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When you’re doing recaps for games a week after they happen, and you see the same score two days in a row, it always makes you think, “Now wait, that can’t be right”. Not near impossible, but the same score two days in a row to the same team usually doesn’t happen. That’s what happened here.
Despite our scoring three runs, this game was dominated by John Lackey. He didn’t even allow a hit until the fifth inning, and in his six innings of work overall, he struck out 12 Rangers. Gave up three walks and two hits, and no runs at all. It was quite the dominating performance, one we’ve seen from him many times in Arlington. I was there in person when he made his major league debut a few years back, and recalled then thinking this guy is going to be some kind of spectacular. If there was a downside to his game, it was that he wasn’t efficient. He threw six innings, but also tossed 110 pitches. That’s been a major plus to the 2008 Rangers, they’re acting like the late 90’s Yankees, or the A’s. Take a lot. This is a good thing, and as I recall one of the things Ron Washington said he wanted to instill in our hitters when he took over as manager. Glad to see it is taking hold.
We had six hits in all. Two by Teagarden (one a double), two by Blalock (one a double), and just one hit each by Marlon Byrd (double), and Milton Bradley. That’s it. The fact we managed to score three runs at all was a testament to efficiency. That and Mark Bulger’s lack of command in relief, leading to the three runs all coming in the bottom of the ninth, making things a bit exciting there.
But this really was John Lackey’s game. Simple as that.
Oh yeah, Scott Feldman is out of gas. They better start limiting his pitches.

Vicente Padilla got into the seventh, but really didn’t pitch that well. His official line was 6 innings pitched, seven hits, five earned runs, and three walks. Not terribly great. Also gave up a two run home run to Garret Anderson. On top of that, he did throw two wild pitches.
Offensively we had five more doubles (and five singles). Hank Blalock led the way, going 4-4 with an RBI and a run scored. He’s been on fire lately.
There really isn’t a whole lot to write about this game. Fairly “meh” game.

Whenever I see a score like this, I am reminded of a game I’ve spoken of a few times over the years on this site. The Phillies / Cubs game from the late 70’s where the Phils beat the Cubs 23-22. You’d think 13 runs would be enough to win the game. Not this time.
First off, I had tickets to this game, but could not go. I’ve been hurt lately, I had an X-Ray and now an MRI on my knee, so the walk from parking to my seat and all that would have been too much pain. So I stayed home. Rangers lost, but I certainly would have seen an entertaining game, had I been able to go.
We were down 7-0 going into the bottom of the third, and then we unloaded with a nine spot in the bottom of the third. Not long after that, the Angels put up a five spot, followed by a three run bottom of the fifth, so there was little pitching in the first five innings, as the score at that point was 13-12 Anaheim, and we hadn’t gotten to the sixth yet!
In the final four innings, the Angels outscored Texas 2-1 in the final four frames. I’m not even going into details as to pitchers and batters. It was just scoring all over the place. If you want that level of detail, hit the MLB Recap link at the top of this story. :)

I don’t have time to write a full commentary, but even if I did, I wouldn’t have wanted to.

No time to write about this still, but a huge win in the bottom of the ninth sounds great. Wish I would have seen it. :(

No time to write commentary for this game.

No time to write commentary for this game.