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Although the Twins made it a little interesting in the 9th inning, the Rangers finally managed to get out in front of a bad team and keep the lead through the entire game.
For the second game in a row, Twin manager Tom Kelly gambled on one of his pitchers getting Rafael Palmeiro out, and he lost. Last night, it was a two run double to give us this win. Today it was a three run home run to give us a 6-1 lead. Roberto Kelly also chimed in with two home runs of his own – the first off of Minnesota starter Brad Radke, who used to be a teammate of Roberto’s when Roberto played in Minnesota; Kelly had never faced him before.
Raffy’s 43rd home run of the year gives him a personal best for home runs in a season. Matter of fact, quite a few things happened in today’s ballgame:

• Raffy setting a new record for himself with 43 home runs in a season.
• The first time the Rangers have ever beat an opponent for the entire season (going 12-0 against the Twins in 99 – next closest was 11-1 against the 1975 Tigers)
• The first time any team has beat another in a season series 12-0 since 1996
• The Rangers beat the Twins in home runs this season against each other 21-5.
• Eight out of the 12 games against the Twins were decided by one or two runs.
• The 10th time this year the Twins failed to have 10,000 people in attendance at a game.

Since I listened to this at work, I couldn’t pay close attention to the game, unfortunately. It was nice to get a win, and head back to the 29 games over 500 mark. Our magic number is now 10, and could be 9 depending on what happens during tonight’s play.

It was a thrilling win, if nothing else. Yet again, we’re letting a team that we should be crushing get into the game. We were losing 1-0 after two, but we led until the bottom of the 7th, when the Twins went ahead 4-3. We were down to our last out in the 9th inning when Tom Kelly tried to play percentages, and walked Pudge to get to Raffy. That was a mistake, because Raffy made ’em pay for it with yet another game winning hit. This one a double to right center, scoring Royce Clayton, who was already on base, and Pudge all the way from first. It was a sweet win, but I don’t think we should have put ourselves in a position where we had to win the game like that.
I admit to not knowing a bunch of the small details of this game, because for the first time all season, I got to see my hometown Philadelphia Phillies on TV! I grew up in Philly, and have always been a Phillies fan, but down here, I don’t get to see ’em. They got shellacked, 12-2, but I had fun watching them, and I’d flip over to see what the Rangers were doing. I only saw the last 3 innings of the Ranger game solid.
This win makes us 11-0 against the Twins in 1999. If we win on Wednesday afternoon, it will be the first season sweep in forever (that I can remember) of an opponent. I’m hoping we can get one big win, because after this, the “really bad” team stretch is over, and we’ve only played .500 against them. Not good at all.
Magic number is down to 11. My wife and I have four games left to go to at the Ballpark in the regular season. Of the upcoming homestand, we see one game from each series, and I’m hoping that the Rangers can clinch it when we’re there. Would be nice. Hey, it would be nice if we could clinch it with a win, instead of backing in like we have in 1996 and 1998. :)

Well, we won. However, it wasn’t the prettiest of games for many reasons. We lost a few players for a few days with injuries. Rusty Greer got hit in the eye with a ball during warmups, and is out for a few. Luis Alicea sprained a muscle during the game, and is out for awhile. Jeff Zimmerman also came out of the game early with muscle tightness.
Add to that the fact that we let the Royals get back in it to send the game to extra innings isn’t good. Add to that the fact that the 10th was given to us on a silver platter by KC (errors, wild pitches all over the place), and leads me to believe that we shouldn’t have won this game either.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take the win, and I’m glad to get out of KC, but I don’t think we deserved the win. I’m hoping we can do better in Minnesota, and then have the team healthy on Friday when the DRays come to town.

Ugh. No commentary again. Three in a row to the Royals while the Yankees were also swept? This is sad.

Ugh. No commentary again.

Ugh. No commentary.

The name of this game was John Burkett. I read in the news reports that Burkett was booed when he came on at the start of the game – I didn’t see it, as I was at my bowling league for the start of the game. When I came home, the game was already 3-0. When Burkett was pulled, it was really, really nice to see him get a standing ovation – made me feel really good. Teared up a bit. :)
Tim Crabtree got the pitch of the game when he struck out Manny Ramirez with the bases loaded to preserve our shutout. That was the biggest single moment of the game, although Burkett’s pitching was stellar.
We’re 29 games over 500, and going further into uncharted territory. We did spoil the Indians clinching their division. They won it after they had left the Ballpark already and had packed up their champagne – HAHA! :)
The AP story says that two fans were married in the stands – I wonder who they were. :)
It was announced that Mark Clark will not be activated for the rest of the year – hopefully he can get it together next year, and contribute.

I don’t have much time to write this – I’m really busy at work today. Was an awesome baseball game, and I was even thinking this before Pudge hit the home run to win the game. This was one of those games that if we had lost, I wouldn’t have minded it, but it was great that we won!
Couple of roster moves – Mike Simms was active for the first time all season (although he didn’t play), and Rafael Palmeiro was out of the game (as well as tomorrow) with a hand problem leftover from being hit in the hand in the first game of the double header the other night.
The Rangers are now 28 games over 500 for the first time ever. We could end up winning 100 games this season – it’s not all that unlikely. After this game, there are 22 games left. If we win 16 of these 22, we’ll have 100 wins. It’ll be an awesome season. It still is a great season, but I’d like to push through and win 100 games.