Welcome back, Rangers' bats!

HHD, you weren't quite right above us -- you were a little to our right.

Shadowdancer and I were in Row 1 of 224, perfect seats except that no foul balls were hit into our section. We had a pretty good angle on balls and strikes, but not as good as the people in the various levels of 26.

We usually don't spring for those kind of tickets (centerfield bleachers is our usual haunt) but 'Dancer wanted to do something special for the 4th of July. We had a great time!

We did get to holler at "Poo-Poo" before the game. Didn't see Peanut.
 
Pretty terrific fireworks show after the game, wasn't it, Texanne!

HHD
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We have no chance against King Felix. We are doomed. As evidence see Kinslers first AB.

Cruz is sitting for 3rd straight game. Very strange.

Hook'em!!!
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Horn69 has got his Mariner jinx mojo going... keep it up!

Rangers cling to a slim 1-0 lead. Texanne, Rex, AE98 & OUE we need some of your mojo to git 'er done!
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How sweet would it be to pound Mr. Rice Owl Aardsma in the 9th???

Let's go, Rangers!!!
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I never realized until this night how much Don Wakamatsu looks like Coach Taylor.

Tommy Hunter deserves to win that game. I say let him go
judo champ on CJ Wilson.

I really wish we could get rid of Wilson. Let him blow ballgames for someone else.
 
To me, last night's game is exhibit #1,859 in why managers should not have a hard and fast rule prohibiting using their closer before the ninth inning. Gutierrez may have "only" 50 points higher in his batting average against lefites, he has enormous power splits. He is the Mariners' hottest hitter, hitting .480 over the last 12 games and nearly .390 since the start of June 16.

After Gutierrez, you have left handed hitter career average .234 Langerhans, then the bottom of the Mariner order, which is 3 pathetically inept righties (Woodward, Johnson, Cedeno).

I'd say the the descending preference of options is obvious.

1) Bring in the closer to face Gutierrez and continue to finish the game;

2) Bring in a different righty to face Gutierrez, a loogy if necessary for Langerhans, then Francisco;

3) Walk Gutierrez so Wilson can face Langerhans. and

4) Let Wilson face Gutierrez and hope.

When Gutierrez was at the plate, the Mariners had only favorable situational matchup (counting desirability of hitter and r-l matchup) they could have for the whole rest of the game, and not taking the Mariners out of that situation was a big mistake. The Mariners had their only good hitter left at the plate with runners on. There were 2 out in the eighth. Francisco had thrown only 37 pitchers over the last 7 days. Surely he could have gone one extra batter last night.
 
Last night was a real kick to the onions. I was watching the whole time, for the person who sent out a request for support earlier.

Not like I expected a victory, given the pitching matchup, but it still stings being up w/2 outs in the 8th, only to fritter it away.

People must really hate Wilson. I don't think folks realize how effective he has been over the first half. He has had maybe 3 bad outings, including last night. Most of the time, he has been dominant as the set-up guy. The truly depressing aspect of last night was the fact that the Gutierrez homer was probably one of only 2 hard hit balls on the evening for Seattle. Unfortunately, it came with 2 men on-base late in the game.

Felix is so good. Damn. With the addition of his "turn my back during my wind-up" delivery, he's even tougher.

And lost in the dramatics was yet another stellar outing for Hunter. I may get blasted, but I think he's looked better than Holland. His stuff is excellent and his command has really improved. The development of his cutter and improvement to his curveball have vaulted him into becoming our best young starter, potentially. Harrison and Holland will have something to say about that, but it's a nice problem to have for a change. That doesn't even account for Scooter Feldman, who has been a rock all year. What about B-Mc? He had started to improve before injury. Where will he fit in when he comes off the DL? Same for Harrison, really. I guess Holland or Hunter are back to the bullpen? Hope not if they continue to pitch so well.
 
I don't hate Wilson, and I think he's generally pitched quite well. I just think it was stupid to leave him in to face Gutierrez in that situation.

I wasn't paying attention to the game, so maybe there was some reason Francisco couldn't go. Of course, maybe Gutierrez would have whacked it out against anyone. No one can say for certain.

Still, I think this game shows the manager would rather stick to a simplistic rule rather than bother to analyze the situation. That's unfortunate. To me, the thing that most separates the great managers from the competent ones is the ability to anticipate the need to change pitchers. Simply deciding beforehand that the closer only pitches the ninth without allowing for any flexibility in that decision is basically punting the job.
 
It's hard to criticize the Rangers' bullpen. Look what they've done the last two weeks - for that matter, look at the season to date. Everyone is going to blow one now and then. It was unfortunate to blow the lead in the 8th last night, but look how many times the bullpen has come on in the 7th or later and shut the opponents down cold to preserve wins. I'm happy with the bullpen.
And I agree re Tommy Hunter - I think we have a very solid starter coming along in him.

HHD
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That's all right, OUEngineer. I didn't think you were talking to me. I agree the venom against Wilson is misplaced at best.
 
Gee, it was just a few weeks ago that almost everybody here wanted to string Wilson up by his scrotum ... now you're all licking 'em.

I had total confidence in CJ last season, but this season he's been too erratic for me. Yes, he has had some great performances, but I just don't trust him with the game on the line. When he forgets about all the "mystic ****" he tries to create, and just pitches, he's good, but there are too many times that his efforts to create a "persona" get in his way. And I think that's what happened last night.

Why not just leave O'Day in there?
 
In reply to:

"Gee, it was just a few weeks ago that almost everybody here wanted to string Wilson up by his scrotum ... now you're all licking 'em"


Tex you cracked me up with that one, but your right.... I admit I was one of the bleacher fans howling for CJ's 'nads. I was cussing him last night vs. the Mariners too, but in all fairness, the dude has pitched pretty well and won a bunch of games the last 60+ days.
 
OK, Ignatius, look this up. Understand that I am not trying to be obtuse, but I don't have the time to look it up.

1. How many of CJ's inherited runners have scored.

2. How many of the runs that have scored on his watch, whether charged to him or to the previous pitcher, scored when the Rangers were trying to protect a lead of 3 or fewer runs.
 
After today's game, I have to update the answers about CJ Wilson.

1. 4/13

2. Well, at least two of them were inherited in a tie game.
 
Oddly enough, I'm not angry with CJ about today's loss. Those two guys whon scored the final two Mariner runs should not even have gotten on base.

What's weird is that we own the Angels, the Yankees own us, and the Angels own the Yankees. And we drop three of four to the Mariners ...
 
I didn't see the game, but on the Scout Rangers site, someone described the two hits CJ surrendered as fluke bloopers, the first one coming when Shelton broke his bat. That's pretty tough, if true.
 
Yeah, bierce, they weren't tagging him, that's for sure. Those balls were flukes, but they shouldn't have mattered, except for fielding miscues that put runners on base prior.
 
What a terrible way to head into the break.

I haven't seen a collection of weaker 'hits' than what Seattle got yesterday. Pathetic that the scoreboard read, '5-11-2.' I'd say 8 of the hits were either bloopers or 5-hop-grounders that were just well placed. Two of the 'hits' shouldn't even have been hits at all, but they were obviously paying the scorekeeper, b/c both Nippert and Andrus should've been charged with errors. That would have made 4 of their 5 runs unearned, which more represents how that game played out.

Ah well, 1.5 games back of Anaheim is pretty awesome. Could've been so much better, though, which is disappointing.
 
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