The Kind of Night that Makes Me Want to Give up on Baseball
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by user ASwaff
Game 101
Rangers 4
Yankees 7
51-50 (-1.0)
Tonight was one of those nights…the kind of night that makes me want to give up on baseball entirely. The Texas Rangers lost their second in a row to the Yankees tonight. It was the fifth consecutive game the Rangers lost to the Yankees in Arlington. Kind of reminds me of that part in Rudy when the Coach Dan Devine says, “Nobody…comes into our house and pushes us around.” Just like that, except that the Rangers are doing the exact opposite.
With the loss, the Rangers fall to 25-27 at home. That puts them at 20th in the Major Leagues in home wins, right there with company like the Cleveland Indians, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates. Power houses all. They are even worse in home win percentage at 23rd (.481).
But allow me to digress for a moment to walk you through my night. I was working the Round Rock Express game tonight, so I had to watch the Rangers lose on Gamecast. While I was watching the Rangers lose on Gamecast, I was simultaneously watching the Astros once again put up a futile effort for Roger Clemens, managing just four hits against the Reds and their stellar pitching staff (sense the sarcasm). As for the Express game, the hometown boys lost in twelve innings, managing to scrape out just two runs on 12 hits. In 12 innings, they stranded 11 baserunners and struck out 16 times.
So, it was a pretty defeating night all around.
The second best thing I can say about tonight is that Adam Eaton looked really good…for three innings. As I said, I was watching the game via Gamecast, so I can’t say exactly what happened (if anyone can provide further insight, it would be much appreciated). But, Eaton totally melted down in the fourth. He was cruising through 3.2 innings, working on a no-hitter, when the wheels totally came off. He couldn’t throw strikes. With two outs in the fourth, he walked Alex Rodriguez. Then he walked Jorge Posada. Then, on a full count, he hit Aaron Guiel with a pitch to load the bases. Then he walked Andy Phillips.
At this point, I’m thinking, “hey, he lost the shutout, but he still has the no-hitter.” That lasted two more pitches. On a 1-1 count, Miguel Cairo broke up the no-hitter with a single that scored two runs to put the Yankees up 3-2.
New York iced the game in the fifth inning with three more runs off Ron Mahay (who is quickly working towards getting back his old nickname of “Mayday”). The final line for Adam Eaton was 3.2 IP, 1 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 K. It’s a deceptive line because, as I said, he had just the one bad inning. The Rangers were hoping for better, to be sure, but there were glimmers of hope in this start. If he can just work on his command and keep his pitch count down in his next start, he should be able to string more good innings together.
For the second night in a row, the Rangers were impotent against the Yankees bullpen, managing one run on three hits in three innings.
The best thing I can say about tonight is that everyone else in the AL West lost, so the Rangers didn’t lose any ground in the playoff race.
Texas will get one last chance to beat the Yankees this season tomorrow night at 7:05 CST. Surprisingly, it appears that they will send lefty John Rheinecker (4-4, 5.13) to the mound to face Jaret Wright (6-6, 4.71). Turns out the Rangers decided to keep Rheinecker and John Wasdin, and chose to designate reliever Bryan Corey for assignment to make room for Eaton. Although the Rangers defeated Wright earlier this season, the deck is certainly not stacked in their favor. The Yankees are 20-9 against left-handed pitchers this season, Rheinecker has not won since July 3, and he has an ERA of 9.47 in his last three starts.
READ MORE RANGERS NEWS AT BASEBALL TIME IN ARLINGTON
Date
Tue 07/25/06, 10:22 pm EST
