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Someone in the local DFW media (I can’t remember who – TV guy, newspaper, blogger) said “Well, the schedule is looking easy for the next two weeks”. That was a stupid thing to say. This is the 2007 Texas Rangers. Nothing is easy. Unless we could play ourselves, in which case we’d have the best record in baseball.
I’ve been to a few games at PNC Park – it really is as gorgeous as it looks on TV. Too bad the team has been historically bad the last 10-15 years or so. If you’re ever in the area, you really should try to go. The place is really REALLY nice. Honestly.
Anyway, our troubles in this game can be boiled down to Kevin Millwood’s bad pitching, and our own bad luck. We hit into I believe five double plays, including one in the ninth, when we appeared to have some momentum building towards a comeback. We also got screwed in one inning when Sammy Sosa made a major blunder on the basepaths. He should have scored, and we would have had second and third with no out. After that move, we had bases loaded and no outs, and couldn’t score. That was not a brilliant maneuver. Sosa did have a decent night with the stick though, going 2-3 with a double and a couple of RBI’s.
But Kevin Millwood went 4.1 innings, giving up 5ER (6 in all) on 8 hits and two walks. Not good. His season ERA is 7.82. Wow. I mean YIKES! We’ve always had the running gag that our pitching is horrible, but even Mark Clark wasn’t this bad.
We did have some action late, though. We got a run in the 8th, and then two in the ninth when it seemed we were going to double our way to a win. Kinsler had a double, then Brad Wilkerson had another, driving in Kinsler. Adam Melhuse stepped up, and hit a ball off the wall which should have been a double, but it was hit so hard, he was held to a single. It’s too bad as the next batter was Ramon Vazquez, who hit a ball off the bat that looked like a double, but it went right into the glove of Pittsburgh’s first baseman, and Melhuse was a dead duck. That was a deflater play – whatever momentum we had hitting around the Pittsburgh relievers in the ninth was gone.
We lost. Again.
When is Botts coming up again?
Oh, and all this talk around town the last few days about Washington being run out of town. Come on folks – give it a rest. This is not Jerry Jones’ team. You don’t run people out of town after half a season. They have to be given a chance to do something – one year is not enough. Even two isn’t – to me you need three. I hope we don’t run Daniels & Washington out of town – that kind of knee jerk crap is what Jerry Jones would do. If we do that, I give up. There will be no pleasing Ranger fans. You have to stay the course. Go watch Cowboys games if you want to run these guys out of town now. That opinion is a disgrace.

Aw crap. We had another really great comeback in the bottom of the ninth for the second night in a row. That was a great feeling. The downside is we went into extra innings, which always seems to me to be a loss, we usually lose them in the 10th. If we survive the 10th, we have a shot, but again, the extra innings bug bit us, and we lost the game on a 12th inning home run by Geoff Jenkins.
So… CRAP!

Wow. I mean, wow. First off, nothing before the 9th inning mattered, except Brandon McCarthy pitched pretty well. Baby steps, I know.
Then the ninth. Francisco Cordero came in, got two outs, and then we were down to our last strike. Wilkerson got on. Then the fun began. We were down to our last strike in three or four straight batters, they all got on somehow. As Josh & Tom were pointing out, Cordero probably had a bunch of negative things in his mind in this park and all that – because he has been totally unhittable this season, being very Gagne in his prime like. Until tonight, Cordero had only given up one run all season, and had not blown a save. Well, tonight Cordero blew a save, and gave up FOUR runs for the Ranger win in the bottom of the ninth. It was quite amazing. I admittedly knew the score beforehand, but I had to watch that even though I knew how it ended. It was still pretty darn cool to watch.
And on the night where Teixeira went to the DL. Speaking of moves, I found it odd that today’s roster moves had two position players coming onto the 25 (Wilkerson, Metcalf) and the two roster subtractions were a fielder (Tex), and a pitcher (Loe). This tells me that another roster move is due in a day or so when we bring up who will take Loe’s spot on the roster.
We also acquired Adam Melhuse from Oakland for cash – that will probably work better than Chris Stewart as a backup, plus there’s big connection to Ron Washington too. I’ll just wrap it up with these two pictures:

After doing some yard work tonight (I hate mowing the lawn when it gets hot out in the summer), I decided to sit down and score the Brewers game. I had forgotten they were going to be in town when I bought tickets, so I’m not going this weekend. I couldn’t just pick up and go due to other commitments (family stuff tonight, a dinner at my church with our bishop tomorrow, and company coming over Sunday), so going was out. But I could score the game, as I did want to see the Brewers, so that’s what I did. Lately with them playing so badly, I’ve been less inclined to want to actually sit and watch a whole game from start to finish. I get bored, start skipping forward on the TiVo, generally I can watch a full game in about 45 minutes that way. But this time I watched all of it.
Early on, Robinson Tejeda was electric. He had struck out five in the first three innings, I believe, and other than a home run ball near the wedgie to Prince Fielder, he was cruising early. He looked like what I’m sure Philadelphia was seeing – a good young pitcher with great stuff.
The Rangers got some offense early. We picked up a two spot in the bottom of the second, when Capuano was incredibly wild, walking three in the inning, including one with the bases juiced. We would have had more had it not been for a cannon shot from Bill Hall to gun out Kenny Lofton at home. The fourth was our big offensive inning. Ian Kinsler led off with his first home run in a month, a shot off the top of the left field foul pole. After a couple of more singles sandwiched around a fielder’s choice that Kenny Lofton beat out to stay out of a DP, Mark Teixeira doubled down the line in right to score both Lofton & Young. Sosa followed up with another double, scoring Tex. A nice inning there by the guys who were supposed to be doing this same thing all season long. We picked up another next inning on a sac fly by Jerry Hairston.
Meanwhile Tejeda was cruising. Going into the seventh, his pitch count was low, he was winning 7-1 – it was everything our pitching was not. And then the reality set in. Tejeda’s wheels fell off hard in the seventh, giving up a 5 spot fueled by two home runs (Hart & Braun), and he was out. CJ Wilson came in and k’ed Prince Fielder to end that mess. OK, we’re still up, but it’s not the same game it was before.
We picked up a couple more runs in the bottom of the 8th to make our lead a little wider, but the back end of this game was Aki in the 8th, and Gagne in the 9th. Both Aki & Gagne were perfect, not allowing anything in either of their frames. Gagne started off with two K’s, making the batters look silly. I can just imagine what Los Angeles (the real LA team, not that fake one in our division) felt when he had like 10,000 saves in a row a few years back.
The annoying thing about this is that other than the 5 spot in the seventh, this was the way the Rangers of 2007 were supposed to be all the time. Good offense, Aki in the 8th, Gagne in the ninth. That’s what I mean by we won, despite ourselves. Minor concern that Teixeira came out of the game, hopefully that’s not anything. Course, if he is hurt and is out for awhile, that probably kills all trade talk about him.
Finally, this image is awarded to Victor Diaz who struck out four times (all swinging, too), earning the Golden Sombrero. Josh & Tom were saying that it was just a sombrero for four, and a golden sombrero for five, but that didn’t seem right to me. I looked it up a bit, and found out I was right. Four is the golden sombrero.

It’s a good thing I’m not Evan Grant. Why? He has to write about these bad games and teams. I can just say “They suck”, and be done with it. He has to be more erudite than that. Of course, he gets paid for this, I do not. I guess that’s compensation enough, eh Evan? :) I am just at a loss. The pitching is far worse than anyone could have ever imagined. I did think that after the last few years, I shoudln’t be THIS disappointed, but like most Ranger fans I was pretty high on the spring training team, Ron Washington, etc, etc, etc.. I’ll still be a fan, but MAN are they not good.
Loe gave up nine runs in 2.2 innings. That’s an ERA of what, about 6,000? Eric Gagne pitched an inning and didn’t give up anything. Given the usual demand for pitchers, he’s probably our best bargaining chip next month. Hopefully he holds it together health wise until after he’s traded. Mark Teixeira had a home run in the bottom of the ninth, when it didn’t matter. I’m still up in the air on what will happen with him. Last week I figured he was a total goner, and then that quote by Mike Young came out saying “If he goes… that’s not what I re-signed here for”, makes me wonder. I say if Arod opts out of his contract, you immediately give Tex what he wants, throw all that lost Arod money at Tex ontop of what you were going to offer him anyway.
Speaking of bad teams, let me take a moment to point out a very funny book about some very bad Texas Rangers teams of the early 70’s. The book is called “Seasons in Hell”, and was written by Mike Shropshire. Here’s some text about it. If you’ve never read this, I strongly suggest you do – it’s extremely good. Especially if you’re a Rangers fan:

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Assigned to cover the Texas Rangers for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in early 1973, gonzo sportswriter Mike Shropshire looked forward to the perks and padded expense account that went along with the job. He never dreamed he’d have to earn every penny–following arguably the worst team in baseball history. Full of wild games and wilder nights, and the exploits of some of the most extreme characters ever to play the game, this book is Shropshire’s irreverent, behind-the-scenes look at the hell a truly pitiful team can raise between games and innings.
Joe’s Remarks: I wasn’t quite sure what to think of this one either. I bought it because of the tagline on the front about it being funny. I admit to not knowing a whole lot about the very early years of the Rangers (I didn’t move here until 1992, and didn’t really follow ’em until 1995), and the thought about reading a book all about them didn’t thrill me.
However, I quickly found out that this was a hysterically funny book. Mike Shrophsire has a very funny wit, and isn’t afraid to let it fly when talking about the Rangers of this era. His recollection of events is awesome, and makes for very funny reading. If you’re a fan of the Rangers, or even if you’re not, GET THIS! It’s a very great read, although I don’t recommend it for very small kids, as there’s more than just one or two cuss words in there. Still, for adults, it’s well worth it.