Rangerfans.com

As I’m also a Phillies fan, I follow them, and I remember well Kevin Millwood’s no hitter a couple of years ago, so it was with great interest that I was watching the first few innings of this one, once it became obvious that Millwood was on this game.
Kevin Millwood was perfect through 4.2 innings, until he ran into the Kevin Kouzmanoff juggernaut. Kouzie homered off Millwood to break up the perfect game, no hitter, and shutout all at once. Yeah, I know he’s only been in two games, but he has two home runs in 8 at bats in the majors. :) However, Millwood adjusted, and only gave up one more total hit (a double to catcher Martinez in the seventh). In all, Kevin Millwood gave up 1 run on two hits over his eight innings. He also struck out ten batters, which is a bit of a generally unattainable stat for Rangers pitchers. He was strong in every way, a commanding performance – and at our ballpark. Course it wasn’t 100 degrees out, which might be the key to Kevin pitching in Arlington.
Offensively, we had a bunch of hits, but the only ones that mattered were all in the seventh inning. After Kinsler & Laird singled, Nelson Cruz hit a ball to short too far in the hole for Peralta to do anything with; it loaded the bases. Gary Matthews followed with a ball that looked like a clear double play, but his hustle kept it to just a fielders’ choice and an RBI. Mike Young singled for his 181st hit of the season, scoring Gerald Laird, and driving Paul Byrd from the game. That brought in Fernando Cabrera to face Mark Teixeira who has found himself again in the second half of the season. This at bat was no different, Tex deposited a pitch from Cabera over the wall next to the Rangers’ bullpen for a three run home run, extending our lead to 5-1. That was it for the Rangers’ scoring this day.
The Indians faced CJ Wilson in the top of the ninth who allowed one unearned run (on a Michael Young error). With a run in, it made it a save situation, bringing in Aki who did allow a single after coming in, but did manage to get the Kouzmanoff juggernaut to ground out to end the game, getting the win and his 30th save of the season.
While we’re not mathematically out of the race, we essentially are, it’s a shame great games like this will be lost to the season in a month spent trying to figure out 2007. Oh well. I guess there’s Mike Young’s march to 200 hits.
Has Eric Young actually played yet since being called up? That seems like a bit of a surprise to me.

I’ll probably have a proper update on tonight’s game later, but in the meantime, this is about all I can think of to say..

In case I end up not updating for this one, it was nice to see Kevin Kouzmanoff from Cleveland make major league history with a grand slam on the first pitch he saw in the major leagues. Funny thing is I called it right before it happened, and I got a few funny looks from the people sitting around me at the game. :)

Earlier this year during spring training, the Indians gave Grady Sizemore a rather nice contract. It was for 6 years, $23.4 million dollars. It runs through 2011, and there’s a 2012 option. Watching this series, you should be able to see why they did it. Just in last night’s game, Sizemore went 3 for 3 with two doubles, a home run, he walked twice, did not strike out, and scored two runs. I’d say that was a pretty positive offensive evening at the ol’ ballyard. While he muffed a play in ceter field on a ball hit by Gerald Laird, and he was picked off first by Padilla, he’s something special. He’s only 24, and looks to be in the Cleveland lineup being productive for awhile.
However, it wasn’t just Sizemore that beat us. Vicente Padilla had his worst outing in awhile, as he’s been generally excellent recently. Padilla went 5.1 innings, but had a ton of pitches (112, and 91 after 4), allowed 6 runs, gave up 8 hits and walked three. We got down early, as Padilla gave up three runs in the first, another in the second, and it felt pretty deflating, we never seemed to get up off the carpet after that.
In fact, of our two runs, one was a solo home run by Ian Kinsler, a no doubter to the back of the seats in section 7. The other one was an RBI single by Carlos Lee (his 100th overall RBI in 06). We could never get anything going against Jake Westbrook, who I think would be a perfect pitcher for the Rangers in this ballpark. Unfortuantely, the Indians hold an 07 option on him, which I suspect they’ll take.
For the first time in awhile, I’m actually ready for football season to start, which is rather unusual for me, I’m not truly ready for that until after the World Series. I guess this dropoff at the end of the season has gotten to me more than I had realized.

The Rangers jumped all over Daniel Cabrera early to the tune of 4 runs in the first two innings. That intial jump was led by a disputed (and probably incorrect from the replays) home run by Gary Matthews, as well as a double by Carlos Lee. In fact, in the five innings he pitched, Cabera gave up five runs (4ER). For a guy who was as touted as he was, that’s a lot.
On the flop side, Adam Eaton went five himself, giving up just 2 runs (1ER). He probably would have gone further, but had 93 pitches through five; rather a lot for just five innings. Joaquin Benoit came in and kept the Orioles at bay until the ninth when he appeareed to run out of gas, giving up three runs which at that point brought the A’s to within two. It required bringing out Otsuka for a save.
I didn’t see any of this game, was doing some baby stuff. :)
I wonder who we’re calling up today now that the rosters have expanded.

I won’t have time to write about this, as there has been an uh “event” at my company which will take all my time to deal with.
Suffice it to say that Tejeda was not very good last night – it took him something like 45 pitches to get out of the first inning. Ugh. And then the 10th. Ugh 2.

I did something I actually haven’t done much this year, which was go to a Rangers game. I’ve written before about the cost of these things – so I won’t go into that again, but cost is the reason why I don’t go to as many anymore. By the end of August, I’ve gone to roughly 20 by this point. This year I think my total attendance is under 10. I’d have to go count, but it’s probably 7 or 8, I think. But I went using one of the ticket vouchers the Rangers have sent me in a “Hey we want you to come back” kind of promotion. Was a great night for baseball. As I knew the place would be mostly wide open, I decided to sit in Section 3 up against the Orioles’ bullpen. I hadn’t ever intentionally sat out in that area before (that I can remember anyway), so I decided to give it a go. Was a nice night weather wise, so I chose that (Sec 3, Row 7, Seat 1 formally). I ended up sitting amongst a family of Baltimore fans, which who were nice to chat with.
So I filled out my lineup card with a bit of trepidation, as Kevin Millwood is not known for stellar pitching performances in Arlington. However, it was in the mid 80’s when this game started, and that seemed to really impact him, as his overall line was pretty good. 9 IP, 4ER, 8 hits, 8 strikeouts, and NO walks. Now the strikeouts seemed to be helped by Larry Vanover, who had a really wide strike zone (O’s pitching had 11 Ks). After the early couple of innings when Kevin seemed to be relying on just his fastball, he mixed in his curve, and things got going. In the top of the third, Jay Gibbons doubled, but that would be the last hit the Orioles would get until two outs in the ninth. Millwood retired 18 in a row at one point. He gave up a couple of hits in a row in the top of the ninth for the fourth run, but from the third on, he was masterful, he was the ace we’re paying him to be. I’m hoping that in 2007 he can parlay his’ years’ experience pitching here into better home results.
The game offensively was a see-saw battle early, with the O’s scoring two in the top of the second, then we got three in the bottom, and they tied it up with the aforementioned double in the top of the third. It stayed that way for a bit until Mark Teixeira hit a solo home run in the fifth that BARELY cleared the wall in right field. That gave us the lead we never looked back on.
The only other scoring the Rangers would do would be a nice five spot in the bottom of the seventh, mostly against Rodrigo Lopez, who appeared to be completely out of gas when eventually taken out – he probably should have been out much earlier than he was. Hank Blalock & Mark DeRosa had the big hits in that inning driving in most of the runs. Hank’s was a double against a left hander (Byrdak) who had come in just to face Hank. Odd that the Homies weren’t there to cheer him.
However, the best moment of the game for me aside from the Rangers win was Corey Patterson’s catch in the second inning. Going full tilt into the wall, he caught it and crumpled over – it was quite a spectacular catch. From where I was sitting, I had a GREAT view of it, as I was sitting exactly parallel to the center field wall, so I had a completely close and perfect angle to see it. It was quite the catch, I had to applaud it even before the customary applause a team’s fans gives an opposing player who has gotten hurt. It was quite the catch.
But I was glad I went – it wasn’t opressively hot, we won, and I had a nice time. Too bad it has to be so darn hot to sap these nice feelings out of people in the summer.

The Rangers managed a win in the final game of the A’s series, which is disapponting, as we needed to sweep the A’s to have any realistic chance of getting back in the race.
However, you couldn’t fault Vicente Padilla in this series. He certainly held up his end of the bargain in the finale Sunday. He was strong, going 8 innings, giving up just four hits, while striking out eight. He did walk four, which is a bit high, but it didn’t impact him, as he pitched a shutout. Aki followed up for his 28th save of the season – that’s really all that needs be said about our pitching, it was quite good this day.
Oakland starter Dan Haren wasn’t bad, either going 7 giving up three runs on 7 hits with twelve strikeouts. But Padilla bested him, and you only need win by one run. It was enough to salvage something, but man it feels like too little too late.
While we got some great pitching, our offense was pretty flat (Matthews & Young had 5 of the 7 team total hits alone), and it just feels like “a little late to the party for this kind of game, guys”.