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The streak has come to an end at nine wins. Ryan Drese didn’t keep the great pitching performances intact, going 6.1 innings, giving up 10 hits and 6 runs (5ER). On the positive side, he didn’t walk anyone, but gave up too many hits. But it wasn’t all bad, Drese looked good through 6 innings, as we were up 4-1, and feeling good. But the wheels fell off in the seventh inning, when we gave up a 5 spot to the Tigers. That was the game in a nutshell, unfortunately.
Offensively, we had a few more home runs by the currently hot Richard Hidalgo, and the extremely hot Kevin Mench. Dellucci went 3 for 5, but no runs scored, or RBI’s.
The bottom line for me is that the game felt like the 10th win in a row until the seventh inning when all the air went out of it due to the 5 spot the Tigers got.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

Rogers finishes the month 6-0. His era was 1.6something or other. Several consecutive shutouts. I bet Roger Clemens would kill for some of the offense Kenny Rogers was getting this month. Kenny was godlike this month, and it was the backbone to our winning ways in May. May 2005 was also the month with Kenny Rogers on the calendar the Rangers handed out in April. For the record, Ryan Drese is the calendar boy in June, so hopefully he’ll have the same kind of month. :)
Don’t have time to write much else, but it was really nice to keep the streak going. Let’s see if Drese can keep it going tonight in Detroit, and keep us in FIRST PLACE – something we gained last night when the White Sox beat the Angels. :)
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.

Going into last Sunday’s game against the Astros, I don’t think most people thought Chan Ho Park had a shot in hell to beat Roy Oswalt. And he did. The further thought occurs that I think even fewer people figured Chan Ho could pull it off twice in a row, beating Jon Garland. But he did. That’s the most amazing thing about this 8 game winning streak to me – Chan Ho Park has won twice during it, and hasn’t been blasted out of the water, like he had been the last few years. We beat the White Sox – the team with the best record in baseball coming into this series 2 games out of 2 (third was lost in a rainout). That’s the first time our team has ever (including the Senators days) gone 8-0 in a homestand. Most impressive.
This game didn’t start out that way. After 5.5 innings, we were losing to Garland, 3-1. He was pitching well, and Chan Ho wasn’t. Chan Ho didn’t stink up the joint, but he did walk too many, and had too many jams. It’s quite amazing actually that he only gave up three. Anyway, Garland was doing well. Until the sixth when we just teed off on him. Hits were all over the place, and we put up a 6 spot to go up 7-3, and we didn’t look back. We added 5 more runs in the final two frames to really blow it open – something I don’t think anyone would have guessed.
Don’t have time to run down all the individual stats today (you can check out the box scores below). But I mean – wow. Now we’re going into Detroit, who has been playing better, but I think we match up well against. We should stomp on Kansas City (although we’ve had trouble there the last few years), and then we’re off to my hometown team Philadelphia. Not sure how we’ll do there. I just wish I could see them in person there.
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Rainout. It’s going to be made up when the White Sox return at the end of August. I did wonder about the TV coverage, since this was supposed to be a national game, and the national coverage cut out after 6PM. If the Rangers had ended up playing the game, I wonder if our local coverage folks would step in and broadcast the game locally anyway. Would have been irritating to lose the game like that.
Oh well, doesn’t much matter, it’s being made up later. Park & Garland have been pushed to Sunday instead. We will end up missing Mark Buehrle because of the rain, so that’s a good thing.

While our winning streak to this point was really nice (who can totally argue with 6 in a row), I think most Ranger fans were leery of the fact that it was against the Kansas City Royals (arguably the worst team in the AL), and against the Houston Astros (who after our series were 2-19 on the road). So I think it was with a decent sense of concern that we entered the White Sox series on Friday night. Now this isn’t the same White Sox, as they were running out their version of Chris Young (our starter), Brandon McCarthy. Both of these guys are considerations for Rookie of the Year. So it wasn’t like Kenny Rogers vs. Jon Garland. Still, it’s a way better team than our last two opponents were, and that made for some concern, I would think.
We started off fine, with a home run by Mark Teixeira in the first inning. Was a line shot over the right field fence, and it kind of set a tone. We then picked up a second run with another home run in the bottom of the second, this time by Soriano, who appears to have heated up nicely lately. McCarthy got under control and kept it at 2-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning. It was then we experienced another power surge. After a (shock! – gasp) Dellucci walk, Mike Young jacked the first pitch he saw over the left field wall for a two run home run to put us up 4-0. Blalock singled to right, and the Soriano golfed another pitch right over the right field wall for an opposite field two run home run, putting us up 6-0. All six of our runs this evening came on the long ball.
And all along, Chris Young was keeping the White Sox off the scoreboard. That is, until the seventh when he gave up a solo home run to Paul Konerko. Chris Young went another inning after that for a total of 8 innings pitched. He gave up just the lone run on a homer, and striking out five with no walks. An extremely great performance, and it carried on the excellent starting pitching we’ve gotten the last week or so. Brocail came on for the 9th, gave up a run, and then had some guys on base, so Cordero came on for one of those cheap saves, where it’s based off of guys on deck. Still, a win is a win, and a save is a save, so I’ll take both.
A truer test comes Saturday when we send Chan Ho Park against Jon Garland, Chicago’s best pitcher at the moment. I think most people would say we have no chance here, but we had no chance last Sunday when Park went against Oswalt, and we see how that turned out. Granted, the White Sox are likely to score more runs for Garland than the Astros scored for Oswalt, but still – I’ve been feeling good about the team, I think we have a shot, even given the enormous drag factor of Chan Ho Park.
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I don’t have time to write anything about this game on Friday, trying to finish up a project at work. I’ll say this though. Two sweeps in a row, 6 wins in a row. That feels nice (even if it’s teams you should be stomping on).

I was up a good percentage of the night last night dealing with the baby, so my wife could get some sleep. Because of that, I don’t have much energy in the “creative writing” department, so I’ll give this one a miss. A few bullet points, though.
Nix’s pitch looked like a strike to my eyes watching on TV, but it was interesting to see that kind of emotion out of a player who usually shows none.
Astacio probably saved his job last night.
Blalock tied Bell’s record for errorless games at third by a Ranger.
Hidalgo seems to have figured it out.
We’re now tied for first with the suddenly hurting Angels.
You can view my full update for this game here, or you can leave a comment about this game below.