I love doubleheaders. Anyone who knows me, knows I love doubleheaders. I know why they’re not scheduled anymore (teams want extra gate $). But I always attend them when they happen. I don’t like the 4PM start, because I have to leave uber early from work, which can create problems for me. But anyway, I was there for the start of the doubleheader. And it was great! Game 1:
This was one strange game. But before I get to that, let’s get the not strange out of the way. Joaquin Benoit. He pitched like himself. He went 4.1 innings, tossing 91 or so pitchers – not good. He actually only gave up two runs while he was on the mound (3 total), but his lack of control causes his pitch counts to go way up too fast. I still think this is his last year – if he doesn’t find it by the end of the season, we’ll probably leave him unprotected, or just let him go completely.
Benoit wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was the Rangers line score. Overall, we had 9 runs on a total of only 5 hits. We actually were mostly shut down by Oliver Perez, who struck out 12 Rangers in his six innings, allowing only 3 hits. He walked four though, and did hit two batters, and I believe all of them scored. Of our five hits, three of them were home runs. The first was by Mike Young, which scored Eric Young, who had walked. The second was by Gary Matthews which scored Mark Teixeira & Herbert Perry, both of which were hit by pitches. The third was a solo shot by Herb Perry. So that’s 6 of our 9 runs by the longball, and 3 of our 5 hits. We picked up a few more runs in the seventh thanks to a throwing error by Pittsburgh 3B Chris Stynes – oddly enough who was just brought in that inning for his defense.
Cordero notched his 19th save of the season, while Frank Francisco got his first major league win in the game. A nice “bombs away” come from behind win. :)