Game 70: Rangers vs. Mets

Will the Rangers win this series? Doubtful. But, despite that, I am still hopeful about it. Today, the Rangers send Mathis up against Pedro. That normally doesn't spell success for the Rangers. Pedro hasn't been good to the boys in blue. And neither has Feldman. I am a bit surprised by him still being in the rotation.
So, Pedro. He's 9-2 against the Rangers in his career (13 starts) and has a 1.90 ERA to boot. The Rangers have hit .210 over the stretch of 85.1 innings, and whiffed us up 109 times in the process. He has not pitched at home this season and has pitched 6 innings or more only once. To say that Pedro is pitching under his norm is an understatement. A 6.91 ERA in three starts is not the Pedro we've come to know and expect. The Mets are 1-2 when he starts, but Pedro is 1-0 with two no-decisions.

Pedro didn't play much last year, either, pitching only in September for five starts. His ERA was great at 2.57, and he was on target in striking others out. He K'd 32 in 28 innings last year. The last time he faced the Rangers was back on September 3rd, 2004. He shut down the Rangers for 7 innings and struck out 9, leading Boston to a 2-0 victory. The Rangers are a very different team now compared to the roster we had in 2004.

Rangers to Watch:

• Michael Young: 5-19 (263 BA); 1 double, 1 HR, and 3 RBIs. (8 Ks)
• Milton Bradley: 3-9 (333 BA); 1 double and 1 RBI. (1 K)
• Josh Hamilton: 2-3 (667 BA)

As a team, the current roster is 17-75 (227); 2 doubles, 2 HRs, 5 RBIs, and 24 Ks.

Now, since I placed the pictures in yesterday, they have since changed the starter for today's game. Gabbard is to take the hill. He's coming back up from the AAA Oklahoma, and I am hoping he has recovered mentally from the Richie Sexson episode. Yeah, I just don't get tired of putting this up on here.

Gabbard is 1-2 in nine starts in the Bigs this season. He has a 4.75 ERA. What's great about Gabby is that when he is on, he's on. And when he's not, he's still pretty good. And then Sexson happened and Gabby couldn't put anything together. So they sent him down to work it out. He has never faced the Mets. In fact, he has never pitched in a New York stadium (No Yankees, either, is what I mean). So this is a big first for him. And it makes it easy to say that he has never faced a NY Mets batter. This is ground breaking for him.

Gabbard has put together two starts at AAA Oklahoma and went 0-1 with a 4.97 ERA in 12.2 innings, striking out 12.

Forecast: This is not your father's Pedro. And this is not the Sexson whipped Gabbard, either. What we have is a mediocre Pedro and at least an average Gabbard, which should be good enough for the Rangers to get by... and that's what happens. Score: 7-4, Rangers.

Home Plate