Twins @ Rangers (May 21st-23rd)

[Molina00]

Game 1
Top of the 1st
Pitching for Rangers: Vicente Padilla

1) Luis Castillo singles to shortstop to leadoff the game.
2) Nick Punto walk, runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out.
3) Mike Cuddyer strikes out swinging. Runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out.
4) Justin Morneau strikes out swinging. Runner on 1st and 2nd with 2 out.
5) Torii Hunter singles to centerfield, Castillo scores, Punto to 2nd.
6) Mike Redmond flies out to rightfield to end the inning.

Twins score 1 to take a 1-0 lead.
Padilla threw 31 pitches in the first inning.
Twins lead 1-0.

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 1st
Pitching for Twins: Carlos Silva

1) Kenny Lofton flies out to centerfield.
2) Michael Young grounds out to secondbase.
3) Mark Teixeira singles to centerfield. Runner on 1st with 2 out.
4) Sammy Sosa doubles to leftfield, Teixeira scores, Sosa to 3rd on the throw. Runner on 3rd with 2 out.
5) Nelson Cruz grounds out to shortstop.

Inning over.
Rangers score 1 to tie the game at 1.

[Molina00]

Top of the 2nd
Pitching for Rangers: Vicente Padilla

1) Jason Kubel grounds out to shortstop.
2) Lew Ford grounds out to shortstop.
3) Luis Rodriguez pops out to shortstop.

1-2-3 inning for Padilla.

Game tied at 1.

[mntwinsfan]

Silva better not choke tonight! Go Twins..

[browntown653]

What the hell is wrong with Young this year?

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 2nd
Pitching for Twins: Carlos Silva

1) Frank Catalanotto crushes a homerun to rightfield!
2) Ian Kinsler grounds out to the pitcher for the 1st out of the inning.
3) Gerald Laird grounds out to shortstop for the 2nd out.
4) Ramon Vazquez strikes out looking.

Rangers score on Catalanotto's 3rd homerun of the season.
Rangers lead 2-1 after 2 innings.

[Molina00]

What the hell is wrong with Young this year?

I have no idea. He seems to still be producing runs and has good gap power but he just isn't getting the hits. He has done better in May than in April though. Worst part about it is, unless he gets super hot, he won't get his 5th straight 200 hit season.

[Molina00]

Top of the 3rd
Pitching for Rangers: Vicente Padilla

1) Luis Castillo grounds out to secondbase.
2) Nick Punto flies out to centerfield.
3) Mike Cuddyer singles to leftfield. Runner on 1st with 2 out.

Cuddyer goes to secondbase on a wild pitch by Padilla.

4) Justin Morneau singles to rightfield, Cuddyer scores from 2nd.
5) Torii Hunter grounds out to secondbase.

Inning over.
Twins score 1 to tie the game at 2.

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 3rd
Pitching for Twins: Carlos Silva

1) Kenny Lofton doubles to rightfield to leadoff the inning.
2) Michael Young singles to centerfield, Lofton to 3rd. Runners on the corners with nobody out.
3) Mark Teixeira grounds into a double play, Lofton scores on the play. Bases empty with 2 out.
4) Sammy Sosa is retired to end the inning.

Rangers score 1 to take a 3-2 lead after 3 innings.

[Molina00]

Top of the 4th
Pitching for Rangers: Vicente Padilla

1) Mike Redmond flies out to rightfield.
2) Jason Kubel walks. Runner on 1st with 1 out.
3) Lew Ford strikes out swinging. Runner on 1st with 2 out.
4) Luis Rodriguez lines out to rightfield.

Inning over, runner stranded on 1st.
Rangers lead 3-2.

[Molina00]

Bottom of the 4th
Pitching for Twins: Carlos Silva

1) Nelson Cruz doubles to leftfield to leadoff the inning.
2) Frank Catalanotto grounds out to first base, Cruz to 3rd. Runner on 3rd with 1 out.
3) Ian Kinsler strikes out swinging. Runner on 3rd with 2 out.
4) Gerald Laird doubles to rightfield, Cruz scores. Runner on 2nd with 2 out.

Rangers take a 4-2 lead, and with that I have to go.
Hopefully they can keep pecking away at Silva like this.

[brewersfan19]

uuuuuuuummmmm.... are your Rangers feeling o.k. They have scored some runs lately and especially via the long ball (is that cause the chicks dig the long ball)

[Molina00]

Wow! When it was 4-2 when I left I sure never thought it would turn into a blowout. Looks like the Rangers might finally be turning the corner this season and playing to their potential, of course I don't expect them to keep scoring 14 runs a night with solid pitching all the time.

Taking up where I left off after the 4th, Padilla shut down the Twins in the 5th and the Rangers blew the game open in the bottom of the inning scoring 8 runs. Half of which came from a 2-out grand slam from Gerald Laird, his 2nd homerun of the season. The Rangers added 2 more runs in the 6th thanks in part to Nellie Cruz's 3rd blast of the year. The Indians finally managed to score again in the 7th notching 2 unearned runs off of Willie Eyre to make it a 14-4 game, which would end up as the final score.

Vicente Padilla was solid allowing just 2 runs on 5 hits and striking out 4 over 5.2 innings to notch just his 2nd win of the season. There were a lot of offensive highlights in this one with Kenny Lofton going 2 for 3 with a walk and 3 runs scored, Mark Teixeira with 2 hits and 2 runs scored, Sammy Sosa doubled twice and drove in 3 runs, and then the homeruns by Frank Catalanotto, Nelson Cruz, and Gerald Laird (who also drove in 5 runs).

[Molina00]

Game 2 Recap
Despite Sammy Sosa's 598th career homerun, the Rangers couldn't overcome a dominating performance from Johan Santana. Early on it looked like Texas might make a game of it against the former Cy Young winner with the Rangers held a 1-0 lead going into the 4th. Kam Loe was pitching a solid game with 3 scoreless innings but he fell part in the 4th allowing 2 runs and then allowed 3 more in the 5th. All 5 of those runs were courtesy of homeruns by Justin Morneau. The Twins added 2 more runs thanks to a 2-run blast from Torii Hunter in the 8th and handed Texas a 7-1 loss after the Rangers thrashed the Twins 14-4 in the previous game.

[Molina00]

Game 3 Recap
Last night's game was a close one, and it might have come down to one big moment in the bottom of the 9th, but the Twins still came out on top 5-3 spoiling the Rangers shot at taking the series.

Robinson Tejeda started for Texas and got roughed up a bit allowing 5 runs on 7 hits in just 3 innings of work. He was tagged for the loss dropping his record to 4-4 and knocking his ERA up to 5.18. Twins starter Boof Bonser pitched much better allowing just 2 runs and striking out 6 over 5 innings of work.

On to the bottom of the 9th now, with the Twins leading 5-3. Mark Teixeira leads off the inning with a single to rightfield. Victor Diaz follows by grounding into a double play to erase the leadoff single. He also broke his bat and the broken piece hit Joe Nathan in the leg. Anyway, Nelson Cruz followed up the double play with a fly ball to deep left-centerfield which hit off of Torii Hunter's glove and was ruled a double. Ian Kinsler followed by drawing a walk. That set up the situation for pinch hitter Sammy Sosa.

The Situation:
Bottom of the 9th, 2 on, 2 out, down by 2 runs, a 2-2 count to Sosa. Everyone in Arlington was thinking, great time for homerun #599, a walk-off winner. But it wasn't meant to be. Sosa struck out swinging on a pitch that just knicked the low-outside corner of the strike zone.