The Minnesota Twins ruined the return of Pudge Rodriguez to the Rangers lineup. Oh, he was officially added to the roster the day before, but this was the first time (the real) #7 played in a game in about seven years or so. He got massive ovations, made some plays behind the plate, and was great with the bat, too. Pudge went 3-4 with a double, a run scored, and an RBI. It was a great return for #7. When we got him via a trade the other day, I theorized that he’s here for the remainder of 2009, and that’s it. If he plays like this, they could take a real look at him going forward as the backup, and trade one of the kids, but that’s wild speculation, and said in the rosy feeling of the return of Pudge. That’s a discussion for later.
Kevin Millwood took the mound, and with the departure of Pidente, he’s now got more career starts than the rest of the starting rotation does combined. Kevin Millwood has 368, and the other four (Feldman, Holland, Hunter, & Nippert) combine for 91 starts. So Kevin has FOUR TIMES the combined starts of the other four. He didn’t pitch like he was that far ahead of the others. 5.2 innings, 113 pitches, seven hits, four walks, and five earned runs. Bleh. He was done in by the recent problem the Rangers have – a meltdown inning. We gave up four in the sixth. I admit, when it started going south, I fast forwarded through it on TiVo. I didn’t feel like watching that.
Offensively, we had no home runs, but we did have some other power. Two doubles (Byrd, Pudge) and a triple (Byrd again). Elvis Andrus also stole a base, and we had a bunch of singles to account for our four runs.
But the story of the night, even with the loss, was the return of #7 to the catching duties for the Texas Rangers. As much as I can’t see it happening, it would be nice if he never left again. I’d really like that.
