Hank Blalock cranked a tie-breaking eighth inning yak off of Dan Miceli to lead the Rangers to an 8-7 win over the Stros on Saturday afternoon in Arlington.
The Stros’ Tim Redding pitched batting practice for the Rangers, giving up ten hits and six runs over four innings. Hopefully, the only reason that Redding remains in the rotation is because Andy Pettitte has not yet returned to the rotation. However once Pettitte returns, there simply is no reason not to hand the ball every fifth day to Pete Munro rather than Redding, who now has among the worst statistics of any starting pitcher in the National League.
The Stros hitters still are not hitting on all cylinders, but Barry Bonds, Jr. did nail a bases loaded double to tie the game at seven during a four run uprising in seventh. However, a season long power drain continues to plague Bags (slugging percentage of .470 this season against a career .546) and Ensberg (.354 slugging percentage compared with .530 last season), while manager Jimy Williams inexplicably insists on maximizing at bats for Everett (slugging percentage of .361) by batting him second in the order and playing unproductive hitters such as Viz (slugging percentage of .357) and Bruntlett (last night, slugging percentage of .403 in 67 career AB’s) rather than arranging the lineup to make sure that better hitters such as Lamb (slugging percentage of .550) and Lane (lifetime slugging percentage .522) are playing as much as possible. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the Stros’ margin for error in scoring runs is not large enough to compensate for Williams’ dubious personnel decisions.
Roy O attempts to bail the Stros out during the Sunday afternoon game against the Rangers, as the Stros prepare to go to Wrigley for four with the Cubs next week that may just determine whether this club will be able to contend for a playoff spot during the remainder of this once promising season.