Last night was one of those “peace with the world” nights. My wife was out getting her hair cut, so I was home alone with the TV and a Rangers game. :) I printed out one of my scorecards, sat in the recliner with some dinner, a glass of wine, and watched the Rangers game. Out loud to no one, I exclaimed “Life is good”. And not because my wife wasn’t there – she loves the game a lot herself (although she’s not as fanatical as I am). :)
Anyway, what can I say about this game? We got shut down by Jamie Navarro, which was a shocker. He pitched damn well, and we didn’t get anything going really until the ninth, but it was too late.
I didn’t think we played all that bad, but we couldn’t get anything going against Navarro. Not a whole lot else to say about this one.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The new and improved White Sox have a new and improved pitcher – Jaime Navarro.
He beat the Rangers Monday evening throwing from different angles and changing speeds, all very effectively. The potent Rangers’ offense was off-balance the entire time. That’s the key to quieting the Rangers.
The surprising boost John Burkett gave the Rangers Sunday was wiped out Monday by the uneven pitching of Rick Helling. Helling gave up four runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. He had pitched well (on par with 1998 anyway) in his last 4 starts prior to Monday, but Mr. Hyde showed up on the mound in Chicago.
Every hitter in the ChiSox lineup had a hit off Rangers’ pitching. Even the bullpen was bad (of course, Jeff Zimmerman aka SUPERMAN didn’t pitch).
Some odd notes for you: Pudge Rodriguez stole his 8th base. Tom Goodwin stole 2 more as well. The Rangers lead the AL in steals. Hard to fathom on a team with 6 players on pace to drive in 99 or more runs.