The Rangers won this game in a fun way. A walkoff. You know the kind where after the winning run scores, the players run around, jump on each other, jump up and down. Yeah, this mob scene was precipitated by the always exciting “Walk off sacrifice fly”. Oh yeah, that’s a lo.. wait a minute – walk off sac fly? That’s probably the least exciting way to win a ballgame I can think of. Besides perhaps the walk off hit by pitch, or the walkoff walk. :)
Still, a win is a win, and we’ll always take it. Thing is, we wouldn’t have needed the walkoff, had the umpires done what they should have done and reviewed Josh Hamilton’s (what was called a) double in the fourth. He had hit a ball over the scoreboard in left, it hit off one of the metal support beams and came back on the field, but it was ruled a double, and not the home run replays clearly showed it was. At the time it would have been Josh’s second home run of the game, and he was robbed. The other home run was a solo shot by Josh in the second. Been awhile since he’s had a multi home run game, and he got robbed of one this night.
Hamilton’s home runs aside, we were led offensively by Michael Young, who went 3-4 with a run scored, and is now batting .309. Hamilton’s two hits were the only other player with more than one. The remaining six hits were scattered amongst the rest of the lineup. Nelson Cruz & Michael Young doubled.
Smoak continues to have a low batting average (.174), which I think was actually lower than Chris Davis was when he was sent out. But Smoak walks a lot, and his hits seem more productive in general, which is probably why he’s still around. Plus he’s switch, but he is struggling with the off speed stuff. It’s all he’s seeing.
Pitching wise, Rich Harden started this game. I saw one of my friends on Facebook say during the game “I still don’t trust Rich Harden”, and I have to agree with that. While his line wasn’t awful (5.1IP, 2ER), the hits were too many (8). His walks were under control this time, just giving up one. However, way too many pitches (103). That’s way too many when your innings pitched is under 6.
Chris Ray got a blown save due to his giving up the 3-3 tying run in the 8th.
However, as was said before, the Nelson Cruz sac fly in the bottom of the ninth gave us the walkoff win. Always nice to see the pileup, even if the reason for it wasn’t the most exciting choice. :)