I'll be honest I have not been keeping up with the Rangers since the Cowboys season started and the Rangers decided to repeat April with horrible pitching and even worse defense. Since I have a three year old that loves the Rangers and Tuesdays are kids free day and Tuesday was the last night home game we decided to go.
I was happy to hear that Nippert was pitching, but was disappointed that Laird was catching and Metcalf was playing third. I really wanted to see Teagarden and Davis. Nippert started out good but then served up some juicy pitches that just seem to hover over the plate, and he paid the price giving up two homers. The first homer hit by Jack Cust landed in the upper deck of the home run porch, and there was no doubt that it was gone when it left the bat. I hope that Cust thanked Nippert for that batting practice pitch on a 3-2 count.
The Rangers second was really fun and surprising. Hank Blalock led off the inning with an opposite field shot off the scoreboard in left. Yes you read that correctly Blalock hit a shot to left. Left... I don't want to over due it but if you have watched Blalock over the years you know he doesn't hit the ball to left. I said wow! It made me instantly think that Hank really wants to be with the Rangers next year. I just don't know if he can do enough this late in the season to keep him. He has looked good at first and hasn't made any crazy errors. If he continues to hit the ball to all fields and play hard the last few games you may have to really think about his value to this club.
Another player that I like is Travis Metcalf and I'm glad he's getting some playing time even if that means that Davis sits. Travis hit three deep balls that all stopped at the wall they just happen to end up in the outfielders gloves, but he hit each of those balls hard and if the outfield had been aligned a little bit different he would have had 3 doubles. Keep it up Travis.
Additionally I noticed last night before the game and also during they kept showing the walk off hits the Rangers had over this season, and there has been a lot I haven't researched it but I'd bet the Rangers had more ninth inning comeback wins this year than ever. The player that was in on almost everyone of those comebacks was Ramon Vazquez. I know many people I talk to don't like Vazquez, but I really like the way he plays the game and you can't argue that he hits in the clutch. I know the Rangers are stacked at the corners now, but I really think Vazquez will continue to make an impact in the MLB and I'd like to see him with the Rangers.
There were two plays that bothered me last night and they were running errors. Bradley and Arias both ran into outs and I can't stand that! Bradley tried to stretch a shot off the wall into a double, but the ball got to the wall so fast and bounced so far back to the outfielder that it was obvious he was out two strides into his turn of first. I was yelling stop, stop, he didn't listen to me and the ball was waiting for him when he got to second. Arias tried to go first to third on a shot to the gap that was fielded cleanly between center and left and again the ball was waiting for him at third. Stupid!
The last thing that I noticed in the middle of ninth was a video that played on the video board for Frank Francisco coming in to close the game. The video lasted until the first batter came up, and I thought how long has Francisco been the closer? Wow, he already has a video? I will tell you this he was awesome! Strike after strike after strike, he through 7 strikes and two balls and got two fly outs and a strikeout. Not bad at all. I prefer him over C.J. Wilson.
Quick Hit: Byrd and Bradley looked really good at the plate last night and Hamilton was just looking to get hits, his swing was so short and compact there was not doubt he was just hitting for a base hit. I hope Josh is just out of gas and doesn't have any injuries.
The Rangers need to win today and win at least one against the Angels over the weekend, if they could sweep the Angels I'd be on cloud nine.
I was going to include my thoughts on Daniels and Washington coming back next year, but I'll write another post for that.
Go Rangers!
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