Game 2. Pedro. Joaquin Benoit had given up a triple in the first two pitches of the game. Joaquin Benoit had given up a run within the first 5 pitches of the game. I figured it was gonna be U-G-L-Y!. Those blue skies I mentioned in the first game commentary peaked their head up early. After that, Benoit buckled down (what does that mean, exactly? What does one do when they “buckle down”), and got out of the inning only giving up that first run. In fact, Benoit only gave up two runs total in his seven innings pitched. Only one walk, and one home run, but the home run was a solo shot. A really nice performance by Joaquin.
In the bottom of the first, Blalock answered back, taking Pedro deep over the scoreboard in left to tie it. However, in the third inning, the wheels fell off Pedro’s little red wagon. He gave up a total of four runs that inning (and another in the fourth), In fact, I’ll just put the events of the third here, – it’s quite amazing when you realize it was against Pedro Martinez.
Bottom of 3rd
– Rangers third.
– Mench singled to left.
– Barajas singled to center, Mench to second.
– M.Young singled to center, Mench scored, Barajas to second.
– Blalock flied out to right fielder Kapler.
– Soriano doubled to left, Barajas scored, M.Young scored.
– Fullmer grounded out, shortstop Crespo to first baseman Ortiz, Soriano to third.
– Jordan infield single to third, Soriano scored.
– Dellucci walked, Jordan to second.
– Jordan stole third.
– Perry flied out to right fielder Kapler.
That was damn nice. There were a lot of Red Sox fans there, and one of them came up to me seeing me score the game on my Palm Pilot, and we talked about that. This was right as Pedro started giving up the four runs in the third, and he said that he didn’t expect Pedro to last five innings, as Pedro can’t pitch in the cold. And it was pretty nippy last night. I hadn’t even considered that.
So we’re up 6-2 after six innings, and all was going well. We tacked on two more in the bottom of the 8th, and it turns out we needed those, as the Sox came back with three in the top of the ninth after Almanzar got hit in the hand with a batted ball, and while he stayed in the game, he didn’t do anything for the next two batters after that. He came in, and Powell pitched, allowed a hit and some runs to score, and the Cordero came on and gave up a run of his own (actually it was Almanzar’s – Cordero & Powell’s lines show 0 ER), but closed the game out to sweep the doubleheader.
We swept the Red Sox & Pedro – going into that game, the Red Sox had the best record in the majors. Not anymore. Our little Rangers did that. ;) We also now have a full one game lead in the AL West. It’s been ages since I’ve talked about that, except for like the first two or 3 games of a season. It’s nice to see.
Brett Carre: Well, I couldn’t watch this game because for some odd reason the people at my cable company didn’t put it on. However, I did hear parts on the radio and from what I heard it was a very entertaining game. We were down 2-1 when we broke through for 3 in the 7th off of the so called invincible Boston bullpen. Cordero came on in the 9th for his 8th save.
Wish I could have have seen it, but a nice win for the 1st place Texas Rangers.
Game 2 didn’t come on here either. By, now I was extremely pissed, but it was nice to listen to the radio guys for a change. We roughed up Pedro. He have up 6 runs in only 4 innings pitched. Everyone got into the act offensively. Hank went deep in the 1st to tie that game at 1 at we never looked back.
The 9th was a but of the problem. We had a 8-2 lead going into the 9th. Almanzar started the 9th and gave up a couple of hits and a run. He was pulled for Jay Powell who walked a batter and then struck out a man. Powell then faced Johnny Damon who doubled to score two runs to make it a 8-5 game. Buck pulled Powell and gave the ball to Coco. Coco got the final two outs for his 2nd save of the day and 9th of the year.
We are getting a lot of national attention now. Let’s keep it up!!
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - BOSTON 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 5 11 0 TEXAS 1 0 4 1 0 0 0 2 x 8 14 0 (FINAL) BATTERIES: BOS - PEDRO MARTINEZ, LENNY DINARDO (5TH), MARK MALASKA (8TH) AND JASON VARITEK TEX - JOAQUIN BENOIT, CARLOS ALMANZAR (8TH), JAY POWELL (9TH), FRANCISCO CORDERO (9TH) AND ROD BARAJAS WP - JOAQUIN BENOIT (1-0) LP - PEDRO MARTINEZ (3-2) SAVE - FRANCISCO CORDERO (9) HOME RUNS: BOS - JASON VARITEK (5) OFF JOAQUIN BENOIT IN THE 6TH, 0 ON TEX - HANK BLALOCK (5) OFF PEDRO MARTINEZ IN THE 1ST, 0 ON TIME: 2:58 ATT: 44,598 PROBABLES: BOS - TIM WAKEFIELD (2-0, 2.14) TEX - R.A. DICKEY (3-1, 4.32) Box Score BOSTON (5) VS TEXAS (8) - FINAL (2ND GAME) BOSTON ab r h rbi bb so lob avg J Damon cf 5 1 2 2 0 0 1 .271 B Mueller 3b 4 0 1 1 0 0 2 .253 D Ortiz 1b 5 0 1 0 0 2 3 .297 M Ramirez dh 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .366 J Varitek c 4 2 3 1 0 0 1 .314 D McCarty lf 4 1 2 0 0 1 2 .238 M Bellhorn 2b 3 1 1 1 1 1 2 .221 G Kapler rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 .222 a-B Daubach ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .286 C Crespo ss 4 0 0 0 0 1 4 .167 Totals 36 5 11 5 2 6 19 a-walked for G Kapler in the 9th. BATTING: 2B - D McCarty (2, J Benoit); J Damon (7, J Powell). 3B - J Damon (1, J Benoit). HR - J Varitek (5, 6th inning off J Benoit 0 on, 2 Out). SF - B Mueller. RBI - B Mueller (13), J Varitek (12), M Bellhorn (10), J Damon 2 (13). 2-out RBI - J Varitek. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - C Crespo 1, J Damon 1, D Ortiz 2, G Kapler 1. GIDP - D Ortiz. Team LOB - 7. FIELDING: Outfield assists - G Kapler (D Dellucci at 3rd base). TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 5 1 2 2 0 0 1 .356 H Blalock 3b 5 1 1 1 0 2 5 .324 A Soriano 2b 4 1 1 2 0 0 1 .333 B Fullmer dh 4 0 1 0 0 1 0 .247 B Jordan rf 4 0 1 1 0 1 0 .091 D Dellucci cf 3 1 2 0 1 0 0 .345 H Perry 1b 4 0 0 0 0 1 3 .244 K Mench lf 4 2 3 0 0 0 0 .315 R Barajas c 4 2 3 2 0 0 1 .300 Totals 37 8 14 8 1 5 11 BATTING: 2B - D Dellucci (4, P Martinez); A Soriano (7, P Martinez); R Barajas 2 (3, P Martinez, M Malaska); M Young (7, P Martinez); K Mench 2 (10, L Dinardo, M Malaska). HR - H Blalock (5, 1st inning off P Martinez 0 on, 1 Out). RBI - H Blalock (20), M Young 2 (17), A Soriano 2 (16), B Jordan (1), R Barajas 2 (6). 2-out RBI - B Jordan. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - H Blalock 2, H Perry 2, A Soriano 1. Team LOB - 6. BASERUNNING: SB - B Jordan (1, 3rd base off P Martinez/J Varitek). FIELDING: DP: 1 (A Soriano-H Perry). ---------------------------------------------------- BOSTON - 100 001 003 -- 5 TEXAS - 104 100 02x -- 8 ---------------------------------------------------- BOSTON ip h r er bb so hr era P Martinez (L, 3-2) 4 9 6 6 1 3 1 4.17 L Dinardo 3 2 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 M Malaska 1 3 2 2 0 1 0 3.52 TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era J Benoit (W, 1-0) 7 6 2 2 1 3 1 3.57 C Almanzar 1 4 3 3 0 1 0 4.50 J Powell 1/3 1 0 0 1 1 0 1.80 F Cordero (S, 9) 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 2.45 C Almanzar pitched to 3 batters in the 9th. Pitches-strikes: P Martinez 87-49; L Dinardo 44-29; M Malaska 20-15; J Benoit 102-63; C Almanzar 19-12; J Powell 13-8; F Cordero 11-8. Ground balls-fly balls: P Martinez 3-5; L Dinardo 7-1; M Malaska 1-1; J Benoit 10-8; C Almanzar 2-0; J Powell 0-0; F Cordero 0-1. Batters faced: P Martinez 21; L Dinardo 11; M Malaska 6; J Benoit 28; C Almanzar 6; J Powell 3; F Cordero 2. UMPIRES: HP--Gerry Davis. 1B--Larry Poncino. 2B--Ramon Armendariz. 3B--Greg Gibson. T--2:58. Att--44,598. Weather: 58 degrees, clear. Wind: 10 mph, out to right.