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I’m taking my first mulligan of the season (there will probably be a big one in a month or so when my second kid is born) for the Toronto series. There’s a lot going on in my personal life now (in prep for the kid), and with work at the same time, so I need to give up these games and catch up by cheating. This page is here as a placeholder.
Bummer, as I wanted to talk about Derek Holland, the Darren O’Day uniform thing, but I need to give myself a break. :)
There is a fun link to Darren O’Day wearing the wrong uniform number here on the mlb.com site.

I’m taking my first mulligan of the season (there will probably be a big one in a month or so when my second kid is born) for the Toronto series. There’s a lot going on in my personal life now (in prep for the kid), and with work at the same time, so I need to give up these games and catch up by cheating. This page is here as a placeholder.
Bummer, as I wanted to talk about Derek Holland, the Darren O’Day uniform thing, but I need to give myself a break. :)

I know there was more to talk about, but the only thing that mattered was the walkoff home run. We won the game on the second pitch of the bottom of the ninth. Michael Young won it. Prompting these. I mean, really – do we remember anything else? I don’t.

We needed this heading out on the road. If we had not won this, it would have been a mighty bad way to hit the road against a division leader.

You hear the term “hard luck loser” a lot if you hang around baseball enough. Last night was one of those nights. The guy wearing 33 on his back for the Rangers definitely qualified. Kevin Millwood threw a nine inning complete game. Gave up just five hits and allowed only two runs. Struck out three (walked three though). By all accounts a great game, one definitely deserving of a win. This should have been Kevin’s third win of the year already. It wasn’t.
That was because of Zack Greinke of the Royals. He also threw a nine inning complete game. Problem is while he allowed more hits than Millwood did (7 to Kevin’s 5), he also struck out 10 and allowed no one to cross the plate. The pro writers will have an eloquent way of saying this in their reports.. “Greinke was friggin awesome!” I mean what else needs to be said really? He dominated the game totally – we looked mostly stupid at the plate. Only Blalock managed more than one hit. Of our seven, only two were extra base hits (one double by Salty, a triple by Blalock). In fact, Hank’s triple led off the inning, and he was stuck there, never scored.
As much as you feel bad for Millwood, it was a totally masterful and dominant performance by Greinke. Definitely deserving of praise from this Rangers fan.

What is it with Kansas City. Even when they’re at the lowest of the low (which was most of the time), we have problems with them. This is a team that until this year teams are supposed to beat easily, and we’re constantly losing to them. Is it the time in Surprise? Who knows. But it happened again.
After the “Good Karma” of Kinsler’s 6-6 cycle, it pretty much did not carry over. Kinsler himself went 2-4 for this game (with a walk), which was better than most everyone. Hank Blalock went 2-5, but Elvis Andrus led the way from the 9 hole with a 3-4 night. No runs or RBI’s, but he was the only Ranger with three hits. Blalock, Byrd, & Salty each had solo home runs which accounted for all three of our runs.
David Murphy came in as a replacement, and took another ofer. He remains ofer 2009. That’s a bit disturbing. If it doesn’t turn around soon, it might affect his playing time or his spot. In another odd move, Michael Young was pinch hit for by Omar Vizquel. I’m not sure I understand that one.
The pitching, however… Matt Harrison is not looking in 2009 like he did in 2008. This game was well, ugh. Five innings and six earned runs on eight hits with four walks. Two of the hits were home runs. Bleh. Willie Eyre, who was just called up to help the pen was no help. 1.1 innings, giving up three runs on four hits and two walks. Josh Rupe was even worse. 1.2 innings, three runs on six hits and a walk. Eddie Guardado finished up, and actually threw a scoreless inning, which REDUCED his ERA to 11.25.
The pen has been pretty bad to start the season, and we haven’t had much of a chance to test Frankie. If this keeps going for too much longer, there probably will be some big bullpen changes.

Where the heck do you start with this one? After a dismal several games, the Rangers finally kicked it into gear, and appeared to be pissed off that they had lost several in a row, and really took it out on Baltimore. Not nearly as much as that 30-3 game against them in Baltimore, but this felt just as good. The reasons for the good feelings were several:

• First off, Ian Kinsler’s cycle. Any time a player gets a cycle, it’s cool. No way to not feel good about your guy getting one. Ian had 13 total bases in the game.
• Ian Kinsler also going 6-6 in a nine inning (technically eight since we’re at home) game. Couple that with the cycle, and it’s something that hadn’t been done since the 1800’s I believe (cycle with 6-6 in a nine inning game).
• Marlon Byrd going 5-6. If it wasn’t for Kinsler’s 6-6 cycle, this would have been a bigger deal for sure.
• Nelson Cruz missing two grand slams in the same game by about 5 feet. He jacked one that looked like a sure second slam late in the game, but it just missed getting over the wall. Darn.
• Nine of our eighteen hits being extra bases (five doubles, two triples, and two home runs)
• Three stolen bases, something that is becoming a big part of the Rangers offense.

I mean, how can you be a Rangers fan after this game and not feel good about it? OK, if you wanted to, you could say that Young & Salty had ofers. With all the offense, it seemed odd that any of our starters would have an ofer, let alone two of them. We were 9-20 with RISP.
But the heck with the negative, it was just fun to watch. Mr. Anna Benson actually got the win, but he was not all that great. Good enough for a win, but definitely not great.
As I sit here to write this, I can’t think of anything else to say except, “That was badass, wasn’t it?”

Enjoyed the win, enjoyed the Kinsler performance. Did not enjoy the TV post game interviews. Are the Rangers trying to get people to not watch post game stuff? Mike Ogulnick & Jim Knox are both “turn to something else” people. I never watch top of the second stuff – when Knix in the “Fox Box”. It’s an immediate skip.