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Yeah, I know. 7-0 isn’t a “close game” score. But for the longest time, this game was 1-0, and then 2-0 through 7 and a half innings. It wasn’t till we put up a five spot in the bottom of the 8th that it became the score it was. This really had the feeling of a 1-0 or 2-0 score, which it was for the longest time.
Well, after I read the good news earlier in the day that Bruce Chen had been DFA’ed, I was excited about Kam Loe’s start, as were most Ranger fans, I would imagine. I bet the guys up in the first row around Section 320 were excited to hang their Kam’s Snake pit sign again. :) Kameron went 5.1 innings, giving up 3 hits and no runs while walking one, and striking out 5. He left in a bit of a jam, CJ Wilson walked Nick Swisher to load the bases, and it had the makings of an ugly inning. However, Wilson showed some really great pitches to Oakland, and struck out both Eric Chavez & Milton Bradley. After Bradley was struck out, there were several guys, including Kam in the dugout who had some really good reactions to the end of that inning. That was probably the best moment of the game from a defensive side for the night.
In fact, our pitching looked absolutely like the staff it was the night before. The three hits that Loe gave up were it. Wilson and the remainder of the bullpen (Benoit, Otsuka, Gagne) gave up no hits at all. In fact, between the four relievers, they gave up just 3 walks in all. That’s it.
Offensively, it was nice to see Mark Teixeira get a double, but it didn’t amount to anything. He did, however get an RBI single in the fourth. But he needs A LOT more than that. No home runs and just 3 RBI’s for the season is starting to get a little troubling. I think we’re past the cheery optimism that Josh Lewin is still showing. I’m a tad concerned. I’m nowhere near panic mind you, but I think sticking one’s head in the sand and saying “it will get better” isn’t enough anymore. It’s been something like 75 at bats. That should be enough by now. It’s making his 9 home runs by the All Star break look like an offensive explosion.
Beyond Tex, we had a few hits scattered here and there, but the next offense was in the bottom of the seventh on a sac fly by Nelson Cruz. But through 7.5, it really felt like a really good old school NL close game. Then we blew it open in the bottom of the eighth, taking away Eric Gagne’s save opportunity. That was done when Matt Kata hit a three run home run to left, pretty much putting the game out of reach.
Gagne came in anyway, threw a scoreless inning, and sealed the win. Was nice to see that kind of game anyway, but especially after the fiasco that was Friday night’s game. Great win.
A few other random thoughts from the game:

• Nelson Cruz looked like he avoided the tag to me
• I’m not sure whether to laugh or be mad by that shot of Eric Gagne faking being asleep in the pen waiting to come into the game.
• Why didn’t Kinsler get an error in the 9th on his relay throw that got away? I know the runner didn’t advance, but he would have been out otherwise.
• That shot of Eric Chavez giving Ron Washington a replacement gold glove for the one that got washed away in Hurricane Katrina was a seriously classy move. I loved hearing that story, and even stopped the pre-game stuff to show my wife who was doing something else at the time. The Rangers site has a story about that here.

I’m writing this before the game is even over. Right now it’s in the top of the 7th, and we’re losing 10-3. Bleargh! I’m betting we’re not coming back on this one. :)
I bet the “Fire John Daniels” folks are gonna have a field day with this.
Edit: Got worse. They gave up a six spot in the 8th as well.
Edit 2: 16-4. That’s just horrendous. Not a good way to start the homestand.
Edit 3: I forgot to mention I had tickets to this game. I didn’t go. Didn’t miss anything. Saved myself a lot of money missing this mess.

I’m not going to write much, as I spent most of last night and this morning with a fever again. I thought I was well, but I guess I’m not.
Was nice to see another Sosa home run. I have to say I’m enjoying those more than I thought I would.
But again, it’s disturbing that we had only 5 hits. Three of them doubles, plus Sosa’s home run, but man, we’re not gonna win anything if we can’t hit.
Still, it’s not that bad, really. 6-9 only two games out isn’t the worst hole to be in.

I was out this evening, and unfortunately, I had come home from my bowling league and saw the score by accident before I had watched any of the game, darnit. But I didn’t miss any Rangers highlights; there weren’t any!
The only baserunner we had all game was Sammy Sosa, who walked to lead off the fifth, but was picked off. Mark Buehrle faced 27. If it wasn’t for Sosa, the game would have been perfect. The last time this happened was the final game of the 1984 season, when we had a no hitter thrown against us. Buehrle also struck out eight, throwing 106 pitches in all.
Gotta tip your hat to that. There’s really nothing else to say.

UPDATE: The White Sox fan site “Sox Machine” has a rather interesting breakdown of the no hitter. Check it out, even if he incorrectly refers to soda as “pop”. ;)

Seems like an odd headline to say that a game with a score of 8-1 was a close game. But this was an odd game.
Early on, it was a no hitter for both sides into the third inning, when the first hit of the game was a bloop double to right field by Gerald Laird with two outs. But it remained scoreless with an obscenely high percentage of flyouts and popouts (as opposed to groundouts).
We get into the bottom of the fourth with a combined no runs and one hit (Laird’s double), and Jim Thome was at bat, and launched his bat into the stands, hitting a fan. After getting a new bat, Thome launched the right object into the stands (well, if you’re a Sox fan), the ball. Over Kenny Lofton’s head for a home run. That turned out to be the only run the Rangers surrendered, and if it’s a solo home run to Jim Thome, that’s not anything to be ashamed of. Odd that the Sox didn’t score more, as Tejeda did help ’em a bit by giving up four walks, but none of them hurt.
After Ian Kinsler reached base on a fielder’s choice in the fifth, Brad Wilkerson smacked a two run home run to right to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. That was a bit of a surprise for a guy who has really lacked any kind of consistent power since he came to Texas. Plus with the way the game was going, you weren’t expecting something like that. So it was nice to see. Turned out that was the game winning run, although you also wouldn’t have expected that, either.
Things pretty much stayed calm until the top of the seventh when Sammy Sosa doubled to deep right field. There was an outside chance it could have gone out, but it didn’t have that “Oh yeah, that’s a home run” feel to it. Still, double works. Man in scoring position with one out in a 2-1 game. Good thing to have. Hank Blalock squirted a single through to right field, and given the score (I assume), Don Wakamatsu held Sosa at third. Then Ian Kinsler did have one of those “Oh yeah, that’s a home run” swings. No doubter to left field which gave us a 5-1 lead, and keeps the Kinsler love fest going. While I have to admit I’m enjoying his early April stats (and I did like the clip they showed on TV which says that Kinsler has a better HR/At bat ratio right now than Arod), I have to admit to being mildly concerned that all his power is stuff being pulled to left field. I can’t say I recall much of it if any going to right. But that’s OK. I’ll enjoy it, anyway. :)
In the 8th, the Sox allowed a double to Kenny Lofton, which was the third time Lofton led off an inning this game. Usually your “leadoff” hitter only really leads off in the first, sometimes they get another, but this is at least the second time I can remember already where our leadoff hitter actually leads off three times in a game this year. Anyway, Frank Catalanotto moved Lofton to third on a fly ball, and Michael Young struck out with a man on third and one out. That didn’t feel good. Then Ozzie Guillen walked Mark Teixiera intentionally to get to Sammy Sosa. That was odd, as while Sosa isn’t exactly setting the world on fire right now, he’s warmer than Tex is, who is really pretty darned cold right now. Anyway, after going down 0-2, Sammy Sosa launched a home run to right center after doing a good sized bunny hop at the plate. I didn’t think off the bat it was automatically out, but it ended up going a couple rows over the fence. I have to admit to smiling when that happened. I rarely do that for home runs – the last time I recall smiling on a home run was that walk off one that Rod Barajas had against the Yankees at the Ballpark two seasons ago. That one made me smile. This one did, too. Also really shut up the Chicago crowd, who had been riding Sosa most of the game. That put us up 8-1, and ended the scoring for the evening.
Two home run fun facts. The home run by Wilkerson was his 100th career home run, and the one by Thome was his 475th.
In all, the Rangers had 9 hits, six of them were extra base hits. Three doubles (Sosa, Lofton, Laird) and three home runs (Sosa, Kinsler, Wilkerson). The Sox had only four hits in all. Their only offense was the Thome home run, and the other three hits were by just two batters, so they had not much going on at all.
That brings me to what I thought for most of the game would be the main story, Robinson Tejeda. He was pretty darned good, going seven innings, giving up three hits and the one run. I didn’t like the four walks, but as I said earlier, it didn’t hurt us. I get the feeling that we’ll see more of this Tejeda than the one we saw in Tampa Bay a few days back. It was also nice to see Sammy Sosa on the post game show not answer one of Tom Grieve’s questions, and pointing out how well Tejeda pitched before he actually got around to answering Grieve’s question.
So yeah, despite the score being 8-1, this really felt like a close game for the majority of the time it was being played, which itself was another nice surprise, only clocking in at 2:28.
Oh, and I wonder what happened to Brad Wilkerson that he had to be helped off the field to start the ninth?