Joe Nathan came in to pitch in the 9th inning of a 1-1 tie. He got two quick outs and then walked Daniel Nava, a .250 hitter AND Jarrod Saltalamacchia, a .233 hitter. Nathan only had 5 walks in 38 1/3 innings this year. One hit later and the Red Sox have a 2-1 lead. So I'm thinking "the Rangers can scratch out a run or two in the 9th and still win this thing."
The Red Sox bring in Alfredo Aceves to close out the game.
Nelson Cruz has some pop in his bat, but he grounds out on one pitch...
to the shortstop, Mike Aviles.
David Murphy then pops out, on one pitch...
...to Mike Aviles. So that's two pitches and two outs.
That brings up Mike Napoli who saw 5 pitches and got his 3rd walk of the game.
Craig Gentry stepped to the plate and, you guessed it, swung at the first pitch and fouled out to...
...Adrian Gonzalez at first.
The frustrating part is that 3 out of 4 guys swung at the first pitch in the bottom of the 9th. The one guy who showed a little patience drew a walk.
I guess I should be happy the Angels lost to the Royals, but all I can think of now is the Rangers could have extended the lead to 6 games.
I think part of my crankiness is because the A/C in my house went out yesterday. When I woke up, it was 87 degrees in the house. That's not pleasant or conducive to good sleep.
Hopefully the A/C and the Rangers will have better days today.
To be fair Nava got a wlk not a hit and he walks allot. He is only batting .250 but his OBP is .373. Plus Salty is batting .350 with 2 outs and a guy on base plus. His OBP is .395 in the same situation.
ReplyDeleteBesides as horrible as our season has been so far somehting has to go right for us now and then.
I'm just hopeing that nobody gets plunked in retaliation for Beltre and then does something to get tossed and suspended.
I enjoyed the format of your recap. Pretty cool, in my opinion.
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