Wish you were here

The final two games of the Rangers-Twins series were bittersweet for me. Or can I say sweetbitter?

The sweet part was winning -- once with a combination of bats and a great pitching arm, and the other time with pure guts.

The bitter part was knowing I was supposed to be there seeing both games. I'm so disappointed that the tickets I bought to Wednesday's and Thursday's games had to be wasted because of gas prices. Grrrrrrr. I could have walked out of the Metrodome a very happy Rangers fan two days in a row. *sigh*

But I have to get over that and just live with it. I suppose it helps that my boys won period. And brought themselves back to one game beneath that seemingly elusive .500 mark.

I picked a good day to wear my Josh Hamilton player tee. He was 3 for 5 today, including a home run, which turned out to be the game-winner. Hamilton just continues to pad his stats, which already has him leading the league in all three triple crown categories.

As thrilled as I was by Hamilton's performance, I was proudest of C.J. Wilson's. It's no secret Ceej has had some troubles these last few weeks. As I watched the Yahoo! box score this afternoon, I felt my stomach knot up when I saw C.J.'s picture fill the "pitching" slot in the bottom of the 10th. Josh Hamilton had just spotted him a one-run lead, and C.J. had to face the top of the Twins order, which started with Carlos Gomez, who was 4-4 with a HBP for the day. I was practically holding my breath during that at bat, until I read that Gomez flied out to center. Whew. One down, and two to go -- 0-3 Brendan Harris and 2-4 Michael Cuddyer. C.J. quickly got ahead of Harris, 0-2 and then got the Twins SS to groundout. Cuddyer struck out and the game ended. I wish I could have seen C.J.'s face, and I hope he was smiling. I also hope he's found whatever has been missing the last few weeks because I know that wasn't the real C.J. Wilson.

The Rangers finished the day with 16 hits, 12 of which came from the top five men in the order. The bottom four were 4 for 15. But Vazquez can be forgiven for his one hit because he also drew three of the team's seven walks.

Rangers pitchers also gave up seven walks, but none were more devastating than those surrendered by Jamey Wright in his two-thirds inning of work. They allowed the Twins to catch up with the Rangers, making the score 5-6. Benoit should probably share some blame too. He gave up two runs in two innings of work and got a blown save AND a win. Tell me that's not a strange line. Only Wilson and Francisco had scoreless outings.

KISS: Extremely tough call between pitching and hitting, but I think I've gotta go with Hamilton. The guy is just a beast, and is only barely getting the attention he deserves nationally. That's alright, though. The fans are noticing, and they're the ones who matter to me.

MISS: Wright. Just when I was starting to let him back in my good graces, he has an outing like this. I wonder if it's just the Metrodome. He didn't pitch well there last year either.

The Rangers roll on to Cleveland now. If the weather cooperates, I'll only get to see one Rangers game live (though I'll be DVRing all three of them). Friday and Saturday night, I will hopefully be heading out to Principal Park to watch Jason Botts and the Redhawks take on Josh Kroeger and the Iowa Cubs. Should be a good four-game series. The Iowa Cubs are 22 and 24 and just two games behind the Memphis Redbirds in the PCL American North. Meanwhile, the Redhawks are leading the PCL American South with a record of 27 and 20.