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Juan “Don’t call me Jose” Dominguez made his major league debut last night. And he seemed to breeze through the first four innings. In fact, so did Jeremy Bonderman for the Tigers. He did not look like a pitcher who was 5-15. There was some really great pitching on both sides for the first four innings. Then it fell apart in the top of the 5th. Dominguez lost it (right after Tom Grieve said “Buck just wants him to get through this inning and get a win” (or something like that)) and gave up four runs, and the lead. Shouse & Powell combined to give up three more in the sixth, and that was about all she wrote.
Sure the Tigers are a major league team, but I didn’t want to lose to them, especially since the Angels also lost last night, that would have gotten us closer to getting out of last place. Darnit.
Still, it was nice to see Dominguez out there. Nice to see a young pitcher out there instead of all these young position players this season. Great to see young players, but I’d rather see young pitching that does well more than young position players, especially since our young position players now seem to be entrenched (referring to our “Roaring 20’s” infield).
Oh, it was good to see our old buddy Danny Patterson out there again. He looked much better (skinnier) than he did with us, and the Vulcan was still there.
Game notes are here.

Well, my wife and I were at this game. We only actually got to see an inning and 2 outs. It started raining, which was the first rain delay I had to sit through in quite some time. It actually got to the point where I thought they might play. But then while they were tinkering with the tarp, it started raining again. During that Chuck Morgan came over the PA and said you could exchange tickets for this game for any other game whether the Rangers played or not. Given that my wife had to get up before 6AM to go to work, I decided to take ’em up on that offer, and head out early. They started playing almost before I got back home to Garland, so I checked it out on the TV.
We won the game, as we should against the Tigers, but it didn’t feel like the dominating performance it should have been, even given the score of 9-3. Perhaps it was just me, but I was expecting something like 15-1 or something like that. :) I feel bad for the Tigers, I know I’d be there all the time if I lived in Detroit, I always support my team, but yeesh, that’s a lot of losing. I also felt like we should have capitalized more on the bases loaded no one out in the first inning – we got just one.
I also noticed we had several former Rangers on the Tigers starting lineup (Warren Morris, Craig Monroe, & Carlos Pena). And if I’m not mistaken, there was one other in the bullpen (Danny Patterson), as well as one on the disabled list (Dean Palmer). Would have been nice to see Deano again, since I suspect he’ll retire after this season.
Game notes are here.

Not much to say about this one. I watched it, but other than the goofy play in the first inning that we got an out on an appeal play, I don’t recall anything particularly noteworthy.
For the record, the Jays hit a line drive that hit off of Colby Lewis and bounced to Hank Blalock for an out. Blalock then threw the ball to first expecting to double off the runner, but it sailed into the stands. Everyone seemed to think that was the end of it, that the Jays runner was awarded third. When play resumed, Buck Showalter appealed the play to second base, and their runner was called out. Apparently, the runner had to return to first base, then be awarded third. Since he didn’t do that, he was called out. Quite a bizarre play.
Arod got another home run. We’re only 3 games behind the Angels from escaping the f’in basement! :)
Game notes are here.

Two games in a row I botched the recording. I messed up watching this one, and given that I had to leave the house before the game was over, I didn’t watch any of it (I was at a Pat Benatar concert that I had to leave around 5PM to get dinner before first).
Game notes are here.

I missed all the fun in this game. I turned on the radio when I was leaving work, and the score was already 5-2. All I got to hear myself was the Delgado HR. I got home and watched the first inning on my TiVo, and after that, it was pretty much pitching, and the Rangers hitting into double plays. :)
This weekend will be odd for me, as my wife and I have a houseguest, so I don’t know much time I’ll have online to update this weekend.
Game notes are here.

No time for a commentary – it’s been a very rough last two days at work. Still, that grand slam did not help us at all. :(
Game notes are here.

I didn’t get to see this game, because I forgot to tell my TiVo to record it. :) Because of that, I only got to see the 9th inning, but I turned it on just as Hank Blalock got a two run single in the top of the 9th to beat Mariano Rivera. A great moment. Not as a great as the Diamondbacks beating him in Game 7 a couple of years ago, but still, a great moment. :)
Cordero also did well in Yankee Stadium against the Yanks in the bottom of the 9th to earn a save. While I can’t comment on specifics due to my not having seen the game, I can say that it was nice to finally come back and win one of these late inning games that we always lost before.
We’re now 4-1 in Yankee Stadium this season. That’s nice to be able to say. Just wish I could say we were 4-1 in Yankee stadium in post season, instead of 1-6 or something like that.
Game notes are here.

I thought this game was going to be good when Hank Blalock jacked a home run to right center to take the lead against the Yankees. But that was about it, really. The Yankees bombed us for 6 runs in 3 innings (1,2,5) – all on home runs. We did get another run in the 8th when Hank Blalock doubled, scoring Mike Young.
Not much else to write – the Bronx Bombers bombed us.
Game notes are here.

Three more home runs in this game brings our total over the last 25 innings in the three Cleveland games to 13! That powered us to a series sweep against Cleveland. Now it would be more impressive if we swept the Yankees (again, I might add) this year, but I’ll take the sweep to go to 5 in a row. After the first inning when R.A. Dickey gave up three runs and pitched 35 odd pitches, I figured he was done. But surprisingly, he got it together and went a total of 7 innings, giving up 4 runs. Not writing much for two reasons – I am still mostly thinking about Johnny Oates again.
Oh wait – Ramon Nivar finally got his first major league hit, a triple. He was on base twice via errors before that, but it was nice to see a clean hit for his first one.
Hey, guess what? We’re only 5.5 games behind Anaheim to get out of the basement. I think that’s a VERY reachable goal, given the way Anaheim has been playing this season. It would be nice to pass them and not end up in the basement this year.
Game notes are here.