You know, this has been one incredible season for the Texas Rangers so far. No, they’re not really contenders yet from an organizational standpoint (despite being within longshot range of the wildcard) and yes, we’ve cringed and ripped our hairout over more than our fair share of injury woes and pitching meltdowns. But this team has also produced some very memorable moments on the baseball diamond that are going to stay with it’s fans for a very long time – and last night was one of those moments.
Coming into last night’s game, the Yankees had won their last 10 games in the Ballpark in Arlington. And the way things started off, it looked like they might be on their way to #11 after they opened up a 3-0 lead in the 4th with solo homers by Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano. But as we all know by now, 3 run leads do not scare the Rangers - David Murphy quickly responded for Texas, bashing a 2-run shot of his own in the bottom half of the inning, making it 3-2.
The umpiring crew made it 4-2 in the top of the 5th when they called two balks on Vicente Padilla, which allowed Johnny Damon to make it around to score. At the least one of the balks was very questionable in my opinion – but then again, east-coast bias from umpires is hardly anything new. In fact it’s something you pretty much expect when you’re playing the Yankees. Kudos to Ron Washington for arguing the call after the second balk however - one of my beefs with him is that he doesn’t defend his players enough, but he made his statement yesterday and it may have attributed to what turned out to be the game-changing call the next inning.
With nobody out in the bottom of the 5th and Ramon Vazquez standing on first after a leadoff single, Ian Kinsler hit a tapper out in front of home plate that started rolling slowly down the third base line. Pudge Rodriguez quickly picked it up and threw to second to nail Ramon Vazquez, and after the relay to first, the Yankees believed they had completed a double play. But the ball had slightly nicked Ian Kinsler on the thigh before kicking down the third baseline and Kinsler alertly didn’t budge from the batters box until the umpires huddled to discuss the call. And much to my pleasant suprise, when they broke the huddle they got it right and reversed the call, continuing Kinsler’s AB. Kinsler proceeded to work a walk, after which Michael Young stepped in and blasted a 3-run homer to right to give the Rangers a 5-4 lead. While it can’t be said for certain, I’d be willing to bet that Ron Washington’s stand on the balks in the top of the inning at least played a subconscious role in the umpires decision to overturn the double player right there - maybe Ron is starting to see that getting out of the dugout to argue may really have its benefits after all.
The game stayed 5-4 until the 8th, when Xavier Nady got ahold of a 2-out Frankie Francisco offering and belted it to right where it just barely cleared the fence and the glove of a leaping Marlon Byrd to tie the game at 5. Eddie Guardado nearly got touched for a run in the top of the 9th as well - it took a fairly spectacular rolling catch by Josh Hamilton to spear a sinking Derek Jeter liner to keep the game tied.
Interestingly enough, it would be against southpaw Damaso Marte that the Rangers made their final charge against in the bottom 9th – the Rangers may have had their troubles hitting left-handed pitching this year but they really didn’t have to do a whole lot of hitting against Marte, who was wild. He walked the sacs full by issuing passes to pinch-hitter Milton Bradley, Gerald Laird and Josh Hamilton around an Ian Kinsler strikeout and a Michael Young flyout. That brought up Byrd, who has hit just .183 with RISP this year. I have to admit, I was yelling for a pinch-hitter at my computer screen, but then… BAM.
Byrd had gone up there looking for a first pitch slider from Marte, and what he got was room service. He knew it was gone off the bat, and walkoff pandemonium ensued as soon as it cleared the wall, the Rangers storming the field and mobbing their latest 9th-inning hero. It was the 6th Ranger walkoff this year, and the third in the last 8 games – what the Rangers offense has been doing in the late innings lately has just simply been unprecedented greatness.
“Just great,” Byrd said. “We just keep picking each other up. The second half … that’s what we’ve been doing. That’s what winning teams do.”
The Rangers are now hovering at 5 games behind Boston for the AL wildcard – not that that I think we’re going to actually catch the Red Sox or anything, but from a prestige standpoint, it’s kinda nice to be considered longshots again. One can only hope that any whiff of being in the postseason race will give this team some motivation for 2009.
I’m afraid I’ve got to cut this post short, as I don’t have time to run down all the Ranger notes right now - tonight, Matt Harrison will take on Andy Pettitte at the Ballpark in a battle of southpaws (which is bad news for the Texas offense of course). I’m interested to see if Harrison can reign in his control under the tutelage of new pitching coach Andy Hawkins - he walked 5 en route to giving up 6 runs his last start, and for a guy whose command was his calling card in the minors, that’s going to need to improve.
