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We lost 8-2. Pitching sucked. Blew too many offensive chances. What more do I need to say? Game notes are here.

Busy day to be a Ranger fan. We sign first round pick John Danks. We then turn around and trade closer Ugueth Urbina to the Marlins for three very good prospects. Then we get blown out. :)
Actually, the game wasn’t as bad as the score seems. Yes, 13-3 is an ugly score, but it was only 4-3 after 7 innings. Giving up an 8 spot in the 8th inning will never be good. RA Dickey looked serviceable in starting, and Ron Mahay & Jay Powell didn’t give up a thing in their innings. Aaron Fultz (just activated) & Victor Santos – well, that’s a different story. In fact, it could have been a lot worse, as the Royals left the bases loaded in the 8th inning. I was starting to think we’d give up 10 runs in the inning!
Anyway, I think we got good value for Urbina. Some are saying that we didn’t get enough pitching, but I say we got three great players, and you can never go wrong with getting many great players. If you find yourself with a logjam, you can always trade them, too.
Game notes are here and here.

There’s something we don’t normally get – a sweep. And it was against a team that’s generally considered to be pretty good (just about two weeks ago they were in first place). We’ve been playing well the last few weeks – very nice to see.
Normally, you say you win games with pitching and defense. Well, tonight it wasn’t exactly defense, as we made a couple of errors (one by Arod), but we did with pitching and offense. Our offense was home run driven – 8 of the nine runs scored by the long ball. Two home runs by Juan, and one each by Mike Young and Mark Teixeira.
Joaquin Benoit looked sharp again. Don’t want to get too excited, because when I do that, someone starts pitching bad – but it was nice to see another good outing from him.
It was also really great to see Josh Lewin rendered totally speechless in the pre-game show when they had actor Burton Gilliam show up. Burton was in the movie Blazing Saddles, and that’s Josh’s all time favorite movie. Josh didn’t know he was coming, and was rendered mute on two occasions – was a great moment.
I did miss a few minutes of the game here and there, as I had a power blackout, as well as some rain fade on my DirecTV system due to the heavy storms in Garland.
Game notes are here.

A wonderfully pitched ballgame. From both sides. It was nice to see old friend Kenny Rogers back here again, and not surprisingly, he picked the blue uniform top for the Twins – something he did all the time in Texas. I still wish he was here, and I bet he does too, despite the public claims to the contrary. That’s twice now Scott Boras screwed him up in his dealings with the Rangers.
Anyway, the game was rare, a low scoring Rangers win. For the longest time it was just 1-0, off Mark Teixeira’s solo HR in the second inning. Benot kept us in the lead until Torii Hunter jacked a mammoth home run to left, going over the seats in left field. That was it for the Twins, though – as our pen (Shouse, Cordero, Urbina) didn’t give up any more runs on the way to Urbina’s 200th career save.
Laynce Nix was called up to replace Kevin Mench on the roster, but didn’t play.
I also got a big laugh out of the Rangers Captain being on TV in the “fake portion” of the hot dog eating contest. :)
Game notes are here.

No time to write commentary today. Great game, though! :) Game notes are here.

Another good day to be a Ranger fan. First off, we got a very nicely pitched 5-1 win against the best team in baseball at the moment. Ismael Valdes looked good, not like that train wreck he looked like the last few starts.
But the best news of the day was that two and a half Rangers were named to the All-Star team. Alex Rodriguez is the starting shortstop, and that’s no surprise. The other player is Hank Blalock, who was picked as the backup in the players’ vote. He really outdistanced his closest competition for the spot – that was really nice to see. The half was that Carl Everett was also named to the All-Star team as a DH. Carl’s a White Sock now, but he got the award on his playing time with the Rangers – that was great.
Don’t have a whole lot of time to write today – it being Monday at work and all. :)
Game notes are here.

A frustrating game. For some reason, extra inning games fill me with dread. We always seem to lose these – and for some reason, in the 10th. This one was no different. :(
John Thomson pitched surprisingly well – must be the fact that he now wears his pants legs up, and we can see his socks! :) He went 7 innings, giving up only two. Problem was that Jamie Moyer did basically the same thing. Ugueth Urbina gave up a run in the 10th, and we couldn’t come back from that.
Juan Gonzalez had another home run – probably makes his trade stock higher.
Game notes are here.