Remember last week when the Rangers lost a game due to the sun in left field? Well, I got a big look first hand at this. I showed up at the ballpark at 4:30 when the gates opened to take some pictures at the ballpark that will show up on this web site shortly. Anyways, I spent a lot of time out in left field on all three levels of the ballpark, and JEEZ! It was friggin sunny as all hell, and I got a bit sunburnt. I can imagine how bad it was for Rusty, you can hardly see anything up high.
I had bought a cheap seat because my real purpose in going was to take pictures for my seat selector. So, I got in for $5, but I managed to get into the 200 level right before the game started, and I ended up sitting in section 225, one section over from Hornman. :) This was their “Christmas in July” game, there were Christmas trees and Christmas music being played before the game. It was pretty cute.
Anyway, the Angels struck fast, with Mo Vaughn rumbling all the way around from first base – in fact, Mo scored the first three runs! We were down 3-0, and with Burkett pitching, I didn’t have a good feeling when we went down 3-0. However, we busted out in the bottom of the third for a big six spot, which was highlighted by Rafael Palmeiro’s grand slam. This was the second grand slam that I’ve seen with my own eyes this year (also saw Roberto Kelly’s slam awhile back). That put us up 6-3, and in the 4th, we kept the Angels off the board, so I was thinking things were going to go well for Burkett, who didn’t pitch all that well, he needed to be rescued three times with inning ending double plays. The Angels crept back getting another run in each the 5th and 6th, bringing them back within one. We then scored two in the bottom of the sixth, which included a solo shot by Zeile. However, in the 7th and 8th, the Angels scored another run in each, bringing them back to within one run again. We picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th, and Zimmerman came in to close the game in the 9th (Wetteland is still having back spasms). In fact, the 9th was the only inning the Angels didn’t get a hit (they scored one run in every inning except the 4th and 9th).
We used a lot of pitchers tonight – Burkett went 5.1 and was just “eh”. We also used Venafro, Patterson, Munoz, Crabtree, & Jeff Zimmerman. This was a really exciting game for me, both from the grand slam I saw to the general “feel”. It was a great game to be at.
We swept the two game series, and Oakland finally lost, so we’re up 6 on the A’s, 9 on the Mariners, and 12.5 on the Angels, who are down for the count.