I’m sitting down to check out the rangers game on Thursday night, and it started off like most nights. Sitting on the sofa after some time has passed so i can fast forward through commercials and the boring bits with TiVo. my daughter is 5 now, so she’s starting to get more of the game on her own. I don’t claim that she’s an expert, but she is getting it more on her own now. The Rangers scored early, and that was good, as she got to see some of it. She is just 5, so she wants to see offense. Specifically home runs, cuz after all…. Wait for it…. CHICKS DIG THE LONGBALL! It’s good because she goes to bed around 8, so most of the game is after her bedtime. So i told her the Rangers were winning a lot when she went to bed. I never hot i would have to worry about us not winning the game, as we were up 8-0 after three innings!
She missed Justin Smoak’s 3 run bomb in the Hurd, which capped off the six spot. The rest of the inning was small ball runs. Sac flies, singles, etc. But Smoak’s homer was a no doubt, majestic shot. Reminded me of some of the ones we’d see out of Lee Stevens or Raffy.
Matt Harrison started for Texas, and he was ok early on. Didn’t allow any runs until the fourth when he gave up two on a Billy Butler home run. Matt then gave up two more in the fifth the small ball way.
It was here that the pitching on both sides fell apart. The Rangers put up a zero in the bottom of the fourth, and then neither team did the same thing until the bottom of the seventh! So there was some pretty sloppy pitching in the middle. It was highlighted by Dustin Nippert, who decided to torpedo his ERA by giving up five earned runs in just 0.1 innings of work. Bad. In fact, it was pretty darned sloppy all over the place. Here..
Top 5th: Kansas City
– S. Podsednik singled to shallow right, M. Maier scored, Y. Betancourt to third
– B. Butler hit sacrifice fly to left, Y. Betancourt scored
Bot 5th: Texas
– D. Murphy doubled to deep right center, I. Kinsler scored
Top 6th: Kansas City
– J. Kendall doubled to deep right center, M. Aviles scored
– M. Maier singled to center, J. Kendall scored
– S. Podsednik homered to deep right, M. Maier and Y. Betancourt scored
Bot 6th: Texas
– V. Guerrero homered to deep left, J. Hamilton scored
The Guerrero home run in the 6th was a total no doubter. The kind that seems that it will hit the third deck while in flight. Didn’t really go that far, but it did go to the back of the seats over the scoreboard. Was most impressive for sure. When we came out of the bottom if the sixth, we were up 11-9. Which in itself was good, as we had blown an 8 run lead.
More long balls, with a two run shot by Callaspo in the 7th to tie it up at 11 again. Was definitely a sigh moment, that’s for sure. The sigh crossed the line into frustration when the Royals went up 12-11 in the top of the eighth on an RBI single. Blah.
In the bottom of the eighth, the royals brought in their closer Joaquim Soria. Soria is a great closer. Were not talking Rivera, Hoffman, or Eck here, but he’s darn good. So much so, that the announcers said that he had given up just 4 home runs all year last year. So what’s he do pretty quickly? Give up a solo home run to Josh “I want to believe it’s really him in there” Hamilton. Josh’s shot WAS impressive; it went almost above the entrance ways I’m the upper home run porch. It felt great; we’re tied again at 12. Vlad came up next and jacked the game winning solo home run. I have to admit it was another fist in the air moment at home.
Not a 2-1 game at all, but man it was an exciting game!
BTW, this is the first entry written completely on my iPad. Went pretty well, except I had more corrections to my typing than usual. Even with the iPhoneOS auto-correct in play. ;)