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I was driving from Dallas to Houston when this game was on, and didn’t get to hear all of it, as I eventually drove out of range of KRLD.
I did get to hear Mark Clark give up another home run (a bit of a broken record with him, I think) and Todd Zeile hit a home run, but that was about it. No commentary from me, as I hardly heard any of the game.

I didn’t see much of this game, as my wife and went out and did some shopping before we headed out on our trip to Houston this weekend to see the Astros in Houston. I saw the first three innings, and when I left, it was 1-0 Red Sox.
When I came home, it was a much nicer game. Looking at the box score, we had some great pitching again – I’m surprised they didn’t give Wetteland a shot at another save, but I guess he needed a break in these situations.
Didn’t get to see much, but it’s nice to win 3 in a row again. I hope we can pull out at least 3 of 4 in Boston. Not going to update again until Monday afternoon, so I won’t have commentary for the next two days when I do get back to updating, as I’ll be out of touch and won’t be able to see any of the games.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available.

I didn’t think we had it in us to pull off the split. This game felt really good. Got a long ball, had small ball, had some nice defense, we did just about everything last night. Hell, we pulled off the first triple play in 22 years (only the second in Ranger history).
Roger Clemens was masterful early. He struck out ten in the first four innings, including everyone in the first two innings. However, we ended up getting to him (and the Yankees) in the latter part of the game.
I was flipping back and forth between this game and the Stars game, so I didn’t see everything, but I did see the triple play. What was funny was that the guy who hit into it (Chili Davis) also hit into a double play later. :)
I’ve been impressed with Gregg Zaun the last few days. He’s not the greatest catcher around, but he certainly did his part when called upon. I was very disappointed when Bill Haselman signed somewhere else after last year, but I have to say… Gregg Zaun has grown on me.
“It was a team effort” is so cliched, but here it meant something. This game was won by the team, not by any one player. This was spectacular baseball, the kind of stuff a hardcore baseball fan lives for.
We survived Yankee Stadium, breaking our 7 game losing streak there with a split. Now it’s on to Beantown for four more – I like playing Boston, we always seem to get good baseball playing them.

Oh my – we had some pitching! If I didn’t watch the game on TV, I would have thought it was a misprint!!
Rick Helling was totally masterful, going 7 innings, giving up no runs on just three hits. This is what we needed – let’s just hope it continues over past today. I didn’t feel like writing the last two nights, as what can you say? The Yankees beat us almost all the time in Yankee stadium. What was there to write about?
We won last night, which was really great. Our pitching was totally masterful, and is the kind of thing we’d need if we’re going to advance in the playoffs. Speaking of pitching, this morning’s (Thursday’s) Dallas Morning News seemed to imply that we might be going after Darren Oliver again in July. Ugh. While he’s pitching OK, he’s not totally what we need.
Honestly, there isn’t much to talk about with this game. Lee Stevens belted a two run home run, but other than that, we didn’t do much until Ruben Mateo batted in a run late. We ourselves only had 5 hits for the game, and if it wasn’t for the Stevens blast, this game would have been a complete and total pitcher’s duel (more than it already was).
Was really nice to see the Rangers pick up the win.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Not available.

None – don’t feel like talking about the Yankee curse. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Oh oh.
The Rangers’ slump reached 4 games after the Yankees held the Rangers to just 4 hits. The Rangers lost 6-2.
Ryan Glynn, not to be confused with Nolan Ryan, hasn’t had a good outing yet. Glynn who been more like John Glenn – of the astronoimal ERA’s.
I think it’s time to try someone else on the mound in his stead. (Is Esteban Loaiza ready yet? Would Loaiza do any worse?).
The offense has gone on pre-summer vacation. And it doesn’t get any easier. There are 2 more games left with the “Rangers can’t beat you but everyone else can” Yankees and then 4 more with the Red Sox.
To top it off, Johnny Oates went nuts in the clubhouse after the game, erupting during a team meeting, ended by him throwing a baseball at a locker in disgust over his team’s recent play – especially against the Yankees. The previous time Oates held a closed door team meeting, the team responded positively.
Do they have enough pitching to respond positively again?

None – don’t feel like talking about the Yankee curse. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
None available.

There wasn’t really a whole lot to this game. Mike Morgan, outside of the second inning pitched very well, and the two Ranger relivers that followed (Venafro/Crabtree) each pitched one scoreless inning. Mike Morgan made one big mistake in the second, a three run home run to Kurt Abbott. Other than that, he was great. In fact, the Rockies went down 1-2-3 in every inning from the fourth to the ninth with only two hits in that mix. The three run home run did it.
The Rangers weren’t a whole lot better, except we didn’t go down 1-2-3 as many times. The Rockies did it in 7 of the 9 innings, we did it in only 3. Our lone scoring was the two solo home runs by Juan Gonzalez & Rafael Palmeiro in the 4th. We had a few chances (1st and 3rd with 2 outs in the first, 1st and 3rd with 1 out in the 9th), but we didn’t mount any real offense.
In fact, the offense for both sides was rather scattered, as there were a total of 15 hits for both teams, and 14 of them were by different players (only Echevarria for Colorado had two). We had our chances, and we didn’t come through. Oh well.
On to a hellacious 8 game stretch with four games in New York, and four in Boston. Ugh. Hope we come out of that still in first, and still in decent shape.
Ruben Mateo went 0-4 with a walk – he has one hit in his first two games, a home run. Mateo did try and make a good catch during the game, but missed it – he looked good, and he did change his uniform number from 38 to 21 – no reason given on TV that I heard for the switch.
Commentary by Jim Weeks:
Mike Morgan had his most effective outing of the year, but one bad pitch was belted for a 3 run homer and the Rangers lost.
This is one game the Rangers should have won. They had numerous opportunities to win the game, including in the 9th inning, but it wasn’t to be.
Ruben Mateo, sporting Ruben Sierra (and Roberto Clemente’s) #21, made a bad judgement play in center, diving for a ball he should have played differently. Although he walked in the game, he did strike out twice.
Juan Gonzalez drove in his 1,000th career run with a solo homer.