Whenever most of the league sees Felix Hernandez, they get frightened. He is an awesome pitcher, and if he were on a great team, he’d probably have a seriously better record than he does lifetime. However, for some reason when he pitches in Arlington, the Rangers always seem to get to him. Not every time, mind you as I’ve seen him shut us down in the past, but we seem to get to him more often than he gets to us.
It got in early in this one, as Josh Hamilton (who is surprisingly hot as of late), jacked a double in the first inning, scoring two runs, and we never looked back. The Rangers were led by Elvis Andrus this game. He was the only Ranger with more than one hit (he had three). One was a double, and he drove in two runs himself – scored one. Good game for Elvis, who now has his batting average at .311 in the leadoff slot with an OBP of .385. Nice numbers for a leadoff guy.
But the biggest deal for me was a home run by Vlad Guerrero in the sixth inning. It was an absolute titanic home run – one you don’t even need to see or hear. Not only was it over the fence, but it was over all the seats, and banged off the windows of the restaurant out in left. Very few home runs have gone further than that. Total cannon shot. There’s a video clip on mlb.com showing it. What’s interesting about the clip is a friend of mine was at this game, and was sitting in the first row above the “Nolan Ryan” retired number sign. The Guerrero home run ball didn’t come far from him, and if you look closely, you can see him reaching for (and not getting) the home run ball. He posted on Facebook after he got home about the home run ball. Here’s what he said:
Huge homerun from Vlad! That’s me in the first row in the blue shirt with my arms out, with my wife and kids next to me. It was about 5 feet too low, but sure was fun to watch come right at us! After it hit, the people below didn’t know where it was. It broke off a cup-holder from a seat and stayed inside! … A guy picked up the cup-holder and there was the ball… what a souvenir!
That must have been cool to watch for sure!
Lest we forget, the home run wasn’t the only thing that happened this game. Colby Lewis was pretty dominant over the Mariners. Was a really great game. He didn’t strike out as many as usual (only 5), but he went seven innings, giving up just four hits and the one run. Walked three, which is a ton for 2010 Colby Lewis. But still, you can’t argue with the total line, and he most definitely deserved the win he got.
Was a nice win, and I’m glad our bats are starting to wake up, as we are barely hanging on to the position in the standings we have, and I’d like to open up some room – can’t do it without the offense going.