The Rangers won their second game in a row, which very recently is something unusual. Our streaks lately have been mostly in the backwards direction.
Kameron Loe started this game, and with the exception of one really unusual statistic, had a great line. 5.1IP, 2R (1ER). He did allow 6 hits, walked four, and committed three errors of his own, yet still left with the lead, and got the win. The errors is the unusual bit. It definitely was a tightrope walk, but the damage was minimal. Shouse, Benoit, & Wilson kept it scoreless until the ninth. Coco came in, and was 2005 Coco, not the really shutdown one from last year. He gave up another run. Stats say his season ERA is 3.75, but wow it feels like it’s 6 or 7, he seems to give up a run most every time. Obviously that’s not true, but that’s what it feels like, anyway. The Mariners left 13 men on base for the game.
Offensively, we had no home runs, but had a couple of doubles (Mench, Blalock). This was another game where we didn’t have a lot of offense. We had a total of five hits in the game. The aforementioned two doubles, plus three hits. One of the hits was by Michael Young who extended his hitting streak to 13 games. It also was his 200th hit of the season, which was a nice milestone to get at home. He continues to lead the batting race, but if you read this article on ESPN by Jayson Stark, the actual batting champion should be Placido Polanco of the Tigers. Read it. Folks who hate Bud Selig and the way Interleague play has “eroded” statistics will get a kick out of that.
Anyway, we got a win, and are back to three under .500. Josh Rupe makes his major league debut on Friday night. Odd that after going so long this season with the initial 5 man rotation we broke camp with that since June, we seem to be in a hurry to make up ground on the record 17 starters we used in 2004. I think (without looking it up), that Rupe will be #13 this year.
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