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The night of the longball. Man, there were a lot of home runs flying out of the park. We had four. Blalock, Soriano, Fullmer, & Mench. We did have an interesting vareity in the home runs. Blalock’s was his usual bomb to mid right field, as was Fullmer’s. Soriano’s was a monster bomb which probably would have hit way high up on the back wall of the stadium if it didn’t hit one of the catwalks. Mench’s was right down the right field line and hit just inches over the wall on the foul pole. As I recall, Soriano also had another one to right that just barely missed getting out of the park – it looks like Soriano’s power is coming on finally. Speaking of that, we also had five doubles, two by Nix.

On the other side, Tino Martinez & Aubrey Huff had home runs. Huff almost had a second in the bottom of the ninth in a VERY scary save for Cordero. Of the 18 half innings, runs were scored in 8 of them, but all of those 8 were crooked numbers except one. With so many home runs, there obviously wasn’t a ton of quality pitching. :) Chan Ho Park got the win, but he didn’t really deserve it, as he couldn’t keep a lead early. He got better as the game went along, but he’s still far too unpredictable to rely on, I think.

Brett Carre: Another wild game on Wednesday. We had a 9-5 lead going into the bottom of the 9th. Jeff Nelson gets the first two out then walks two and get pulled. Coco comes in and gives up a rbi single bringing up the tying man in Huff. Huff just missed a homer by inches, but 2 runs scored to make it a 9-8 game. Coco struck out Lugo, who was the winning run to end the game. Release Jeff Nelson. It seems like every time he comes in he gives up a run or two.

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No time to write a lot here – but it was nice to see the longballs. Some real bombs in Tampa. Shame about Ryan Drese – I thought he was outstanding till the bottom of the 6th.

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My wife and I were at the game, and watching it, I didn’t think Kenny Rogers pitched well at all. However, it was extremely windy, and I’m convinced that the two HR’s that Detroit got were both wind assisted. Neither looked well hit at all, they looked like bloops to right, but they kept going. Kenny’s line was 7.2 innings pitched with 5 runs given up. One was an inherited runner that Jeff Nelson allowed to score, but other than that, if you take away the two home runs, that would make Kenny’s line, that would be only three runs, and one of those three was unearned. I’m convinced the Ballpark cost us this game, and not Kenny’s pitching. Although I’m sure the quotes out there won’t show that.

Detroit hurler Nate Robertson looked great. I was expecting us to stomp on Detroit, and it didn’t happen. I knew they were improved, but they have a much improved team – far better than I think anyone here in Dallas realized. Plus Pudge is hitting as well as he ever has. He got a nice ovation every time up to bat on Sunday’s game.

We hit the road now, going to Tampa Bay and Detroit. We’re not back home again until the 18th. This isn’t a bad road trip, but the really heavy duty road trip from June 28th through July 11th, and then the All-Star game will probably kill us. If we are still in contention after THAT grueling road trip (the last home game is June 27th. The next one after that isn’t until July 16th) then I might start to believe in playoffs. That schedule is death. Whoever allowed that to happen should be shot.

Brett Carre: Damn. That is the one word that comes to mind. Just like in the 1st game of this series, we had a lead in the late innings but couldn’t hold it. A 5-3 loss puts us now at 19-12. That is great, but Anaheim won again today. We are now 2.5 games back. I know it is only May 9 and being down 2.5 games is nothing, but will these guys ever lose? Good news is they play the Yanks and Orioles all next week so we should be able to jump back ahead if we play good on the road. We head to Tampa and Detroit for 3 each. I hope we can manage to win at least 4 out of 6 on this trip. Anything less would be very disappointing. That is just what I think.

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I was watching this game, and like most people I was disappointed when RA Dickey didn’t look as awesome has he had been this season so far. Little did I know that his poor performance would be a trend to follow. Orel Hershisher got ejected during a mound visit, which was strange. It didn’t galvanize the pitchers as we gave up a bazillion runs after that.

After the top of the fifth inning, when we had given up 8 runs, I did what I normally do when I’m disgusted watching a game. I gave up. But for me, that doesn’t mean not paying attention anymore. I just stopped watching TV, and switched to listening to the radio, and went in the computer room to do some other things at the same time. However, after a few runs scored, I came back (I think after Perry’s HR). There was a lot written about this game, and a lot better than I could (especially as it’s 1:15AM and I’m tired).

My wife and I were at Ameriquest Field The Ballpark in Arlington a couple of years ago for that really wild 17-16 comeback win. I thought I had seen my best game as a Ranger fan then. I’d say this one topped it. I’m not gonna try and make it sound good with some cliched writing. Just read the stories and the game logs and all that below. I’ll just leave my commentary with a few stats:

31 Runs
32 Hits
14 Pitchers (7 in the 5th inning)
21 Walks (15 by Tigers)
3 Home Runs
100 Pitches in the 5th Inning
1 Hour 8 minutes for 8th Inning
1 Pitching Coach ejected

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No pitching. That’s essentially what this one boiled down to. :) We tried to come back late, but couldn’t pull it off.

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No commentary from me, as I was really tired and fell asleep watching the game, of all things. :)

Brett Carre: Things get back on track after a nice 6-1 win over the Rays last night. This game was typical Rangers ball for this year. Solid pitching, timely hitting, and a shot or two of Hank’s Homies.

Ryan Drese continues to impress me. He got the win going 6.1 innings, no runs, 2 walks, and 4 k’s. His ERA is on 2.25. This from a guy who couldn’t get Rangers Captain out last year. As usual, the pen had a solid night. I have just one compliant and I think Joe already touched on this, why in the hell is Doug Brocail on the team? I don’t understand. Let’s watch for this now, if we stay in the race in July and August will Hicks and Hart start dealing prospects for a 3 month rental. Let’s just keep an eye on that.

The bats awoke tonight with Mike Young being the star. Young went 4-4 with a homer, a triple and two singles. Can you say All-star?

Another series win, that brings us to 18-10, but the stupid rally monkeys won again, so we are still tied for first. Want some garlic fries??

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Well, as much as I’m sure everyone wanted the winning streak to continue, it didn’t. Although I can see some of the latecomers to the bandwagon jumping off already.

We lost to the Devil Rays tonight by a score of 5-4. It was all longball, as the Rays had five solo shots. Three of them were off Chan Ho Park, including one in the first inning. One was off the eraser, and one was off Jeff Nelson, the game’s loser. Only one I remember being tattooed – the rest (at least two, maybe three) were wind assisted, I thought. I don’t think we were horrible, even considering the usual inconsistency of Chan Ho Park.

Offensively, no one really stood out, although Mark Teixeira jacked one onto Greene’s Hill. Nothing seemed to click offensively. I saw the club in there that won the games, but they seemed flat tonight. Lots of popups, and lots of strikeouts (nine of them).

Thing is, I’m sure this club will be right back up on the horse again Wednesday night. And 17-10 is nothing to sneeze at, either. :)

Brett Carre: Ouch. This is a game that reminded me of last year.

Can’t write a lot today, but TB had 5 solo homers, wow. Chan Ho did his normal thing, not great but not bad at all. Bullpen let us down last night.

The Halos won last night, so we are both 17-10. Did everyone see Kevin’s Krew?? LOL

[ From Joe: I wanted to see the Mench Mambo! ]

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I sat down last night to watch this game on TV as did most Ranger fans I would assume still rolling from the high of the night before. The SWEEP chant, taking all three from the Red Sox, RA’s performance, etc, etc, etc. I don’t think anyone thought the Rays were going to be a pushover – but cripes – they were!

Kenny Rogers pitched a four hit shutout, going all nine, and looking pretty good doing it. He fielded his position well, making several great plays. He acted well, like an Ace of a staff. It was quite nice to see, especially after RA’s performance last night. If you put Dickey & Rogers together, their combined ERA is just slightly over 0.5. with 17.2 innings pitched. Absolutely stunning.

Offensively, we sent 11 men to the plate in the first inning, hitting three home runs, for a total of 8 runs. We picked up another later on a sac fly, but the game was really over in the first inning. The three home runs were hit by Mike Young, Alfonso Soriano, & David Dellucci. Dellucci has hit 5 in the last few days, which ties him for the club lead, surprisingly enough. It was just a total bludgeoning in the first inning, and I loved it. :)

My wife was elsewhere in the house when this was happening, so when she passed by after we’d scored the 8, but were still in the first, I paused the TiVo and said “look at this score” – she looked visually stunned at that. “EIGHT? IN THE FIRST INNING?” I thought yup – we’ve got this game won already. I shouldn’t think that way, because it tends to come back and bite you in the ass, but dammit – I knew we had this one won in the first 30 minutes.

Brett Carre: Sorry everyone. Been busy. The good times keep rolling. 19-7!! The hitting was great and Kenny was outstanding. Hell yea!!!

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