A lonestar in california

Boy, what a game it was last night up in Seattle. It wasn’t a pretty game, but it certainly turned into one dramatic rollercoaster ride.

Much of the game was punctuated by the uncanny ability of the two starters, Vicente Padilla and Felix Hernandez, to get out of trouble. Padilla gave up 8 hits and 3 walks, but managed to allow only one run, and Hernandez managed to escape two bases loaded jams. By the time the game was over, Texas would leave 10 men on base, Seattle 15.

The real story of the game though was center fielder Josh Hamilton, who was showing off his athletic ability throughout the game. He made a couple of impressive running catches in the 5th and 7th innings, one in deep left center, and one in deep right center, showing off his range in center field. Then, with the game tied 1-1 in the top of the 8th, Hamilton legged out a chopper to first base for an infield single that started a 2 run rally.

 Hank Blalock followed Hamilton’s scratch hit with a double, and Milton Bradley hit a sac fly to plate Hamilton. Pinch hitter Marlon Byrd flew out, moving Blalock to third, and David Murphy double him home to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead.

But things where far from over. In the bottom of the 8th, Joaquin Benoit and the Rangers middle-infield defense attempted to give the game away, as two errors (by Ian Kinsler and Michael Young) and a wild pitch in the inning allowed Seattle to score 3 runs to take a 4-3 lead.

Some of that can probably be explained by the fact that Young and Kinsler have both been hit by a flu bug that has been curculating around the Rangers clubhouse since spring training – but that was still by far one of the ugliest defensive meltdowns I have seen in a long time.

With Mariners’ all-star closer JJ Putz coming on to pitch the top of the 9th, things appeared bleak.

But Ian Kinsler got some redemption for his error in the previous inning, lining a leadoff single into center. Michael Young then struck out, bringing up Hamilton, in the most critical spot of the game yet. Josh dug in, and promptly lined the first pitch he saw, a 93 mph Putz fastball into the right-field seats to give the Rangers a 5-4 lead, and a stunning comeback against one of baseball’s best closers.

CJ Wilson, the Rangers blue-gloved closer, still had to pitch the bottom of the 9th, which he did in his typical dramatic fashion, getting two quick outs before allowing a double to M’s shortstop Yunieskey Betancourt. With the tying run in scoring position and first base open, manager Ron Washington made the somewhat puzzling decision to pitch to the Mariners superstar CF, Ichiro Suzuki, but Wilson was able to induce an easy groundout to short to end the game, and give Texas it’s first win of the 2008 season.

Again, not a pretty game, but it certainly turned into one of the most dramatic I’ve seen in a long time. It may be only two games into the season, but Josh Hamilton is already looking like the most talented center fielder to ever play for the Texas Rangers. As EMC put it in her comment under my last entry, Roy Hobbs is playing CF for the Texas Rangers. And Roy Hobbs is amazing.

Tonight (in just about 20 minutes, in fact) it’s the rubber match of this three game series in Seattle – sinkerballer Jason Jennings is on the mound for Texas, matching up against fellow sinkerballer Carlos Silva. I sure hope the infield defense is a little better this time around – we’re going to need it.

I’ll check in later with the results of tonights game if time permits – till then, GO RANGERS!