Kevin Millwood ended the home 2006 season the same way he started it. On the mound in Arlington, getting beat pretty well.
Apr 02: 5IP, 7H, 5ER, 1BB, 3K
Sep 24: 4.2IP, 7H, 6ER, 5BB, 6K
Most of us remember the bad home opener, the finale was actually worse. Thing is I was at this game. It was frickin long! I don’t have the inning breakdowns in front of me, but I had a committment in the evening that I could not be late for, and my drop dead have to leave time was 4:15. Game started at one. After about 4 innings, I realized I would not be seeing the whole game – boy was this a slow one! The official time was 3:27, but it felt way longer than that. The last 2.5 innings went by pretty quickly, but if they had the pace of the others, it probably would have been about a 4:15 game. I ended up leaving right around the top of the 8th, and I didn’t miss anything, except some more sun – it was a georgeous day. Sunshine, 70 degrees. Really awesome weather.
One interesting thing is that Carlos Lee got booed pretty well. There was a ball that dropped in front of him for an out which he didn’t make a lot of effort to get. Then there was the ball he DID dive for which got past him for an inside the park home run. After the inside the parker, he got booed, and he got booed pretty loudly the next time up to the plate (which I think was a groundout to short). Lee’s got a great bat, but he’s like the second coming of Juan Gonzalez. Great offense, a liability on defense, though. Take some of that money you’d spend on Carlos Lee, and give it to Matthews, and some pitching. I think that’s a better way to deal with Carlos Lee. I always saw him as a renter, anyway.
Felt bad for Ron Mahay, he came into the game, and immediately got hit with a batted ball, and had to come out. Hopefully no long term injury comes from that.
Was nice to see Brian Sikorski still pitching, I remember well his performance against the Yankees in a Rangers uniform about 6 years ago or so.
Not good to have a losing record at home. We had something like 70 less home runs this year over last? Oh well. At least I got my 2007 pocket schedule. :)