Hopefully, that'll be the summation of this season. But certainly it was the story for tonight.
The Rangers have a lot of ground to make up, and with the calendar turned to May, there's no better time to start. April was rough, but there's still plenty of time to pull this together and have a respectable season. Now's the time to start building that. With 13 games against division rivals in the next two weeks, it's the perfect setting for a resurgence. Can the Rangers do it? I think they can. Especially if they play more games like last Sunday's game (Padilla's complete game shutout, which featured solid defense to go with stellar pitching and timely hitting). I'm ready to return to the optimistic fan I once was. And the first two games of May have helped me with that a little.
Vicente Padilla did not earn a quality start tonight in the first game of the West Coast swing, but he still got the win and had a decent outing. He had several of the Oakland hitters completely fooled. He only got into trouble in that 6th inning. Mostly, he seemed flustered and just couldn't seem to clear his head and just get it by them.
Jamey Wright pitched a successful one-third. Eddie Guardado and Joaquin Benoit made me sweat a little through their two innings. And then C.J. Wilson came on to get the save in a one-run game.
Speaking of C.J., what's up with him lately? I'm not sure I've seen him smile in awhile. In fact, the other night, when he was exiting after the 11-9 victory, he seemed to almost be pouting. I understand having a "game face" on while on the mound (especially in his role), but I know C.J. isn't the brooding fellow he seems to be lately. Or maybe he is and I've just mis-read him. I don't know.
For once, the errors were not on the Texas side of the box score tonight. As I watched the first inning unfold for the A's, I felt some deja vu. But was grateful it was happening to them and not us. We've had enough of those. It's about time things went our way.
KISS: I gotta go with Hamilton again. That diving catch was one of the most spectacular things I've seen all season. Maybe even back to sometime last season.
MISS: All the technical difficulties, which made me miss the error charged to Ian Kinsler. I would have liked to have seen exactly how that ball managed to glance off Padilla and then be kicked by Kinz.
By the way, I didn't get to see yesterday's game, that's why there was no entry for the game. I will say I'm suddenly thankful for Ponson's presence on this team. I hope he can continue on the track he's on. (Mostly so I don't have to see him in Des Moines later this month...ha ha ha. Just kidding.)
Also, Ben Broussard's CD came in the mail today. I've listened to it a few times. He has a good sound. He won't be on "American Idol" anytime soon, but his voice is pretty nice too. I'll need to give it a few more listens before I decide how much I like it, but for now, I'm glad to have it in my collection.
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Nice entry, Micah.
Josh Hamilton just got named the AL Player of the Month for April - what an honor for him.
The more I see of him the more impressed I am - that catch in the 7th inning last night was something else. I thnk he very well might be the most talented player to roll through Texas since A-Rod was here.
As for CJ, I couldn't tell you what's up with him - I know he's struggled a bit of late, and his save last night wasn't exactly smoothe - two balls hi back to the warning track - so maybe he's just not happy with himself right now, who knows.
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