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I didn’t score the game – first time all season I voluntarily didn’t score a game.
The less said about this game, the better.

I love doubleheaders. Anyone who knows me, knows I love doubleheaders. I know why they’re not scheduled anymore (teams want extra gate $). But I always attend them when they happen. I don’t like the 4PM start, because I have to leave uber early from work, which can create problems for me. But anyway, I was there for the start of the doubleheader. And it was great! Game 2:
If you were a Jason Kendall fan, you loved the doubleheader, as Kendall went 7 for 8 in both games, scored a few runs, basically had an offensively great day. Too bad it was all wasted, though.
Kenny Rogers got off to a bad start in this one, giving up a two run home run in the first inning. He wasn’t super crisp, as he gave up 4 runs on 9 hits in his 7IP. But he pitched well enough – and made three really great defensive plays in the field – showing why he owns a Gold Glove for that position. Kenny is now 9-2 with an ERA of 3.76. It’s starting to look like he’ll get picked for the All-Star game, which is nice. Makes me wonder if they wouldn’t consider starting Kenny in Houston. Kenny Rogers vs. Roger Clemens to start the All-Star game. Now that would be interesting.
Offensively, we had a few big groupings of runs, with two four spots and two single run innings. The first one came on a throwing error by Ruben Mateo in the third, which was followed by an absolute bomb to right field by Teixeira – a three run blast. Tex’s HR cleared the seats in right field right down the line – and went into the concourse – a most impressive blast. As cool as that was, it didn’t compare to the blast by Brad Fullmer in the bottom of the fifth that scored Young, Blalock, & Soriano – a grand slam. It was the first slam in a Rangers game this year – by either team.
After the slam, we were up 9-3. Both teams added on one more run later, but it was inconsequential. It seemed the game was over after the grand slam.

I love doubleheaders. Anyone who knows me, knows I love doubleheaders. I know why they’re not scheduled anymore (teams want extra gate $). But I always attend them when they happen. I don’t like the 4PM start, because I have to leave uber early from work, which can create problems for me. But anyway, I was there for the start of the doubleheader. And it was great! Game 1:
This was one strange game. But before I get to that, let’s get the not strange out of the way. Joaquin Benoit. He pitched like himself. He went 4.1 innings, tossing 91 or so pitchers – not good. He actually only gave up two runs while he was on the mound (3 total), but his lack of control causes his pitch counts to go way up too fast. I still think this is his last year – if he doesn’t find it by the end of the season, we’ll probably leave him unprotected, or just let him go completely.
Benoit wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was the Rangers line score. Overall, we had 9 runs on a total of only 5 hits. We actually were mostly shut down by Oliver Perez, who struck out 12 Rangers in his six innings, allowing only 3 hits. He walked four though, and did hit two batters, and I believe all of them scored. Of our five hits, three of them were home runs. The first was by Mike Young, which scored Eric Young, who had walked. The second was by Gary Matthews which scored Mark Teixeira & Herbert Perry, both of which were hit by pitches. The third was a solo shot by Herb Perry. So that’s 6 of our 9 runs by the longball, and 3 of our 5 hits. We picked up a few more runs in the seventh thanks to a throwing error by Pittsburgh 3B Chris Stynes – oddly enough who was just brought in that inning for his defense.
Cordero notched his 19th save of the season, while Frank Francisco got his first major league win in the game. A nice “bombs away” come from behind win. :)

Rainout. Again. That’s two in a row, which rarely happens. They’re both being made up tomorrow. I’m hoping to be there, depends on how work goes.

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Rainout. Nothing to say about a rainout. We signed Rick Helling to a minor league deal today. That could be interesting, especially with the reports that Rusty Greer is taking batting practice again. Will be made up Thursday night; that was a mutual offday for both teams.

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One of the best moments of this game for me came during the game. It wasn’t on the field – it was outside the ballpark as I was walking up. I don’t know if anyone else saw this, but it was across the street from the first base entrance. Last July 9th, Randall Simon of the Pittsburgh Pirates took a swing at a guy in a sausage as part of the popular sausage race in Milwaukee (here & here). Well, outside of the ballpark, there was a group of about 6 folks “picketing” the Pirates. One was dressed in a hot dog suit, and the others had placards that said “Hot Dogs are People Too” and “Down with Randall Simon”. It was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen. My wife and I laughed out loud when we drove by them in my truck, and then talked to ’em as I walked by saying “I know exactly what you’re joking about, that was damn funny”.
Anyway, the game was extraordinarily windy – on an order I’d not seen before. The wire story said the wind was 24mph, but it felt more than that. I thought we’d have a ton of home runs because of that, but only two went out. RA Dickey was almost Chan Ho Park like in his pitching. He was lights out for most of his outing, but had those small bits that were really bad that allowed the other team to score. Dickey gave up three in the second on a bunch of stuff that didn’t seem like a big deal, but there were too many things like that, and they all added up to a 3 spot. We countered it with a 3 spot of our own in the bottom of the third, capped by a Teixeira HR off the advertising on the upper home run porch. We went ahead in the bottom of the 5th on a 2 run single by Gary Matthews. The see saw continued on Craig Wilsons 2 run HR for Pittsburgh which tied it at 5. At that point our bullpen took over and did a wonderful job again (4.1 IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB). Really nice to see that especially given the parade of people to the DL this season – with all that instability, a nice consistent job by the bullpen is great.
The score stayed tied 5-5 until the bottom of the 10th when Hank Blalock blooped in a hit to center scoring Laynce Nix to win the game. It was funny, as the last time my wife and I saw the Pirates, it was in Houston, and that game was extra innings too. I said before the game started that it would be amusing if there was a walk off win in extra innings. ;)
One other thing about the game. My wife is from Pittsburgh, so we were all decked out in Pittsburgh stuff. She was there with her Terrible Towel. Wrong sport, but hey, it’s a Pittsburgh thing. :) And speaking of my wife we had a very nice night together, both at the game, and at home. I love my wife, and I was glad we had this night together to share a bit in her hometown sports behavior. ;)
Brett Carre: We won our 5th in 7 games with a 6-5 extra innings win over the Pirates last night.
We got behind 3-0, but we again found a way to come back to take a 5-3 lead. Wilson tied the game with a long homer to take it 5-5. That was the score until Hank Blalock hit a bloop game winning RBI single in the bottom of the 10th.
We are now only 2 back of the 1st place Angels. Can’t everybody smell first place??

Ryan Drese was brilliant. He went 8 innings, gave up two runs on 7 hits, and one walk.
Mike Mussina was godlike, going 8 innings, giving up just one run on 4 hits and ten strikeouts.
We made it a little interesting in the bottom of the ninth against Mariano Rivera, but the two lines above are a summary of the entire game, which took only 2:12 to play

When I saw the pitching matchups for the New York series, I figured this would be the game we’d lose automatically. Rookie making his Yankee Stadium debut against one of the most powerful lineups in baseball. Dominguez hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since he’s been up. Boy was I wrong. Not only was this the only game we ended up winning in the series, but it was an absolutely dominating performance by Juan Dominguez. He went 8 innings, giving up just one run on 5 hits. He also struck out five, and just had the Yankees baffled. It was absolutely amazing to watch.
On the other side, Brad Fullmer busted out of his malaise with a 3 for 4 day. He also scored four times, he had a HR, 2 RBI’s, and a walk. Thing is, after all that, his batting average is only .219. As exciting as this game was for him, he needs a LOT of these to bring himself back to respectability. I hope he does, I really like him, but so far this season, he’s been a bust.
Brett Carre: A nice ass kicking of the evil empire today with a 8-1 win. Every win @ Ny is sweet, but we dominated today.
Juan Dominguez was brilliant. He gave up 1 run over 8 innings going up against the best line-up in baseball. Hopefully that was not a fluke. We could really use him this year.
Brad Fuller led a Ranger offensive charge with 3 hits and 4 runs scored. Tex added a mammoth homer in the upper deck and we sprinkled a few runs here and there for the 8-1 win.