Goodbye, Awful August!

Did we really have a chance today? I mean the Rangers are batting .278 as a team, and that's only because their catcher is only batting .209. Get rid of him and it's .289. They have 156 homers, we have 116. Their pitching isn't that amazing but what they lack in run preventing they make up for in run getting.

The Rangers average over 5 runs per game (the Indians, somehow, a smidge over 4) and Ubaldo held them to just 4, albeit in 5 2/3 innings. So, yay? He struck out 7. Also the team wasn't exactly sharp behind him, even though they didn't get any official errors. It was a little whacky out there. All-in-all, Ubaldo had a decent outing. Not the kind of outing you expect from someone who's super awesome (the guy we thought we were buying) but a good outing if you're going to take into consideration how he has pitched this year.

Esmil Rogers struck out 3 again, over 1 2/3 innings. He struck out 4 his last game, in 2 innings. Good with the strikeouts, pretty decent on keeping runs from scoring. Not today, of course. Today he gave up 1 run. But at least it wasn't the winning run.  He also made Nelson Cruz throw a little temper tantrum. It must suck to be the lowest-average guy even when your average is .262.

Cody Allen pitched 2 innings. Two whole innings, no runs. We'd better be signing that kid up for a few years. Not being facetious - he does 1 and 2 innings with no runs all the time. KEEPER!

Hits were few and far between today, so it was pretty miraculous that we managed to score THREE WHOLE RUNS! Only 5 hits for 3 guys. We did walk 4 times, though.

Choo was back in the leadoff, and apparently this mental break of not having to kill the ball, just hit it, put him back in his happy place. Because he went 2 for 4 with his 36th double! Absolutely nothing came of that, though - no runs, no RBI.

The order then went Kipnis, Cabrera and Brantley. None of those guys hit but they all walked once. Asdrubal came around to score!

Not sure what got in to Santana but he was swingin' away tonight and also went 2 for 4 with a double! He got an RBI and he came around to score. These things happened in two different innings, even!

And still here and still making things happen is Casey Kotchman! He got a 2-run homer in the 9th! It was the most excited I've heard Tom Hamilton in a long while. Because who doesn't love it when Casey Kotchman is good at the plate?!

So that was it, yo. No more hits down the line, no more runs. Hannahan walked once and was replaced by Lillibridge. Zeke played center as Brantley was DH, and Zeke didn't look so hot. Donald had a nice sliding catch in left but still...did we need to get rid of Shelley?

More Rangers tomorrow at 7:05, and it's the return of Jeanmar Gomez! If he could keep the Rangers in check (uh...) then we might have a chance against RHP (4.95). But there's a reason we sent Jeanmar down in the first place so don't hold your breath.

I'll be at the Nerf War with my sweet modded Nerf Big Bad Bow (explanation) so I don't know when I'll get to the game. But you know I'll get to it...see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"They'll always be second place behind those clowns across the parking lot."
- Tom Hamilton on the Rangers versus the Cowboys

"[Josh] Hamilton doesn't think much when he's up at the plate. He's up there with one thought in mind - see the ball, crush the ball."
- Tom Hamilton

"Sometimes 110 pitches seems easy. On a night like tonight it feels like 150."
- Tom Hamilton

"Even with two strikes...Carlos Santana seeing if there is a chance he could hit that ball to Pepper Pike. And he didn't."
- Tom Hamilton

"This is not the time of the year to be playing the Texas Rangers."
- Tom Hamilton

"Now that's a strikeout to remember!"
- Tom Hamilton on Nelson Cruz throwing a hissy fit after being struck out

"Wouldn't that be something if the Yankees didn't make the playoffs? Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus. [...] Two-hundred-ten million just doesn't buy you what it used to."
- Tom Hamilton