It was a good night to be a Ranger fan (something I don’t get to say much anymore). Tony Mounce looked really good again. He had a curveball that reminded me of Barry Zito’s at times – it had some wonderful movement. I’m not claiming he’s Barry Zito of course – I’m not that naive. It’s just he looked awfully good at points. He went 5.1 innings, and got his first major league win. Rosman Garcia slipped a bit, giving up a couple in under an inning, but Shouse, Cordero, & Urbina gave up nothing, with Urbina getting his 22nd save. I know Urbina will be gone, but I wish we were a bit better – I’ve really enjoyed his time here.
However, I think the biggest story was Hank Blalock getting two home runs tonight, one to each side of the field. Juan Gonzalez came through with a two RBI hit (might help his rumored trade to the Dodgers with Mike Lamb). Overall, it was a good game to be a Ranger fan, and while we let the Angels back into the game, we hung on and got the win.
We split in Anaheim, won in Houston before that, and had a winning road trip. This can’t be our Rangers, can it? :) Now we’re home for awhile, and we play the Mariners. We’re 21 games behind them in the standings. It could be much uglier after this weekend.
Game notes here.

Well, we got shut out – not much more you can say. Only four hits, scattered. Our seventh shutout of the season. Not good, but then again we knew the 03 Rangers weren’t going to be good, I guess.

Well, we lost this game, and it got out of hand in the first couple of innings, as Ismael Valdes gave up a bunch of runs again. He gave up 7 in 5 innings, and while the linescore says he only had 5 earned runs, that’s still too many, and he really deserved all 7. RA Dickey, Brian Shouse, and Jay Powell (!!!) didn’t give up anything, so I guess that’s good.
We tried to mount a comeback in the 8th inning when we got the second home run of the game from Mike Young, as well as one from Arod to bring the game to 7-5, but all that did was bring out Troy Percival, which means there’s nothing else to do except make outs.
However, the news of the day was the trade of Carl Everett to the White Sox. I have to admit, I really didn’t want to see him go, and while I know it will help our club, I have had a major turn of heart on Everett. I still think he’s too slow to play centerfield, but he’s been a great citizen here, and hasn’t caused any problems. I really was kind of hoping he’d stay. Instead, we’re stuck with Gonzalez and no Everett for the rest of the season.

OK, we’ve won two in a row. This time John Thomson didn’t have the ball up and all over the park, giving up just three hits and three runs over seven innings (98 pitches). He pitched pretty decently, and our offense worked, as opposed to the barely being able to get two runs a game crud we’ve been seeing a lot of lately. It was capped by home runs by Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. What’s better is that we got it against Ramon Ortiz, someone who has pretty much owned the Rangers, going 9-1 lifetime against us before tonight’s game.
These 9PM starts are rough, as my wife and I had company over for dinner, and I didn’t get to start watching the game until 11:30 – by that point I was so tired, I just started skipping through several sections on my TiVo – probably watched the whole thing in less than an hour. I really wish Hicks had let us move to the AL Central a couple of years ago when we had the chance.
The season is now halfway over. I said that to my wife last night. I said “That’s it – it’s just downhill towards the end of the season now” :)
Game notes here.

Ramos was wild early, walking 7 in 3.1 innings, hitting one, yet only giving up 3 runs, on two hits. Had he had better control, he probably would have stayed in this game, and done well. After the three we gave up in the first inning, we didn’t give up any more again until the bottom of the ninth. In the meantime, we scored 8 runs (all from the 5th onwards).
It was powered by home runs by Kevin Mench, Rafael Palmeiro, and a nice triple by Arod that Craig Biggio fell down running after. We also scored a couple on 2 RBI single by Juan Gonzalez in the 9th.
Victor Santos & Rosman Garcia pitched well – a combined 3.2 innings giving up nothing. That’s nice to see. Cordero was good his first inning, but not good the second, which allowed Urbina to come in and get a save, which he was good at this time (no heart attack saves).
That’s it for Interleague this season. We had a horrific record this time around, going 4-14. :(
Game notes here.

Well, I didn’t see much of this game – I came home and fell asleep watching the game. Woke up in the 9th inning, didn’t see the point in backing up the TiVo to watch it. Didn’t miss much, although Tony Mounce pitched really well again – that’s promising.
Oh yeah, we formally lost the Silver Boot trophy today.
Juan Gonzalez is still a Ranger; he needs to go – release him!
Game notes are here.

As good as it was to see a win, I can’t help but think of the fiasco up in Boston. A 25-8 game. It was 14-1 after one inning. The Red Sox got 10 runs before they got their first out. A Florida pitcher had to be carried off on a stretcher with his head immobilized because he got hit in the head. People were throwing at batters – there were two dugout empties, and at least one ejection. Man, if I was at that game, I’d certainly feel I got my money’s worth. Here’s the details of that game.
Anyway, my favorite moment of our game was actually the pinch hit appearance by David Matranga. My wife and I have checked out several Round Rock Express (Astros AA team) games over the last couple of years, and we always saw David Matranga down there. Well, he finally made it to the show last night. And he clocked a home run in his first major league at bat – I got all excited about that.
On our side, we were hitting the ball around the field like a pinball. We had several shots that hit a wall and went rolling – one was good for a triple for Arod. It was a back and forth and pretty close until the 9th inning, actually. Joaqin Benoit was OK – he got pulled probably earlier than he normally would, but that seemed to be a consequence of National League play. Raffy had a very nice, very majestic, and an absolute no doubter home run in the seventh inning, scoring three. The Astros had four home runs, but none were big problems. Raffy also turned in some nice defense in the field, too. Overall a nice game that felt more in the Rangers control to me watching it than the score indicated.
Overall for the Silver Boot contest, we’re down 3-1, and a total of 12 runs. We need to win by a total of 12 runs over the next two games to take the series.
Juan Gonzalez is still a Ranger; he needs to go – release him Here’s more on that mess.