Rangerfans.com

I took my daughter to this game, but to be perfectly honest, what happened in the game was pretty much not witnessed by me. Basically, I spent the majority of my time in the kid park in center field. And WAITING. Man, don’t spend all your time out there in a game with 45k+ in attendance. We spent probably a good 40% of our total time at the ballpark waiting in some sort of line. Ugh.

Still, when we weren’t waiting on some line, she had fun, and I suppose that’s the whole point. She won some prizes, had fun playing with a few other kids. Was fairly mind numbing for me, however. If I didn’t have my iPhone with me, I probably would have gone nuts. :)
We did see the first four innings from our seats in Section 302 (that’s the best we could get on walkup – egad!). One funny thing about the game, Samantha head them announce Hideki Matsui, and thought instead of Hidecki, they said “Duckie”. That made me laugh. But most of the four innings was spent with her asking me when we were going down to the games. As a baseball fan, that was hell. As a dad, I thought it was cute. Ah well. At least I used the free ticket coupons from the kids packages. Didn’t cost me much money at all.

Another starter who only went five innings. Colby Lewis went five, gave up the two runs we saw, and that was it. Oddly enough it was only on one hit. He walked two. One of them scored as it was in front of Matsui’s home run.

That’s all the notable baseball I saw. The rest I was in center field. Heard the Angels were whining about Ron Washington taking our guys out of the game in the sixth (heard it standing out there, didn’t see it). Probably just po’ed they didn’t have the chance to do it themselves. :)

2011 will be the year that Michael Young breaks about every major offensive record the Rangers have. As the 2010 Season ends, Young has

1st place in Multi-Hit games (543)
1st place in hits (1848)
2nd place in doubles (347; needs 6 to pass Pudge for first)
1st place in triples (46)
2nd place in runs (918; needs 41 to pass Raffy for first)
4th place in games (1506; needs 68 to overtake Pudge, Sundberg, & Raffy for first)

This was the final start of the season for CJ Wilson. It was more interesting to me than Cliff Lee’s last start, because we generally know what we’re getting from Cliff Lee. CJ Wilson, we don’t. This was his first year as a starter, and by all accounts, he seems to be gassed a little. His September numbers are up, and to be honest, I’m a little concerned about his start. So I was curious to see how he’d do here.
Early on, I thought “Oh crap”. He gave up two runs in the first inning on a triple, two walks, and two singles. And that was all before Wilson got the first out of the game! Egad, that was an awful start. However, he settled down a bit, and didn’t allow anything else. Just the two runs. However, he came out after five innings, having thrown 82 pitches. He probably could have gone another, but I expect the short outings at the end of the season here are to give some bullpen guys some work before the postseason starts. Our pen was good, we had four guys pitch a total of four innings, although one guy (Rapada) had a line of 0.0 IP. Rapada & Derek Holland allowed a single hit, but that was it. Pen was good.
Our offense put up a pair of three run innings. One in the fifth (to get the lead back) and one in the seventh. Only two extra base hits in all. A double by Nelson Cruz, and a big two run home run by Josh Hamilton (his 32nd overall). All the other nine hits were singles. Our hits were pretty bunched together, as all of them came in slots 1-5 in the lineup. 6-9 (Kinsler, Moreland, Treanor, & Borbon) all took an ofer, although Treanor walked once. But the hits were all up top. Two for Andrus, three for Young, two for Hamilton, one for Guerrero, & two for Cruz. Franceour pinch ran for Guerrero and got an at bat of his own, but didn’t get a hit.
Nice to see the time off doesn’t appear to have affected Hamilton’s offense. Which is huge, as we’ll need him more than ever come Wednesday.

Josh Hamilton returned for the last three games of the season, pretty much to get his swing back for the playoffs. Some would say that’s not enough time, but it’s all we’re going to get. He wasn’t the big power in this game, though.
That was Mitch Moreland, who was 2-3 with two runs scored, and two hits. Also had two walks. But the two hits were home runs. Bengie Molina also had three hits and an RBI. But the rest of the offense was spread out, and contributed to the fact that we didn’t have more runs.
Tommy Hunter was decent, although he only went five innings on 60 pitches. Obviously, he came out not because of being tired.
It’s an extra inning loss. Don’t like those. :(

Some of us have been worried about Cliff Lee a little. He was good when got here, played a little hurt for a bit and slacked, but his last few starts have been on the upswing. So it was with some minor trepidation that I approached his last start of the season. Wasn’t sure what we’d get out of him.
We didn’t get the nine innings mow ’em down Cliff Lee, but the Lee we got was the pretty darned good one anyway Cliff Lee. Seven innings, four hits, no walks, eight strikeouts. Allowed a run, but it was unearned. He looked good, if not totally dominating. Came out after 93 pitches, so that was likely a “we’re taking him out after seven anyway” type of deal.T
He didn’t get the win though, as Darren O’Day blew the save, and allowed the other run to score. Still, I was’t worried about Cliff Lee in game 1 of the playoffs now. :)
The bulk of our offense came from Vlad Guerrero & Nelson Cruz, who combined for five of the nine overall hits the Rangers got. Two of Cruz’ three hits were doubles, but that was it – all the other hits were singles. Was enough to punch across runs in the third, fourth, & eighth to win the game.
Looking forward to Cliff Lee next Wednesday. :)

A walk off strike out.
A walkoff strikeout. If it wasn’t for that, we were in serious jeoprady of being swept. Not something you want to have done to you in Game 158 of 162. Blah.
Justin Smoak homered again. Think he was jazzed up to play the Rangers?

Felix Hernandez vs Scott Feldman – no real matchup there (not in 2010) anyway.
After Feldman was out, we were down 3-0, and while our pen pitched well, we couldn’t get anything going against Felix Hernandez.
Smoak was 1-3 with two RBI’s that came on a two run home run. EEK! Smoak! Smoak!
Ah well. Limp to the finish line, eh? :)

On Monday night, the Texas Rangers did something they haven’t done in a decade. Raised a championship flag. Granted, it’s just the AL West Champs (not the AL champs, or the World Series champs), but those could still happen. Still, we’re in the playoffs, and Game 1 is Wednesday night October 6th. Wow. That’s weird.
Game 2 starter is CJ Wilson, and he got his next to the last regular season start on Monday night. It didn’t go well. Five innings, 85 pitches, 8 hits, 1 walk, but six earned runs. Ugh. Not good. Granted, this isn’t the playoffs, but it’s close enough to them, that you want your playoff starters to be good in their last couple of starters. So that’s a little disconcerting. But not enough to make me panic, I suppose.
The only other Ranger pitcher to give up a run was Pedro Strop, but I doubt he’s on the playoff roster, anyway.
The big story was Justin Smoak coming back here and going 3-4 with three RBI’s and two runs scored. Also hit a three run home run off of CJ Wilson in the fifth. He pretty much trashed Ranger pitching this game. Probably made him feel good.
Vlad Guerrero & Nelson Cruz had home runs (Cruz’ being a three run shot), but it wasn’t enough to make a difference in this game.
Ah well. Limp to the finish line, eh? :)