performances of the night was Rangers starter Matt Harrison. Facing some of the best hitters in the league, he was fantastic. 6.1 innings pitched, five hits, two earned runs. Now *THAT* is a quality start. Great job by Matt. Hope those keep coming.

One of the greatest bits of the night was the fact that Alex Rodriguez hit into two 5-4-3 double plays (including the one that ended the game). He also was doubled off on a 5-4 line drive out. Gotta love that.

The Rangers are now six games over .500, and have won three in a row. We're now only a game and a half behind the Yankees in the Wild card race. We still would have a lot of work to do on Wed & Thursday, but if we by some chance sweep the Yankees, we'll pass them in the standings. But let's not get ahead of ourselves quite yet on that one.

BTW, if you want some entertaining posts, check out the Yankees forums on mlb.com. After both games, there's a ton of posts calling Girardi every name you can think of, wondering why they have Arod, you know. The kind of dumbass remarks you see on call in shows. It's almost as amusing as Cowboys forums after one of their losses. Calling Matt Harrison a nobody or a "bum" I can understand. HOWEVER, the Yankee fans do show some real tastelessness with several remarks about Josh Hamilton. Specifically junk like this. Or like this. And ESPECIALLY this one. I had almost forgotten how dominant Yankee fans can be in the category of jerkoffs. I was blinded by the meteoric rise in jerkoff Red Sox fans the last few years that it clouded the original jerkoffiness of Yankees fans. Thanks for restoring my faith you twonks. Sigh.

Oh yeah, SUCK IT AGAIN, YANKEES!

Early on in this game, Vicente Padilla looked like he was really being squeezed by home plate umpire Andy Fletcher. It seemed like it to me. Especially in the first inning when there was a pitch that really should have ended the inning. It didn't, and led to a run scoring that really shouldn't have.

But that wasn't the really interesting part. That came in the fifth, when at that point the score was 3-2 Yankees. Padilla was called for two straight balks in a row, and while I'm no balk expert, I find it unlikely they were both legit. That aside, Ron Washington came out and argued the second one, and got himself ejected. The second balk led to the one run the Yankees did get that inning. It really was a strange inning, but as odd as that seemed, the bottom half of the frame had a stranger play.

Ian Kinsler was up after a Ramon Vazquez single. Kinsler hit a ball that was initially ruled fair, and Pudge threw to second for an easy double play, because Kinsler didn't go anywhere. There was a discussion, and the umps conferred, and ruled it was a foul ball. Replays showed that the ball hit him around the knee. He was ruled to still be in the batter's box, but it was a real close shave call. He might have technically been in the box, but he was definitely on his way out when it happened. Kinsler ended up walking, and he was shortly followed by a three run home run by Michael Young - something that's been missing again for the second straight year - Young's power stroke.

This all followed the two run home run that David Murphy had in the fourth inning - a line shot that cleared the wall in right. So at this point, we're up 5-4. It stayed that way for awhile until the top of the 8th when the Yankees tied it up on a solo home run by Xavier Nady, making it 5-5. It was a weird feeling then - the Yankees have always been known as a team that will beat the Rangers. Yet, that feeling was tempered by the feeling we have in 2008 of the team coming back an awful lot. So I wasn't sure what to think at that point.

Before I get to the end of the game, I wanted to say something about the pitching. Padilla's line was OK. Not great, but I think part of that was him being squeezed. His overall line was six innings, eight hits, one walk, and four earned runs. Struck out five. His last inning was the sixth, and his last few batters he had some extra gas in the tank. Padilla seemed to be at his best when he came out. He also threw 111 pitches, which in 100 degree heat, couldn't have been any fun. So Padilla comes out, Jamey Wright pitches a scoreless inning, Frank Francisco pitched one inning, giving up the Nady home run. Eddie Guardado pitched the ninth, but in a non save situation.

Eddie ended up getting the win due to what happened in the bottom of the ninth. Domaso Marte (the other pickup from the Pirates on the team besides Nady) had pitched in the eighth, and didn't allow any runs. You don't use Rivera on the road in a tie game, so I guess Girardi decided to let him pitch the ninth, figuring they'd use Rivera in the 10th. Anyway, Milton Bradley led off as a pinch hitter; his first action in several games. He walked. What a shock. Was immediately replaced by Travis Metcalf as a pinch runner. Gerald Laird & Josh Hamilton also walked, surrounding a couple of outs made by Ian Kinsler & Michael Young. However, Marlon Byrd came up, and jacked a home run ball into Section 50 of the ballpark. This plated four guys - a walk off grand slam to take the game 9-5.

It was quite a cool shot watching Marlon get all kinds of excited. One always loves the big jumping pile of players (or the Flesh Pile as coined by Eric Nadel), but I got a kick out of watching Marlon Byrd high fiving people in the stands, almost knocking down Jim Knox in the process. Really laughed when Marlon stood there doing the bird wave to the fans in the stands. Loved that moment a lot.

Interesting that all nine of our runs came on three home runs. A two run shot (Murphy), a three run shot (Young), and a grand slam (Byrd). As for the Yankees? Screw 'em. They can lose, and miss the playoffs. Given that the new Steinbrenner running the shots seems to have inherited his dad's penchant for foaming at the mouth, it ought to be interesting if/when the Yankees don't make the playoffs. Will LOVE that.

One thing I totally forgot about when writing this article was that we FINALLY got to give games over .500 for the first time all season with this win. It also broke a ten game losing streak against the Yankees in Arlington.

And oh yes, SUCK IT, YANKEES!

I was busy almost all day and into the evening helping a friend downgrade his computer from Vista to XP, so I missed a bunch of this game. This will be a short one.

Luis Mendoza was a bit better than his last few starts where he got rocked. Seven innings, four earned runs, six hits, one walk. Not staller, but not horrendous, either. Pen was good too, with two innings of scoreless relief.

Offensively, the big shots were obviously Gerald Laird's two two run home runs. That was huge. Chris Davis also had a big home run as well. That was the raw power in this game.

For the second night in a row, we had just seven hits. As noted above, three of them were home runs. There were two doubles and two singles, so it was leaning more towards extra base offense than the slower kind. Which helps when you have more runs than hits. :)

The dreaded Yankees (with Pudge - ugh) come to town starting tomorrow night. I will NOT be there.

For something like the seventh time this year, we tried to get to five games over .500, but failed. The problem we had was even getting one game over .500 for awhile. The bar has been raised a bit to getting stuck at five games over. Hopefully there's enough time to get through that new ceiling so we can set another one at say 10 games over .500, which if we sustain that through the end of the season, we'll have a better record than anyone expected at the start of the season, or probably most people when they get a look at our pitching staff ERA.

Scott Feldman may be out of gas, as he's definitely not as snappy as he was earlier this year. There was a lot of talk of him going to the pen, and that may yet happen, but he doesn't seem anywhere near as crisp as he was just a month ago, even. His line is five hits and three walks over 5.1 innings for a total of four runs (three earned). No home runs at least, but he just didn't have it to my eyes. We could blame the heat, but I think it might be a lack of gas already. Jamey Wright followed, and didn't help matters by giving up two earned runs in his .2 innings of work. Josh Rupe settled things down by throwing three shutout innings, but by then the damage was done - we weren't coming back this time.

Offensively, we had just six hits, and only four players got them. Frank Catalanotto had a hit, and Josh Hamilton, David Murphy, & Gerald Laird each had two. Wasn't a great game on our behalf, and while we only lost by two, I just didn't feel we were in the game. Perhaps I was missing something, but my memory sitting here writing about it on Sunday night tells me that we just didn't have it.

Oh well, try to take the series on Sunday afternoon.

When a team starts coming back all the time like the Rangers have been doing, you start hearing a lot about "We never quit", and "This team just won't give up", and things like that. Fans sometimes get into it too, with the "There is no lead they can't come back from". Me, I'm not that blind with belief. I always assume we'll do something wrong, and the rally will fizzle. That way when they DO come back for a win, it feels that much cooler.

That's what we got tonight. Another walkoff win. Those are always fun. This wasn't the kind where it ended with a home run, and you had the dancing pile of players at home plate. This was the kind that ended with a David Murphy single, so you had two piles. One at home plate for the winning run, and another over near first where David Murphy was. Those always seem both more exciting and less exciting. Less because of the impact that having all the players in one big mob generates. More, because you have some guys running all over the place, since they don't know what to do, or which jumping pile of players to celebrate with. Either way, they're fun, and that's what happened at the end of this game.

It didn't start off that way. Tommy Hunter made his major league debut pitching tonight, and his performance is generally the way ML debuts go for pitchers. They're generally not going to go eight innings with four hits and one run. They go more like Hunter did - five innings, eight hits, two walks, and six earned runs. ERA of 10.80. His game did start quite odd, though. The first two batters were retired easily enough, but the third (Alex Rios) was awarded first base on pitcher's interference. Hunter and Chris Davis kind of crashed into each other going after the ball, and by the time Rios got down the line, there was nowhere to go, Davis & Hunter blocked the path to the base. If that wasn't goofy enough, the next batter (Lyle Overbay) also reached - this time due to catcher's interference by Gerald Laird. Was a very odd way to get going in your first major league inning. Hunter got out of the inning, but that was about it. In the second, Scott Rolen hit a three run home run. In the next inning, Lyle Overbay hit a two run home run, putting the Jays up 5-0 in the third. They tacked on another in the fourth to go up 6-0.

Josh Hamilton drove in a couple more runs on a two run home run to dead center field, setting off one of the better pileups of kids on Greene's Hill I've seen in awhile. The clip of the kid who got the ball out of the dogpile made it to the Top 10 plays of the night on ESPN's SportsCenter too - that was rather amusing. A bunch of singles and a double or so mixed in all put together gave us a nice 4 spot to tie the game 6-6 after five.

It stayed that way until the ninth when the Blue Jays plated a pair to go up 8-6 in the top of the ninth. They did that on a single, a triple, and a ground out RBI (by Shrek, no less). That set the state for the bottom of the ninth, where the Rangers made a big run at Toronto closer, BJ Ryan. Salty walked, Michael Young singled, and then Brandon Boggs doubled, scoring Salty. Marlon Byrd was intentionally walked (to set up a double play at any base presumably). Thing is David Murphy singled down the left field line far enough away which allowed two runs to come across, winning the game, setting off the player excitement I talked about above.

Nice comeback win, although I'm getting tired of having to come back from 4 or 5 runs all the time. Turns out team management was too, as the rangers fired their pitching coach & bullpen coach after the game. Out are Mark Conner & Dom Chiti. Their replacements are Andy Hawkins & Jim Colburn respectively. Colburn I don't know much about at all except he was a pitching coach for the Dodgers & Pirates under Jim Tracy. Andy Hawkins has worked with a lot of our current guys in AAA, so that should work well.

We try again to get to five over .500 on Saturday.

I don't have the time to write, I'm going to have to skip this one.

I didn't realize I missed reporting on this game, and now that I did, I don't have the time to write, I'm going to have to skip this one.

Early on, this seemed like a runaway win. We went up 7-0 in the third inning.

Carlos Silva started the game for Seattle, and proved again how stupid his signing was. After this outing, Silva is now 4-12 with an ERA of 5.95. He's lucky his team bailed him out for a no decision - he certainly deserved the loss. In all, Silva went 2.1 innings, gave up seven hits, one walk, and six earned runs. Not very good.

Thing is, the Rangers couldn't hold it. Luis Mendoza had an almost equally outing. 5.1 innings, nine hits, and six runs allowed (1 unearned). Jamey Wright followed, and wasn't that much better. Jamey finished up the sixth inning, going just 2/3 of an inning, and allowed three hits, two of which were home runs.

A cool note in this game was that Ichiro Suzuki collected his 3,000th career hit (if you count Japan too) on the first pitch of the game.

Both closers were pretty awful. CJ Wilson allowed two runs, although one was unearned. JJ Putz gave up three hits, and two earned runs.

Speaking of "awful", Ramon Vazquez didn't have a good night in the field, committing three errors himself. He did redeem himself with the game winning walk off double, however. Took a shot at the fans in the post game interviews over the errors and booing, too. :)

A few years back when Seattle brought in Adrian Beltre, it was with the promise that he'd provide a major stick to their lineup. Would be the big power masher. That never happened for the most part, but in this game it did. Adrian Beltre led the Mariners to the win over the Rangers. He went two for four this game. Both of the two were home runs. One was a three run shot in the first, and the other was a solo jack later in the game.

That wasn't the only power from Seattle. Raul Ibanez & Bryan LaHair both had solo home runs. LaHair's was his first career home run.

Scott Feldman started the game for Texas, and was definitely not the guy he's been for this season. It will take more than one start to convince me, but there's been some talk lately of moving Feldman to the pen because his innings are way up for him. It could be any number of things, but if there's too many of these kinds of outings, it may be something to look into.

The Rangers offense got to Felix Hernandez a bit, touching him up for four runs (three earned) in six innings. Technically a quality start, but definitely not the kind of performance that Hernandez brings to the hill. The Rangers had six walks and eleven hits. Of all that, only two were extra base hits - both doubles by Ian Kinsler. It was single city this game.

As much as Saturday's game was led by the longball for the Rangers win, Sunday's game was led by the longball for the Rangers loss.

We did manage to start the game with a lead, going up 1-0 in the first inning on a Milton Bradley double.

Eric Hurley started the game for the Rangers, and ran into immediate problems. Jack Cust got Hurley for a two run shot in the first inning. Hurley got out of the inning without any more damage, but was tagged again in the second. A's catcher Curt Suzuki jacked a three run home run, and combined with another run the A's plated that frame, put them up 6-1 at that point. At that point I got digusted and took my daughter out for a ride around town after getting some ice cream. My wife needed a little bit of alone time, so we went out for a ride. While I was out, I had the scoreboard on my XM display, and saw the Rangers moving back in the top of the fifth.

When we eventually got back home, I flipped on the top of the fifth, and it was nice to see the Rangers make a game out of it. The big shot in this inning was a bases clearing double by Hank Blalock.

But outside of our four run top of the fifth, it actually was a pretty well pitched game. Rangers only scored in two innings, as did the A's. The rest of the game was zeroes.

Really odd that we still can't seal the deal on a series sweep.

Well, this was one of the games we couldn't see on TV. Was radio only, which means no timeshifting for me. Until TiVo comes out with a "TiVo for radio", I'm stuck listening to the game when it actually happens when it's radio only. Since I almost NEVER watch anything when it's really on, that concept is alien to me. Since I was spending the day with my three year old, sitting down and listening to a Rangers game on the radio was not an option, so I just opted out of the whole thing. This was a box score only game for me.

Rangers rookie Matt Harrison started this game, and did not appear to be all that bad, really. He only threw five innings, but gave up just one earned run. There were two more that were attributable to a Michael Young error, but in all, the linescore wasn't that bad. Five innings, five hits, three walks. Josh Rupe followed up with three innings of scoreless relief. Warner Madrigal finished up, and allowed a solo home run in his one inning of work. In all, not bad. Just two earned runs over nine innings of work - not bad line for the staff at all.

The Rangers work at the plate was fairly efficient, as we had ten hits in all. Three of them were home runs. There were two solo shots (Chris Davis in the 7th & Marlon Byrd in the 8th), as well as the big one, a three run home run by Josh Hamilton in fifth. That's five of our nine runs right there. Chris Davis also had a double, and got picked up by me on a couple of fantasy teams I'm on. :)