Well... Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

I wanted that sweep really bad, but I'll settle for taking the series. To quote Bret "I Thought You Said Stop!" Boone from the last series we took from Texas, "They won one? Good for them. We won two. Good for us."

I had a deep sense of foreboding in the very first inning when I was already cursing up a storm as we let Alex "BOO" Rodriguez double with two outs. Then my least favorite Ranger after Alex, Rafael Palmeiro hit a two run homerun that did very little to improve my spirits. On an off note, I cannot for the life of me pronounce "Palmeiro" correctly which cracks my dad up no end whenever I'm going off on a rant and I try to say "Palmeiro" and I can't. We do nothing.

Top of the second. Tomko is already struggling. I was ready for him to come out there, but the bullpen wasn't, and Texas manages to score another run much to my dismay. And then John Olerud knocks one out!!! David Bell coaxes a walk and Dan Wilson singles, but we can't get them in. More cursing ensues.

Third inning. Alex makes an out. I enjoy it immensely. They get a walk and a single, but we get out of it. Bottom of the third, we do nothing. Still 3-1 Texas. I sigh.

Fourth inning. Chad Curtis homers. I am forced to say more bad words. Mateo walked, Greer walked, Verlarde sacrificed, Alex the Anti-Mariner sacrificed and scored a run, I was appalled, Palmeiro walked, I yelled "LOU, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TAKE HIM OUT!  TAKE HIM OUT!" and FINALLY Pudge made the third out but not before I was lightheaded with angst and I had to leave the room.

Olerud singles, Boone singles, Sanders K's, David "3 for 3" Bell singles. Dan Wilson JUST BARELY misses a grand slam and doubles, and we should've scored two but Boone and the third base coach got their signals mixed and we only scored one and got an out besides. I have a small hissy fit. 7-2 Texas.

Fifth. I become furious that Tomko's still in there which is kind of funny if you stop to think about it and have to remind myself that it's only one game. I'm talking to my friend Shel from Nashville at this point, who is watching the game over there and telling me what's going on because I can't look. I believe our conversation was something along the lines of "Tomko's staying" and me yelling "WHY! WHY!" when of course I knew why, Lou didn't want to stress the bullpen again, but it didn't stop me from bemoaning our predicament and anyway Texas promptly scores 2 more runs which treated Shel to a lovely string of cursing from me. We get one back thanks to an E5 (error on Caminiti, the third baseman) and we leave the inning at 7-3.

Sixth. Sele comes in to relieve Tomko and we sit them down in order. FINALLY. And then David "I'm Goin Yard" Bell goes yard. I shout "HOORAY!" because I love David and I love it when we get homeruns and then we get two outs but then Ich"I'm Goin Yard Too!"iro goes yard too! Once again, I shout "HOORAY!" Then Cammie K'd. 7-5 M's.

Seventh inning. Nothing. Eighth inning. Texas doesn't get anything done, and David Bell doubled, Stan Javier reached on an infield single, McLemore hit a sac fly and scored David only it wasn't an actual sacrifice since Bo Porter missed catching it. Unfortunately, we only manage one more run. 7-6.

Ninth. 1 out, Porter singles. And for whatever reason, Paniagua seems to have developed a fetish for hitting batters and that puts Mateo on and puts Porter in scoring position, and then of course Greer singles to score him and the only good part about this inning was that Alex made the final out of it. We get nothing done, I think Edgar went 0-4. We lost 8-6, but at least we made them work for it. Personally, I'm glad to see Texas leaving town, I'm drained. This was like the play-offs in terms of how bad I wanted to win it and I am totally beat.

"Boeing was a mistake, but what would you do if your boss asked you to do something? Mr. Hicks asked, the first time he asked me to do anything for him. My mistake was not saying no." -Alex Rodriguez, owning up to one of many mistakes, and for the first time since signing with Texas, actually managing to placate me somewhat "It's been an emotional time here. It's been more than I anticipated." -Alex Rodriguez, on playing the Mariners and finally saying something I can agree with wholeheartedly

"So I don't understand why in every media story there needs to be a villain in this. Obviously when you portray it like that, there is going to be a response from the fans. But if you can say the Mariners made what was a good economic decision for them, why can't you say Alex made a good economic decision for him?" -Alex Rodriguez, once again unable to accept the fact that Alex Rodriguez is being booed for things that Alex Rodriguez does, and completely misses the point that there were a lot of other factors like COMPLETELY SCREWING OVER THE SEATTLE MARINER FRANCHISE AND THEN EVERY HORRIFYING THING HE SAID AFTER THE FACT BESIDES in addition to his "good economic decision"

"I think people will remember that all this time I took the high road and handled it with class, even though the first two games I played like a schmuck." -Alex Rodriguez, getting the last part of that statement right. Personally, I'll remember losing my voice for three days after booing Monday night, the errors, the strikeouts, that sign that said "Who Let the Dog In" and the one last night that said "I should get paid for having been your fan!" and "A-Wad" and "A-Fraud" and our really cool T-shirts that my friend Marjorie and I got at the game that say something really funny only I can't repeat it here and my absolute elation at having taken the series because I tell you what, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for Tom Hicks.