First off, with this game I’ve decided to start linking for Rangers site coverage to the Wrapup page. That way you get both the Rangers and the opponents page coverage plus notes, and since that one link goes to a page with four stories (or more) on it, I figure that’s the way I’ll go unless there’s a special link to go to for some reason.
Second. I had a hell of a lot of fun at this game, it almost didn’t matter what happened on the field – which is rare for me. It started in the fifth inning. A group of kids were next to me and it was the inning where the Rangers announce that if they score in that inning everyone gets a taco. So these kids next to me started whooping and hollering about “I want my Taco!”, and every time someone came up, it became I want my Taco! Hank Blalock was the last guy to bat that inning, so he became “Mr. Taco”. When he ran out on the field to play defense, the guys were going “Hey Blalock, I want my Taco!”. It then quickly evolved into every musical queue had the word Taco shouted at maximum volume after it – and then we started picking on other players. When Oakland’s Marco Scutaro came up, I screamed “It rhymes with Taco” after he was announced, which got a laugh from those guys. So basically from that point on all of us were going “Gimme a T..” you get the point. We even got a group of kids from the next section over doing a competing thing where they were yelling “Burrito”. ;) So if you were at Tuesday night’s game and heard a bunch of maniacs up in Section 330 screaming TACO all the time, I was part of that. If any of you guys who were doing it happen to read this (I’d be shocked, but still), I had a lot of fun last night guys.
As for the game, Callaway stunk up the joint, and had to be pulled. We gave up a few more, but in a surprising move were able to score against Barry Zito. We had 11 hits and 6 runs off of Zito, and we managed to claw our way back to a 10-9 score in the ninth inning. We even got the leadoff guy on in the bottom of the ninth and couldn’t do anything about it. We lost, but it was a very entertaining game to watch (if a bit slow at 3:30). The Taco stuff aside, I really enjoyed myself at this one. I’ll definitely take 4-4 against this division, considering I expected to be like 1-7 or 2-6 at this point.
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - OAKLAND 3 3 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 10 16 1 TEXAS 0 3 3 0 0 0 3 0 0 9 16 1 (FINAL) BATTERIES: OAK - BARRY ZITO, CHAD BRADFORD (6TH), RICARDO RINCON (7TH), CHAD HARVILLE (7TH), JIM MECIR (8TH), ARTHUR RHODES (9TH) AND DAMIAN MILLER TEX - MICKEY CALLAWAY, JOAQUIN BENOIT (2ND), CARLOS ALMANZAR (5TH), RON MAHAY (6TH), JEFF NELSON (8TH) AND GERALD LAIRD WP - BARRY ZITO (1-1) LP - MICKEY CALLAWAY (0-1) SAVE - ARTHUR RHODES (4) HOME RUNS: OAK - JERMAINE DYE (3) OFF MICKEY CALLAWAY IN THE 2ND, 0 ON DAMIAN MILLER (1) OFF JOAQUIN BENOIT IN THE 4TH, 2 ON TEX - BRAD FULLMER (1) OFF CHAD BRADFORD IN THE 7TH, 0 ON TIME: 3:33 ATT: 20,112 PROBABLES: OAK - MARK REDMAN (0-0, 3.00) TEX - R.A. DICKEY (1-0, 0.00) Box Score OAKLAND (10) VS TEXAS (9) - FINAL OAKLAND ab r h rbi bb so lob avg E Byrnes cf 6 1 3 0 0 1 1 .500 B Kielty lf 5 1 2 1 1 2 2 .333 E Chavez 3b 3 1 1 1 2 1 3 .346 J Dye rf 5 2 2 2 0 2 3 .321 E Durazo dh 4 2 2 0 1 1 2 .316 S Hatteberg 1b 3 1 1 0 2 0 1 .250 B Crosby ss 5 0 1 2 0 1 2 .167 D Miller c 4 2 3 3 1 0 1 .250 M Scutaro 2b 5 0 1 1 0 2 5 .292 Totals 40 10 16 10 7 10 20 BATTING: 2B - J Dye (3, M Callaway); B Kielty (4, M Callaway); E Chavez (2, M Callaway); D Miller (1, J Benoit); M Scutaro (4, J Benoit). HR - J Dye (3, 2nd inning off M Callaway 0 on, 1 Out), D Miller (1, 4th inning off J Benoit 2 on, 2 Out). RBI - J Dye 2 (8), B Crosby 2 (3), B Kielty (2), E Chavez (3), M Scutaro (5), D Miller 3 (3). 2-out RBI - J Dye, B Crosby 2, D Miller 3. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - M Scutaro 3, E Chavez 1, E Durazo 2. GIDP - B Kielty, D Miller. Team LOB - 10. BASERUNNING: SB - E Byrnes (1, 3rd base off R Mahay/G Laird), E Chavez (1, 2nd base off R Mahay/G Laird). FIELDING: E - B Zito (1, throw). PB - D Miller. DP: 1 (B Crosby-M Scutaro-S Hatteberg). TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 6 1 3 2 0 0 2 .361 H Blalock 3b 4 0 2 1 1 2 2 .394 A Soriano 2b 5 0 3 1 0 0 3 .333 H Perry 1b 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 .200 K Mench rf 5 0 0 0 0 1 2 .324 B Fullmer dh 5 1 2 1 0 1 0 .308 E Young lf 3 3 2 0 2 0 1 .429 G Laird c 5 1 2 1 0 1 1 .348 R Nivar cf 3 2 2 2 0 1 0 .333 a-L Nix ph-cf 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 .316 Totals 43 9 16 8 3 6 18 a-grounded into fielder's choice to shortstop for R Nivar in the 7th. BATTING: 2B - G Laird (2, B Zito); B Fullmer (3, B Zito); M Young (4, B Zito); E Young (1, A Rhodes). HR - B Fullmer (1, 7th inning off C Bradford 0 on, 0 Out). RBI - R Nivar 2 (4), H Blalock (9), A Soriano (1), G Laird (2), M Young 2 (8), B Fullmer (7). 2-out RBI - R Nivar 2, H Blalock, A Soriano, G Laird, M Young. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - K Mench 1, H Blalock 1, H Perry 1, E Young 1, A Soriano 1, M Young 1. GIDP - H Perry. Team LOB - 10. FIELDING: E - E Young (1, throw). Outfield assists - R Nivar (E Chavez at 3rd base). PB - G Laird. DP: 2 (M Callaway-M Young-H Perry, M Young-A Soriano-H Perry). ---------------------------------------------------- OAKLAND - 331 300 000 -- 10 TEXAS - 033 000 300 -- 9 ---------------------------------------------------- OAKLAND ip h r er bb so hr era B Zito (W, 1-1) 5 11 6 4 2 2 0 4.15 C Bradford 1 3 3 2 1 0 1 10.80 R Rincon (H, 2) 2/3 1 0 0 0 1 0 18.00 C Harville (H, 1) 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 J Mecir (H, 3) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0.00 A Rhodes (S, 4) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 3.60 TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era M Callaway (L, 0-1) 1 1/3 7 6 6 4 0 1 23.14 J Benoit 2 2/3 4 4 4 2 4 1 9.64 C Almanzar 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 2.08 R Mahay 2 4 0 0 1 4 0 0.00 J Nelson 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 5.40 C Bradford pitched to 3 batters in the 7th. R Mahay pitched to 1 batter in the 8th. Pitches-strikes: B Zito 107-73; C Bradford 19-11; R Rincon 13-9; C Harville 1-1; J Mecir 14-9; A Rhodes 9-7; M Callaway 58-30; J Benoit 61-34; C Almanzar 18-13; R Mahay 47-25; J Nelson 17-10. Ground balls-fly balls: B Zito 8-5; C Bradford 2-1; R Rincon 1-0; C Harville 1-0; J Mecir 1-0; A Rhodes 1-1; M Callaway 3-0; J Benoit 3-1; C Almanzar 0-2; R Mahay 0-2; J Nelson 2-3. Batters faced: B Zito 29; C Bradford 6; R Rincon 3; C Harville 1; J Mecir 3; A Rhodes 4; M Callaway 13; J Benoit 14; C Almanzar 4; R Mahay 11; J Nelson 5. UMPIRES: HP--Bill Miller. 1B--Chris Guccione. 2B--Ron Kulpa. 3B--Brian Gorman. T--3:33. Att--20,112. Weather: 59 degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 13 mph, out to right.