The "Hello Win Column!" sign that flashes after every Rangers home win is becoming a regular occurrence in Arlington.
Rangers headed into Friday night with a 1½ game lead over the Angels, perennial contenders in the AL West.
It seemed like another breeze victory for the Rangers. Kinsler had homered twice, Andruw Jones had pounded a two run home run, and while the Angels were churning out hits, they weren't able to capitalize against Millwood and Holland for the most part. When the Rangers came up to bat in the bottom of the 8th, their 8-3 lead seemed like a sure victory. But Josh Hamilton decided to make sure they won the game when he absolutely crushed a pitch into the upper deck in right field. 468 feet, the second longest home run in the 15 year history of the ballpark. It was a two run shot and the Rangers led 10-3.
Holland came back for his third inning of work and got Kendrick to ground out and Quinlan to fly out. 2 outs, 7 run lead, no problem, right? Wrong. Oh so wrong.
Something odd happened in that ninth inning. Figgins, facing 2 outs and 2 strikes, singled. Erick Aybar, facing the game's final strike, doubled and moved Figgins to third. Abreu came up, and like the previous two hitters, faced the final strike of the game and was able to double them both home. 10-5, Abreu at second.
Holland walked the next batter on 5 pitches. In came Darren O'Day. O'Day faced Kendry Morales and left a 1-1 pitch hanging. Morales blasted the ball to center field and cut the lead to 10-8. Uh-oh.
For the fourth time in the inning, an Angels hitter faced the final strike of the game, but Mike Napoli was able to get a single off of O'Day.
In comes CJ Wilson. Yikes. The game is really over now, and not in a good way.
Wilson walked Juan Rivera. Really!? It was 10-3, 2 outs, 2 strikes on Chone Figgins, and now the go-ahead run in Howie Kendrick was coming up. The Rangers escape though when Ian Kinsler made a nice backhanded scoop and pitched for the force out to Andrus on second, ending the game, 10-8.
This was not a happy win though. The team seemed very subdued when it was done and very disappointed. They should be. Josh Hamilton's batting practice home run in the 8th inning was supposed to be something to marvel at for fun...not supposed to be the game winning hit.
Rangers win, but it may have been the least enthusiastic win the team has ever gotten. They know they almost blew it and maybe should have blown it the way they played in the 9th.
Would it mess with their heads on Saturday when they'd be featured on national television?
This game was odd. Both teams scored a run in the first inning, and yet neither team had a hit. John Lackey, back pitching for the first time all season, was tossed after two pitches. He threw behind Kinsler with the first pitch and drilled him in the ribs with the second pitch. It's obvious what Lackey was doing, he was just hoping that the umpire would not toss him out and buy the excuse that he hadn't pitched in forever and thus didn't have proper control over his pitches. Yeah right.
Padilla actually struggled for a lot of the day, but he toughed through it. He went 8 innings today, allowing three runs and 10 hits. He also walked 3. Not great stuff, but gutsy stuff for sure.
And the Rangers played small ball for the afternoon. They had 5 runs on 8 hits and 4 walks, but only one of those hits went for extra bases and that was a double in the 8th by Nelly Cruz that didn't knock in a run or lead to a run being scored.
All of their runs today were off of singles and sac fly's.
Rangers led 5-3 going into the 9th and CJ Wilson was brought in to close it out. He did, thank goodness.
Rangers win! That's 6 in a row now! 13-6 at home, 3½ ahead of the Angels, 5½ ahead of the Mariners and a full 7½ ahead of the A's. WOW! If the Rangers are able to get the sweep tomorrow night, that would put them in complete control of the division very early in the season.
An exciting time to be a Rangers fan. Also a bit of a depressing time as news comes out that Frankie Francisco is going on the DL. The move is retroactive to the 7th of May, so he'll be off the DL on May 22nd.
All reports say it shouldn't be too big a deal and he should be ready on the 22nd.
Jered Weaver against Scott Feldman at 1:05 on Sunday. The Rangers go for their first sweep of the Angels since September 2007.
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