While I was watching this game, I kept thinking of what I would write about. I’m watching Scott Erickson pitch, and the phrase “Wild Wild West” kept coming to mind. Well, Erickson was wild, but unfortunately, we couldn’t take advantage of it, and our slide continues, with our sixth straight loss.
Scott Erickson walked a ton, including walking the bases loaded in the third. In fact, our two runs came because of his walks, but that was our only scoring of the whole night. The Orioles managed to turn several double plays, effectively killing off a lot of the walks that Erickson put on base. We only managed the two in the third, and that’s all we got.
Rick Helling pitched a really great game I thought. Unfortunately, he grooved a few fastballs to BJ Surhoff and Charles Johnson, and that accounted for the only three runs that Baltimore got. While we lost, I felt it was a great baseball game, and was a treat to watch.
Before this season started, I didn’t feel like the Rangers would win the division – I felt this would be a “rebuilding year”, and the way they’ve played, that’s more or less is what’s happened. I don’t think this group will really gel until next year. Would be nice if they won, but I would tend to doubt it for 2000.
A couple of interesting notes. Frank Catalanotto ended up in right field because of a couple of managerial moves by Oates and Hargrove played (it burnt Chad Curtis from the game without him doing anything). Also, this was Rafael Palmeiro’s 2000th Major League game. Pudge went 2 for 4, and continues to lead all players in vote getting for the All-Star Game!