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Arod’s the only Ranger player ever to have 50 home runs, and he’s done it the two years he’s been a Ranger. He’s also played in every game the Rangers have played since he signed up. Again, don’t know if anyone’s worth a quarter of a billion dollars, but there’s no denying how good he’s been for this team. When he hit his second home run, my wife and I were watching the game while eating dinner, and I almost spewed my food when I said “Holy Crap” when he hit the second one. Off the bat, it looked like it was headed to the upper deck. Didn’t get there, but was still very impressive. It’s not unrealistic to think he might get 60 – as there are 23 games left; he needs 10. His two weren’t the only home runs of the night, we also had jacks from Carl Everett, Todd Hollandsworth, & Mike Young (all in the 5th). The Orioles never really made any noise this game, this was ours from the start.
Our pitching was pretty decent, too. Kenny went 7 innings, giving up the two runs, and Kolb & Cordero pitched an inning of hitless, scoreless baseball each. Cordero also had two strikeouts, and has looked very impressive this year. With Zimmerman out till middle of next year (and there’s a possibility he may NEVER come back), this is a good time for Cordero to finally figure it out.
We go on to Tampa Bay tomorrow. Hopefully, we can exact some revenge for that horrible series in Arlington a week ago when we got swept by the Rays.

Well, as good as the previous game was, this one was equally flat and blah. Aaron Myette, making two starts in two games, due to his only throwing two pitches in the last one didn’t go that great again. He seems the weakest link in our young pitchers (although Doug Davis fell pretty good, too). The TV guys keep saying he’s got great, above average stuff, but I can’t say I’ve seen it. I wonder if he’ll be here next year. If not, he’ll probably figure it out somewhere else.
On the positive side, our home run streak reached a new record – 22 games in a row, with a Pudge blast into the Rangers bullpen 425 feet to left center. That’s about it good, except for a Todd Greene solo HR late in the game.
Additional game commentary is available here.

Sorry for the delay in getting going again. My brother was in town, and I didn’t watch much baseball at all when he was here, and then I got bogged down getting caught up at work, and then there was the sorry Tampa Bay series, which I just didn’t feel like writing about. Thought I’d give it a fresh start at the start of the Baltimore series. And what a good game it was to start up with.

I missed the top of the first inning, as I had neglected to record the game on my TiVo at home. As I was listening on the radio on the ride home from work, I heard they were making a pitching change – that was odd – first batter in the bottom of the first. I didn’t know Arod had gotten plunked, and Myette was retaliating (not officially, of course). So Myette got tossed after the first two pitches went behind Melvin Mora’s back. In came Todd Van Poppel who walked the batter Myette started, then one of his own. Then he got down to business, striking out five in the two innings he pitched (including everyone in the first inning). Then they brought in Benoit.

Man was he spectacular! Going 7 innings, and not allowing anything, except one hit batter, a walk, and a triple in the 9th inning to break up the no hitter bid. That would have been nice, and Benoit was the lead story on the ESPN baseball site on Wednesday (as it should have been). Still, Benoit set a major league record though as he got a 7 inning save, which I found humorous. I didn’t even think about that during the game. :)

Oh yeah, we extended our HR streak to 21 games in a row – the second time this year we’ve done that. Also, I was mad at myself for not recording the pre-game, as I missed an interview with Johnny Oates. I REALLY wanted to see that. Damn.

Additional game commentary here.

I have to admit, going into this game, I didn’t think we had a chance. Derek Lowe has been spectacular all season, and we were tossing out an inconsistant rookie who likes to walk lots of batters. Not a good combination. However, we instead got a wonderful pitching duel. Benoit went six innings, allowing 2 earned runs – and that’s all the Red Sox got, because our bullpen (Alvarez, Powell, Kolb, Rodriguez, & Cordero) combined for four innings of shutout relief. It wasn’t a cakewalk, but they got it done. In fact, Rich Rodriguez (why is he still here?) threw just one pitch to get the win.
Derek Lowe was even better, going 7 innings, and allowing just one unearned run. He deserved the win, but Boston’s bullpen let ’em down, by allowing a solo home run to Todd Hollandsworth in the 9th inning, and another solo home run to Pudge in the 10th to win it. Cordero nailed it down, and we got a nice come from behind win in Boston.
Carl Everett got the predicted reaction in Boston. Interesting that the umpire he head butted is here, too, although he won’t work the plate during the series. Arod didn’t get a home run, so his mega streak of consecutive games is over, but I attribute a lot of that to Derek Lowe – although Arod came close on one ball hit to the deeper parts of Fenway.
Nice game – nice win; on my birthday, too. :) Five in a row now. Would be nice to sweep all the way through Boston & New York without losing, but somehow I don’t see that happening. :)
Additional game commentary here.