A Missed Opportunity--Peter

Tonight was frustrating--very frustrating! By the time our heroes took the field in Arlington, Texas, they knew that both the Rays and the Twinkies had lost. So they had an excellent opportunity to extend their wild card lead over the Twinks and to creep a game closer to the Rays for the division lead. It was not to be tonight.

Although they broke on top, one zip, in the 2d, the Rangers' response was, figuratively, deafening. After two were out in the Texas half of the 2d, they pushed seven runs across the plate, much of it aided by a sudden streak of wildness by Wake. Four hits, a ringing double among them, four walks and a hit batsman, not to mention a stolen base, and the game was pretty much out of hand. At that point, Wake was given a pass to the showers and his relief picked off a Texas baserunner to staunch the bleeding--for the moment.

It's too bad tonight didn't work out for Wake. It was his 500th appearance in a Sox uniform, a figure only matched once previously--by "The Steemah", Bob Stanley. To top that off, Wake becomes one of an equally select club of hurlers who've had at least 500 appearances and 350 starts for the same club. The only other guys in this elite grouop currently playing are Glavine and Smoltz, both of the Braves. Must be the Boston connection in the baseball genes. The Braves started life in Boston, before moving to Milwaukie and later to Atlanta.

Actually, as things turned out, had that been the extent of the Rangers offense for the night, the Sox would have ended up with the 'W'. They added a threespot in the top of the 3d, and it looked briefly like the Hose might rally. Not to be. In the bottom half of the same inning, Texas replied again, this time picking up a pair of runs on the first of two homers by Cruz, 9-4, Texas.

It just got worse from that point on. The Rangers added a run in the 5th on Cruz's second roundtripper of the game, a solo shot. Acting as if they should keep something going in each inning, they added to that total in the 6th. They picked up a trey on four hits, two of them triples and one a double.

Things stayed that way until the Texas half of the 8th, when they added another pair of runs on three hits, the last of them a solid double by who else--Cruz, he of the two earlier cheap seat shots. It was now 15-4, Texas.

Finally, in their half of the 9th, our heroes awoke and at least tried to stage a meaningful rally. Impossible? Well, remember, these were the same Rangers that the Sox beat less than a month ago, 19-17, scoring ten runs in a single inning along the way. Unfortunately, that was history and this was today. The Bosox did tack on a double deuce, 4 runs, but that's where it ended. They sent nine men to the plate, getting six singles and nothing more. Final score, 15-8, Texas.

On the plus side--yes, there was something of a silver lining--Yoooouk in a return from a few days off for a combo of back spasms and 'flu-like symptoms', drove his 25th home run of the season out of the park, accounting for three runs. Bay and Lowell, who was 2-4 in his second day back from the DL, each got a two bagger. Beyond that--ugly--very ugly.