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It was a day of weird happenings.

• Jim Joyce blew a call that cost former Ranger Armando Galarraga a perfect game.
• Ken Griffey Jr retired.
• Vlad Guerrero fouled a ball off of the batting cage pole and it came back and hit him in the eye.
• Matt Treanor was the big power stick in this game

Wait – Treanor? Huh? Yeah, Vlad had a freak accident before the game where he fouled a ball off the inside pole of the batting cage, and it whacked him in the eye. That was really bizarre, and it forced some changes in the lineup. Sometimes when that happens, you hear of “so and so stood up and covered the other guy”. Normally you don’t think it’s a catcher batting .215 or so being that guy. But it was. Matt Treanor had the power stroke going. He whacked a strong double to left. Then whacked a home run to left. He would have had another double and some more on the RBI chart, except he was totally robbed in right field by Carlos Quentin. I mean ROBBED. As it stands, Treanor went 2-4 with a run scored and four RBI’s.
Right behind him was Michael Young, who went 3-5 with 3 RBI’s and a couple of runs scored. Josh Hamilton also was 3-5 with just 2 RBI’s. So it was a good night to be a fan of good old fashioned Rangers offense.
Pitching wise Scott Feldman went to the mound, and acted more like the 2009 version than at any other date in 2010. Feldman gave up two runs in the bottom of the first, and then settled down. He gave up another solo run in the sixth, and a two spot in the rain in the bottom of the 8th. His line isn’t awesome, but he did look like the old Feldman, which makes me hopeful that 2010 won’t be a total waste for him. Scotty did get his third win of the season, which is way behind his 2009 pace. But there’s still time for him to get respectable. Just not a ton of time to continue pitching like Mark Clark, though.
Real shame about Armando Galarraga. It is. Wish there was a way to review it after the fact, as you can do that with protested games. Yeah, I know they made all nice after the game, but man, that was annoying. I’m not even a Tigers fan.
And I’ll miss Ken Griffey Jr. Always liked watching him play. I remember when he left Seattle, I saw him in his last game in Arlington, and thought at the time that was the last time I’d see him. Turns out that was true, as I didn’t see him (in person) with Cincinnati, and when he returned to Seattle last year, he wasn’t nearly the player he was. Still, he was a lot of fun to watch, and I’ll miss him. He’ll be in Cooperstown in 2015.

You know, we won this game 9-6. We had 19 hits. We had three doubles and a home run. Every starter got in on the party.
It’s the kind of offensive game I like watching.
But the sweep in Minnesota left me feeling bad. I didn’t much care for this game, although if we had won 20-1, then I might have felt differently. But man, that sweep left a bad taste in my mouth. Even through an off day. I’m not normally like that.

That was just disappointing. Ugh.

I’m taking a mulligan on this one. I didn’t see or hear anything of the game. I was dealing on Saturday afternoon with a computer that just wanted to shut itself down. I was in complete computer diagnostic and repair mode on Saturday afternoon. Blah.
Looks like CJ Wilson has come back to earth a bit. Still think he’s a great choice to be in the rotation now, but the “ERA under 1.5” version of CJ Wilson probably wasn’t going to happen over the entire season, anyway. :)

Guerrero perked up a bit in this game, going 2-4, but it was’t nearly enough, as the Rangers were shut down for the second game in a row by the opponent’s starting pitcher. This time it was Kevin Slowey of the Twins. He tossed 6.2 innings, giving up six hits and one earned run. Not totally dominating mind you, but well enough that the Rangers couldn’t get anything together.
We almost had another run, but Ian Kinsler had a home run overturned by instant replay. It was a good call, actually. Replays showed it was foul, but not by much, and it went into one of those weird places in the park where it (at normal speed) made it seem like the home run was fair. As much as I wanted the call, it’s probably good that it was “right”.
Colby Lewis was the hard luck loser, as he pitched a pretty decent game of his own. Just two runs allowed on five hits over this six innings of work.
The new Twins park looks nice. We’ll hear about the “no dome” thing as soon as they get into the playoffs, I’m sure. :)

As good as Guerrero has been this year, you always get the feeling, he can bust out at any second. Didn’t get that feeling with this game, and that’s pretty much due to Kansas City’s starting pitcher, Luke Hochevar. He shut down the Rangers for the most part through his eight innings of work. He allowed six hits in all, but they were scattered (mostly), which accounted for the fact that we had just two runs. Nelson Cruz had a double, Michael Young had a triple (and a single), but the remaining singles were by Andrus, Hamilton, & Smoak. That’s it. That we got two was actually pretty surprising.
Scott Feldman pitched better than he has so far in the 2010 season. Not like last year’s version, but better than the 2010 version (so far). However, he couldn’t match what Hochevar did.
That’s the big story here. Kansas City’s starting pitching won the game. Also, their closer (Joaquim Soria) got his 100th career save. That seems surprising to me that he’d have that many possibilities as bad as Kansas City has been over the last few years.

In a storyline that is not unfamiliar to the 2010 edition of the Texas Rangers, Vlad Guerrero led us offensively to the win. Vlad went 3-5 in all, with three hits, two runs scored, and FIVE RBI’s. This was driven by the two home runs Vlad got. Both were two run shots, and one of them got out in a hurry. The first one made me chuckle, as it hit the signage above the bullpen, and it made a very loud bang – it was obvious the signage was metal. This guy is amazing, and especially now that Kendry Morales is out for the Angels, I have to think they wish they’d kept Vlad now.
Anyway, outside of Vlad, every other Rangers player (save one, Borbon) had one hit. Michael Young’s was a double, but there was more power. Josh Hamilton & Nelson Cruz had home runs as well. Hamilton’s was a titanic shot way over all the walls in center field, going all the way to the base of that behemoth of a scoreboard they have out there. I mean it was monster. Don’t know why the center fielder even bothered running after it. Was stupid how far out of the field that went.
Pretty much home runs were the name of this game. They accounted for six of our eight runs. Old school Rangers baseball, that’s for sure.
Justin Smoak is still struggling. He’s 1-4, with a BA of .168. I bet Chris Davis is thinking “Well, I could be doing THAT!”
Pitching wise, it was another “meh” outing by Rich Harden. 5.1IP, 7H, 2BB, 5K, 6R (5ER). He’s had one good outing. The one one Oakland. That’s it. Wonder if Oakland would take him in a trade? :) Or perhaps he thinks about signing there next year, as I can’t imagine he gets picked up unless he starts pitching like Nolan Ryan from here on out.
No matter how, it’s good to get a win in KC, a place that we’ve oddly enough had problems winning in the last few years.