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The Rangers head to Seattle feeling good, and then early on we got the usual Seattle moves.

1. The footage of the train out back of the park.
2. Weather remarks.
3. Demolition footage of the Kingdome
4. Footage of Bill from Seattle, the old Mariners fan in the blue hat.

Sadly, early on in the broadcast, they showed the seats that Bill and his wife used to sit, and they were empty. They mentioned that Bill had died about three months ago or so, which was sad, because he was ALWAYS there. They mentioned that Bill had been put on the jumbotron at the Mariners park, so he must have been their version of Zonk or something like that. Shame, as it really will seem weird not seeing him there. Perhaps the Rangers TV team can show a clip of him anyway, just for old times sake when we go there. What made it sad for me I had just sent a tweet to Josh Lewin saying they should send John Rhadigan over to talk to him, as they don’t often take their own stadium guy on the road. and then almost immediately, that’s when Lewin talked about Bill having died. So I had to delete my tweet. I’ll still post this, however:

As for the game itself, the Rangers sent Colby Lewis out there, and was pretty decent, but wasn’t totally dominating. He sadly though pitched well enough to get the win, and didn’t. Went a total of six innings, gave up nine hits and one walk. Did strike out nine, and that was the mostly dominating part, but for me it didn’t feel like a totally dominating performance. Nothing I can point to, just a gut feeling sort of thing.
It’s hard to get much support for Lewis when the Rangers get only four hits total. Three singles (Elvis, Cantu, Molina), and a double by Mitch Moreland. Interestingly, both of the RBI’s we got were on sac flies (Molina, Young).
The Mariners didn’t dominate offensively, either, as they had three innings with single runs. But what they got was pretty much from their pretty darn awesome center fielder, Franklyn Guiterrez. He drove himself in with a solo home run, and another run on a squeeze play.
Colby Lewis did strike out nine. :)
Didn’t like losing to Seattle. They’re bad. We’re not this year.

I’ve spent the weekend of trade deadline mostly sick, so I’m taking a pass on writing about this one.
Some runs for Cliff Lee would be nice.

I’ve spent most of trade deadline day sick, so I’m taking a pass on writing about this one.
But still, wow. Where was this Rich Harden all year?

I’ve spent most of trade deadline day sick, so I’m taking a pass on writing about this one.

Today was an interesting day, the Rangers announced a trade for Jorge Cantu, who was announced as a right handed complement to Chris Davis at first base. However, due to 25 man roster considerations, the Rangers called up Mitch Moreland to play first, according to some stories just for this game until Cantu got here. Well, Moreland looked good, went 2-4, and guess what? He’s staying, and it was announced after the game that Chris Davis was going back to AAA. An interesting little circle there.
Speaking of this game, Moreland got his first major league hit in the game (and his second, too). But the first one had some funny video if you were watching. It was a single to right, and when the camera from center field was watching him you could see 4 or 5 players from the dugout trying to get him to do the “claw” gesture, which he obviously wasn’t up to speed on. He eventually got it, and it was a great piece of video. You can see the hit here on mlb.com. There was video of the claw stuff, but I can’t remember where I saw it.
Anyway, Moreland looked good at the start. I feel bad for Chris Davis, as I like him, but all these moves make me think the team has soured on Davis, or at least aren’t willing to wait for him to figure out his bat at the majors.
CJ Wilson got his 10th win of the season, but he was not like he was the last two starts (which were great Cliff Lee like outings). This was a lot more laborious, he wasn’t quick and crisp, his line bears that out. 5.2 innings, 7 hits, two walks, and three earned runs – all with 105 pitches. Not godawful, but certainly not on the good side of things.
Offensively the Rangers were led by Michael Young and Josh Hamilton. Young had four hits, and Hamilton had three. David Murphy had a really long home run (almost totally over all the seats behind the wedgie (Former Section 43). But the big note of the offensive side was a two run home run by Taylor Teagarden, who hit just his second hit of the whole season with that. His batting average was .034 before that hit.
But most importantly, we won the game, and we’re 8.5 games up on Oakland in second place, and 9 games up on the Angels (who are amazingly just 52-52 at the moment). We’re headed out to California for a series with Anaheim. It could bury them if we swept the Angels. What an amazing thought. Don’t think it will really happen, but still.