“It was a great team win. It was a fun game to play in. We just played really well. Our starter did a great job of battling, Our bullpen did a great job. The defense did a great job.”
(from Inside Corner)
Did you know that King Felix is 4-9 against the Rangers now in his career? Probably just a fluke, but it's nice to know we've had some success roughing him up.
Now let's hear from the losing locker room:
15-11, Game Notes from Lookout Landing
"Let's just get this out of the way now - yes, I feel pretty confident in saying that Kenji Johjima was safe, and his being called out by Paul Emmel did a number on our odds of winning . . . umpires don't have the benefit of instant replay on plays like this, and the fact that it's so difficult to get a good screengrab of Johjima touching down before the ball gets to Davis goes to show you how quickly everything happened. That was as close to a tie as you can get without it actually being a tie, and in the eyes of professional umpires, it's a coin flip . . . Paul Emmel made the wrong call. I won't say he made a bad call . . .
The Rangers' plan of attack was to go up against Felix guessing pitches and swinging from the heels. And it's hard to be critical of them given the results. Yeah, they struck out nine times and didn't draw a walk, but they guessed right often enough to make this a frustrating night for The King. When you have an order that potent, the runs tend to stack up in a hurry.Blalock's double came on an outside changeup that Felix left elevated. Young's homer came on a slider that stayed up at the belt. Davis' homer came on an inside curve that he was looking for after Felix used breaking balls against him earlier with great success."
You Gotta Take An Aspirin With These Guys from USS Mariner
"I know it’s tempting to draw conclusions about the character/mental strength/will to win after a bunch of close games, but hopefully the last four days have illustrated the reality of baseball - the winner of one run games often has little to do with the moral fiber of the guys on the field, and a lot more to do with random chance."
And perhaps the best part of all this was Lookout Landing's win probability chart:
Elvis Andrus' play in the 9th was spectacular, had he not made that play, it probably would have been a different ballgame. It was also a major turn on ; )
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