Submitted by austro
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Rangers 5 | Astros 1
WP: Lewis (7-4) | LP: Moehler (0-4)
A fine effort by Moehler (6.0 IP, 2 R, 2 ER) went to waste as the offense continued its season-long disappearing act and the bullpen failed to close the door in the 8th and 9th innings. Smoak took Moehler deep (real deep) in the 2nd for a 2-run homer following a 12-pitch AB by Murphy, and that was all the Rangers needed to secure the win. Some credit for the lousy offense has to go to Lewis, who tossed a complete game, struck out 9 Astros, walked none, and only gave up 1 hit in the first 7 innings. Of course, this year it’s kind of hard to tell whether this kind of result is due to the pitching or the “hitting”.
As embarrassing as the offense was, the real disappointment of the evening was the crowd. Not the size: there were 41K+ folks in attendance. No, this season’s low point was reached when the bandwaggoning Rangers fans started “Rangers! Rangers!” cheers that were clearly audible, even on the TV broadcast. Worse, there was no answer by Astros fans, if there were any there.
Today sees Paulino taking on Wilson at 1pm. Maybe the earlier starting time will be sufficiently before bedtime that the bats will be awake.
And congratulations to the Horny Frogs for kicking some Florida butt in the CWS. With neither UT nor Rice present, I think they’ll be my adopted team for the tournament.