Great game. Great seats. Oh my god, did I have great seats. I was offered two seats that belonged to the law firm that represents my company. If you’re familiar with the Ballpark seating chart at all, these were Section 32, Row 5, Seats 5-6. One thing to note – there are no rows 1-3 in Section 32. :) This unbelievable view afforded me the opportunity to take some really awesome shots of the game and the ballpark. See below.
Anyway, about the game.. Sele pitched better than anyone else on our staff (except maybe for Morgan out of the pen) again last night. He wasn’t as impressive as the first time, but he still pitched a really great game, and finally left due to fatigue (he had pitched 125 pitches when he was pulled). He looked good from where I was sitting, even striking out the side once. The curve was awesome again – I hope he can keep this up for more than just April. :)
Our offense woke up early this time, scoring three times in the first inning. Goodwin led off with a triple to right center, losing his shoe as he ran around the bases (see below for a shot of that). Then Mac had another triple (could have been an error, too, but it was called a triple). We also had two doubles in the inning, and a sac fly by Rusty, scoring a total of three in the first inning. Looked great! We scored a couple more in the 5th on a few singles and an infield fielder’s choice play. We didn’t have any home runs (although Disney had one), but the offense looked in the groove. I wonder where the hell they were last night.
I spent a lot of time just admiring the ballpark tonight, as I don’t ever get to sit in these kinds of seats. Even the ticket itself looks better than the regular tickets (see the scan of my ticket stub). On the flip side, Al Levine came in for the Angels for Belcher (man, what a silly name), and he pitched awesome. I really wish we didn’t have to let him go – I loved him last year, and was disappointed that he had to go. I hope he does well for them, just not when he pitches against us. :)
It was a great game, but I don’t feel overly wordy about it. The seats I were in just overshadowed the game. It was great that we won, and it was a great game, but man, when you get to sit where I sat last night, that tends to be the thing you remember the most. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers won 6-3 Sunday night against the Angels, behind an explosive offense and a valiant Aaron Sele.
The Rangers needed at least 5 innings out of Sele because the bullpen has been overworked of late. No Rangers’ starter had lasted 5 innings except for Sele in his start last Tuesday.
Sele lasted 5.2 innings. His curve ball was as wicked as I have ever seen it. He fooled the Angels into striking out 10 times. He gave up 3 runs but only 1 was unearned. Jon Shave, filling in for the injured Royce Clayton, made two errors that led to those two runs.
Sele would have lasted longer, but on a humid evening such as it was, the Angels had some long innings (again, thanks to Shave’s errors). The top of the third inning in particular lasted forever, yet the Angels only scored one run, as Sele threw about 35 pitches.
The Rangers’ offense, shut out on Saturday, were open for business Sunday. All 12 of their hits came before the 6th inning. Although there were no home runs, they did smoke the ball for a total of 4 extra base hits.
Every Ranger hitter in the lineup, with the exception of Lee Stevens, got at least a hit.It
was Sele and his 125 pitches though that was the story of this ball game. Mike Munoz, an effective Tim Crabtree and good ole’ John Wetteland (who got his second save) shut down the Angels completely the last 3.1 innings of the game.
Sele has come through twice. Let’s hope Mark Clark can come through once on Monday afternoon.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention two last things; first of all Al Levine threw 4 innings of work for the Angels and he looked fantastic. It’s a shame we don’t have him in our bullpen any longer. Secondly, Jon Shave not only committed two costly errors Sunday, (his second and third errors of the series) but he struck out early in the game on a pitch that I swear was ear level. Shave has no business being in the big leagues playing this way. Either Rafael Bournigal or Scott Sheldon at AAA could do a better job.
