Well, this was one of the games we couldn’t see on TV. Was radio only, which means no timeshifting for me. Until TiVo comes out with a “TiVo for radio”, I’m stuck listening to the game when it actually happens when it’s radio only. Since I almost NEVER watch anything when it’s really on, that concept is alien to me. Since I was spending the day with my three year old, sitting down and listening to a Rangers game on the radio was not an option, so I just opted out of the whole thing. This was a box score only game for me.
Rangers rookie Matt Harrison started this game, and did not appear to be all that bad, really. He only threw five innings, but gave up just one earned run. There were two more that were attributable to a Michael Young error, but in all, the linescore wasn’t that bad. Five innings, five hits, three walks. Josh Rupe followed up with three innings of scoreless relief. Warner Madrigal finished up, and allowed a solo home run in his one inning of work. In all, not bad. Just two earned runs over nine innings of work – not bad line for the staff at all.
The Rangers work at the plate was fairly efficient, as we had ten hits in all. Three of them were home runs. There were two solo shots (Chris Davis in the 7th & Marlon Byrd in the 8th), as well as the big one, a three run home run by Josh Hamilton in fifth. That’s five of our nine runs right there. Chris Davis also had a double, and got picked up by me on a couple of fantasy teams I’m on. :)
Nice job by the Rangers getting to former Ranger Justin Duchscherer. Before this game, his ERA was under 2, and had only given up three runs once all year. His ERA jumped to 2.37, and we tagged him for EIGHT runs – by far his worst performance of the year. It also guaranteed we’d leave Oakland with sole possession of second place in the AL West.