I expected us to lose this game. A 1-4 pitcher who has been shaky against a 7-0 pitcher who has been totally dominant? I expected the score to be like 17-1. We lost alright, but we didn’t fall out totally. Never seemed to get it going against Garland, which is the story of the day. Garland beat us to his major league leading eighth win of the season. He deserved the win, he pitched well, going 7 runs, giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits.
It did feel like we were behind the 8 ball however early however. It was because of some extra help from the umpire at third who CLEARLY blew a call calling Aaron Rowand safe at third when every replay showed he was out – and it was really obvious, too. That directly led to their first run, and while that one run didn’t decide the game, it came in the first, so one never knows what kind of mental tone that set for everything else that followed. It did lead to Steve Smith being ejected – he definitely is our most ejected coach. :)
Offensively, we didn’t mount much of an attack. We only had 6 hits, and three of them came from Mark Teixeira – and two of those 3 were doubles. The remaining three hits were from Blalock, Nix, & Hidalgo. Only two RBI’s were Tex and Hidalgo (who now has his average way up to .212).
I’m glad the old Ranger farmhand Scott Podsednik has gotten a good career together. He’s not a Carlos Beltran, or even a Cliff Floyd – but he’s a good solid respectable player, and from what I remember, a pretty nice guy, too. Good for him – the sport needs more good solid players like that. I like seeing him now that he’s in Chicago, I couldn’t see him when he was in Milwaukee.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
Riley, Karsay, Matthews, Torres, Selig & Steroids
Hi gang. I’m caught up with the games since last Wednesday now. I had family in town this past weekend (I’m in Texas, my family is all in Pennsylvania) for my daughter’s christening this past Sunday. It was great having them all in, but it severely restricted my time for watching Rangers games. I only saw bits and pieces of all the games, so my commentary on them wasn’t as great as I would have liked. Still, one has to take care of what’s important first. Having said that, there’s been a few events since my last update, so I’ll have a few words on each.
1) Matt Riley: Riley didn’t do a lot for me before he was DFA’ed. Apparently he didn’t do a whole lot for the other 29 teams either, as he cleared waivers on the 11th, and was assigned to AAA. His ERA was pretty atrocious when he was up with the big club. Hopefully he can get it together and be a useful piece. Although I’ll take being a useful piece of the bullpen from just about anyone right now.
2) Rangers sign Steve Karsay: Steve Karsay was signed to a minor league contract, and was assigned to AA Frisco to pitch for the Rangers. Karsay hasn’t pitched much this season in the majors, pitching just six innings over a total of six outings for the Yankees, with an ERA of 6.0 :) He’s been around for awhile, making his debut in 1993 with the A’s. Since then, he’s pitched for the Indians, Braves, & Yankees. It’s probably his time with the Indians and John Hart that convinced him to come to Texas. From 1999 through 2004, he’s had a pretty good ERA – the highest it was during that period was 3.76 (in 2000). He had a terrible start in 2005, but not totally awful if you look at his numbers. I Know I just said this about Riley, but I hope he can come up and do well for us, if for no other reason than you can stick it to the Yankees. :) Given we are only on the hook or a pro-rated portion of his 2005 salary (the Yankees pay the rest), this is a pretty good move for us, I would think.
3) Matthews to DL, Torres up: On Sunday Gary Matthews was placed on the DL with an apparent hamstring problem. I didn’t see it happen, but the reports say he came up gimpy holding his hamstring after running across first. I’ve seen that happen several times in the past, and it’s never good. I think he’ll probably be out for awhile. I’m saying that without seeing any medical updates, but I’ve seen that “pulling on the back of his leg running across first” enough in my years watching baseball to know that’s never good. I feel bad for Gary, as this was the first year he really seemed to find a home, got it together and all that. I hope he comes back soon, and comes back well. In the meantime, we’ve called up Andres Torres to take his place on the roster. Torres was a big spring training surprise, with an obscenely high batting average (I forget the number at the moment, but it was around 375 or something I think). He will probably do pretty well, although being a fifth outfielder means you don’t get a WHOLE LOT of playing time.
4) Steroids again: I have always felt that the drug testing plans we’ve had in place recently have been too weak. The first set was a joke, having to get busted a few times before you’re suspended. The current one is a little better, but still is weak when it comes to REAL penalties. I mean does a 10 day suspension really have that much impact on a player? Not really. So it was with great anticipation that I read Selig’s proposed new changes to the drug testing rules; a “three strikes and you’re out” policy. First offense, a 50 game suspension. Second offense, a 100 game suspension. Third, you’re permanently banned for life. I rather like that. I think that has a few balls, although I feel if it gets passed with those numbers, I see the union (more to the point union leadership, not so much the players) whining and putting in place an appeal system that will de-teeth it. But the other day, I was QUITE STUNNED to read where the government is talking about putting some sort of thing in place of their own where if you’re caught using the stuff, you’re given a TWO YEAR suspension from the sport, and the second offense is a permanent ban. Now I think that’s a little TOO MUCH going the other way, but I think just the fact that this thing is out there might push Fehr and the union to adpot Selig’s idea of 50/100/gone when they might not want to. Selig is saying that if they can’t negotiate an update with Fehr over his 50/100/gone idea, he’s open to the government’s idea, which really puts the pressure on Fehr and the union leadership. I have to say, I’m rather enjoying seeing the player’s union leadership being pushed into doing something they obviously don’t want to be doing because of ego and posturing. Screw ’em. This needs to be in there. I don’t have a whole lot of patience for these clowns who use this stuff, and as a new father, I have a different insight on this. Once my daughter is old enough to understand these things, I hope all this has been taken care of so I can put it in a nice little box and say “There was a problem with people cheating, but it’s been dealt with”. Although I probably shouldn’t put that much faith in the folks running baseball to help out the parents of America that well.
So as of now, I’m all caught up. My daughter however, doesn’t seem to want to respect my update schedule, so if I miss a game or two here and there, that’s probably what’s done it. Lack of sleep causing a desire not to want to update. Hopefully that goes away soon. :)
G39: Rangers ride Mench’s power to a 7-6 win on Monday
This game definitely had some rollercoaster moments. We started off early with Dellucci getting on base. Then he got thrown out stealing. Then Mench hit a home run. Then in the bottom of the first, Chan Ho Park gave up a grand slam which was fueled by a couple of walks. I got immediately disgusted. Even with our habit of coming back, a grand slam in the first inning is pretty much a statement made by a team, and even though we ended up winning the game, I still felt down because of the grand slam.
Speaking of Dellucci, he did have an odd trifecta of making outs this game. IN the first, he walked and was caught stealing. Later he walked again, but was picked off of first. And finally, in an odd way of finishing that, Dellucci was attempting to steal second again when Kevin Mench struck out, and David was called out on (rather obvious) batter’s interference on Mench’s part. All we needed was for him to get hit by a batted ball and be called out. :)
Kevin Mench did make up for his interference outs by hitting a game winning home run in the top of the 9th, which led to a 1-2-3 league leading 13th save by CoCo Cordero. But Kevin wasn’t absent from the goofiness tonight, even taking the interference call into play. There was one point where he was just taking his practice swing inbetween pitches, and on one of them, he went and wailed on AJ Pierzynski’s catcher’s mask, and knocked it clean off his face. Was an amusing clip, as you don’t normally see things like that. Reminded me of that bit from a couple of seasons ago when Arod was doing his “tap the bat on the plate” to start his at bat, and the bat shattered on the plate. Just the kind of thing you don’t normally see.
Tomorrow’s game looks like a lopsided win for the White Sox on paper. Pedro Astacio who has been uneven at best goes against Jon Garland, who has been nothing short of brilliant this season. The potential for an ugly night on Tuesday really exists. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
G38: Rangers lose series finale Sunday to Twins, 5-2
Before this game, Gary Matthews Jr was placed on the DL with a hamstring problem (prompting the calling up of Andres Torres, a spring training surprise). While one never feels good about players going on the DL, I have to say the injury problem that cropped up during Sunday’s game was a bit worse than Matthews trip. Perhaps not “worse”, but more troubling, as it was Mike Young. He left the game with lower back stiffness. He’s day to day, but it can’t be good. Hopefully it’s not something that will carry on long. I’m sure Mark DeRosa can be a capable SS, but I doubt he’s a long term answer if Mike Young has to go on the DL or something.
As for this game, Chris Young showed a bit of why we wanted him signed and not let to go play basketball at the end of last season. CY went only five innings, but allowed just two runs, and probably pitched well enough to carry a win, but Ron Mahay let that go by the waysides with 3ER in his 1.2 IP. CY did have a really high pitch count, he tossed 96 through five innings. Not good there, but if you overlook his pitch count, he was pretty decent from what little of the game I did get to watch. The game was definitely a letdown as we could have swept the Twins, who are not playing terribly well right now. Wasn’t helped by Brad Radke only allowing 2 runs over his seven innings. Joe Nathan bounced back from his fiasco on Friday night to nail down a save.
Hidalgo went 1 for 3 – nothing special, but it raised his batting average a few more points. In fact, none of our hitters had more than one hit apiece, although Kevin Mench did have a home run, and both Mike Young and Dellucci had doubles, so we weren’t totally dominated, it just felt that way. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
Roster Transaction
G37: Kenny Rogers is masterful in 5-0 shutout of Twins Saturday
This night (and the last few he’s been out there) have belonged to Kenny Rogers. The only bad thing about all his recent success is that I see Scott Boras seeing more dollar signs from this performance. That scares me. But in the meantime, we have to be enjoying his 30 straight innings of shutout ball. On this night, Kenny tossed a 6 hit complete game shutout with no walks and 2K’s, and 104P. Mostly due to Kenny, this was an extremely crisp game, coming in at only two hours and seven minutes. What else can you say about that? Rogers was magnificent.
On the other side of the coin, Hidalgo had a good night for two nights in a row, going 2-4 with one run scored. His average after this game is now “up to” .200. He’ll need another dozen or so of these nights to make a major change in his batting average. I really want him to do well. But he’s seemed sluggish all season.
But this night was about Kenny. Couldn’t be a whole lot better. Makes me wonder if he has another no hitter or a perfect game in him, as he’s danced with both a few times in the last few years. I wonder how many more scoreless innings Kenny has to toss before we start seeing footage of Orel Hershisher’s streak. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
G36: Rangers win in extra innings against Twins Friday, 9-6
If the bullpen lost the game for us in the last game, in this one it was the saviour. Ryan Drese was looking like the 2003 and earlier edition of himself again (another disturbing trend I’ll get into when I have more time). Drese gave up 6ER on 9H in his 3.2IP. But the bullpen allowed us to win the game. The bullpen pitched 7 innings of shutout ball, giving up just 3 hits and 2 BB with 8 K’s. An impressive performance by our gang. Too bad Drese appears to be regressing, and can’t match the performance that got him off the hook.
Richard Hidalgo had the kind of game we brought him in to have in this one. He was 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI. He’s still below the Mendoza line, which is sad, as it’s where Jordan was last year when he was considered a failure. If this carries on much longer, I wonder how long we’ll continue with Hidalgo. It’s a shame, as it doesn’t seem like he’s really awful, but when you look at his numbers, you have to shrug your shoulders. If we talke Hidalgo out of the lineup, that means we’d probably go with an outfield of Mench, Nix, & Matthews.
We did get to Twins closer Joe Nathan for 3 runs in the 11th inning, something that was definitely out of the ordinary, as Nathan hadn’t allowed an earned run up until that point all season. That was nice to see. We’re back to two games over .500 – about where we seem to have gotten – not too far up, not too far down. Feels like a .500 year at the moment, doesn’t it?
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
G35: Rangers lose Thursday, 6-5 to Tigers
So far this season, we’ve done pretty well in daytime games. This was a getaway day afternoon game. I forget what our record is, something like 7-3 or something – I’m really not sure of the numbers. But we didn’t help that record today, losing 6-5 to the Tigers, to drop the series to them in the rubber game.
Pedro Astacio, who by all accounts was on thin ice with his last few pitching performances, saved his spot in the starting rotation – for now. He went six innings, giving up two runs on 6 hits. Additionally, he had 4K’s, and no walks – the no walks probably was the biggest point since the runs came on a home run – could have been worse with walks.
Offensively, we were pretty efficient, getting 5 runs on 7 hits. Alomar & Mench both had multi hit games. Dellucci had a pinch hit home run – which is always exciting to see.
Overall, it was a pretty decent game, until the bullpen came in. Our relievers (Loe, Mahay, Brocail) gave up 4 runs (3ER) in their 3IP. None of them was unscathed, and basically lost the game for us. Overall, our bullpen hasn’t been great this year, but it’s kind of felt (to me) that it’s come around a little lately, so this was a step backwards in my eyes.
Thursday is an offday (hate ’em), but with my family coming in town for my daughter’s christening, I likely won’t get to watch much baseball this weekend anyway.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.
Roster Transaction
- P Matt Riley cleared waivers, and assigned to
AAA
There goes the neighborhood!
The map of the new Dallas Cowboys stadium was released on Monday, and I finally got a chance to digest some of the changes on Tuesday evening. Once it’s finished, I don’t expect it will be a major impact to the ballpark, unless both are playing at the same time, in which traffic goes to hell. I’ve been around Texas Stadium, and the traffic is a nightmare there. The roads in the new area are going to be even WORSE, so I don’t think I’m gonna want to be anywhere near the new Jones Stadium during gametime. That might seriously affect my Rangers attendance. I know it will at least affect how I drive to and from the ballpark.
Anyway, I’m not sure what route people take to get to the ballpark, but here’s what I do to get in and out.
My entrance route: Since I’m coming from Garland, what I’ve always done is come west on 30, and get off at Six Flags drive. I take that, and followed it till it dead endedinto Division. Hang a right until I got to Stadium Drive, and then take a left when the Nolan Ryan Expressway branches off. I then parked in the “A” parking lot (see this parking lot map of the ballpark). If you want to see an overhead view of this entrance route, click here.
I have recently changed the route I take to get in, mostly because I’ve changed parking lots (because Lot J is easier to get out of than Lot A). If I’m paying cash, I’ll still use this old one from above. I now park in the J lot, but you can only park there with a parking coupon. As I’ve pre-paid my parking for the season back in January, I get parking passes, which I can use for the J lot – which is a LOT easier getting out. I still get off at Six Flags Drive, but instead of taking it long, when it passes underneath Rt 360, I take a right at Copeland, that run that runs RIGHT by Six Flags. I stay on Copeland, driving past the ballpark, and the new buildings they put in the parking lots until Copeland gets to the Nolan Ryan Expressway. I take it till it dead ends into Randol Mill Rd (although the the NRE veers off halfway through and if you go straight, the road name changes to Pennant Dr). Anyway, I make a left on Randol Mill and get to Lot J, and park there. There’s a picture of this newer route of mine here.
Both are close, although if you dawdle in the stadium at the end of the game, you’ll have a harder time getting out. I generally park as close to an exit as I can – it really helps when getting out (moreso in lot A than in Lot J). I’m usually out the door the second the last pitch is over – believe me, it helps. After 8 years of season tickets, I’ve learned how to get in and out in a hurry.
And speaking of getting out, my out route has been the same for a long time. It’s basically Randol Mill Road to Collins where I take a right and head to 30. Collins tends to clog a bit, but it moves fairly well, it’s not a standstill like the A parking lot is getting back out the way I came in – that’s a rookie parking mistake. ;) Click here to see an overhead of my exit route from Lot J. You can use it for Lot A, too, as there’s an exit from Lot A on Randol Mill as well. (Sometimes though if attendance at games is low, they won’t let you use this way, and you’ll be forced to go a different route).
So that’s it for my parking tips. Let’s get back to Jerry Jones and his evil empire, and how this will affect the Ballpark.
This is a cutout from a map that the Dallas Morning News posted on their site (here– see map link on page) showing where the stadium is to go. When it’s completed, it won’t look like it will affect Rangers parking all that much, but getting there will probably be a nightmare. It’s going to go flush up against Randol Mill Road, which is my exit route (and part of my entrance route), and my old way of gouing up from Division on Stadium and Nolan Ryan will be affected, too. I see from the posted map that it’s not going straight up against Stadium & Nolan Ryan, but something I saw on NBC5 news last night seemed to imply that it would go up against those roads. If it does, then I wonder if the Ballpark will share parking with Jones Stadium parking at some point. Either way, I predict major hassle till the stadium is built, once they actually start the real work of building it (probably not till next year I’d guess).
I can’t imagine where the new Cowboys stadium will be terribly good for parking in the area, both during construction, and afterwards. I was only in this area for one season of the construction of The Ballpark in Arlington (as I moved to this area in Dec of 92). I remember what parking was like around Arlington Stadium while the new place was being built. It was fiasco. Now, Jones Stadium won’t be anywhere near that close, but I can’t imagine it will be all that easy, especially if they decide to try and widen the roads, which I imagine will have to happen, as the roads in this area can’t support the fiasco of a parking situation I see around Texas Stadium – and there are highways over there!
There goes the neighborhood.
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