As is my policy for the last few years, I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.

You’ve got to do this, you just have to..

Actually, when we went up 3-2, I wasn’t thinking win. I was thinking old traditional Yankees, which say that unless you’re up 15 runs, you probably aren’t safe.

Early on in the game, it started out like a good pitching duel. C.J. Wilson against AJ Burnett. Through the first three and a half innings, it was scoreless. Was a great, well pitched game. Had some pretty amazing defense too, one of which prompted the screen grab. Derek Jeter mashed a ball straight into the ground and it went way up. When it came down, it was about halfway between the pitcher’s mound and first base. At that point, there was no chance to toss it to anyone, so CJ dove for the base, and actually got there just a fraction before Jeter did. Jeter tumbled over him, and Wilson got up and gave the antlers to Jorge Cantu. At that point, all the guys in the dugout were doing the antlers to CJ, so he gave ’em back. Was pretty darned hysterical. Lucky he didn’t jam his hand pulling that stunt, or worse got stepped on. But it worked out, and it was a sexy looking play, no doubt.

The Rangers managed to squeak out a run in the bottom of the fourth when Nelson Cruz doubled in Michael Young. That prompted something new at the ballpark. When the Rangers scored, two of the Rangers girls ran out on Greene’s Hill with two large Texas flags and ran around on the grass. I rather liked that. It felt very “football-y”, and I suspect will appeal to a lot of football fans. I just wonder what’s gonna happen on home runs that land in the middle of the grass there. :)
In the top of the fifth, the Yankees tied it back up, and were really threatening to get more, and Wilson danced out of it mostly. He was especially helped out when Nick Swisher was headed home, and Murphy threw a bullet to the plate, and nailed him. It also prompted a funny look from Bengie Molina at Swisher afterward when it appeared like he was looking at Swisher, meaning “You’re kidding me, right?”

The Yankees went up a run in the top of the sixth when Wilson allowed the other run of the game. Wasn’t anything special, just a single scoring Austin Kearns. In the bottom of the sixth, it was the David Murphy show again when he jacked a two run home run to give the Rangers the lead at that time, 3-2.

It was followed in short order in the top of the seventh by a solo home run from Arod. He was booed. :) No surprises there.
The game was 3-3 going into the bottom of the ninth, and the Rangers almost scored. We got a man to third. Didn’t get the job done. The top of the 10th was stellar with Feliz getting something like a 6 or 7 pitch inning to set down the Yankees.
We started off the bottom of the 10th against Mariano Rivera. Now I know he’s not the Rivera of old, but he’s still an impressive pitcher, someone to be feared for sure. Anyway, Michael Young singled, as did Josh Hamilton right after him. Josh’s hit was a squibber into right. So much so that Michael could only get to second. Guerrero came up in an obvious bunt situation. Guerrero doesn’t bunt. He does ground out though, and that’s what he did, a grounder to Arod, who fell down. Had he not done that fielding the ball, it likely would have been a double play. As it was, Vlad was out at first, pushing the runners to second and third. It worked like a sacrifice. Nelson Cruz was intentionally walked to load the bases. Obviously to create a force at any base, or better yet (for the Yankees) a double play.

Except that it was David Murphy, one of the hottest Rangers going right now. The count went to 3-2 (after being 3-0), and you felt weird waiting for what was the final pitch. Didn’t want to get out of that with no runs, as that’s always a bad omen. However, Murphy delivered, a single over second base scoring the winning run, and prompting a walkoff.

Over the Yankees. YOU HAVE GOT TO LOVE THAT! Much was said about the “playoff atmosphere” at the park on the TV tonight. It did feel like that, and towards the end of the game when my wife peeked in for a little at the end, she said “This season doesn’t feel like any season in recent memory”.

She’s right. It feels good, like it will be a history making season. We shall see what that history actually is.

This is a game that I think made a lot of people believe in Trevor Cahill. The guy’s been really great this year. His overall numbers now are 12-4, ERA of 2.56, 178.2IP, 1.43 WHIP. The whip isn’t that great, but you can’t argue with those wins and the ERA. Those numbers were borne out in the game against the Rangers on Sunday afternoon. Yeah, another day game. We don’t like those, apparently.
Cahill went eight innings, allowed six hits, no walks, and did allow two runs, but they were both unearned. He beat out Colby Lewis, who pitched well himself, just not as well as Cahill. Lewis went six, allowed one run on three hits and three walks. Punched out seven. Quality start, technically, but when compared to Cahill’s line, not so much.
Darren Oliver was very un DO like this game. He got the blown save and the loss at the same time. Gave up two runs in his 0.1 innings of work. He only threw seven pitches, too, which made it much more concentrated. Given his overall body of work this year, I’ll overlook that, but it certainly was NOT a good outing.
Darren O’Day cleaned it up, but we couldn’t score against the A’s, although we made it interesting in the ninth inning when their releiver (Michael Wuertz) walked two batters. But Guerrero grounded into a double play, ending the game.
So we lost the series in Oakland – something that hasn’t happened much this season. Still, we come out of there with a very healthy sized lead over Oakland, who is in second place.
Back home to take on the Yankees.

I had hoped that Rich Harden figured it out, as he pitched like the real Rich Harden in his previous start. Looked good, looked sharp, and acted like the guy we signed in the offseason.

I hoped wrong. We got the Mark Clark version of Rich Harden on Saturday afternoon in Oakland. Which was extra annoying as his only other good start of the season was also in Oakland, he has said he loves pitching there, it’s his favorite mound. Couldn’t have figured that out this day. I think it’s time to put him on waivers. With the team doing well down the stretch, I think the time to let him figure it out on the mound is done. Put him on waivers, or better yet, try and demote him to AAA. I’m sure he technically has waivers left, but I believe he’d earn the right to refuse the assignment and become a free agent. Good. Refuse it. Done. I don’t want to see him start anymore. We need to be reasonably sure we have a chance to win when the pitcher takes the mound. We don’t have that with Harden anymore. Buh-bye.

Harden: 2.1IP, 2H, FREAKIN FIVE walks, three earned runs. 65 pitches. Ugh.

Gio Gonzalez was the flip side of that. He did pretty darned well against us, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure why he was taken out when he was. Gio went seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits and three walks. Punched out two, and was at a pitch count of 113. OK that’s why – I didn’t realize it was that high until I just looked at the box score. That makes sense. :)

We picked up a single run in the 8th and 9th each against the two Oakland relievers – the one in the 8th was a home run by suddenly streaky power hitter, Taylor Teagarden. That was the only hit we got that wasn’t a single – we were shut down pretty well this game. David Murphy was the only Ranger with two hits, and Murphy has come on well lately, it’ll be hard to bench him again – the way he’s hitting, he deserves regular time.

The Rangers continue to play poorly in day games. Which makes me hope that the stink about the playoffs going to some day games doesn’t start this year. :)

Cliff Lee goes eight.
We got him some runs.
One of those is common this season, the other is not. As a Rangers fan, you should be able to tell which is which.
But what we did get to see from Cliff Lee is how a baseball player clears his nose between innings. That’s one of those moments when you go, “Uh, do we need to be focusing on this in the dugout?” I mean he put his finger over one nostril, blew, repeated with the other side, and then wiped his nose with a towel.
However, you can excuse that when you realize that Cliff Lee has pitched 86 out of the last possible 88 innings he could pitch (if he went complete games all 10 of his last games). That’s amazing. Amazing is how the Rangers have perceived Cliff Lee to be. He had a bit of a hard time in the first inning, going a staggeringly awful (for him) 20 pitches. He gave up a run, and after a hit in the seventh, pretty much became the Cliff Lee we knew about all the time he’s been here. Mowed guys down, seven pitch innings. Making A’s batters look foolish. In all he went eight innings, allowed seven hits, the one run. Walked nobody (again), and struck out eight. He would have gone nine, but when he came out, he had thrown 112 pitches. A little high for him, so that’s OK.
Frankie came in and threw a 13 pitch one hit shutout inning to get the win in Oakland. Yeah, other than the first inning, the Rangers pitching just dominated. Mark McLemore said in the post game show that it’s like watching a Cliff Lee perform surgery on the A’s lineup out there tonight. Interesting metaphor.
Offensively, the Rangers tied the game in the top of the third when Elvis Andrus doubled in Taylor Teagarden. The Rangers tied the game in the next inning when Josh Hamilton really tattoed a ball out over the center field wall. It was a slow curve he hit out, so you almost had time to watch it coming. Was one of those pitches that seemed to take a full minute to get to the plate, and you had time to examine it on the way in. Before Josh even swung the bat, I thought it looked like a home run ball, and it turned out it was.
But it wasn’t the coolest home run. That came in the fifth. Taylor Teagarden has just four hits this year. Two of them are home runs against the A’s. Teagarden went 2-4 this game. That he doubled his total hit output for the WHOLE season in a single game is not a great thing. I mean, you go 2-4 and RAISE your average to .105. Bad. Still, it was a good game for him, and he got to catch Cliff Lee, so it was a great night for Taylor.
The Rangers also scored their final run in the eighth on a balk, which canceled what would have been a double steal of second and home again.
The Rangers are now 9.5 games up against both Anaheim & Oakland. Rich Harden goes on Saturday. Hopefully we get the Harden we got the last time we were in Oakland earlier this year. Not the Harden we got the rest of the season, save for his most recent start.
The whole thing feels good. Man. It is a good time to be a Rangers fan. This might be the best season since the first season after I started this site (which was Dec 1998 – you figure it out). :)

When you write a headline like that. you think of one thing. The Rangers won this game early on, and rode Tommy Hunter to the win. And to an extent that is right, but..
The pitcher that Seattle sent out there was Felix Hernandez, and to be honest, through the first six innings, it was a total pitcher’s duel. Neither team amounted much of anything, and to be honest, it was a game that was easy to watch, as it moved quickly, and had some crisp pitching.
Until the seventh, when Hernandez broke down. Vlad led off with a single, and after at Cruz fly out, David Murphy homered to left field, giving the Rangers all they really needed for the win. The Rangers tacked on another run this inning after a Moreland walk, a Blanco single, and an Andrus single. And then Felix Hernandez came out of the game. Tommy Hunter was still in the game.
We put up another three spot in the eighth. That was with singles by Hamilton & Guerrero, followed by a double by Cruz, scoring Hamilton. We got the other runs on a sac fly and a wild pitch. So we went up 6-0 in a very short span there late in the game, pretty much making most people forget that the Rangers had nothing until they got into the seventh inning.
Tommy Hunter, however, got his ninth win of the season, going to 9-1. He went 6.1 innings, actually less than Hernandez and gave up the same number of hits, too (8), and one more walk than Hernandez (2 vs 1), but the all important runs column was a big old donut. That was what made Hunter a far more dominant pitcher than Hernandez was. Seems weird, and when you examine the numbers, it doesn’t play out, but when you “feel” it, Tommy Hunter was better than Felix Hernandez.
So we got out of Seattle winning the series 2-1, but we probably should have swept ’em. Still, we have a huge lead over Oakland and Anaheim, and have a shot to put a dent in the A’s starting on Friday night.