Rangerfans.com

Aaron Myette continues to stink up the joint, giving up 8 earned runs in 3.2 innings. It’s puzzling, as he does well in AAA, just not up here. Rob Bell came out of the pen and did well, giving up one run in 3.1 innings. Dennys Reyes went two and gave up two. So far Reyes hasn’t been anything special, although he’s left handed – I guess that’s something.
However, the story here was Pedro. He went 7 innings, giving up one walk, striking out 10, and just three hits – with no runs. Very much the pitcher advertised. In fact, I was annoyed that he was pulled from the game, I wanted to see him go nine and shut us out. :)
We got three late, but the game really wasn’t as close as 11-3 sounds (as if that’s close). It really should have been 11-0. :)
Additional game commentary here.

A big back and forth game, and a nice finish by Texas to win the game 8-6. We tried to give it away, but a surprising bunt by Carl Everett sparked the final push to win the game.
Some of the highlights were another home run by Arod, his 37th of the year, leading all of MLB. Kevin Mench’s 3 run home run late to give us a lead (and prompting some nice emotion from Kevin on the basepaths). Carl Everett’s aforementioned bunt.
Todd Hollandsworth joined the injury parade as he appeared to pull a hamstring running to first. He’s probably headed towards the DL. Sigh.
Anyway, it was a nice game to watch a comeback. I said I wished we had lost all four games to the Red Sox, as I wanted that to help them against the Yankees, but it’s always nice to see one’s team win. :)

What can you say about this? Derek Lowe shut us down good. We gave up far too many runs again, but it didn’t really matter. One was enough.
Additional game commentary here.

Well, after last night’s game against the Yankees that I missed, I figured I’d miss the best offensive game of the season. Wrong.
I was at this game, and boy, was it fun to watch as a Rangers fan. I was actually looking forward to seeing former Ranger John Burkett pitch, as he’s done pretty well since leaving the Rangers a couple of years ago (that sounds familiar). Anyway, he plunked the first two batters of teh game, and that pretty much set the tone. Carl Everett jacked a three run home run to cap off the scoring – 6 runs in all in the first frame. Actually, I thought it was gonna be bad as Johnny Damon hit a solo home run on the second pitch of the game, but that was pretty much it for Boston for awhile.
However, that wasn’t it for us in the second. We scored another 6 runs, capped off by a grand slam by Carl Everett – 7 RBI’s in the first two innings – a total of 12 runs for us after the second (and we were up 13-1 after the third). We picked up 6 more elsewhere, but the first three innings were the story of the game. Carl Everett also missed two MORE home runs, both by a foot or two – both were caught at the fence. Big night for him. He said in the press the fact it was against Boston meant nothing to him, but I have a hard time believing he didn’t feel ANYTHING special over that. :)
Todd Hollandsworth made a nice first impression – with a double, a home run and 4 RBI’s as well as a nice running catch in center. The popular opinion is that he probably won’t be here next year, but it was nice to see someone be able to play center field and hit as well. I really liked Ruben Rivera, Jason Romano, Ryan Ludwick, & Calvin Murray out there, but Hollandsworth appears to be able to run balls down and hit too, which is something we haven’t had from any of our centerfielders so far this year.
Chan Ho Park was great until he developed a blister, and then headed south in a big hurry. However, he had a big fan section out in right field – a group of folks who had some Korean signs out there where whooping it up like the drum guys in Oakland do. Any time Park did anything good, they made a nice noise out there. I really really loved seeing that, as for the most part this town doesn’t have any regular fans like that, except for Zonk at games. I really wished I was back in my original season tickets that I had from 1997-1999 in Section 39, as they were in Section 40 making all this noise. :) Don’t know if anyone in that group would read this, but if you did, I really enjoyed that – hope y’all come back.
By far the best game I’ve been to this year.
Additional game commentary here.

Man, did I pick the wrong game to go to in the Yankees series. Two of my bosses at work, who are admittedly casual baseball fans, and would much rather watch the Cowboys were at a luxury box for this game. Grrrr….. :(
Anyway, this explosion was really nice to see anytime, but was ESPECIALLY sweet against the Yankees. I really wish I could have been there, but I did watch the entire thing on TV, including the funny bit where the TV guys made fun of Josh Lewin, calling him the “Yammering Announcer”. :)
The game was in hand early with a 6 spot in the second inning with 6 doubles and a home run leading the charge. The 6 doubles in an inning tied a record, and we also tied our own record for extra base hits in the game. Was really sweet to watch, but was also bittersweet considering the way the rest of the season has gone. :( Arod’s HR in the second really did NOT look like a home run off the bat, looked like a pop out to right, but ended up going out of the deepest part of the park (right center). Nice to see. I really REALLY hope we don’t have a strike, because I want to see Arod play this out and get a full season – I would love to see him make a run at the MVP award. What can you say about a season high 17 runs and 21 hits other than you’re glad it was against the Yankees. We were on national TV on Monday night, I wish THIS was on national TV.
Gabe the babe is gone, with his trade to Colorado. I’ll miss him, I liked him as a player and a person (from what I could gauge), but he never put it together here, and perhaps it was time for a change. Too bad, he was a great guy to have on a team.
Additional game commentary is available here.