Saturday afternoons are my time to be with my daughter, as my wife works on Saturdays, so I don’t always get time to pay attention to afternoon games on Saturday now. :) I did unfortunately get to see the collision that Gary Matthews had at first base. It looked pretty ugly. I really hope he’s not down for any amount of time. Sunday’s fine, but much past that and we’ll have a problem. If that happens, we might have to bring up Botts to actually play something. :) Seriously, I hope Gary’s OK, and he can continue, as he’s had an incredible road trip (going 2-3 today before having to come out).
This was a pretty well pitched game. Jack Benoit went for us, and the Jays sent up Dustin McGowan, who was making his major league debut. The kid did pretty well, going 5 innings, giving up just one run on 2 hits. Not bad at all for a kid who had never pitched above AA. Jack Benoit did pretty much the same, going 5.2 IP, giving up 2 runs (1 earned). Gryboski, Shouse, Loe, & Cordero kept the Jays off the board, after they went up 2-0 in the first inning.
In fact, scoring was pretty sporadic. Jays scored twice in the bottom of the first, then we got one in the second, and two in the sixth. But I’m not going to complain. We’ve won 4 in a row now, and pulled back to 6.5 games of first place, and 4 games in the wild card, so we’re kind of in it there.
I say “Pbbbbbbbt” to all of you who were proclaiming the season dead and gone a week ago. Sure, it could still be, but I refuse to believe it’s over until it’s over.
Finally, Phil Nevin didn’t play this game, but he was in uniform in the dugout. Since he’ll be here for a year and a half, let’s hope he contributes more from his roster slot than the man we sent away for him did.
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Since this game started at 6PM, I was driving home listening to the start of the game. When Eric Nadel said that Chan Ho Park was a last second scratch, I figured he was going back on the DL or something. It would be par for his tenure in Arlington. Then when I got home, and listened to the start of the TV coverage, they mentioned “possible transaction”, and boy did my ears perk up. Never did I expect that the move we’d make at the trading deadline would be to move Park. I figured maybe Soriano, maybe Hidalgo. But not Park. I was so overwhelmed by that possible move, I wasn’t paying much attention to the actual game, just thoughts of no more Park in my head. In fact, after it was announced that it was to the Padres for Phil Nevin, I really didn’t concentrate very much on the game at all, I was more interested in finding out details on the Park trade.
However, we did get pretty decent pitching for Wasdin, who had to make a last second start. He went 4.2IP giving up just one run. Brocal, Gryboski, & Cordero went 4.1 IP between them giving up no runs on just 2 hits (both Gryboski).
Offensively, Gary Matthews continued is torrid pace by leading off the game with a home run. He didn’t get anything else this evening, but his leadoff HR kind of set the tone. Mark DeRosa also had a decent night, singling in Mench, and scoring later on a Mike Young single. No one really dominated offensively, it was fairly spread out.
Nice to take the first game in the series, and even nicer we won’t have to see Chan Ho Park in a Rangers uniform anymore.
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This game was almost a complete opposite of the game from the night before. This game was crisp (2:38 vs almost 6 hours with rain delay), it had good pitching. If you put the two teams together, it was a total of 18 innings, and only 3 earned runs were given up. That’s an ERA of 1.5.
The scoring was easy – the Orioles scored their run on a single to left. Our two runs came on solo home runs in the 6th and 9th (Soriano & Dellucci respectively). There was a total of 17 hits between the two teams, which you would think would account for more than 3 runs, but there you go. :)
However, the best thing to come out of this game was the fact that Sidney Ponson got hurt. Not that I ever wish hurt on people, but from a baseball standpoint, that will prevent him from being traded here, I would think. His name had been talked about, but to be honest, I don’t want Ponson in a Ranger uniform. I can’t see where he’s any better than what we have. He might be an innings eater, but I can’t get excited about him, especially given the Chan Ho Park type awful contract he has. So thank you Sandy Alomar Jr for that.
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I have to say, I gave up on this game twice. First time was in the first inning after we went down 4 to nothing. Chris Young seems to have hit a wall, and it showed in this game, he gave up a walk, a single, and two home runs in the first to be down 4, and then down 5 after a single came around to score in the second. I’ve dropped Chris Young from all my fantasy teams, he doesn’t seem very solid at the moment, but neither do any of our pitchers (besides Rogers, but he’s benched by Selig).
I tuned back in again after the third inning, just in time to see us bop three home runs to tie the game at 5-5. One of which was the first home run by Tex as a right hander. Looked an awful lot like the one he in the the All Star game, too. Then in the top of the fifth, we go up 6-5 on an Alfonso Soriano home run. Feeling good again. Not very confident, mind you, but good, as we’d taken the lead. Doug Brocail did a good job holding the O’s down, as did Gryboski. It stayed that way for awhile, when in the bottom of the 8th the Orioles managed to push across a run against Brian Shouse to tie it. Still feeling good. Kam Loe came in and finished off Shouse’s inning. So we’re tied after 8. Soriano singles, then steals second and third. After Hidalgo walked, Mark DeRosa stepped up and delivered a hit to the left field wall, that got stuck underneath the padding which allowed Hidalgo to score from first. That put us up two. I was feeling really good.
Then in the bottom of the ninth, Matthews botched a play and allowed Sosa to reach, setting the stage for Javy Lopez to homer to left, tying the game. That’s the second time I gave up on the game. I got so mad when he hit that HR that I turned off the TV. However, I couldn’t stay away long, after a couple of minutes of Super Monkey Ball on my Xbox, I came back to the game, figuring I’d get mad again.
After an uneventful top of the 10th inning, Sammy Sosa reached again on a fielding error (this time DeRosa). Uh-oh. Getting ready to give up again, but I didn’t. Javy Lopez just got a single this time, and after a couple of outs, Luis Matos singled to center. Gary Matthews picked up the ball and tossed it home on a laser to Rod Barajas. Sosa comes in to the plate spikes up, in a very Ty Cobb way of doing things. Sosa was tossed out at the plate, but immediately drew the wrath of Rod Barajas. Spikes up sliding is really uncool, and I’m not defending that, but from what I saw on the TV, it appeared Sosa was immediately sorry about it, and appeared to apologize right away. I later heard that he did, and also called the clubhouse to apologize after the game. Still, one has to wonder if the Ranger palyers won’t knock Sosa on his ass with a pitch at some point in the future. Was a fabulous play to toss out Sosa and save the game.
That set the stage for the 11th, and an inning that would put the Rangers on top for good. Hidalgo walked, DeRosa singled, and then Matthews got the game winning home run to cap off a fabulous night for him. The error that allowed the O’s to tie the game aside, Matthews made two spectacular plays in the outfield, one of which being the assist to throw out Sosa at the plate. He went 3-7 with 4 RBI’s and two home runs plus a double. In fact we had 6 doubles in the game (Soriano, Hidalgo, Tex, Matthews, Mench, & DeRosa). DeRosa had a great game, too going 3 for 6 with 3 RBI’s.
We had 20 hits and every starter had at least one. Every starter except Blalock scored at least once. Could have been a lot more as we left 14 men on base. But as bad as that sounds, the Orioles left 16 on base, with most of them coming in the last 6 innings.
Really really long game. The game itself ran 4 hours and 13 minutes, and to make matters worse, there an hour and 37 minute rain delay before it even got started. And it got started in the rain no less! It was nice to write about one of these fiasco games that we ended up winning. The win has us at 50-50 after the first 100 games. I think everyone expected a bit more out of this team at this point. It’s definitely not over, but the storm clouds are floating around, a few buzzards are up there, let’s hope our guys can keep all that at bay.
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What a waste.
Gary Matthews was 3 for 4 with a home run and a couple of doubles. Matthews also made a totally sparkling defensive catch in the outfield, crashing into the wall (it made the #1 Web Gem on Baseball Tonight). Dellucci, Mike Young, & Sandy Alomar
Kenny Rogers went 7 innings, gave up three earned runs. Made several good defensive plays in the field.
We lost the game on a home run given up by James Baldwin in the 8th inning.
What a waste.
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