Argh...what a frustrating loss that caps off a great day for Rangers fans.
He is back. My all time favorite player and the man I feel confident in saying is the single most popular Ranger in team history.
Working overnights as I do, I was sleeping at 1 o'clock this afternoon when I was shaken awake by my brother to tell me that Pudge Rodriguez had been traded to the Rangers. I didn't believe him. Not that it wasn't feasible (I spoke of the possibility on my twitter feed a couple of days ago) but you have to know my brother...he finds it funny to wake me up and tell me random untrue things like he did last week when I was woken up after two hours sleep and told "Ed Norton overdosed on cocaine and he's in the hospital"
I actually had to pull myself out of bed and go to a TV before I would allow myself to be excited. Sure enough...I was allowed to be excited.
As I said earlier, Pudge Rodriguez is my favorite player in the history of baseball. He is what got me into the sport when I was growing up. And while he's not the Pudge of old, he's still putting up better numbers then what we're currently getting out of our players at that position. He always calls good games, and so I'm thinking that aside from Teagarden, he may also help our young pitchers.
It's a good move anyway you look at it. Something that is very interesting is how Pudge commented in his press conference that he felt he could play two or three more years and wanted to retire with Texas. It's interesting because it seems like part of the reason Pudge was brought in was to mentor Tea, who idolizes him. If you have the young/veteran duo at catcher that can get along, and with Teagarden playing better overall baseball than Salty, I have to wonder if it's possible that Pudge isn't just a quarter year rental and if he's actually being brought in to give the Rangers some flexibility should they choose to move Saltalamacchia. Not saying it will happen, but just telling you to keep an eye on that.
Now as for the game...my excitement was so much that I had to buy tickets to Tuesday's game. Got a ball from CJ and had it signed by Kid Miracle (Derek Holland)...awesome.
The game itself was not awesome, however. While Borbon continued to get on and swipe bases, and Kinsler is still swinging the bat well after coming off the DL, and Hamilton had another RBI double, they still managed to blow a 5-0 lead...it's their biggest blown lead of the year. Quite depressing, especially on a night in which Boston and LAA won their ball games.
This game was lost (9-6) due to Feldman's fatigue and Jennings' inability to throw any pitch that was worth a damn. I loved what Jennings did earlier in the season, but he looks burned out right now. Rattled. We can't have that in the middle of a playoff chase. We can't have a pitcher who doesn't have any command on his fastball. Or a guy who has no break to pitches that are supposed to break. That's Jason Jennings right now.
With the loss and the Boston victory, Texas is now tied in the wild card lead and faces a brutal stretch of games. They need to perform and it starts by taking these next two against Minnesota.
Millwood will take the hill on Wednesday and will be caught by Pudge Rodriguez...I'm interested to see the ovation he receives.
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