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I’m fairly sure this is only the second time this year I’ve been able to use this graphic to the left. Still, it’s nice to be able to use it.
The Rangers picked on my wife’s hometown team today with a 10-4 win, which actually wasn’t even that close. We were winning 10-2 until the bottom of the ninth when the Pirates’ Rob Machowiak dumped a home run over the right field bleachers, and bounced it into the Allegheny river, the first Pirate to actually do that in a year and a half. Still, was a nice easy win. Arod finally got out of his extra base drought with a no doubt home run to left center (which is REALLY deep here, and on three balls I thought were home runs off the bat earlier in the series were caught for easy outs). The Mench Man (my wife’s new favorite player) also hit a home run, and is making a real case to stick around when some of our “regulars” come off the DL. Speaking of that, can we PLEASE let Carl Everett go? I really want to see Ludwick, Romano, & Mench stick around, and I can’t see that happening when Mr Slow ass comes off the DL. :(
Chan Ho Park looked pretty decent (especially compared to the rest of this season), but was pulled after six innings. He had given up only two hits and two runs during his time on the hill today. Technically a quality start, and I suppose he was pulled due to having pitched 98 pitches, but I would have liked to have seen him stick around for seven.
A nice sweep in Pittsburgh. Let’s see if we can carry the momentum of the five game winning streak into the series against Anaheim, starting with a DH on Monday that I’ll be at.

There was a good Rangers game today, but I’d wager most people were busy thinking about Darryl Kile. If you’re reading this, then it can not be news to you that Darryl Kile, 33 year old pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals died today – appearing to be in his sleep (which is the way to go). What more can be said about this? Lots of folks have expressed sorrow in a far more eloquent way than I could. Click on the picture to your right for some coverage from the Cardinals site. Sad day. The Cardinals/Cubs game was cancelled by Bud Selig.

Pudge won this game again with a game winning RBI double in the seventh. Rob Bell pitched well, although I admit in the first inning I thought he was going to tank, as I’m sure a lot of people did. Our pen worked well, too. Telford, Rocker, & Irabu followed up Bell to preserve the win for a streak now of four in a row.
Again, it’s hard to write about this game at my computer staring at the picture of Darryl Kile over on the right. :(

Well, the day started interestingly enough. Oscar Acosta was fired. I always felt that something was odd with the Acosta/Narron combination from the start when they were fighting in spring training. I can’t say this move surprises me at all. Jamie Quirk is the pitching coach for now. I doubt that will last long, though. Frontrunners are Orel Hershiser and Lee Tunnell. Gut says it’s Orel.
About this game, there’s really only two stories here. The pitching and Pudge. In fact, both runs were driven in by Pudge. One on a home run to right center, and the other on a double driving in Mike Young. That’s about all there was to this game. Was a very well pitched game on both sides, including another save by Francisco Cordero, who seems to have finally gotten it together. Nice start to the Pittsburgh series, and we’re three in a row now. Look out, we’re makin’ a move! :)

Ismael Valdes got screwed. Once again he pitched well enough to win (he probably should have 10 wins by now), but was let down by someone else on the team. In fact, Valdes retired something like 17 or 18 batters in a row at one point.
We did end up winning the game – today mostly by the long ball. Raffy got another for 3 in the series – one in each game. The Menchman got two this game, and Todd Greene also chipped in. Was a nice offensive output. Would have been better if we could have keep the Cubs off the board so Valdes could get a win. Other than Kenny Rogers’ re-emergence this season, I think Valdes is our best pitching story. I really hope we reup him for next season.
After the game, we fired Oscar Acosta – given his remarks in the newspapers, I’m not surprised. The picture painted in the papers makes him seem like a real hard person to get along with.

Wrigley looked great again, and unfortunately, Dave Burba pitched good. Quite honestly, I never wanted him here, and when I read that he had two starts before he’s gone (which may yet happen), I thought good. Let him pitch crappy in those games, so he can go. Of course, he pitches decent (if not spectacular). Sigh.
As for the game in hand, we went extra innings again, which so far to this point has meant loss. However, we scored 3 (our call up kids doing the work) in the top of hte 10th for a win. Francisco Cordero got a save, and looked good getting it.
Don’t have time to sit and think and write about this one a lot today, but it was nice to see Raffy get a home run two games in a row. Hope that continues!

Wrigley looked gorgeous, and before this game I was saying this was probably our best chance to win a game in Chicago as Bere was pitching. He had the worst record of the three pitchers pitching against us. I should stop doing that, because whenever I saw we’re up against a bad pitcher, he does great, and boy was tonight a night for Bere. With the exception of a Rafael Palmeiro home run in the second (which didn’t look fair to me), Bere was pitching a perfect game into the 8th. Fred McGriff bobbled a popup and then we scored some runs to tie the game. Things were looking good, especially when Rocker was called in and threw three strikes, absolute bullets over the plate, freezing Todd Hundley who never swung his bat. Rocker was EXTREMELY impressive there.
But that’s where it ended. Gonzalez grounded out into a double play, which killed our base runner in the ninth, and then Rocker gave up a home run ball in the bottom of the ninth to lose it. I knew when we tied but didn’t go ahead, we’d lose in the bottom of the ninth. I just knew it.
2.5 seasons of this last place crap is really starting to get annoying. But Wrigley looked nice, so that was something, eh?

Well, I have to admit, that when the game got to 6-4 in the bottom of the 6th, I had gotten disgusted. It’s not that a two run lead was insurmountable, but I didn’t feel like watching anymore. I went off to do some work on the Internet on non baseball things. I kept my eye on the game though with the live “Game day” pitch by pitch count on MLB.com. When I saw us climbing back, I decided to go watch the 9th on TV. I should have known better. :(
We clawed back and tied the game in the 9th against Billy Wagner which was enough of a feat. But when Pudge was thrown out in the top of the 9th trying to take the lead (at the plate), I knew we’d lose. This team just doesn’t seem (to me as a fan, anyway) to have the heart to come back against stuff like that. It’s kind of like when I was growing up watching Pete Rose play. You knew if Rose was anywhere near coming up, you had a chance to win. This team doesn’t seem to have that feel to it. That’s unfortunate, because I like most everyone on the team, but it doesn’t seem to “have it”, which is why I think this season (and most likely next, too) is lost, and we should dump big name players (Uh, Everett) and just go with kids. I think we’ll do better in the long haul – look at what has happened with the Twins the last year or two. They went through some hell, but did it with a bunch of kids, and now they’re winning.
Oh yeah, for the first time as a Ranger, Arod did not start the game at shortstop. Mike Young did. Arod did come in and pinch hit late, but he didn’t start, which was a surprise.
Additional commentary about the game is available here.

Wow – what can you say about this one except Wade Miller was awesome? A three hit shutout with help from Octavio Dotel & Billy Wagner. That’s all she wrote for this game.

The thing to like most about this game, and the thing that was reported on the most in the local media was Mike Young’s game. He was 5-5 with two home runs. Going back into the last game, he’s 7 for 7 in his last 7 at bats. Most nice. Should help raise his stock in John “My second baseman has to hit as good as Arod usually does” Hart.
I don’t have much time to write about today’s game (Monday is usually a hard day for me), but I couldn’t let this go by without praising Mike Young’s efforts.
Oh, and Pudge at the end picking off Hidalgo to end the game. That was very sweet.