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This game is part of a huge break I took from the site (skipped about 35 games or so) due to some personal issues and my having a ton of work getting Duke Nukem Forever released.
Due to that, I’m not commenting on this game. If you want to read about it, please hit the “Game Recap on MLB.com” link. Thanks for visiting!

It was a bonus game for me, the evening Fox game, as I got this on rabbit ears. Bonus that I got Tom Grieve too – not sure why he’s been on Fox national games all of a sudden. The Saturday game in Philadelphia he was on too – I saw it on a TV in the Phillies’ Club area I was at before the game.

Anyway, this is a story of basically two things. First, Matt Harrison. Matt has problems in the first inning, and if you get past that, he’s usually pretty good. Tonight was one of the “pretty good” games. He only went six innings, but with us up a ton, and a blister developing, he came out. But while he was in there, he gave up just five hits and one walk in his six innings. 99 pitches, so he probably numbers wise easily had another inning in him. He only had one strikeout in him, so he wasn’t terribly dominating. The defense helped him out a bit by turning double plays in the third and sixth innings. He was looking pretty darned good, if not (haha) Alexi Ogando dominating.

Tateyama followed him, and got a three inning save. I still don’t get that stat, it doesn’t seem right that a guy who comes in with a 10 run lead gets a save just cuz he pitches three innings. Anyway, Tateyama was pretty good himself. The only run the Royals got came on his watch, although it was an unearned run. It happened due to a fielding error by Adrian Beltre, something that hasn’t happened much at all. Outside the unearned run, Tateyama gave up just two hits in his three innings of work and struck out one. Nothing that will light things up like an Aroldis Chapman fastball here, but the guy pitched well. His ERA is under 2, and it’d be nice if he stuck around and continued to do well.

The Rangers had a boatload of offense. Mostly the extra base kind. In total, the Rangers had fifteen hits. Of the starting nine, everyone had at least one hit, except one guy. Michael Young. He took an ofer, which is unusual, given the way he’s been hitting lately. You figure he’d be right in the middle of all this, but he didn’t get anything done tonight. Another one is the fact that every starting player had a run scored. The only player with more than one was Nelson Cruz, who scored twice. But all the other starters scored one run. Nice well balanced offense there.

We had four doubles, five home runs, and six singles. The home runs were by the usual suspects.. Mitch Moreland, Mike Napoli, Adrian Beltre, Endy Chavez, & Nelson Cruz. Pretty good display of… ENDY CHAVEZ? Yeah, Chavez had a home run, and it was right after the guy on the Fox broadcast had gotten done saying Chavez didn’t have a home run this year. It was almost like “the call” on Rangers broadcasts. The Chavez home run came right after home runs by Mitch Moreland & Mike Napoli to start off the bottom of the second. Was the first time the Rangers had gone back to back to back in quite awhile. 11 years I think it was said.

The Nelson Cruz home run would have won someone money on TV, but this wasn’t a Rangers broadcast. It came in the sixth, but no Sonic Slam Inning in play here. Whoever is drawn for the Sunday game will probably be irritated about that. :) Watch it be me. hahaha.

Anyway, it was an easy win, something we haven’t had much of lately, so it was nice to have one. Nice for me to be able to see it too. We move on to the series finale on Sunday when Alexi Ogando takes on Danny Duffy. On paper, it looks like a lopsided win for us, but we’ll have to see. (Or hear in my case, this will be a radio game)

That was fairly annoying on several levels.
Annoying the Feliz blew another save, this time on an absolute no doubter home run to Alex Gordon way into the upper home run porch.
Annoying that we couldn’t score anything in innings 9-14.
Annoying that Dave Bush was that horrible. It was an epic meltdown. He was our last guy, too. Had the game continued, Bush would have had to have kept going, or we would have had to put a position player out there.
I’m just annoyed. This game was bad.

I’m going to take a pass on this one. Didn’t see or hear any of it.
One quick comment, though. CJ Wilson looked good, and we got a good low scoring win. Feliz though looked more like John Wettleland than I cared for. Two walks before getting the save. Don’t like that new trend by Neffy.

I’m going to take a pass on this one. Didn’t see any of it, as I was too involved with family on the night I came back from my trip. Mostly hiding from tornadoes in the bathroom, really. Baseball was a serious secondary concern.
Still, what more needs to be said other than Carlos Quentin’s three home runs? That pretty much means you’re losing if you give up something like that.

I didn’t get to see or hear any of this game, as I was still in Philadelphia at the time. Stayed over an extra day to do the family thing. I first went out to lunch at a place that’s got one of the best French Onion Soups I’ve ever had. The place is called Zoto’s Family Diner, and it’s in a Philly suburb called “Line Lexington, PA”. My brother and I got to hang out with one of our stepbrothers for lunch, so it was great to see him again. Wish we’d live closer, as Harry is a great guy to mess around with.
Hung out at my mom’s place, talked to my grandmother a bit, got to see my two nieces I don’t see too often, as well as my cousin and her husband. After most of the family left, I stayed over at my mom’s as she was taking me to the airport in the morning. A guy I worked with at three different companies back home and who was one of the ushers in my wedding came over, and we ended up talking for the better part of two hours, so that was all good. Had a great time there. It was definitely a good day spent visiting my family back home in the Philly area. All good.

I did get to see a little bit in the way of highlights at my mom’s, since I could get MLB Network, something I now lack at home. Anyway, it was nice to see Josh Hamilton & Nelson Cruz come off the disabled list. I don’t think anyone expected that both of them would hit home runs in their first games back. Oh, as a Rangers fan, you’d LIKE for that to happen, but realistically, you don’t expect it to happen. Josh’s was a solo shot in the first inning, to put us up 1-0. Nelson Cruz’s shot was in the sixth inning, a two run shot, which put us up 3-0 at the time.

Turns out Josh’s home run was all we needed due to Alexi Ogando, who seems to be the best starting pitcher we have at the moment. I mean, how do you argue with a complete game shutout? 9 innings pitched, just 5 hits, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts on 115 pitches. Was a masterpiece, and I wish I would have been able to see it. Ogando is now 5-0, and it feels like he should be 8 or 9 and 0 given the way he’s pitched overall.

Thing is, John Danks for the Sox also pitched a complete game, obviously a loss. He’s now 0-7 with an ERA of 4.34. While I don’t follow the Sox that closely, you get the impression he should have a better record than that. This game alone is one he was good for long periods of time – he didn’t allow much of anything between Hamilton’s first inning home run and Cruz’s sixth inning home run.

Michael Young continues to rip it up, getting another three hits this game. His average is now .348 after this game, and has a total of 63 hits for the season. As a bit of a cheat, the next two games he took ofers. Normally if I have to write recaps for a few games at a time, I still write them as if I don’t know what’s happening in the future games. This one I wanted to look ahead. 63 hits in game 48 is a healthy clip. :)

If Ogando keeps doing what he’s doing, I wonder if he’ll get a shot at the All-Star Game. It doesn’t realy seem that outrageous to me.

Well, game three of the Rangers/Phillies series was almost a statistical reverse of the game the night before. The score was the same, only reversed. The number of hits was mostly the same, only reversed. I was a bit surprised that Matt Harrison outdid Roy Oswalt in the game.

Harrison was darned good, though. Went 8.1 innings, gave up just five hits and walked three. Struck out three, so it was more of a hit to contact day. No runs, though, which is important. No Phillie had more than one hit, and all five of them were singles. Both walks were to DANE Sardinha (a backup catcher). So Harrison looked quite good. Might have even beat the other two Phillies pitchers we went up against.

Oswalt wasn’t any slouch either, he went seven, gave up eight hits and three walks. Obviously more than Harrison, but not an awful or outrageous number. The Philly pen allowed the other run besides the one Oswalt allowed.

Overall, this was a fantastic series pitching wise. There were a total of nine runs scored in all three games by both teams combined. If you put all the scores together, the Phillies won the overall series 5-4. That score isn’t considered too out of whack for ONE game between two teams, let alone three combined.

One amusing thing about this game, though. Since my brother and I were hanging out at his apartment, we fired up some traditional fare for the game. I’ve included a picture of the meal above. A rather large burger, one hot dog, and some potato salad plus macaroni salad. My brother whipped all that up. Was a very hearty lunch to say the least. Thing is it was a bit TOO hearty. In the middle of the fourth, we were both dozing of, so we decided to take a nap. The burger meal did us in. We slept for a couple of hours then resumed watching the game. :)

Well, I was going to two of the three games in Philadelphia, and as it turns out, the Rangers lost both of them. But again, as I also like the Phillies it wasn’t that bad for me personally. :)

Before the game though I met a friend of mine who I’ve known for about a decade or so. He works for Channel 17 in Philly, and as such he had access to the Diamond Club in the park. A comparable thing in Rangers Ballpark is the Cuervo Club, except the one in Philly is much larger. It’s structured like a true sit down restaurant. The Cuervo Club in our park is more like a bar with a bunch of bar area seating. The Philly one also overlooks the indoor batting cages too, so if you’re in there at the right time, you can see players take batting practice. We hung out there for about 30-40 minutes before the game started, and had a great time chatting. His fiance took the picture of us that’s here. Enjoyed that a lot. Had my brother and I not loaded up on our traditional trip fare (Chinese Buffet) beforehand, I probably would have had something to eat down there. :)

When that was over, I headed upstairs to the seats where my brother was. We were in exactly the same seats as the night before, so that was kind of cool. There was rain again this game, but it didn’t stop anything, as it all happened during the pregame when I was down in the Diamond Club sipping a lemonade. :)

This was a game of two former teammates in the World Series last year going against each other. The local Philly press had quotes and whatnot from Lee saying it wasn’t a big deal going against the Rangers, but that he’d be lying if there wasn’t a little “something” in his feelings for the start.

Cliff Lee was pretty masterful, as you’d expect. Eight innings pitched, just five hits and two walks. Struck out ten. Even at just two, it’s a bit more walks then you’d expect from Cliff Lee. But nobody scored, which was the bottom line. It also was only his third win of the season, which is a big surprise. But that’s more a case of the Phillies offense being lackluster this season (and most of last, too). As much as not having Cliff Lee in Texas in 2011 isn’t great, I think we’re probably better off in the long run. However, this is still the short run, and as such, he’s painful to watch when he pitches against you. Hopefully this is the last time we see him against Texas unless it’s the World Series, which would mean the explosion of my head due to a Philly/Texas World Series matchup.

Anyway, Lee looked really good, and really deserved the 2-0 win he got. Ryan Madsen who has developed into the Philly closer since the injuries to Brad Lidge & Jose Contreras was pretty darned good, too. He allowed just one hit in his scoreless inning of work, and dropped his ERA to 0.47. Got his ninth save of the season, which is a great stat when you consider it was only about Game 45 or so of the season for the Phils, and he didn’t start the year as the closer. Lot of talk up there that Madsen doesn’t relinquish the role when the other guys come back.

On the flip side was Colby Lewis. Colby was pretty good for the Rangers too. He wasn’t as dominating as Lee was, but his line was nothing to sneeze at. He pitched well enough for a win, too. 6.2 innings pitched, seven hits, two walks, and six punchouts. He allowed two runs though – one came on a home run shot by Ryan Howard in the second inning, which was his first home run in bloody ages. I managed to get him swinging on the home run shot, that picture is shown here. Came out good, too.

The second run the Phillies got came in the sixth, and was pretty much 100% the fault of Colby Lewis. He walked two in the inning (Ibanez & Ruiz), and then John Mayberry Jr (former Ranger prospect) singled to put the Phillies up 2-0. On the same play, Carlos Ruiz was thrown out at third, so the inning ended there, but the run counted.

That was pretty much it for the offense. On the Rangers side, we had just six hits, all of them singles. And half of them came from Michael Young alone, who was pretty hot in this series overall. Andrus, Kinsler, & Napoli each had singles, but that was it, aside from the two walks to Andrus & Napoli. The Phillies offense was driven by the guys you’d expect mostly. Rollins, Polanco, & Howard each had two hits. Everything was a single execept for the aforementioned Ryan Howard home run. Mayberry and Cliff Lee also had hits. Yeah, Cliff Lee.

What else is amusing is that Cliff Lee had a stolen base. I personally would have ruled it defensive indifference as there was ZERO attempt by the Rangers to stop him. But when it was happening in the stadium, Lee got a lot of cheers and hollering. It did seem funny to see the pitcher trying to steal second base. And getting away with it.

That was pretty much it. It was a fun game. Got to meet a friend of mine I’d never met face to face, and got to hang out with my brother for another game. Rangers lost 2-0, but my hometown team won, so it was good for me all around. :)
Game three of the series was a different kind of viewing experience.