I’m driving away from the Ballpark last night, and I’m thinking.. “You know, I didn’t mind losing this one”. You never WANT to lose, especially against the Yankees, but this one didn’t seem so bad as last night’s obscenity. Sure, we got beat, but we didn’t quit trying it seemed (we didn’t last night, either), but for some reason, this one didn’t bother me.
Not a whole lot positive on the Rangers side, as we were more or less shut down by El Duque, who pitched a complete game. Gabe Kapler looked good, going 2-4 with a home run, two RBI’s, and two runs scored. Pudge was also 2 for four, but that was it. Kapler’s monster two run shot off of Hernandez early was a big crowd pleaser, and gave us some life. However, when we put two on with no out in the bottom of the third, and didn’t do anything with it, well, that seemed to be about it for our offense. Kenny Rogers was rather inconsistent last night, he had two really great innings of 4 and 8 pitches, but then there was an obscene 34 pitch inning, and he just didn’t seem to be that sharp at all. He was really beat by the long ball, giving up a solo jack to Jeter in the first, putting us in the hole immediately, as well as a two run shot to Jorge Posada in the fourth (as part of the 34 pitch inning). We had some momentum after the second, but it was gone come the top of the fourth. Francisco Cordero & Mike Munoz in relief did look good, though. Gotta like that.
On the interesting side, my wife and I usually hate going to Yankee games at the Ballpark, as it tends to bring out the overzealous jackass Yankees fans. For a change, the Yankees fans near us were well behaved. Sure, the cheered for their people, and that’s OK (we did it in Baltimore for the Rangers), but when you’re obnoxiously in favor of our team (excessive needling, swearing, etc), it’s not necessary. Have to tip my hat to the Yankee fans near us tonight – it was most unexpected. Furthermore, every time a ball was hit foul, the fans were all screaming “Foul Ball” and whatnot – pretty funny. Also, the ump from last night behind home plate was at third base, and there was a close call there once, and he got a big rash of boos – in fact, when the umps first walked onto the field, they got booed pretty good.
As a side note unrelated to any of the game, I now have a problem whenever I hear the phrase El Duque. If anyone knows the current Budweiser “Wazzzup” commercials, there’s a bit in one of them where they go “Hey Dook?” I cannnot help but think of “Hey Dook?” whenever I hear “El Duque”.