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Great ninth inning win. Felt like a playoff game, actually! :)

My wife and I have been at the last 4 or 5 July 4th games in a row. This year we decided to stay home. Should have gone, it was a great game. Anyway, as my wife & I just hung around the house for the evening doing things like drinking beer, sitting on the patio watching the world go by, etc.. I didn’t start watching the game until it was over (on my TiVo). Anyway, after the top of the first, I was disgusted. Down 6-0 before we even batted. Needless to say, I skimmed through the game, not actually watching the Devil Rays bat at all. Just watched the Rangers bat – and also skipped the stuff between pitches, too. Watched the game in about 45 minutes that way. :)
This was the longball night, with a total of 5 home runs for the Rangers (total of 7 if you count the two by Tampa). We had home runs by Kevin Mench, Todd Greene, Arod, Pudge, & Raffy – with Raffy’s winning the game in the bottom of the 8th. I suppose I would have been more into this if we were there. But the best part I think was Rob Bell settling down and not giving up anything after the horrid 6 run first inning. Quite surprised to see him out there in the second, but nice to see that he stepped up and carried the team from that point.
Three in a row, and while it’s just Tampa Bay is nice to see. Unfortunately, we can’t gain any ground on Seattle. :(
Additional game commentary is available here.

A very thrilling win. A game that we won clutch in the end, that we shouldn’t have had to win. We started off big, putting up a four spot in the first – it could have been more, but Arod was thrown out at the plate during the first. Pudge capped the four run inning with a two run home run. It felt good after the first. However, Tampa’s pitching shut us down for almost the entire rest of the game. We didn’t have any runs (or much else) after the first, and didn’t score again until the eighth. However, Tampa did. They picked away at the lead (including a couple of home runs – one from Ben Grieve), and in the top of the ninth, tied the game 5-5.
Then Pudge stepped up in the bottom of the ninth, and jacked a home run ball over the fence for the win. It was really nice to see the Rangers come out and mob him at home plate, all jubilant (except Carl Everett, who probably thought that was beneath him and was being Mr Slow ass even there).
A really nice win over Tampa Bay. Ismael Valdes had to come out of the game early, which is not a good sign. Especially if we’re trying to trade him. I don’t want to, but we may end up doing so.

Before the game started, I told my wife that this is a game we should win. By 2002 standards, we were tossing our best pitcher out there, and TB had their worst. Of course, whenever I say that, we usually lose. And given the way Tanyon Sturtze pitched, we should have lost. Sturtze pitched an 8 inning complete game loss, giving up just 9 hits (mostly scattered), and three earned runs. He really deserved better, and is probably a better pitcher than his 1-9 record says he is.
On the other hand, he did give up three, and Kenny Rogers gave up just one – a solo shot to David McCarty. Our pitching was better than theirs, and that combo will win you a lot of games – unfortunately we usually can’t say that. Even Rocker was good. :)
This was a game of solo home runs, mostly. McCarty had one for Tampa, and we got ones from Juan Gonzalez & Rafael Palmeiro. Arod also had an RBI elsewhere in the game. A nice game to watch – crisp, moved quickly, too. What a shock. :)

I was at this game. Sat there two hours and got rained out. Can I get my parking fee back?

Too busy at work – no time for summary.

Too busy at work – no time for summary.

Too busy at work – no time for summary.