I started scoring this game when the game started. My regular work hours are 9AM to 6PM. My wife was working late, so I had planned to meet her during her dinner break, which was 6 to 7. OK, we went extra innings. I figured that was not a big deal, as it was 4PM. Thought I’d have plenty of time. As it inched closer to quitting time, I started to get worried. So, I left work at 6PM, and they were just starting the 16th inning. As I drove up to where I was meeting my wife, the 15th inning just ended – I really thought we were going to win this several times, but our best shot was the bottom of the 16th – bases loaded with one out. We failed. So I met my wife for dinner, and figured I’d just retro score the game when we were done. At 6:55 when I drove her back to work, the game was still going on! I dropped her off at work, and as soon as she got out of the truck, Soriano hit his GW home run in the 18th inning. I did have to retro score the 16th through 18th innings, but it was still cool to hear the end of the game.
Three years ago (almost), my wife and I were at the last 18 inning game, one the Rangers won 8-7 over Boston on Aug 25, 2001. That was one wild game, but given it started at 7, it was done just short of 2AM. I loved it. I’m sure I would have loved this game had I gone to it, but I also probably would be dead tired given the fact that it lasted 6 hours in the sun during the day. But hell, I love extra inning games, and REALLY extra inning games are great! Given there’s so much to talk about on this one, I’ll just list several bullet points I noticed – in no particular order.
- Hank Blalock had 9 at bats – tying a Ranger record
- The Rangers had 23 hits, which tied a team record.
- We tied the team record for most innings played in a game – 18.
- This was the longest game both in innings and time in the majors this season (so far).
- Brian Shouse got his first major league win (in 112 appearances)
- We blew it bigtime in the 15th inning. BIG TIME.
- We now have 6 wins in a row – a season high
- We’re now 11 games over .500 – a season high
- Edgar Martinez walked 5 times in this game, twice intentionally.
- Seattle used all their relief pitchers – had to use Jamie Moyer (tomorrow’s starter) to finish the game.
- The batteries in my Palm ran down almost to zero because I had the backlight on and the game took too long. ;)
- The length of this game was longer than the first two games in the series combined.
- Rod Barajas now has three more HR this season then he had in his entire career before this year.
It is nice to have this kind of roll going into the Astros series, especially since the Astros acquired Carlos Beltran – that happened right as I was finishing up this story. ;)