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I didn’t get to hear much of this one, as I was busy prepping for a vacation – plus it wasn’t on TV.
This one can be summed up in a bad performance by Rob Bell – giving up 5 home runs – not good. Surprisingly, we didn’t lie down and die – we made an effort of it late, after we were down 8-1, but not enough of a comeback.

Oh, the joy of beating the Yankees in Yankee stadium! Oh, the irritation that the Red Sox lost, and couldn’t take advantage of it.
When this game started, I feared the worst. Darren Oliver in Yankee Stadium? I had the feeling of 9-2 going into this game. And, the way it started, I felt I was right – Ted Lilly was perfect through the first four innings or so.
However, Raffy broke that up with a big majestic HR into the upper deck in right field. A couple of innings later, Arod jacked one, as did Pudge to put us up 4-2. We scored a few more runs in the ninth for insurance, and Venafro had some trouble in the bottom of the ninth, so Zim came in, and got a save anyway.
Great game – especially beating the Yankees!

I didn’t get to see much of this game (only the 10th & 11th innings), as my wife had some company over. Still, it was nice seeing an extra inning win – usually extra innings means losses.

Hey – someone found Rick Helling! Where was he hiding, because that guy wearing #32 for the first two months of the season wasn’t Rick Helling at all.
This is more like it – this is the kind of pitching we were supposed to be getting from Rick & Kenny. If that were the case, we might be making a push for the playoffs, instead of making a push for the playoffs in 2003 in 2001.
What more can you say about this game? Rick Helling was masterful, not allowing any runs. Craig Munroe hit his first major league hit – a home run with his family in attendance. Craig also made a really great defensive catch in right – while it initally looked like it saved a HR, it didn’t – that ball wouldn’t have gone over the fence, but it was a great catch anyway.
This was our first complete game shutout in quite some time – they were bandying around 1998 & 1999 on the TV. IT’s been something like 300 some odd games since the last one. Yikes!
Tampa’s Joe Kennedy looked really great, too – another good young pitcher they appear to have there. This was the game I thought I was going to last week, but I ended up going to Saturday’s game – a loss. Figures. :)

The Rangers end up having a 6-1 homestand. Which game do I attend? That’s right – the 1. Figures.
Going into this game, I figured we’d either have a well pitched game, or a fiasco. That’s usually the case when you get two pretty young ptichers going at each other. And for awhile, that’s what we got. Aaron Myette looked really good, not totally dominating, mind you – but still an impressive performance. Tampa’s Nick Bierbrodt also pitched really well – so far looks like a great pickup for them.

We were losing, and going into the bottom of the ninth, we managed to pick up a couple of runs to tie it at 3 and send it into extra innings. However, Kevin Foster (who I doubt will be here next year) managed to completely blow the game – it all fell apart after he was covering first and came off the bag due to an errant throw. After that, we gave up some more runs for a total of 4 – it seemed to sap the life we got from tying the game in the bottom of the ninth. A wasted effort, but overall a pretty decently pitched game (except for Foster).

Ruben Sierra did have to go on the DL, and was replaced by Craig Munroe from AAA. His first game was tonight, but was pretty much a non factor, going 0-3, and not even having a defensive chance in right field.

Ben Grieve had a grand slam – he only ever seems to hit well when he’s here – why not sign him up, and have him play right field? His lack of arm strength shouldn’t be that big of an issue there.
The sticks were out for us – that’s good, because Rob Bell had probably his weakest appearance as a Ranger, yet still won the game. Overall, it was a pretty sloppy contest, with Rob giving up 7ER in 7 innings, although Juan Moreno & Brandon Villafuerte nailed down the remaining two innings, not giving up anything.
Nice to see Mike Young with a triple, although it was NOT nice seeing Ruben Sierra have to come out of the game – that’s probably a trip to the DL for him, which I did NOT want to see at all.

I don’t have time to sit down and write a commentary on this one, as I’m terribly busy at work with Max Payne being released (I work for 3D Realms a PC computer game maker, if you didn’t know).
Was nice to see Cal hit a home run – what an awesome player!