Two games. 36 hits. 24 runs. Two wins. Two great ways to open the 2004 season at home. While I doubt we’ll continue to score 12 runs a game, I hope we can keep up the winning. We’re over .500 and have a three game winning streak. I know, I know. It’s all too early to worry about stuff like that, but if this happened around game 107 of the season, people would be loving it! After 361 losses the last four seasons, I’ll take winning where I can find it! :)
This game mirrored opening day in a lot of ways (although not the weather). We got out to a lead early, then blew it. We were up 4-0 after the first inning, and Kenny Rogers was perfect through three. But in the fourth, he had a meltdown. We gave up 6 runs in the fourth inning to go down 6-4. However, just like opening day, we came back immediately in the bottom of the fourth to retake the lead 7-6. We then extended it by another five over the next few innings. A nice way to bounce back from an ugly six spot on the other team’s ledger.
Kenny Rogers was pretty good, save for the fourth inning. 6 earned runs in 6 innings didn’t help his ERA (it’s now 6.23), but he and we got the win, which is what really counts. We used four pitchers out of the pen (Powell, Mahay, Nelson, E Ramirez). Of the three innings they pitched total, they gave up just one hit, although it was dicey for a bit when Powell first came in. You can’t really erase the fourth inning, so it kind of makes the pitching performance just “OK”, otherwise it would have been just like the first four games that preceeded it. Let’s hope Chan Ho Park wasn’t watching during the fourth.
Offensively, we had another 18 hits, and this time everyone got in on the act. Three guys had three hits (Blalock, Fullmer, Dellucci). However, Blalock probably had the best day. In addition to his three hits (double, HR, single) he also had two walks, and had an OBP of 1.000 for five at bats. He also scored four times. Mike Young and Mark Teixeira also had home runs to lead the power. Of the nine guys we put out there yesterday, the lowest batting average for the season of any of them is .286 (highest is Nix with .500). Our offense and pitching looks pretty good so far. In fact, up until the fourth inning we were temporarily leading the AL in both pitching and hitting. And later on in the game, in stolen bases, too. :)
Let’s hope all this goodness keeps up. I’m realistic – at some point we’ll break down, but I’d love to see it keep going as long as it can.
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - ANAHEIM 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 6 8 1 TEXAS 4 0 0 3 0 1 1 3 x 12 18 0 (FINAL) BATTERIES: ANA - JOHN LACKEY, BEN WEBER (4TH), SCOT SHIELDS (7TH) AND JOSE MOLINA TEX - KENNY ROGERS, JAY POWELL (7TH), RON MAHAY (8TH), JEFF NELSON (8TH), ERASMO RAMIREZ (9TH) AND GERALD LAIRD WP - KENNY ROGERS (1-0) LP - JOHN LACKEY (0-1) SAVE - NONE HOME RUNS: ANA - NONE TEX - MARK TEIXEIRA (2) OFF JOHN LACKEY IN THE 1ST, 2 ON MICHAEL YOUNG (1) OFF JOHN LACKEY IN THE 4TH, 1 ON HANK BLALOCK (2) OFF BEN WEBER IN THE 6TH, 0 ON TIME: 2:52 ATT: 30,331 PROBABLES: ANA - BARTOLO COLON (1-0, 0.00) TEX - CHAN HO PARK (0-1, 3.52) Box Score ANAHEIM (6) VS TEXAS (12) - FINAL ANAHEIM ab r h rbi bb so lob avg D Eckstein ss 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 .320 D Erstad 1b 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .200 V Guerrero rf 3 1 2 0 1 1 0 .350 G Anderson cf 4 1 1 0 0 2 3 .429 T Glaus 3b 3 0 0 0 1 1 3 .350 J Guillen lf 4 1 1 2 0 2 3 .273 T Salmon dh 3 1 0 0 0 0 3 .050 J Molina c 4 1 1 3 0 1 0 .267 A Kennedy 2b 4 0 1 1 0 2 0 .368 Totals 34 6 8 6 2 10 13 BATTING: 2B - V Guerrero (3, K Rogers). 3B - J Molina (1, K Rogers). RBI - J Guillen 2 (2), J Molina 3 (5), A Kennedy (7). 2-out RBI - J Guillen 2, J Molina 3, A Kennedy. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - G Anderson 1, T Salmon 2. Team LOB - 4. BASERUNNING: CS - A Kennedy (1, 2nd base by K Rogers/G Laird). FIELDING: E - T Glaus (1, throw). TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 5 2 2 2 0 1 1 .286 H Blalock 3b 3 4 3 1 2 0 0 .350 A Soriano 2b 5 1 2 0 0 0 4 .300 B Fullmer dh 5 2 3 3 0 1 1 .313 M Teixeira 1b 4 1 1 3 1 1 1 .316 D Dellucci lf 5 1 3 2 0 0 0 .286 K Mench rf 5 0 1 1 0 2 3 .286 L Nix cf 5 0 2 0 0 2 3 .462 G Laird c 4 1 1 0 0 1 2 .375 Totals 41 12 18 12 3 8 15 BATTING: 2B - M Young (2, J Lackey); B Fullmer (1, J Lackey); H Blalock (2, J Lackey). HR - M Teixeira (2, 1st inning off J Lackey 2 on, 1 Out), M Young (1, 4th inning off J Lackey 1 on, 1 Out), H Blalock (2, 6th inning off B Weber 0 on, 2 Out). RBI - B Fullmer 3 (3), M Teixeira 3 (7), M Young 2 (6), H Blalock (5), K Mench (4), D Dellucci 2 (2). 2-out RBI - B Fullmer, H Blalock. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - B Fullmer 1, A Soriano 1, L Nix 1. Team LOB - 8. BASERUNNING: SB - A Soriano (3, 2nd base off B Weber/J Molina), D Dellucci (2, 2nd base off S Shields/J Molina). CS - G Laird (1, 2nd base by B Weber/J Molina), L Nix (1, 2nd base by B Weber/J Molina). ---------------------------------------------------- ANAHEIM - 000 600 000 -- 6 TEXAS - 400 301 13x -- 12 ---------------------------------------------------- ANAHEIM ip h r er bb so hr era J Lackey (L, 0-1) 3 2/3 9 7 7 2 1 2 17.18 B Weber 2 1/3 3 1 1 0 3 1 4.50 S Shields 2 6 4 4 1 4 0 12.71 TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era K Rogers (W, 1-0) 6 7 6 6 0 7 0 6.23 J Powell (H, 2) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 R Mahay (H, 1) 1/3 1 0 0 1 0 0 0.00 J Nelson (H, 2) 2/3 0 0 0 1 1 0 13.50 E Ramirez 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 IBB - M Teixeira (by S Shields). HBP - T Salmon (by K Rogers). Pitches-strikes: J Lackey 74-45; B Weber 36-22; S Shields 47-31; K Rogers 94-60; J Powell 10-7; R Mahay 10-6; J Nelson 14-9; E Ramirez 11-8. Ground balls-fly balls: J Lackey 2-8; B Weber 1-1; S Shields 2-0; K Rogers 4-6; J Powell 2-0; R Mahay 0-1; J Nelson 0-1; E Ramirez 2-0. Batters faced: J Lackey 22; B Weber 9; S Shields 13; K Rogers 25; J Powell 3; R Mahay 3; J Nelson 3; E Ramirez 3. UMPIRES: HP--Joe West. 1B--Terry Craft. 2B--Mike Dimuro. 3B--Jim Wolf. T--2:52. Att--30,331. Weather: 56 degrees, drizzle. Wind: 12 mph, out to right.