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The less said about this mess, the better.

Kevin Millwood had an awful game on the mound. His line was atrocious. He went 2.2 innings, giving up nine hits and one walk. All six runs the Royals got were off Millwood, and they were all earned. No good way to describe that.
Of course it did mean that our bullpen pitched pretty well. All six KC runs were scored in the first three innings. After that, our bullpen put up zeroes.
Offensively, it was all Nelson Cruz, making his first appearance since returning from AAA after the trade of Kenny Lofton. Cruz was the show, hitting two home runs, and driving in all five runs the Rangers scored. Was nice to see that. Hopefully the new batting stance we saw on TV during this game helps him out. I did like him a lot when we first aquired him about a year ago. But he definitely has fallen since then. Hope he puts it back together again.
But a tough loss. We did make some noise in the ninth inning, scoring two to get to 6-5, and I believe left the bases loaded when the game ended. Darn.

You know as I started watching this game, I thought “Oh, it’s Jamey Wright, this won’t be so bad”. What a fool I was! I was duped into believing that the guy wearing #45 lately was a great pitcher. His recent performances had me believing that he was someone to trust. I should have known. This was the Jamey Wright we knew and loved before he signed here. The one that caused me to contemplate blinding myself with knitting needles when he made the 25 man roster. ;) OK, that’s an exaggeration taht fooled nobody. But it wasn’t something I was thrilled when when the Rangers did it. Tonight wasn’t good. 6.2 innings pitched, ten hits, four walks, and five earned runs. Three of them came in the first on a home run to Butler. It was at that moment I sort of wrote the opening bit for this entry. We never recovered.
Brian Bannister tossed a gem against us. Seven shutout innings on four hits and two walks. Not much else to say, the kid was good.
The only offense we got was a Sammy Sosa home run into the grass in left off of Joaquim Soria in the 8th. That was it. Sosa also had a single, as did Mike Young, Mark Teixeira, & Brad Wilkerson – but that was it for our offense, aside from the couple of walks. We had nothing.
The old problem with being unable to win in Kansas City isn’t still with us, is it?

It’s been awhile since I’ve used this graphic, and even longer for a four game sweep. But it was needed, as the Rangers finished off the Seattle Mariners who have now dropped six in a row. I didn’t see any of this game, because I had gotten a new computer, and had the game on via MLB.com’s gameday.
Anyway, Brandon McCarthy had another “eh” outing. Five innings, three earned runs. Only one walk, which was good, but eight hits, which was not. Pitch count was too high again. 100 pitches in five innings. That’s gotta be better. That (to me) seems to be McCarthy’s biggest fault. Too high a pitch count. Other than that, he’s good enough now to battle through. He just burns out too fast, due to nibbling/balls/walks/etc…
Our pen also fit the “eh”. Eye/Francisco/Benoit went a combined four innings, giving up seven hits and three earned runs. Only one walk by them too (Eyre), which was a good thing.
Offensively we had five doubles this game by five different players. But the big shot was a two run home run by Ramon Vazquez in the bottom of the 8th.
Can’t think of anything particularly earth shattering to say about this game except that it was quite nice to take a four game sweep. :)

Kameron Loe pitched the first inning like the Loe from the first part of this season. While he didn’t give up any actual runs, he did pitch like he was in quicksand, throwing something like 25 or so pitches. That did NOT look promising. Couple that with a 30 pitch fifth inning, and one wonders how the heck he managed to throw into the seventh inning. 55 pitches in two means the other frames had some small pitch counts. :)

Loe actually was pretty decent until the fifth when the Mariners scored all their runs. The first one scored three of the four of the first five batters of the inning singled. It actually would have been worse had Gerald Laird not picked off Betancourt from second. Raul Ibanez was at the plate on a disputed call – The Rangers thought they had stuck him out to end the inning – they were walking off the field, and home plate umpire Jim Reynolds said that he had not, it was a foul. This of course bought a cascade of boos from the fans in the park. It got worse on the next pitch when Ibanez doubled to the alley in right center, scoring two more. Reynolds was the target of some booing that would have done Philadelphia fans proud. I was listening in the park, and they said on the radio that it did appear to bounce, but that was a bad feeling. At that moment, you thought that it would be the game breaker.

The Rangers did follow it right up with two more of their own, tying the game at three. But this game was powered by Travis Metcalf. Metcalf went 4 for 4 tonight, scoring one, and driving in one – but the one he drove in was the important one. In the bottom of the 8th, he doubled to left, scoring Gerald Laird. Metcalf had a triple earlier in the game, that was his major league first. The four hits was also a career best for him, as the radio guys said he never got more than two in a game before.

CJ Wilson relieved Loe, going 1.1 innings, giving up no hits, while striking out 3 of the four outs made on his ledger. He was followed by Eric Gagne again. Gagne did mostly the same thing as the first game. Allowed a single to lead off his frame, then not allowing much else. Gagne saved both ends of the doubleheader, as well as a pitching the night before – three appearances in 24 hours.

While Loe wasn’t crisp, he hung in there and battled well. Our pen kept it good, and allowed us to come back and get the win. I was at the doubleheader sweeps in 2004 when we beat the Red Sox & the Pirates. I love doubleheaders anyway – but they’re a heck of a lot better when your team wins both ends of ’em.

This picture was taken from the same location the picture I posted with game one was taken from – couldn’t decide which to post, as I like both, so I posted one per game. :)

I always go to doubleheaders. I love them. Unless they’re the “day night” doubleheaders, in which case, they’re really NOT double headers. Just two games played on the same date. Anyway, the park was beautiful. All the rain has seriously helped out with the green around the place. I’ve been coming to the ballpark since it was opened, and this day just looked more beautiful on the outside. I got to the park around 3PM, which was plenty of time to get to my seat, so I decided to walk around a little and take some pictures. I was just looking for a new pic of the outside of the ballpark, and I think the couple I posted did the job.

As good as that feeling was, it was matched by the pitching performance by John Rheinecker this afternoon. Usually when we call up someone to pitch one of these doubleheader starts, they’re sent right back down after stinking up the joint. Not this time. Rheinecker was brilliant. He went seven innings, and allowed NO EARNED RUNS. The one run the Mariners did get was on a rather goofy looking two base error by Michael Young in the first. Not often you see the shortstop make an error, and then the ball ends up next to the tarp over by the stands. But Rheinecker was great. Seven innings, six hits, one walk, four strikeouts, and as I mentioned just one run – none earned. One has to think that will keep him in the majors. It was seriously impressive to watch live at the park. It was followed up by Benoit’s scoreless (and hitless) inning of work. Eric Gagne came in, and allowed one hit, and then struck out two, getting the save.

Offensively, we had seven hits total. Marlon Byrd tripled in the fourth, scoring Sosa to tie up the game. As I’ve said before, Byrd has been impressive, and this game just added on to that feeling. Michael Young had an RBI single in the fifth, scoring Travis Metcalf for what turned out to be the winning (and final) run of the game.

Marlon Byrd made a really great LONG running catch on a ball hit by Richie Sexon in this game. Really looked like the kind of play that Kenny Lofton would have done a decade ago when he was in his prime. Looked like the kind of play that could earn Byrd a serious look at the permanent CF job the rest of this season.

It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon. The temperature was 89 when the game started, which is very nice and very unusual for July 24th in Texas. Had a nice breeze, a nice quick game which was extremely well pitched on both sides, really. Couldn’t have asked for a better couple of hours at the ballpark. It’s games like THIS that make it worth driving out to Arlington from Garland. Although I expect the folks at USS Mariner might have a different take on this game. ;)

It was seriously nice to see a 2-1 win at home. The game was rather fast moving, concluding in two hours and twenty one minutes.

The picture at the top of this post was taken today around 3PM or so standing in the announcer’s “booth” at the Dr Pepper youth ballpark. That spot is a great place to get a nice looking picture of The Ballpark in Arlington as you can see here.