OOTP X: Texas Rangers

[Doc_Brown]

July 2nd-4th

Game 1, Att: 35,015



A tight one that the D'Backs won thanks to a walk off home run in the 10th. The scoring was opened in the 4th by the home team with 2 home runs, we hit one of our own in the 7th and added another run in the 8th. We had a chance to snatch the win in the 9th but failed to take it and paid the price for that in the 10th. There were 4 home runs in the game, Hamilton hit ours in the 7th for his 13th of the year, for the D'Backs Drew hit his 24th of the year in the 4th swiftly followed by Young's 19th of the year and Reynolds sealed the win with his 18th of the year in the 10th.

Game 2, Att: 36,132



Again another close one and again the Diamondbacks took their chances and we didn't which was shown by the number of runners we left on base. There were 4 home runs in the game 2 for each team for us, Byrd hit his 11th of the year in the 4th and Murphy hit his 4th of the year in the 7th for the home team Reynolds hit his 19th of the year in the 4th and Upton his 20th of the year in the 6th.

Game 3, Att: 35,689



After 2 defeats we bounced back to take the final game of the series and avoided being swept. We got off to a good start and the Diamondbacks just couldn't keep up with our run scoring. Both home runs were for the home team, Montero hit his 14th of the year in the 2nd and Drew his 25th of the year in the 6th with 1 on.

[Doc_Brown]

July 5th

Achievements:
7/3 Mark DeRosa(Los Angeles Angels) 5 hits in 8-7 win VS San Francisco Giants

Contract News:
7/5 Brandon Morrow(Detroit Tigers) signs a 2 year extension worth $10,040,000

Trades:
7/4 San Diego Padres-Detroit Tigers: Mark Worrell(SP) for Mike Leake(SP)

Suspensions:
7/2 Sean Rodriguez(Los Angeles Angels) and Claudio Vargas(San Francisco Giants) both got 5 game bans for their part in a bench clearing brawl.


Next up a 3 game series @

Oakland Athletics(3rd AL West 39-36 15GB)

S.Gallagher 5-5 4.25ERA 32BB 72K
T.Cahill 6-5 3.41ERA 42BB 75K
J.Duchscherer 6-6 4.45ERA 23BB 57K

Texas Rangers(1st AL West 54-21)

S.Feldman 10-1 4.28ERA 16BB 76K
N.Feliz 9-3 2.15ERA 13BB 121K
B.McCarthy 7-4 4.44ERA 30BB 54K

[Doc_Brown]

July 5th-7th

Game 1, Att: 29,971



We put this game to bed in the 2nd, where we were out of reach of the Athletics. Feldman once again pitched well and Perez also did another solid job out of the bullpen. There was only 1 home run in the game and it came from Saltalamacchia in the 1st with 1 on for his 7th of the year.

Game 2, Att: 30,111



For most of the game it looked like the run we scored in the 1st was gonig to be enough, but we couldn't add another run and in the end it came back to haunt us, as in the 8th Ryan bagged his 2nd home run of the year to give the Athletics the lead.

Game 3, Att: 30,326



The Athletics blew the game open in the 4th and we couldn't get back into it as we struggled to move runners around the bases. There were 3 home runs in the game all to Oakland, LaRoche hit his 15th of the year in the 1st, Ransom hit his 6th of the year in the 4th and Cust got his 12th of the year in the 6th.

[Doc_Brown]

July 8th

Achievements:
7/5 Scott Richmond(Cleveland Indians) 4 hit shutout Vs Chicago White Sox

Injuries around the League:
7/5 Joey Devine(Oakland Athletics) has had season ending sugery on his radial nerve and will be out for 4 months. Devine was having a good year and was leading the AL in saves.
7/6 Rick Ankiel(San Francisco Giants)-Fractured finger- 6 weeks

Trades:
7/7 Cincinnati Reds-Detroit Tigers: Nick Masset(MR) for Casey Crosby(SP)
7/7 San Diego Padres-Cleveland Indians: Cla Meredith(Cl) for Ryunosuke Aoki(1B)

Impending retirement:
7/8 Raul Ibanez(Philadelphia Phillies) has announced that he will retire at the end of the season.



Next up a 4 game home series Vs

Projected starters;

Tampa Bay Rays(2nd AL East 41-37 1.5GB)

M.Garza 6-7 3.83ERA 27BB 69K
C.Wang 1-2 4.88ERA 13BB 12K
J.Shields 3-9 5.13ERA 24BB 58K
S.Kazmir 6-4 2.81ERA 47BB 108K


Texas Rangers(1st AL West 55-23)

D.Holland 9-3 3.13ERA 24BB 111K
E.Hurley 7-0 4.30ERA 18BB 48K
S.Feldman 11-1 4.06ERA 17BB 82K
N.Feliz 9-4 2.16ERA 13BB 125K