A Dallas TV station got too hot & bothered and sent this text, obviously before Game 6 had concluded. FAIL.
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Tag Archives: Texas Rangers
It was the best of times…
The Lions’ complete dismantling of the Bears certainly helped, but to completely get over Nelson Cruz‘ 11th-inning, walk-off grand slam (the first in MLB postseason history) which put the Tigers down 2-0 in the ALCS is going to take some time. The majestic shot off of “reliever” (in the loosest sense of the term) Ryan Perry was so monstrous that I had plenty of time to judge it’s apocalyptic trajectory and switch over to the start of the Lions game before the ball landed safely into the sickeningly jubilant throng in Arlington’s left field bleachers.
To even get to that point was an adventure. First, the game was originally scheduled for Sunday night, but was inexplicably cancelled four hours before game time due to rain. The only thing is IT NEVER RAINED. So the game was moved to late afternoon on Monday when most people are actually working. Added to Games 4 and 5* (*if necessary) that are already scheduled for the late afternoon in Detroit and you have a situation where most of the fanbases of the Rangers and Tigers won’t be able to watch the majority of the ALCS. And Commissioner Bud “Admiral Akbar” Selig can’t figure out why his TV ratings continue to plummet?
When the game finally began, the Rangers immediately jumped out to a 2-0 as I stewed in my office listening to ESPN’s shaky internet feed. Meanwhile, the Tigers squandered chance after chance, stranding five runners on base in the first two innings. Finally, the Tigers capitalized on Derek Holland’s wildness and took the lead with a Ryan Raburn three-rum bomb. Max Scherzer then settled in and cruised through the 6th, at one point mowing down 12 straight Rangers.
Going into the bottom of the 7th, as I walked home from the train listening on my iPhone, I agreed with manager Jim Leyland’s decision to stick with Scherzer as he had thrown only 87 pitches. Facing the bottom of the order, I thought it was a good move to try not to tax a bullpen that is sure to be tested with no off days scheduled until Friday. Unfortunately, the bottom of the Rangers’ order includes the aforementioned Nelson Cruz who promptly deposited a ball over the wall in left to tie the game at three—a harbinger of the awful things to come…
I got home in time to watch Tigers relievers quiet the crowd and Texas’ bats until the Human Heart Attack, Jose Valverde entered in the 9th. The Big Potato immediately gave up a double to Adrian Beltre which then forced him to intentionally walk Mike Napoli. Valverde swiftly drilled Cruz in the wrist and chest, dropping the slugger to the ground and loading the bases with no outs. I guess you might as well hurt the guy if you’re going to put him on base anyway, he just should’ve hit him harder.
Valverde has been infamously bad in non-save situations all year (5.79 ERA) so I thought I was reading the righting on the walls until he got David Murphy to fly out for the first out of the inning setting up the possibility of a game-saving double play. With a grounder to first I was off my couch to witness Miguel Cabrera fire the ball home for one and receive it back from Alex Avila for two to complete the improbable 3-2-3 double play to cheat death.
Unfortunately, the great escape only prolonged the inevitable as the deeper Texas bullpen outlasted Detroit’s, eventually forcing Leyland’s hand to go with the 24-year-old Perry who really shouldn’t even be on a major league roster at this point with a 5.35 ERA in 37 innings this year. Cruz’ eventual soul-crushing blast wasn’t too difficult to see coming.
Yes, the Lions’ utter humiliation of the Bears certainly did help ease the pain of a critical Tigers’ defeat. But it doesn’t change that the Tigers essentially need to take all three upcoming games in Detroit, starting tonight, to have any chance of going to their 11th World Series in franchise history.
2011 Playoff Predictions
Well, after having a .750 winning percentage in my preseason predictions last season, I’m a mess this season. At the All-Star break everything was intact in the NL for me, while the Yankees and Indians continued to surprise with the Red Sox trading spots with the Yankees every few days and the Tigers and White Sox gaining on the Indians.
The one thing that I blew right off the bat was the Toronto Blue Jays winning the Wild Card. They were well out of it by June, in what looked like the Yankees and Red Sox both in the playoffs again. It seemed like the story for the NL East also, with Phillies and Braves would both make the playoffs. Then the craziest few minutes of baseball happened.
11:40pm – Atlanta loses and has blown a 10.5 game lead that they held over the Cardinals, Cards in the playoffs
12:02am – Papelbon blows the game for the Red Sox to the Orioles
12:05am – Evan Longoria hits the game winning home run to put the Rays in the playoffs over the Red Sox.
Best.Night.Ever. If you didn’t like the Wild Card before, you’d be insane not to love it after last night.
So needless to say, in a 25 minute time span I lost two of my predicted playoff teams, so I did not fair very well. Now I shall burn some more brain cells and try to guess my way through the playoffs. It worked last year, I called it 100% correctly through sound logic; good pitching. Here’s the problem, good pitching comes in the form of one or two startera per roster except for Philadelphia, Arizona, Milwaukee and Texas, yet pure power propelled the Yankees to the best record in the AL.
The Rangers have four starting pitchers with an ERA less than 4.00, the Yankees and Rays have three, and the Tigers have two but they are insanely low, Justin Verlander and Doug Fister. Verlander’s ERA is 2.40, but even more amazing is Fister’s ERA since joining the Tigers is 1.79 (2.83 for season) in 11 starts. Let me put it to you this way, if Verlander and Fister pitch like that in the playoffs; it’s over.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned teams in the NL match-up quite well, even the Cardinals do in a short series. The main question is “how big is the chip on the Phillies shoulder?” I’m not sure if it’s big enough…
NLDS
St. Louis vs. Philadelphia
Does LaRussa have any magic left after being the surprise story out of the NL Central this year, making up a 10.5 game deficit to catch the Braves for the NL Wildcard spot. With Carpenter having to pitch the Cards into the playoffs, the game one match-up of Kyle Loshe vs. Roy Halladay doesn’t seem fair. Phillies win this series with some drama.
Prediction: Phillies in 4
Arizona vs. Milwaukee
The Brewers went out and added solid veteran pitching to go along with their solid offense and the won the NL Central quite easily. Arizona is the surprise story of the year, stealing the AL West from the Giants this season. The Brewers have the advantage in this one because they have the more veteran staff.
Prediction: Brewers in 3
ALDS
Detroit vs. New York
The Yankees may have a pitching staff that is actually better than the Tigers for an extended series, but in only a five game series you do not really need more than two solid pitchers, and the Tigers have that. However, I’m struggling with the Curtis Granderson effect and his incredible season. I can’t help but think that Granderson will come up big in this series and help the Yankees make another run. As much as this pains me, the Yankees win the series.
Prediction: Yankees in 5
Tampa Bay vs. Texas
Deja vu! The Rangers hold the home field advantage in this one this year, and the Rays are one of the hottest teams in baseball right now, in fact, so hot they will upset the Rangers.The Rangers have a solid team, but sometimes you just go with the hot hand.
Prediction: Rays in 4
NLCS
Milwaukee vs. Philadelphia
The aces of the Philly staff will fail again this year, I see no reason why they would not. The pressure to make up for last season will crush the Phillies and their fans again. The Brewers will power through the Phillies and keep their aging team in check.
Prediction: Brewers in 5
ALCS
Rays vs. New York
Yawn… I actually hope I can write how I was wrong and the Tigers are here, but I’m following my gut as I did last season, part statistics part feeling. Anyway, I think we know how this one ends, with the Yankees going to another World Series.
Prediction: Yankees in 5
The World Series
Brewers vs. Yankees
My second thought is I’m completely wrong and this is Philly vs. Detroit, but I’ll stick with my first instinct if for no reason other than pure laziness and having to rewrite the whole post. So, who wins this series? The teams match-up well, but can the Brewers beat the evil empire? I’m really not worried about being wrong after my horrible regular season predictions. I’m backing the Brew Crew!
Prediction: Brewers in 7
Looking good, feeling good
The Chicago White Sox are sitting in a much better position this season then they were last season at this point, well at least record wise. At this point last season the Sox were 18-25 and 7.5 games out of first, in contrast they are currently 22-26 and trail the Cleveland Indians by nine games. The Sox did not get to .500 last season until June 20, while it seems like they should be three weeks ahead of that pace.
What does it all mean?
While the 2011 Sox made things hard on themselves, they’ve rebounded sooner then last season as they’ve gone 11-4 in their last 15 games. If they have the same success on their latest road trip this week as they did on their West Coast swing a few weeks ago, they should finish the week at .500.
The only team that has played consistently well in the AL Central has been the Cleveland Indians, but the Sox have beat them four out-of-five times. Every time it looks like the Tigers are going to get going they hit a wall, like the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates. The Tigers lost five-in-a-row including two-out-of-three to the Pirates this weekend, with the Pirates giving Max Scherzer his first loss of the season.
Kansas City has come down to earth, and the only question for Minnesota is when do we rebuild for next season? The Sox reached an all-time low at 9.5 games out when they began their 25-5 run, the Twins are 14.5 games back with only 15 wins, the fewest in baseball. Can’t say that I feel a bit sorry for the Twins.
Paul Konerko said it best, “We’re doing it right, we’re not thinking about the standings, thinking about the record, just kind of playing each day for what it is.”
Tonight another weapon returns to the White Sox lineup, Carlos Quentin, who sat out the last two games with a bruised knee. John Danks will try for his first win of the season against his former team, the Texas Rangers, in Arlington Texas. It should be a good one with Danks squaring off against newcomer, Alexi Ogando, making his ninth Major League start.
2005 magic!
I’m sitting in Midway airport waiting for my flight to Aspen to board reflecting on another run explosion from the San Francisco Giants last night. 20 runs in two games, a team that scored 19 runs in six games against the Phillies.
A large part of the nine runs scored last night can be credited to two former 2005 White Sox Champions, Juan Uribe and Aaron Rowand. Four of the nine runs were driven in by Uribe and Rowand.
Of course, the praises of Uribe this post season are all well deserved; he hit the home run that propelled the Giants to the series, he hit the three run bomb that broke game one of the World Series open, and drove in two last night.
It’s interesting that Ozzie Guillen bet against his former players picking the Texas Rangers to win it all as a Fox analyst during the World Series.
It’s funny because the Giants are really the exact team he had hoped the Sox would be this year, so is Guillen essentially saying the Sox were not good enough to win the World Series? Hmmmmmmm.
Cliff This!
It was definitely more Cliff Burton on Wednesday night than Cliff Lee as the San Francisco Giants thrashed the Texas Rangers 11-7. Lee was staked to a two run lead, but the Giants fought back and tied it in the bottom of the third on hits by Freddy Sanchez and rookie phenom, Buster Posey. Move over Joe Mauer, there’s a new stud catcher in the majors and his name is Buster Posey.
The Giants chased Lee in the fifth with the big blow being dealt by ex-White Sox 2005 Champion, Juan Uribe. Lee had exited and reliever Darren O’Day entered the game and Uribe hit a three run bomb over the left field wall. Texas scored two in the sixth, but it was a little peep as the Giants exploded for 11 runs.
I must admit that the run explosion even surprised me, but the win was expected. “The Freak” Tim Lincecum definitely out dueled Lee, but still only last 5-2/3 innings letting up four runs. Texas made it a little interesting in the bottom of the ninth by loading the bases, but Brian Wilson came on and took care of business. He did let up a double to Nelson Cruz after retiring Vladimir Guerrero on a fly out, but Ian Kinsler popped out to solidify the Giants victory. FEAR THE BEARD!!!
“The Curse” spreads
Digital enhancement reveals Greg Brady was actually wearing a 1908 Cubs tiki when he had his brush with death in Hawaii.
It seems the infamous Cubs’ “curse” isn’t exclusive to the Cubs alone. Much like the tiki idol necklace in the Brady Bunch’s Hawaii episodes, horrible luck is rubbing off on everything the organization touches.
First, it’s announced that BP will sponsor the annual series between the Cubs and Sox and award the first BP Crosstown Cup to the winner this summer. Meanwhile, a BP oil well blows out in the Gulf of Mexico causing what could end up being the worst ecological catastrophe in U.S. history.
Next, the Cubs go to Texas to take on the Rangers for their first interleague series of the year. They take the series from the Rangers but also apparently take away their solvency as the Rangers are forced to file for bankruptcy the very next day.
Now the bad juju seems to be coming full circle as Wrigley Field has just lost power in the top of the 4th, bringing the game to an abrupt halt. Maybe the only solution is to just return the Cubs to that creepy Hawaiian burial cave and be done with it.
