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The less said about this one the better. I have only one remark. We got six runs. We got ZERO earned runs. That’s how I explain being shut out and still scoring six.

Well, there’s not a not to say here. We got shut out by the Red Sox led by a surprising performance from Bronson Arroyo, and some rather surprising defense by the Sox. We hit into three lineout double plays. We rarely see that, then there are three in one game! That pretty much set the mood of the game.
An extra special thanks goes out to Octavio Dotel, the A’s closer, who blew a lead in the 9th in their game, and let us keep a 2 game lead in the West!

As this game went along, I was getting ready to make David Dellucci my star of the game. He went 3 for 4 with two home runs, a walk, 5 RBI’s and three runs scored. It was definitely a career day as Victor Rojas called it. But then it came down to Ricardo Rodriguez. RRod pitched a complete game shutout on just three hits. Thing is, as the game went along, I didn’t really notice how he was pitching until the 7th or 8th inning or so.
This game was dominated by us almost instantly with a leadoff home run by Michael Young (third leadoff this year, 12th overall). We had several home runs, including a disputed one by Kevin Mench. They were Mike Young, Kevin Mench, & David Dellucci twice. Nice power, nice pitching. And we’ll stay in first place.
All that remains now is Boston. And we’re missing Schilling & Pedro, so that’s a good sign. :)

Ryan Drese had his worst outing of the year. Won’t help my fantasy teams that have him, but he did get a no decision. He was gone after 4 innings, giving up 5 runs (4ER) on six hits and four walks. Ron Mahay and Frankie Francisco were good in relief – Mahay looking extremely strong. Cordero was a bit shaky in the 9th, but got the save anyway. That’s it for the pitching. Mahay was the highlight for me. Nothing spectacular to write about pitching wise.
This was a pretty balanced attack offensively. We scored in six of the nine frames (1,2,3,6,7,8), putting up just one in five of those. The big one was the 7th where we had two two run homers from Mark Texieira, who is just annihilating the ball lately, and Garry Matthews Jr, who might be making a case to stay here for good.
However, the best moment for me was the girl who “sang” the national anthem. Having a relative with a disability makes me a little more sensitive to these kinds of issues, and what she did wasn’t terribly unique, as Stephen Hawking amongst others has been doing it for awhile – but it was the WAY she did it that was cool. Sara Pyzka (picture below) was in a wheelchair, and has cerebal palsy – she can’t speak. Technically her voice box machine (I don’t know the real name for it) did the singing, but she controlled it by movements of her head, and it sounded like it had more of a personality than some of the voice boxes I’ve heard in the past (Stephen Hawking for example). Not to mention during it, you could see that she was extremely happy, and was smiling as much as her body would let her. I really enjoyed that national anthem; it was quite moving for me.

Well, Nick Bierbrodt walked 7 Indians in his 3.1 innings. Through the first three innings, he managed to escape all his walks pretty well, giving up just one run through three. However, in the fourth, he loaded the bases and was pulled. John Wasdin came in and gave up a hit after getting squeezed on a called third strike call. Had we gotten the call, we would have gotten out of that inning with nothing scoring, and would have been in great shape, as Wasdin gave up just one run in his 3.1 innings, so between Wasdin/Bierbrodt, they pitched 6.2 innings, and would have given up just two runs. Oh well.
The Indians got an emotional lift by getting Bob Wickman back – their closer, who was involved in a big trade between the Indians & the Brewers back in 2000 – he preceded John Rocker as the closer in Cleveland. :) Anyway, the game was a mostly well pitched one, save for Bierbrodt’s walks.
Fortunately, the A’s also lost, so we remained tied with them for first place in the division. This was the halfway point of the season. We’ve played 81 games. There’s 81 to go. I strongly doubt anyone (probably including the Rangers themselves) expected us to be tied for first place, and have a pitcher with the most wins in the majors at this point. This season has turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Right now, I’m almost leaning towards not making any moves at the trading deadline. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year, I say let them rebuild, and if we manage to get to the promised land with the guys we had, it’ll make it that much sweeter.
A few more roster moves for this one. We put Perry on the DL, and brought up Manny Alexander. That allowed Mike Young to DH for the night, and Alexander played short – a first in both cases for the season. We might have to make another move, as Rod Barajas was hit on the hand with a pitch, and while the reports are encouraging that he’ll keep playing, Gerald Laird isn’t quite ready to come back yet, so we’d have to have our third string catcher acting as our front line one if Barajas has to go on the DL, too. Like we need more players there. Sigh.

No time to write – too busy coming back to work from the weekend. :)

I will avoid the cliche here about scoring this many runs on July 4th and the word fireworks, thank you very much.
A couple of games ago I started my commentary with Bombs away! I should have saved that for this game. We had 6 home runs this game (Soriano, Blalock, Mench x2, & Teixeira x2) as we did that one. However, two of them were history making. We had two grand slams in this game. One was by Teixeira in the 9th inning, and the other was by Hank Blalock. The Rangers have never had a two grand slam game ever before. Hank’s slam was also a pinch hit grand slam as well, so it was a lot sweeter.
On the other side of the coin, when this game started, with a pitching matchup of Joaquin Benoit & Andy Pettite, I figure we’d lose 18-3, not win by that. Benoit went 6 innings, giving up two runs on 5 hits (1BB, 5K). A kind of outing that you’d normally like from your pitcher, but Benoit continues to tease. His next start will probably be 2.2IP with 7ER.
We took back the Silver boot with this absolute destruction of a game against the Astros. Now we just need to put it back together again.
My wife and I ended up going out to Frisco on Sunday night, we had tickets to the Roughriders game. There was this very cool thing during the 7th inning stretch where they had everyone blow up these balloons, and at the end of God Bless America, everyone let them fly into the air – it was a very funny, and rather cool sight – I wished I had my camera with me, would have made for a great picture. One other fun thing was between the top and bottom of the firsts, the Frisco mascot drove around the warning track on a vehicle throwing tshirts into the stands. When his vehicle passed the Riders bullpen in left, the players out there dumped a gatorade tub full of water on the Mascot, and because the Mascot’s outfit is essentially a giant towel/sponge, he was instantly waterlogged – the players in the pen were laughing their asses off. :)
Had fun out there, and we got a great pitching performance by Kameron Loe, and Laynce Nix had an RBI hit in a rehab assignment – that he had to come out of early after diving for a ball. :(
Oh yeah – we had five all stars named to the All Star game this evening. Soriano was voted in. We had Francisco Cordero & Kenny Rogers named from our pitching staff, and the players/Torre brought along Hank Blalock & Mike Young. We’ve never had five before. We had 4 in 1999 (Raffy, Pudge, Zimmerman, Wetteland, 1998 (Juan, Pudge, Wetteland, Sele), and 1989 (Ryan, Russell, Franco, Sierra). I really would have hoped that Blalock could have started the thing, but at least he’s there. I’m happy. For the record the guys I voted for almost regularly in this year’s all star balloting were:
AL:
C – Pudge (voted in)
1B – Mark Teixeira
2B – Alfonso Soriano (voted in)
3B – Hank Blalock (reserve choice)
SS – Mike Young (reserve choice)
OF – Manny Ramirez (voted in)
OF – Carlos Beltran (player vote, but can’t play due to league switch to NL)
OF – Vladimir Gurerrero (voted in)
NL:
C – Mike Liberthal
1B – Jim Thome (reserve choice)
2B – Jeff Kent (voted in – I was voting for Marcus Giles, but he got hurt)
3B – Mike Lowell (reserve choice)
SS – Adam Everett
OF – Barry Bonds (voted in)
OF – Ken Griffey Jr (voted in)
OF – Scott Podsednik
Being that I grew up in Philly, and lived there for over 20 years, that’s why I have a few “homer” votes for Phillies in my NL ballots. There’s also no way in hell I’d ever vote for J.D. Drew or Scott Rolen. Not a chance. Why? Let’s just say it’s a “Philly thing”.
And for the 32nd man voting, I’m voting for:
AL: Paul Konerko
NL: Bobby Abreu

Damnit. Lost two games in a row against the Astros in essentially the same way. Well, OK, maybe not, but that’s what it felt like to me. We had gone up 6-1 on the strength of a 6 run 5th inning (two three run home runs by us). However, Morgan Ensberg stormed back with a grand slam that topped a 7 run 5th for the Astros, gave them the lead, and they never looked back, really. Damn.
Crap. Now we have to win tomorrow’s finale by three runs to take the series and the Silver Boot.