4/30/1989 Texas Rangers - Boston Red Sox

[Music] at age 42 alvin's favorite son nolan ryan still heats up his basketball to a blazing 95 miles per hour roger clemens is only 26 but the pride of katie has already won two cy young awards today these two texas flame throwers face off for the first time from arlington stadium home sports entertainment presents texas rangers baseball this exclusive presentation is brought to you by budweiser beechwood age for that clean crisp taste that makes budweiser the king of beers for all you do this bud's for you and by texaco star of the american road [Music] in less than 24 hours the texas rangers have sold out arlington stadium twice today they meet the boston red sox in the third game of this weekend series and it'll be a record crowd for the three dates before this weekend is over hello again everybody i'm earl herman along with norm hitzkis well i haven't seen anything like this for a long time norm people outside still outside it's been announced since the sellout they're still out there trying to get tickets tell you what merle they're often not regarded very highly by the people in this area but one of the measures of success as a franchise is scalpers and there were scalpers out front today it's been what do you think david clyde the last time you saw tickets being scalped 1973 debut here back to 73 is the report that we got the last time we saw scalpers outside the stadium a tremendous media hype on this weekend though and a media hype on the texas rangers from sports illustrated to the three local papers well this is a match-up that's a dream the rockets of the 70s and 80s are ryan and clemens the aging fireballer for texas his obvious successor for boston these two hold records oh they're all over the record book and merle the nice thing is they're both in form ryan comes off a one-hitter against toronto clemons comes off a three-hit 11 strikeout bashing of the white sox this is the type of game you may well 20 years from now be saying to yourself hey i saw ryan and clemens pitch against each other nolan ryan wants a good game today the worst way after one month with the rangers in visiting with nolan ryan we asked him what he is looking for at this stage of his ranger career well uh the thing i look for is more consistency in myself uh i haven't had a good game here in oregon stadium yet i've had two good games on the road and so what i would like to see is that each outing be more consistent and i think that's probably a reflection of the lack of work i got in spring training and i think you that i i think that tells you the way that nolan ryan approaches his profession every day always wanting to be better well he set an example from some people for 20 years in baseball he's the guy that clemens obviously measures himself against he's a guy that a lot of the young rangers follow around like puppy dogs now uh ryan is a guy who will set well he's already got 41 major league records to his credit and let's face it meryl if somebody's going to wipe out those records given health it could well be roger clements i got a kick out of some of the things that clemons had to say as he was growing up down in the houston area but going to the astrodome and trying to sneak down into the better seats just to get a closer look at nolan ryan well you know this is one of those special days there's electricity in the air whenever clemens pitches for boston and whenever ryan pitches for texas because you know that any given day something truly special could happen would you believe double special today i would think i you know i i would think that what we don't want to see today what every fan in this ballpark doesn't want to see is you know a fellow either one of these pitchers to get off to a bad start i mean they they really want to see this confrontation in this match this might be one of the few days that the fans would love to see nothing nothing into the 12. and there have been some great games between great pitchers in the past and we'll talk about those when we go on this afternoon the texas rangers have taken the field they've held the game up just a little bit to let this big crowd in but will be underway very shortly with the start of today's game right after these messages [Music] do you see any empty seats in the ballpark today i see none nolan ryan goes to the mound and the crowd responds they see number 34 jogging out to the hill they pick it up great anticipation i i'll tell you what i've been around this game a long time but i don't recall any crowd response uh like the one we have here today norm it just kind of baffles me i've really tried to almost go back here by year and i don't recall anything like this it's uh it's one of those happenings merle that i'll tell you what if we wanted to ask 10 bucks for a seat up in our booth tonight we could have made some money well it's still not too late let's go to the batting order for the boston red sox and leading off at third base today will be wade boggs danny heap in right field ellis burks in center field mike greenwell in left field jim rice the dh nick assassi at first base rich gedman is catching jodie reed will be at shortstop eddie romero at second base and the pitcher roger clemens is 3-0 now the defense for texas will go from right field to left field sierra in right espn center leech and left infield third to first bouchelle fletcher franco and palmeiro gino petrali is catching nolan ryan is ready nolan ryan like the old gunfighter just keeps walking down main street and pulling the trigger at 42 years old ryan makes his fifth of the year he came within two hours of pitching his sixth career no hitter in his last outing a week ago today in toronto it was the 15th game of ryan's career that he allowed no hits or one hit tying bob feller's all-time record ryan's pitched two beauties on the road at home he struggled and we'll tell you just how deeply he struggled merle during the bogs it back and the breaking ball starts it off and it's one ball of those strikes to wade boxes hitting 300 coming into the series seems like you when you write down a batting champion for a year you just automatically put bogs right in there at the top it's two of those says the plate umpire steve palermo even he's juiced up look at him clapping his hands let's go gang well you know merle this is a good game to have palero behind the plate because steve has a reputation as a very good ball and strike umpires [Music] very close but not close enough 3-0 to weight boggs the outfield is playing bogs around we'll have seat palermo behind the plate derwood merrill at first base don nickinger at second and larry mccoy third and a walk to wade boggs to start the first inning wade boggs amongst his many accomplishments also may have the best batting eye in the major leagues boggs simply does not strike out was the toughest to strike out last year but merrell lost amongst boggs accomplishments as a hitter is the fact that he's now walked 335 times in the last three years wow he finds a way to get aboard yes he does danny heaped the right fielder hitting at 250. dwight evans sitting this one out today [Music] what did oh ryan as you could tell by that pitch is not missing by much one ball to those strikes to danny heap [Music] top of the first inning we have just started if you've just flipped your tv on and danny heap at the plate fouled away it's one ball and one strike danny is 25 years old facing the 42 year old nolan ryan in fact there are only two red sox players on this roster if you will who have ever faced nolan ryan in a game dwight evans and jim rice 78 degrees beautiful day for baseball the net say something about the longevity of rice and evans though it's ten years since ryan's pitched in this league they were regulars back then could be a pair one there and no just missed so heat becomes the base runner julio franco trying to trigger the dp but heath was able to beat the relay you beat derwood merle at first base safer out out looked like the throw had him beat merrell signaled safe and the red sox still have a runner so with one gone ellis burks comes up with two home runs in the game last night four homers and 14 rbis for the year ellis i don't know what he did about getting tickets today with his game sold out that's what he's done in the series of course he's from fort worth and a breaking ball hits the corner as ryan zeros in with a breaking stud [Applause] coaching a third is rack slider great baseball name huh how bumbry at first was rack a good slider al was he sure was joe morgan coaching at uh rather managing for boston he used to be on the coaching lines until last year when he took over the ball club ball hit the bat or hit the helmet hit the helmet oh my goodness oh my goodness if there was ever if there was the tape that shows you how important the batting flap is that comes down over the cheek and ear of a hitter this is it you could hear that pop oh as the ball either hit the helmet first sometimes it'll hit that bat but we'll only know on the replay merrell i think this ball got him right on the ear hole on the flap [Applause] oh my whoever invented the flap for the helmet just saved ellis burks a major you know i think it hit him on the shoulder first he got it in a glancing blow little glance yes indeed what a frightening specter to be hit by orion aura clements the uh if that ball did hit him on the shoulder first it appeared that it did it changed the flight of the ball so that it was going up and then kind of hit the flap even on a glancing blow so let's study it a little closer and see what we can see here now okay hit the shoulder then carry them up and hit the flap so it took a little bit of the blow away see he doesn't get hit solid shoulder took it first looks like burks is going to be removed from the game however as a precautionary measure and that's a good move i can't imagine that ellis burks isn't just frightened right now merle one more thing this is not a knock on this stadium it's a knock on stadiums in general in day games with bright sunlight and big crowds and this stadium in particular can be one of the tougher places to pick up the ball that's why they have the green canvas in center field to provide a better hitting background but it's still tough to pick up the ball randy cutcher is going to run and go into the ball game to replace ella berks that's a big stick out of the boston lineup but thankfully it looks like berks was not hurt badly so here is greenwell with two minute board fouling off the first pitch for strike one well one of the things that was heartening was that burke's didn't even go to the ground and that kind of led us to believe that it was not a serious injury but they take him out for precautionary measures which is the right move to make greenwell fly ball foul down the left field side mike greenwald coming into the game hitting at 303 with four homers and 12 runs batted in in the last two games though he's over 10. randy kutcher an outfielder will no doubt stay in the game and replace ellis burks in the last four years in boston greenwell's averages 323 314 328 325 that'll do man i believe so can you imagine not even being the best hitter on your team with those averages fastball inside to greenwell and it's one bowl and two strikes one other thing about greenwell people know of his power they know his ability to drive the ball look at those major league totals of 130 walks in 89 strikeouts i like his 23-game winning rbis also yeah that's not bad this guy will also chip in a stolen base occasionally he has pretty good running speed greenwell lunging a bit but taking ball to strike two top of the first inning danny heap is the runner at second randy kutcher running for ellis burks is on it first and nolan ryan trying to get out of this first inning as greenwald does not offer it's a full count of three balls and two strikes the red sox greenwell one of three red sox who were the top four last year and toughest to fan boggs marty barrett their second baseman and greenwell now did the red sox start the runners fletcher will cheat a little bit behind the runner at second to try to cut down danny heaps lead nice thing about greenwell though is you can almost be certain of him getting bad on ball in this situation runners holding ground ball to second franco's gonna have to settle for one at first and does and the red sox move runners to second and third [Applause] franco had an idea of this being a swipe tag and throw for a double play but the ball was hit so softly that you'll see kutcher the pinched runner get down to second base and passing watch franco tries to swipe it's not there and he honestly barely gets greenwell at first by about three quarters of a stride that ball it looked like it was hit right about the trademark so ryan took away greenwald's power and the ball wasn't hit that hard so here is jim rice 301s three homers 16 runs batted in and a strike over the outside corner rice is hit safely in 19 of 20 ball games this year so he's off to a good start he's hit safely in each game of this series too but he's only two for eight one hitting each game nothing in one runners at second and third top of the first inning oh fastball a boomer over the outside corner of the snowballs two strikes i believe that's the one they call the express did you see ryan's express last night like television [Applause] yes or was it von ryan's express frank sinatra no balls two strikes you know i thought maybe that was in you know in sort of respect for nolan pitching today why it was programmed that way target set inside goes outside and the ball is thrown away and a run's going to score so ryan even like young guys sometimes can overthrow he did there and he comes home and kutcher goes to third on the wild pitch [Applause] ryan with what really does amount to a rookie mistake isn't it merle overthrowing ahead 0-2 on the count and trying to set that hitter also showing rice the target inside then going to the [Applause] outside drive deep to left field and leech to the wall is gonna make the catch when that ball left the bat it looked like it might go but it seemed to lose any power that was on it after it got to the outfield and leech runs it down so with this catch up against the wall by rick leach the red sox settle for one on a wild pitch as we head for the bottom of the first look at the rangers come to bat starting with sp and we'll have the right there's a one run lead to work with as he goes into the bottom of the first inning against this ranger batting order c celestia in center field scottie fletcher at shortstop and raphael palmer with ruben sierra in right and julio franco at second geno petrali is catching rick leach and left field steve bouchel at third jeff stone is the d.h and the pitcher nolan ryan now the defense for boston starting in right field and danny heap is going to be out there randy kutcher is now in center field mike greenwell and left on the infield it'll be boggs reed romero and isasky rich gedman is catching clemens from katy texas on the mound well where do you start with roger clements he's 26 years old he already has two young awards he's 26 years old he's already got 81 wins and two 20 win seasons you want to talk speed 97 98 miles an hour you want to talk control major league ratio of about oh four strikeouts for every walk [Music] clemens an incredible young man fastball curveball that he throws to left-hand hitters slider that he throws to right-hand hitters and a change off the fastball and if you're thinking of jumping on him early this guy has pitched 119 first innings in his career and allowed 32 runs you know that to me norm that's a very important stat because it tells you the guy as hard as he throws gets off to a good start once he gets that feel and knows that he's got his stuff but he gets by that first inning he's going to feel like it's going to be a pretty good day for him espee looking at a high and fastball texas has not scored an earned run against roger clemens in the last 17 innings they faced him and of course that goes back to 1988. both those games by the way were at arlington stadium high fastball again 2-0 you talk about match-ups and the classic confrontation here in arlington next friday night in boston it'll be clements for the red sox and ryan for the rangers but right now it's clemens for the red sox and ryan for the rangers [Applause] on this april 30th two and one to espy i think cecil thought that pitch is a little bit too high a switch hitter left-handed hits 333 from the other side of the plate 148. clemens tends to love this stadium he's made seven starts here in his career he struck out 63 men in 56 innings here he's 4-0 with an earned average of right at 2 in this stadium you know what's interesting norm you talk to the advanced scouts and of course they're the guys that come in ahead of the teams they leave their scouting report for the manager on how to play certain hitters and what certain hitters like to pitches that they like because this patch pitch is filed away but they must have a stamped form they put out against uh if they know clemens is gonna pitch or ryan's gonna pitch nobody's gonna pull them dave oliver over at third base and at first is toby harris and so the boston outfield is around the left against espy figuring no way he's going to be able to pull roger clemens the outfield is also shallow as you see high and away three balls two strikes sb struggling a bit of late is just five for his last 32 and it's resulted in cecil's average dropping from 345 down to 276. so he is in need of a base hit right now the rangers are in need of a base runner by hit walk air you name it breaking ball over really explodes so you see clemens now being a more polished pitcher and places just rearing back on a 3-2 pitch and firing the smoke throws the curveball and the batter is just absolutely paralyzed merle i don't know what that was it certainly did break it didn't break right to left like his curve that almost acted like a split finger that clemens threw on that pitch did it had a lot of drop to it had a lot of drop but it also seemed to have quite a break on it scottie fletcher 108 in the series strike one hitting it 282 with nine rbis and no homers this is another guy that's struggling a bit scottie is just eight for his last 45 at 11 games and the average has gone from the 420s to 282 well it was inevitable that some of the bats would cool a little bit after the torrid start that the rangers nodded open with but also have maintained that's randy kutcher now the center fielder in place of ellis burks and we certainly hope that ellis is okay i know his family that is watching this afternoon has that awful feeling but really it appeared that the injury would not be serious as a strike comes roaring in there and it's one ball and two strikes and again i i base that hope and trust on the fact that he didn't go down and it was a glancing blow off the shoulder yeah it looked like a precautionary move removing him from the game you know it's a little early for kutcher he only started four games last year missed outside that is two balls two strikes but see clemens you're right very right merle it's unusual to see a guy that throws this hard at 26 being a polished pitcher but you can see him setting up things here in and out moving that ball away from fletcher let's see what he comes back here with slider and fletcher jumps on this one a fly ball to right center no trouble for either the right fielder heap or the center builder catcher and so it is danny heap who makes the put out and with two down rafael palmeiro will check in with cutcher new in center field keep i don't think obviously has played much with kutcher kutcher coming over to back up but watch he he hears him and he sort of makes a strange catch on the ball as though he thought kutcher were going to run him off the play and it really is it was kutcher's play but he just didn't take command here's palmeiro against clemens and it's one ball to those strikes the outfield is playing palmero very shallow and around to the left palmero will take what they give him oh down he goes two balls of those strikes [Music] well red sox won texas nothing number three hitter for the red sox gets hit and the number three hitter for the rangers goes down in a heap i don't know if there's any connection but there certainly is a bit of an odd similarity there could be i won't uh won't dispute that i don't know if i agree with her or not but it won't dispute it either well no it might be i don't know and it's ball forward to palmeiro as clemens missed for the high fastball i can tell you in days gone by there wouldn't been any doubt and it wouldn't make any difference even if it was accidental with ryan which obviously it was rylan ryan has never been a head hunter here's a struggling reuben sierra to face roger clements sierra over his last 10. and here's another guy who was so torrid when the season started that even being over 10 he's still hitting at 329 with four homers and 19 rbis he's one of the leaders in the american league in runs batted in his teammate julio franco is tops and he will be next high fastball from clemens [Applause] julio franco started out leading uh the american league in rbi's right out of the shoot and he's still there and sierra's third by the way of sierra bats in a run today it will be his 20th of april that was the old record for rbis in a month 20 well franco's already wiped that out he's up to 23. interesting that sierra could tie or break the old record and not have the record fly ball to right field but he got under it this is not going to be any trouble for danny heath and takes it inside the line so sierra goes down the rangers are through in the first and lever stranded palmeiro who got a walk at the end of one the red sox without a hit for the first inning score to lead one to nothing on hsc [Applause] here is the book on nolan ryan and he gets ready to go now to the top of the second inning owen one at home two and on the road two near no hitter in the road all he wants to do is just have a good one at home as assassin now's the first pitch back and it's no balls in a strike here's the guy they got from the reds earl in a big trade that also brought rob murphy over and ryan is in there with a strike now they faced each other in the national gusky with the reds ryan with the astros of course you know there was a lot of talk between the rangers and the reds involving this fellow's name in the offseason we are told but asap he winds up in boston he grand slammed on friday night here but he had to wait a while to see what the outcome of the game would be until last night as it turned out the rangers won it in 12. fouled away on the first base side could be playable palmero is over and it's on the dugout what do you think kasaski was thinking friday night as the rain started falling in the third inning he's got a grand slam in the first but if the rain continues and they don't get in five he gets a homer and four of the eyes wiped out yeah he goes up for a contract talk and misses 100 misses 100 rbis by what four or so and five says yeah but don't you remember in texas no we don't remember that nolan ryan behind one to nothing assassin gedman and reed coming up the breaking ball no commitment says the first place on fire during merrell two and two can you believe that ryan and uh and clements have gone through a full inning and not a strikeout registered by either pitcher there's [Applause] so now each has a strikeout [Applause] well the k cards are up today they got plenty of them i'll say that well they may need plenty of them today well let's see if this is the start of a trend now rich gedman hitting at 151 with two owners and five rbis running fastball 1-0 well win or lose today the rangers will have compiled the highest winning percentage ever for a single month in team history fly ball to right center field easy for sb and two guns merle this is not a park that nolan ryan terribly favors nolan ryan this year has not pitched well in this park two big crowds have turned out to see nolan ryan pitch and his performances here have not been very good as you can see at home twice he's gone five innings giving him 10 total innings and that's not impressive at all look at the road two hits two hits in 17 innings 27 strikeouts in 17 innings on the road and two outs away from a no hitter in one and what five outs away from a no hitter and another one yep but of of small is the fact that ryan basically has never liked to pitch in arlington stadium in his career ryan is now five wins and nine losses with an earned run average of five and now realize some of the teams he pitched against in this stadium were not the 27 yankees back in the early 70s and mid 70s 3-0 to jodie reed reed hitting a 210 with three rbis if i'm a home plate umpire right here i'm not sure either pitchers knocking down hitters but i think i politely send a message palmyro gets knocked down with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the first now reed gets knocked down with two outs and nobody on in a second i i think we've got a ryan's and ryan and clemens answering each other here and i think the umpire should stop it norm this i love you but this time i don't know if i agree with you or not bouncer to short on two and a throw safe at first oh i'm not sure either merle believe me i'm not sure either my point is it's real dangerous if either one of these guys is thinking well i better knock somebody down and it might be nice to just say okay we're going to draw the line in the sand that's it everybody's had their fun no more of those yeah but a warning carries something with it let's go back and look at that play again as palmero had to come up off the bag to make the catch and so an air is charged to scotty fletcher and with two down we'll go to eddie romero eddie is one of the better utility players in the american league this guy can play any place for you last play last year played all over the infield all four positions and they even had him in the outfield and left field for a while but it's one ball to those strikes two down a runner at first [Applause] romero three out of nine ryan a warning they play romero a little bit toward right and right center as you see is quite a gap in the left center but that means romero's got to get around an orion pitch fair lead at first by jody reid fly ball to left field he did get around on the pitch leads going to the wall again he's got it down he goes he's got to get that correct there's a base runner he caught it though okay so that takes care of the second inning i wasn't sure he held on to that ball what a catch by leech and now understand the rules in baseball are you've got to hang on to the ball after you hit the wall if you drop it right here that ball's in play but it never came out of the glove if you see on the replay and that's out number three and the second inning is over we'll go to the bottom of the second one to nothing boston tonight this was it rob murphy to julio franco bye bye baseball bye bye ball game if you're a red sox fan that's how the rangers win the first game of this series that was rain delayed a couple of times friday night and then completed last night starting at 6 30. franco would you believe then starts out the next game with a two-run homer in the first inning he's on fire merle no that was that didn't look like it was the easiest pitch in the world of yank either oh down tough pitch to hit so franco checks in julio you said is hot you betcha leads the american league in rbis club record for april two home runs last two ball games eight game hitting streak a pie ball one [Applause] still not a hit in this game as we go to the bottom of the second i don't think that surprises a lot of people though one and one defranco roger clemens nobody thought that much about him in high school at the university of texas he blazed a trail that got everybody's attention everybody except the people drafting that year nice play at third by boggs franco was out one away yeah they didn't go that high on him did they one of the one of the all-time draft puzzles in the history of baseball is how major league teams 18 of them found someone else they would have rather had in the first round of the 83 draft than roger clements he went 19. one of the things about clemens after is his development i've talked to scouts about this is his development after he reached the major league level i mean he you know he has uh just obviously gotten better and better and better but they like he's got better mechanics everything about him is better according to the scout geno is up patrolling hitting a 292 with two rbis [Applause] ball to strike every time i see geno face roger clements i'm reminded of that time way way back when gino was just trying so hard to stay in the big leagues and there was a monday night game here in which roger clemens pitched remember that national television and geno came up in the late innings and hit a two-run home off roger clements it was august 25th 1986. they asked clemens after the game about petroli and he said he didn't even know who he was base hit to left but he knows now yes he does first hit of the game to the rangers they they asked clemens you know did you how did you pitch them you know what did you what did you decide he said i didn't know who the guy was i didn't have to pitch him well patrolling just went with that pitch pitch was to the outside and he bangs it into left field here's rick leach five rbis you know all about rick's football abilities all-america at the university of michigan three rose bowls quarterback wow [Applause] he's the guy that kind of changed the image of michigan football now you say why is rick leach in the lineup instead of feeding convenient well yes he's a left-hand hitter but leech career against clemens three and seven in cavalia career against clemens oh for seven with seven strikeouts pete has never hit the ball into fair territory off roger clements i can't argue what can i say about that i can't argue about that one fouled away by rick leach that's one ball one straight let us assure all of you though if you don't know peter and kevilla he did not ask for this day off and would probably oh no sir no sir he'd be chomping at the back he's probably mad that his name was in the lineup cart was not on the lineup card today that's what you got to like about in kavilia that tremendous desire to play and improve and he's worked and worked and worked and you know what it's done for him defensively yeah he is a gamer but trolley the base runner one to nothing boston bottom of the second leeches in a good groove five first last 12 three runs batted in drive right field it's cut off however by romero who makes the play and that'll get petroli down to second a humpback blind drive toward right field just didn't have any zip on it and romero was able to get over there and handle it nice play by eddie romero and as you said this is a really valuable guy to have on this club he'll play anywhere for you you'll play any of the infield positions you'll place them outfield for you you know that ball bit and jump back toward romero the english on it or that ball would have skipped into right field it took a funny bounce that enabled romero to get there now steve bouchell two homers 12 rbis hitting a 253 for the season a couple of hits in this series the red sox scored in the first inning without the benefit of a base hit [Applause] had a walk they hit batsman fielders choice in between and a ground out in a wild pitch and that was the inning while pitch got the run in here's bouchelle one for 14 lifetime against clements [Applause] one ball of those strikes [Applause] hide inside 2-0 but then again merle there aren't a whole lot of guys sitting around baseball today saying i light this guy up [Laughter] if they do they better be careful that it doesn't get back to clements they better be careful their nose doesn't go to a foot long two balls no strikes [Applause] [Music] two and one [Applause] clements power very compact good mechanics very good nice compact mechanics great power led the american league in strikeouts last year getting a challenge for mike langston and nolan ryan in the early season of 1989. langston by the way i think he had eight strikeouts last night for seattle and he now leads the american league by one as we look at geno patrolli at second one to nothing boston and it's two and two not a very good swing clemens really had bouchelle tied up [Applause] merle clemons has nearly 200 more innings pitched than hits allowed in his career this guy's average outing is a seven hitter for nine innings fouled away well that means you've really got to make him count when you get him and you better put something together sellout crowd second sell-out crowd in less than 24 hours we got people standing their standing room only seats been sold in the bleachers may be the largest crowd in this club's history two balls two strikes [Applause] ooh now buchell was hit [Applause] and stone comes up next [Applause] that one just got away from clement yeah i did yeah those other situations were at least a little suspicious when the ball came inside this was not a situation clements was trying to trying to hit pushell at all this is a guy he wanted to get out and get out of the inning now jeff stone the d8s will back no norm i really don't think there's been anything going on at all between either one of the pitchers all i'm saying is i hope not because at least it's dangerous now jamie moyer okay nothing against you jamie these two guys it's dangerous if they start moving it around inside jeff stone the dh and a bouncer to second will be played by romero buchell stops and makes eddie go to first which he does so the rangers will start with the top of the batting order when they come up in the third as clemens leads them out with a one to nothing lead on hse from around the american league that's a that's a damaging injury to george brett you know kansas city's bad record with him hurt minnesota's frank violas all in four personally they're owen six in his six starts and what a good game jimmy abbott threw last night fan nine no decision as the angels beat toronto for three and ryan starts out unboxed with a strike to open the top of the third inning bro i'm gonna give you a trivia question we're gonna give our fans a little bit of time to think about this all right no fair looking at your morning paper today okay who has the fourth best record in baseball fourth best record in baseball fourth best note i'm not going to cover my standards fourth best record oh you mean teamwork teamwork straight three bugs do it three pitches he's out of there strikeout number two the keys go up in left field look at that thing explode yes you're wondering how hard that is to do bog struck out 34 times last year in 584 at bats and what did greenwell had greenwell struck out uh hardly any either he never strikes out either breaking ball for a strike to danny heap greenwell stuck out 38 times last year and marty barrett and barrett the second baseman opinion comedian struck out more than three of them combined 35 strike off speed stuff nothing in two three all three of those guys in the same lineup yep 34 strikeouts boggs 35 ferret 38 greenville uh greenwell between the three and they strike it 107 times you know over 1500 at bets no balls two strikes one out the outfield around to the left for danny heap and he fouls one down the left field side how many times did dimaggio strike out in his career 369 times in his major league career can you imagine a true career in which you have more homers than strauss and that's it that's right you know dimaggio was not only a power hitter he was an average average i'm talking about batting percentage hitter missed outside nolan ryan and it's one ball and two strikes but yet he only struck out 369 you say 369 times in his entire career [Applause] earl got the answer that question best trick fourth best record you're in your league you're playing with fire because i have one for you if i can't answer that thing one ball and two strikes oh good breaking vicious breaking pick three strikeouts for ryan for those physiologists who've sometimes written articles that the ball really doesn't break it's an optical illusion you don't want to see that replay look at that pitch look where the glove where uh patrolling had to go down to get that uh pitch danny heaps i couldn't hit that with a tennis racket see now that's the one that uh lawless the infielder from toronto was screaming about that ryan scuffs the ball ryan doesn't need to scuff the ball no oh hi fastball one ball to those strikes i'm working i'm working fourth best record in all of baseball as we start play today yes is the california angels in fourth place in the american league west the fourth oh i see what you mean fourth best record in all of baseball is the california angels who are fourth in their division with that record of 14 and 10. that would lead any of the other three divisions in baseball and they are fourth three and a half games out in the west randy kutcher who replaced ellis burks is now three balls no strikes cutcher batting for the first time burke's hit in the first inning a glancing blow off the shoulder that hit him in the batting helmet and he was removed for precautionary reasons right down there for a strike three balls in a strike it's one to nothing boston we're playing in the top of the third cutcher fouls it away full count [Applause] watch ryan you saw the slow motion of clemens delivery earlier very compact ryan with a little more movement not a lot of movement not a lot of wasted movement there foul tip and cut yours alive and you notice also that in ryan's leg kick the knee comes almost up to his chin which even makes the ball harder to pick up as he comes to the plate kutcher's 29 years old the red sox got him in a deal last september with san francisco that sent dave henderson over to the giants and an outside miss and kutcher is on it first for the walk [Applause] so ryan has now walked well two struck out three and hit one battery kind of a messy score sheet for no hits for boston isn't it and walk hit by pitch another walk a wild pitch an error three strikeouts mike greenwell at the plate mike greenwell has an rbi bat strike one fastball in ball player lingo he's a better hitter with men on base and the red sox over the years have always been able to come up with a guy like that i'm not talking about the ted williams's or or even the carl just shrimp uh your shrimps keys but guys it just day in and day out they pick those guys up as a ground ball should be played easily by franco and is and greenwell who is now about 012 i believe so he's in a bit of a slump but anyway greenwell follows the likes of the jackie jensens and people like that who always find a way to get those runners home but this time greenwell doesn't it is one to nothing boston heading for the bottom of the third hsc brings you ranger baseball ryan against clemens from arlington future budweiser american league scoreboard yankees doing pretty well these aren't they white sox really struggling minnesota trying to break a losing streak that's now reached seven in a row and kansas city behind floyd bannister is beating milwaukee and mike burkback two nothing in the sixth three other games have yet to start detroit at oakland where the a's are playing very very well california entertains toronto and baltimore is at seattle baltimore pitching that good young lefty jeff ballard today who goes for number five the rangers start with the top of the battle in the bottom of the third against roger clemons who has a one run lead the red sox have one run and no hits the rangers have no runs and one hit merle there is something very very very very odd about the ranger bullpen i guess kevin brown is just getting work down there seems odd for this early day to get some work but now he stopped throwing i was hoping that wasn't a signal there was something wrong with ryan but brown just threw for a while and then sat down apparently it has no reflection on ryan or his health sp fouls it off and it's one ball and two strikes by the way jesse barfield has a new home the new york yankees is the deal done they did it what's the deal al leiter the left-hand pitcher another left-hand pitcher to toronto [Applause] wow for jesse barfield one two pitch foul tip is alive the yankees obviously worried about the physical condition of dave winfield he'll ever be able to come back and put his big back to lineup for them and even when he does i would imagine dh is the spot he'll spend the good of the time yeah i would think so one ball and two strikes nobody got one or nothing boston bottom of the third line drive into the glove of boggs at third base for out number one you know there's another facet of wade boggs game roll it gets hardly any notice oh i don't think he was ever a bad third baseman but when he came up boggs made 27 errors in 83 20 errors in in 84. then 17 and 19 then look at the last couple of years 14 and 11. boggs has turned himself into a pretty darn good third baseman too here's scottie fletcher who flies to right field his initial time up and it's one bowl of strikes bugs might have taken a page out of the book written by greg nettles who really became an outstanding third base in the middle and latter part of his career [Applause] duklos nettles when he first came up with the minnesota twins organization they said he's got a good bat but he probably will have a difficult time finding a place to play okay we've put roger radar to work 94 miles an hour in that last pitch sort of coasted that one up there that was a change-up [Applause] fouled away two balls in a strike the outfield is playing fletcher very shallow in addition to clemens being an overpowering pitcher it could be that the red sox are thinking well unless they're guessing and guessing right all the time as this pitch is hit on the ground to short jodie reed on the first and two down um nobody's going to see the ball that well today and so they're not going to be able to go up there and really crank up and let go with those bats they stay close for palmero yeah well this is a beautiful day from a fan standpoint it's not an optimum day from a player's standpoint to see the ball especially with so many light colored shirts in the outfield this is not a terribly good background one ball to no strikes there's been only one hit in the game that belongs to the rangers one run of the game that belongs to the red side off speed one ball one strike to palmero raphael born in cuba grew up in miami attended mississippi state baseball all-american there [Applause] oh clemens taking some off here spotting that pitch real honest i've seen two or three pitches now that looked like split finger pitches four balls that react blade i i wonder if roger's starting to fool around with the fourth ball fastball ripped to second on the ground romero makes the play and it's three up and three down so this pitcher's duel and this is what the fans were expecting continues one to nothing boston going to the fourth the red sox will have jim rice leading off when we come back on hse today kirk gibson goes on the 15-day disabled list with a hamstring problem in l.a boy mike schmidt is going to finish this game with some incredible numbers and tim reigns my goodness and montreal just keeps whacking around left-handers merle they are really tough on left-handed pitchers here's jim rice leading off flight to left to the first inning nolan ryan has given up one run and no hits he wild pitched the run in one ball one strike there's the line for the first three innings breaking ball he committed strike two as palermo rings him up rice got a good piece of one earlier that looked like it was going out but seemed to hang up a little bit and leech caught it right at the wall but boy jim hasn't had good swings this at bat so far one ball two strikes ryan has struck out three four i thought that was for rice with a little ping pong move a switch quick quick flick it out of there saved by the bell that ball was by jimmy he flicked that one right out of gino's glove nolan ryan against roger clemons fouled away again clemens struck out espy to start the bottom of the first inning he has not had a strikeout since and we mentioned the fact that clemens led the league a year ago in strikeouts with 291 the most in the american league since ryan struck out 341 with the california angles in 1977. too close two and two tell you what clemens had a couple of weird games though back in 1987. merle do you realize clemens pitched two complete games without strikeouts in 87 no does that seem hard to believe in you me too and now jim rice is plucked so rice goes on the first you know norm will not know this till after the game is over but i'm beginning to have a hunch these guys really aren't seeing those inside pitches and both pitchers are pitching inside who could blame him for that that's part of their routine if you will but i don't know that's the background but to really get an appreciation we'd have to have a camera right down where the catcher's glove is to get an appreciation for what the hitter sees we can only approximate for you the background which is very bright and greenish where the canvas covers it but still merle i think you're right burke seemed to react very late in the first inning to that and we've now had three hit batsmen and three other deck jobs nick is up there and a miss outside by nolan ryan so it's two balls and no strikes also sometimes there's a glare off of the uh brilliantly manicured and very bright green grass now astroturf i know the players say on a very sunny afternoon uh they'll get glare off the master turf now whether they get it off this kind of grass or not i don't know it's boy this field is so fantastic it's unbelievable i mean the playing surface okay nationally on the budweiser scoreboard pittsburgh in a runaway montreal scoring big and the reds and phils are tied cardinals behind joe mcgrain reactivated today cubby sticking it to san diego and euna thought david cohen versus mike scott would have been low scoring in houston it isn't and that one just got away it's swinging a missed by assassin rice going to second by the way merle that's montreal beating up on another left-hand pitcher derek lilliquist the you know 60 percent or more is an is a really big percentage in baseball to do anything at 60 or more montreal is beating left-handers at 60 percent for the last two years they're a tough club against left-hand pitching nolan ryan about to throw his 61st pitch and he throws it by nicoski that was a past ball by the way and then bala got away from geno you could see how wallach and brooks and reigns could really wreak some havoc on left-hand pitchers ryan radar just a mile per hour less than what we clocked roger clemens in the last time two-two pitch coming [Applause] goodbye to nick casaski for the second time you know i bet you when sasky was traded over to the american league he said well thank god at least i don't have to face ryan anymore a lot of guys probably thought that but interleague trading came into play many many years ago and then ryan signs as a free agent necessity says oh goody goody another three or four games against nolan how much fun is that here's gedman [Applause] the catcher up there with one out and a runner at second [Applause] no balls in a strike gedman hitting only 151. he's had a tough time coming back from a career that got off to a great start and then was plagued by injuries and the snowballs two strikes to gunman [Applause] nolan ryan behind one to nothing has not given up a hit gedman a year ago hit 230 and 95 ball games second straight year that he was sidelined by injury in fact it was here in texas he broke a bone in his um right foot i think it was thousand back below us you know i can't help but think every time i see rich gedman that this is such a weird looking swing he has it seems to have a natural loop in it which you'd think would make it difficult for gedman to hit the ball but he does put ball a bad on ball an awful lot he's wide open it seems like a really odd hitting style he has oh he reached for a bad one there ryan strikes out his fifth it's his swing [Music] [Applause] the k is being waved again and gedman gedman would have needed a boat or to hit that one at least yes so ryan with five k's in the book but he is still behind one to nothing he'll trade all those for a couple runs ryan back leading the american league in strikeouts we mentioned mark langston of seattle took the lead by one with his performance last night and a strike call to jodie reed on by an air in the second know i know walter weiss was the rookie of the year last year but it's a shame that this young man didn't come up a little bit sooner as a regular with the red sox because he had a dynamite year for them last year once he took over at shortstop good breaking ball dropping a bit too low did you see that little hitch that reed took as he was fooled by the pitch if you'll remember when joe morgan took over from dick williams the really one major line-up change he made was reed took over or from from john mcnamara dick williams was read at shortstop for spike owen he liked reid and reed really rewarded him hitting 293 last year a little off speed you want another note on reed he joins box barrett and greenwell he just didn't even he didn't qualify enough to get in the toughest to strike out look at those stats 368 at bats 21 strikeouts those guys don't like to strike out at fenway that's such a great park to hit on get in rather than once every 17 trips to the plate they strike this guy out one ball and two strikes crawford strike three fastball clipped the corner and reed said no that's six strikeouts ryan gets the side in the fourth inning going to the bottom of the fourth one to nothing boston 25 career at the university of texas one of a number of great pictures produced by that program yesterday during our texas arkansas baseball coverage we asked cliff gustavsson who managed roger as a ut pitcher about the memories he has of roger clements [Music] well i think his dedication to the game roger was always about his business of becoming a major league pitcher from the very time we first met him that's what he had in mind and he knew what he wanted he's going to work hard to accomplish that and he continues to work hard even though he has gained that pedestal of being a great pitcher i think he's going to have a long illustrious career because of his approach [Applause] cliff is also a good friend of nolan ryan's and he wanted to be here to watch this confrontation today but schedule wouldn't permit but we understand the coaches watching in austin this afternoon so welcome aboard coach and congratulations on your long and indus and uh illustrious career of producing great college players and great major league players we get to see another one of his come in with cleveland greg swindell sierra hits one fairly deep to left center but kutcher got to jump on it and runs it down by the way cliff gustafson is one of 314 912 people who really wish they were here today with a ticket and one of them is my grandson skip and he is watching and skip i hope this is it somewhat anyway equals being here today brother about i know bert hawkins we're talking to bert hawkins who probably knows as much about the uh franchise as anyone having come here with it from washington as franco steps in and a strike i asked bird i said bert this game was sold out there people standing in front of the ticket office down below holding up you know three fingers you have three tickets available two tickets available any tickets available and i said if this stadium had held 80 000 people what would have been happening down at the ticket office right now before the game he said they'd still be holding up three fingers two fingers anybody for tickets i said you're kidding he said if it held a hundred thousand that many people would have come in to watch today well you're talking about legends here basically and how many times with nolan ryan at 42 is he ever going to match up with clemens again oh if everything goes well and there's no rain in between and things like that they'll match up again in boston but even if nolan has a couple more years fates and rotations dictate you may not see this up again ever other than this weekend and next weekend could be two balls two strikes [Applause] no i was you know norm i was thinking the same thing but i have a hunch that it may happen again when the red sox come back ground ball field a nice play by jody reed the ball that hopped on him so franco is out he is over two the only hit of this game belongs to geno petrali who's singled to left field when he batted in the second inning jody reed who made just 11 errors last year at shortstop for the red sox big bad hop up in his eyes on a ball he thought would stay down he recovers composure and gets franco fairly easily now gino who singled against roger clemens in the second for the only hit the ball [Applause] one to nothing boston the run scoring in a wild pitch back in the first inning up high no hits in that inning by the way in fact boston has not had a hit off brian chino is the only guy in this game whose average is going up that's down low for a ball [Applause] you were going to say i was just saying this is the solitary hit holder today he's in a good groove too lately gino is and again he just reaches out and pokes that ball taking what uh clemens was giving and it's fouled away it has two balls two strikes the cleveland indians will be in in here tomorrow night enrich yet is going to pitch for the indians and bobby witt who is 3-0 will go for the rangers fly ball to left field coming on as greenwell gotta hurry basic gino is two for two a solid single on a line drive and a fly ball single tell you what if you'll just keep putting the ball in play there's an awful lot of lawn out there for something to fall on this is the base hit almost the same kind he got against the indians to beat them the other day in extra innings merle so gino is a base runner again and the batter will be rick leach the left fielder rick rounded out in the second inning [Applause] leeds hitting at 333 coming into this one strike with a fastball nothing and one tuesday night another former cliff gustafsson pitcher will work in this ballpark and that would be swindell for the indians it was 2-0 against moyer 3-0 for the rangers then the yankees come on missed outside [Applause] one ball and one strike happy birthday a day late to a ranger pitching coach tom house who turned 42 yesterday and eddie correa her turn 23 this weekend [Applause] again schwendel missing up the outside edge of the plate and he keeps working that or rather clemens talking of swindell who will be uh working on tuesday night boy isn't that something to have those two guys coming off the texas pitching staff university of texas well and then so many others oh yeah they're hanging around i'll speed two balls two strikes calvin charlie's another one of course bruce ruffin mark pink isaac who's in the ranger system dennis cook who just barely missed earning a spot in the rotation of the giants this year two balls two strikes two down one on [Applause] a little bit high breaking stuff that's a break for texas gino petroli doesn't have good speed but now three two two outs gino can get a running start and should leach get something of a long single variety or a ball in the gap at all uh that would certainly score petroleum ball in the gap now and the center fielder kutcher is close and so is greenwald the left fielder although greenwall is about normal depth but kutcher is pretty close and centered looking at the the defensive alignment this even with the rain we've had the last couple of days should be a pretty fast outfield [Applause] it's manicured so beautifully by jim anglia and his crew runner going from first ball four to the board another chance for steve [Applause] so bouchelle has given up his second free ride patrolli at second and leach at first for bouchelle who was hit by a pitch in the second inning rouchelle took an over in the first game of the series the one that was suspended and completed last night over five but then bounced back with a pair of hits in the second game of the series [Applause] luchelle uh 320 hitter over the last six games so he steps up there with a chance to not only lock up the ball game but give the rangers a lead tying run in second lead run first [Applause] strike to the inside corner [Applause] [Music] the tigers in oakland are underway the oakland a's are hot they have won nine of the last ten ball games and three in a row and their percentage points behind the rangers who occupy first place in the western division nothing in two well i think there's a mistake on a scoreboard it shows minnesota at home leading cleveland 2-1 in batting in the bottom of the ninth i think that one's over see down the right hand there the little dot indicates it's bottom of the ninth i i think probably it's top of the ninth if they haven't put final up there yet and you see the yankees have won bouncer to short joey reed away at second and leach saw an opportunity there as he saw that play developing a little slowly and leach turned it on trying to beat the play of the bag but didn't make it and it is no runs and a hit and two men left at the end of four it's still boston one texas nothing home sports entertainment and is intended solely for the non-commercial use of our viewing audience any rebroadcast or the use of this telecast without the express written consent of home sports entertainment is prohibited and answers for this telecast are selected and employed by home sports entertainment it was close but here's the play at second the second baseman romero gets there about uh tenth of a second ahead of the sliding rick leach speaking of romero here's eddie leading off in the fifth and boston still does not have a base hit as you see but leads in the run column one to nothing [Applause] romero flied to left in the second inning breaking ball hanging and it's one bowl and strike rick leach made a nice play against the left field wall foul down and with a runner at first we're hoping that that ball would be in the glove when he hit the deck and it was and stayed there for the out to in the inning breaking ball away two balls of strike eddie romero spent five years in milwaukee before coming to the red sox in a deal for mark clear during the off season after the 85 season by the way ryan has six k's in the book today and he fanned the side of the fourth after starting the inning by nicking jim rice [Music] [Applause] headed for right field and cut off by julio franco one out the rangers with their 16-5 record have won six of the last 10 and have a percentage point lead over the a's in the western division texas 16 and 5 going into the game today oakland 18 and 7. here's wade boggs a walk and a strikeout for bob [Applause] so now merle in the last 13 and one-third innings nolan ryan's permitted one hit that's right ouch there's some batting averages tumbling operative second charged by franco and the underhand ties two down remember that surely question we had for you earlier about the best records in baseball this is a composite total major league the best records best starts look at this american league west american league west american west american league west national league west then a pair of nationally east teams but four western teams are one two three four best record in baseball well the guys from boston that we're visiting with on friday as we checking on bobby valentine down on the first base dugout the traveling media corps with the red sox are convinced that the balance of power in the american league is swung to the west you know it used to be they said well the eastern division is so far ahead of the western division uh and they go back as this base hit is going to be number one of the game for boston and he gets it so ryan has now given up a base hit um but they were saying that now it is the west whereas a few years ago when the minnesota twins won the pennant remember they said my goodness they would have finished in the america league east they not only won the penta won the world series now it looks like it's the western division that's going to have the pull away power as far as the first well first three teams are concerned and in the eastern division you've got a bunch of teams playing 500 ball randy kutcher is the batter down low [Music] baltimore and uh boston virtually in a dead heat and first place in the eastern division along with the yankees under 500 under 500. we're going to games today imagine detroit 7 and 14 in last place and only three games out of first two balls no strikes two down one on each team with a hit the red sox have a run missing outside to catchers when you consider the talent that's left the american the east in the last couple of years kirk gibson lance parish bruce hurst here in boston eddie murray in baltimore jim clancy from toronto jack clark from the yankees winfield's hurt franco got traded over the national league brock's hurt swain's hurt milwaukee that's a lot of terrific players and we've got uh randy cutcher going on to first base this is trouble because this guy can hit right here and as you said before he tends to thrive on situations like this one greenwell just loves runners on base so greenwell has twice grounded out as bobby valentine ponders the situation the red sox had two in the board in the first inning [Music] earl this guy hit 3 32 with runners in scoring position last that'll year it'll work i believe so [Applause] [Music] greenwell went after a pitch about letter high greenwell came up last year with 229 people in scoring position and knocked in a third of them that's terrific that's really wonderful production ryan missing away one ball one strike jim rice will be up next if greenwell gets aboard jim rice enjoying life a little more this year off to a better start he's had nagging injuries over the last several seasons although he started to come back last year one ball one strike two on and two down one to nothing boston [Music] two and one [Music] bobby valentine is asking steve palermo to come out he wants to see if ryan is okay ryan seems to just body language wise but give off signals of discomfort this innit now valentine will go ahead and make it an official visit by the way that was a fairly amicable looking conversation between steve palermo and bobby valentine and it was not always that way no valentine and palermo were probably at odds more than any manager umpire in the american league a couple years ago that seems to have thankfully settled down so ryan has a two-and-one count to mike greenwell with boston leading one to nothing the red sox are batting in the fifth inning danny heap and randy cutcher are the base runners for the red sox fouled away [Applause] well let's see how many pitches nolan has thrown so far this afternoon 87 and in four and two thirds innings one run six strikeouts three walks that by the way may seem a little high to you and it is in the normal everyday baseball goings 87 pitches in the fifth inning is a lot but ryan's always like that he throws the pitches strikeout pitches pitchers generally throw a lot of pitches two balls two strikes two down look at the way greenwell is up on that right foot and he pops this breaking ball to left field but rick leach had him played just right so the red sox go in the fifth no runs in a hit they stranded two now to the bottom of the fifth inning as we've reached the halfway point of the ball game on hse red sox won rangers nothing i i didn't i paid for one as a matter oh okay that's how i make sports illustrated i buy one texas heat is the cover story it's nolan ryan on the cover a writer for sports illustrated followed the rangers for a full week that brings up this question we want you to name the last ranger player this is a beauty who is the last ranger to be the cover i don't mean sitting in the background or somewhere in a mass picture the ranger player to be featured on the cover of sports illustrator call those numbers 277-0-779-277-0004 in area 4817 first correct caller gets a gift certificate from merle harmon's fanfare the sports fans gift shop and if the person who was the guy on the cover calls you can't win rules of the contest [Music] okay because there's a chance he's watching well if he is i'll take him to lunch i owe him one anyway by the way we got an nba playoff score for you cleveland has bounced back to beat chicago 96-88 that evens that best of seven series a game of peace jeff stone the d8 batting ninth in the order wraps one to the right side eddie romero digs it what up [Music] so both starting pitchers roll on we're in the bottom of the fifth boston leading one to nothing with a run scoring without the benefit of a base hit in the first c celestia struck out and lined the third today [Applause] roger clemens is now going into his 22nd consecutive inning going back to last year in his two appearances against the rangers 22nd inning without giving up a run to the rangers strike to the outside corner if pitching well on the road means something clemens enters today's game with a career career road record of 42 and 13. and that's better than he has pitched at home isn't it much better he's pitched at home yes strike inside corner one ball two strikes to see celestia who came into the game hitting at 276. he's a very shabby 40 and 21 at home by the way obviously much easier to hit oh yeah one ball two strikes to esp ball hit up the middle but there's romero again with a nice hop and there are two down well as the rangers continue to try and solve roger clements there is one bit of good news on the scoreboard boom detroit has lit up storm davis in the second inning in oakland five big ones [Music] well let's see how long will it take oakland to get that back though i don't know against franklin and it may take a while frankie's appearing to get back in the groove yes yes pranks frank's a tough cookie you give frank five early and frank will find a way to nibble away at you kansas city trying to beat milwaukee again having won last night [Applause] no balls a strike to scott fletcher who's over two with a fly ball to right in the ground out target outside breaking ball nothing in two geez merle this guy just changed as a pitcher he's throwing a lot of different speeds he's throwing a lot of breaking balls he's moving the ball up and down roger clemens even of a couple years ago still leaned heavily on the fastball and he's moving it around today well no longer a thrower now a pitcher well he's a 26 year old man who wants to be pitching at 36 obviously where do you suppose he learned that i don't know i i think uncle cliff might have had something to do with it in texas and i'll bet you a few of the folks here and i'll bet you his uh his mound opponent today may have shown him a few things too i believe so one ball and two strikes with two down got him that's the second strikeout for clemens and he takes the rangers in order in the fifth and after five complete it's boston one still the rangers nothing hsc bringing you ranger baseball from arlington [Music] got the answer this question who was the last ranger to be featured on the cover of sports illustrated let's not tell you let's show you elliott bunkwilds mari sun featured as the primary new face of 1977. the winner is jeff williams of fort worth who receives a gift certificate good at any merle harmon's fanfare coast to coast merle harmon's fanfare the sports fans gift shop here the runs and the hits are hard to come by top six and here's the man who runs the fanfare stores merle harmon thank you norm and jim rice up there with a count of one ball and one strike jim flying to left in the first inning was hit by a pitch in the fourth rice is a guy that the red sox tried at times to move in the last couple of seasons and could get no takers because of his big big contract and rice has bounced back and has rewarded him with a fine start this year that exploding ryan breaking ball that caught uh rice looking because in his last time at the plate he was nicked by an inside pitch on a fastball and this time he goes after the fastball to the outside doesn't connect and that's seven k's in the book now for nolan ryan [Applause] there they are one two three four five six waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting where is it i think they've lost count out there there it is that one's got it right those guys have snoozed off at the other k corner out there nick casaski has two k's in the book against his name today strike 0-1 [Applause] the yankees beat the white sox who have now lost nine of their last 11 games no balls two strikes [Applause] yankees on the other hand have won seven of their last 11. [Applause] owen two the count to assassin one go on top of the six one to nothing boston this is a quiet crowd today for 42 to 3 000 just missed inside nick this may be one more pitch than you're entitled to sell sell-out crowd just sounds like they'd really be getting on people nolan ryan after that pitch oh you got to be kidding me here [Applause] well hi hardwin when in doubt go to the high hard one that's number eight 94 miles an hour on the ryan radar rich gedman has a fly ball to center in a strikeout [Music] one to nothing boston the red sox have one hit which they did not get in the run scoring inning as that breaking ball dropped slow and the third base umpire larry mccoy said no he checked the swing in time one ball to strike the rangers have two hits both by geno patrolli [Music] but the rangers have only had one man reach second base and that was patrolling the last time up two and all the count ryan has thrown 99 pitches so number 100 is coming to gedman strike you notice the way and gedman's just another case the way the red sox batters especially the left-handed batters shift that weight back on the back foot they still remember that from walt runiak's days of when riniak was a batting coach and this foul ball is coming back out of play we noted that greenwell did that wade boggs does it of course and the i i guess the guy that really got everybody started on that project was the late charlie lau george brett all those kansas city hitters and then runiak and lao i understand we're good friends and did a lot of sharing good breaking ball but not quite getting the corner back doorstep so three balls two strikes but now rooney act is with the white sox he got a big fat contract to go there and leave the red sox so we'll see what he can do in chicago there are those who contend that theory takes a lot of power away a pitch out of the strike zone for the second time in the game ryan has fanned the side now the crowd starts to come to life three up and three down at the end of five and a half it is boston one texas nothing [Music] in oklahoma city thanks for joining us for the rangers boston red sox game on home sports entertainment you'll be sure to be with us this weekend for exciting big eight conference baseball live at seven o'clock friday and one o'clock sunday it's the oklahoma sooners and our trial rival oklahoma state in college baseball consider left field for the boston red sox if you would mr harmon and how well it's been tended for the last 50 years in 1939 ted williams broke in to be succeeded by fellow hall of famer karl yastremski who was succeeded by hall of famer to be jim rice who's succeeded by if he keeps going hall of famer mike greenwald 50 years of 300 hitting 20 30 40 home run hitting left fielders in boston isn't that something the way ball clubs get into a streak like that with big big players big stars at one position two goals no strikes now to raphael palmero who walked in the first and grounded out in the third he'd be followed by reuben sierra and julio franco let's see if the rangers can do something now strike fastball 2-1 roger clemens has given up two hits but no runs he has walked to and struck out to breaking ball [Music] the astros are leading the mets seven to five in the seventh inning and raphael has gone the route three balls two strikes hitting 313 coming into the game fastball got the corner third strikeout now for clemens clement is clemens is 26 years old and is already putting some incredible numbers on the board how do they compare with nolan ryan well at 26 years old ryan who had a lot of trouble getting control early was an under 500 pitcher but he'd thrown 15 shutouts better than one every five of his wins was a shutout sierra grounds to first assassin takes the play unassisted two down let's go back to that graphic as we can with two outs here in the bottom of the sixth and clemens leading ryan's ryan one nothing to show you the incredible start of clemen's career now obviously ryan has longevity but clemens has got this incredible start at 26. [Music] look at the comparison this guy's record is remarkable well this guy could be a this guy could be a 200 game winner at 31 32 years old he won't be 27 for another three months there's one other stat there norm that i i'm kind of interested in that we know that we don't have and that's innings pitched at that stage of their career [Music] [Applause] two down clemens will now face julio franco one to nothing boston high fastball by the way one other note about the williams yostremski rice and greenwell situation there was nothing in between them williams left after 60 and yaskrimsky arrived in 61. ustremski then overlapped with rice and rice has overlapped with greenwell so it literally is 50 years with those four people at that position you know that that really is interesting and i mentioned that there have been situations like that with some other clubs and i don't even remember who was the center fielder before dimaggio as we check in on greenwell once again but there was the long reign of dimaggio and and mickey mantle in new york five ball to right chased by danny heath down into the corner powell territory makes the catch good play by nanny heap it's a one two three inning so the one to nothing shutout holds for roger clemens who heads to the dugout and a little breather and jody reed eddie romero and wade boggs will come to bat for boston on hsc in the 7th when you can't be here be with us on hse let me tell you something if you don't have a ticket you can't be here because they stopped selling them today nolan ryan goes out for his seventh inning of work having allowed two base hits in his last 15 innings one to toronto last sunday and one to the red sox today it did not figure in the run as a matter of fact if you're tuning in late the run was as a result of orion mistake with two outs in the first inning and two strikes on the hitter jim rice ryan looking like he was attempting to waste a pitch to set up race for something else through a wild pitch and that's the story of this game as far as the offense is concerned look at that ball explode what a little bit low to jodi reed who has been on bonaire and struck out [Applause] pop foul out of play for those who came out today expecting to see a pitchers duel and a low scoring ball game or for watching at home for that matter looking for a pictures duel or a low scoring ball game we've got it gino patrolli with the only two ranger hits journeyman outfielder danny heath the only boston hit and it's two balls of a strike for our nba fans this shocker in detroit at the half the celtics lead the pistons 57-54 and at the half the lakers over portland 56-46 interesting well wouldn't boston winning in detroit that's what i mean blind ball check swing foul outside the first that would be interesting indeed the oakland detroit tiger games go on to the third inning now top three and detroit has that five-nothing lead with tanana over storm davis at this point well the tigers have been getting great pitching and no wins in the last five days they've lost one-nothing 2-1-3-2 as morris and alexander have gotten hung out to drive breaking ball lying down the left field line fairball hits the chalk and jody reed heads for second a lead up double hit number two for boston so the red sox have a man in second and nobody out in the top of the seven [Applause] breaking ball he went down and got it and pulled it good job by reed terrific job of hitting my goodness because that was a good pitchy hit that was not a pitcher's mistake so jody's on second for eddie romero and the infield is looking for eddie to try to move that runner to third they may just go ahead and do this with a bunt rather than try to finesse him over there and try to get him over to third with boggs at the plate knowing what a good contact hitter boggs is though romero fails on the first attempt to move the runner with a bunt by the way merle we should tell folks too that romero's playing because of a shoulder injury suffered by marty barrett their terrific second baseman barrett was hitting 321 when he went out of the lineup and has appeared in this series only once and that was a pinch runner in the first game of the series no balls a strike nolan ryan has given up one run and two hits and kenny rogers gets ready in the pen [Applause] again the infield expecting the bunt romero tries it bows it off now romero's really got a tough job he's down 0-2 he still wants to move the runner over that means he's got to try with ryan on the mound and in the hole in the count he's got to try to finesse the ball to the right side of the infield because a little heat on the other half of the plate might be in order here [Applause] either that or try to come in tight to him [Applause] [Music] [Applause] breaking ball he wouldn't bite [Music] one to nothing red sox seventh inning with a man at second the rangers will go to a series of signs but trolley in fact now tracks out to ryan and i wonder if gino got crossed up a little bit there i don't know you know we're talking about outside pitches and romero trying to go to the right side i don't know if i don't know if romero could inside out ryan or not if they came tight i don't well we'll see let's see what uh we'll be paying what patrolling flashes of now [Music] either way breaking ball and again romero wouldn't chase it two balls two strikes one to nothing red sox seventh inning glad you could join us today on hse [Music] ryan basically a three pitch pitcher earlier in the sequence petrola used a four and he does go to right field he's got himself a base hit but the run will not score sierra comes to the plate overthrows around her now they've got a man caught between first and second how they go for the run for third they've got to run him down and finally bouchelle flips to ryan who's got the ball now they're trying to get the runner to third and jodie reed was motioning for romero come on board they'll stay in the hot box come on to third ed romero makes not one but two bad running mistakes unbelievable running mistakes by ed romero who for some reason broke for second when sierra's throw was right at the cutoff man and then with reed doing a wonderful job in the hot box merle he doesn't go over now watch reed watch he's telling i've got it i got it come on down see the left arm come on down come on down he's saying i've got this thing stopped late romero has stopped in the red sox wind up as though romero had made a note you know i think romero misjudged where the ball was or at least what a cutoff man was and then when he got to second i think he did the right thing though when jody reed was trying to get him to third because they had a chance the way they had to read in the hot box there and it had cut down the distance between reed and the two that had in the hot box if romero gets off second they might not only have gotten reed but also romero [Applause] the put out winds up going to uh scottie fletcher the rest of it is normal well it went yeah the first basement of the shortstop to the third baseman to the catcher to the third baseman to the pitcher to the shortstop how you did that well you know that was the rundown i was trying to take it down as the replay was on wade boggs getting a walk here with one out and danny heap they're going to take their chances with danny heath they figured boggs is all for three and a guy can really handle the bat might just be about dude and he's such a good contact hitter that they'll uh they'll bring heap up there this will be the third walk off nolan ryan fourth walk up helen rider by the way in case you're scoring along with my adroit partner merle harmon what does that mean by the way it is the play goes 9-3-6-5-2-5-1-6 i'm on the out on reed i'm not from detroit [Applause] joe morgan two on one out for danny heap who is one for three he singled his last time up in the fifth inning we're in the seventh breaking ball strike well merle let's be honest here if romero simply stops at first that's not a good situation for texas first and third nobody out and probably the best hitter in baseball at the plate that's a tough spot especially where clemens is pitching now if ryan can get heap to hit the ball on the ground heath does not run very well he could get out of this thing fastball a little too close ryan still has plenty of heat left here in the seventh inning [Applause] one ball one strike one out two on boston ahead one to nothing danny heap at the plate [Music] right in there merle that shocker in the nba continues it is now boston 69 60. mid-third period in detroit romero and boggs are aboard for boston [Applause] breaking ball his hip to palmeiro out at second back to first got him there it was romero's base running mistake costs him a run a 3-6-3 the tough way and the potential inning for boston goes down the drain now let's see if the rangers can do some business with the bottom of the seventh coming petroli who has both hits for the rangers will lead up followed by leech and buchell when we continue on hse you can sign up to play in the first annual charity golf classic at preston trail golf club it benefits the american cancer society the tournament is monday may 8th and it's sponsored by fredo lay in american airlines for more information call jeff raider today at area code 214-821-8515 there are still playing positions open for the morning round call jeff raider at 214-821-8550 here the rangers have gotten the emotional lift of wiggling out of an inning in which they probably should have allowed at least one run now they've got to get even with clemens as we go bottom seven here's merle harmon and here's dwight evans in right field as danny heaps is out of the ball game gino petrali will lead up against roger clemens the rangers have not scored against clemens in his last three outings against him that would include two games last year that's only 23 innings though i don't see if this is the one if not how about the next one sometime this century this streak will end you want to make that official i feel fairly certain that the rangers will eventually score off roger clements sometime do you want to handicap it well we may have to go by years or groups of years pearl this guy's tough but trolley has both hits and a breaking ball strike and now realize clemens comes off a beauty of a game too snuffing the white sox out on three hits and 11 strikeouts one and two to patrol nobody on or out at the bottom of the seventh boston one texas nothing strike [Applause] [Music] so patrolli is called out on strikes to start the bottom of the seventh and that's the fourth k for roger clemens [Music] clemens started the game his game rather in the bottom of the first by fanning c celesti he didn't strike out another batter until the fifth when he got fletcher to end the inning then he got palmeiro to start the sixth and now patrolling to start the seventh one ball no strikes to rick leach what an old one out well they're having a dandy in california today merle is the blue jays and the california angels are scoreless in the fifth that's saruti and wit [Applause] mike yes mike whit fouled away by leech bobby wick tomorrow night on hse bobby three you know well let's put up the book on roger clemens [Music] [Applause] six in the third two hits two walks 4k that book is not recommended reading if you're a ranger hitter yes here's the 95 95 95th pitch and leach couldn't connect so now two strikeouts in a row here in the seventh and steve bouchel by the way in case you missed it earlier ellis burks from everman was taken out of the game as a precaution in the first inning hit in the left shoulder by a nolan ryan tailing fastball the shoulder is bruised it is not serious he was not even removed to the hospital for x-rays or examination never left the bench simply a precautionary move they took burke's out of the game outside corner to buchell after a nolan ryan fastball just missed my head i would have been removed for three years as a precautionary measure strike two outside corner oh norm i've seen you standing there against those guys right with the cage in front of me in the mural where i stand right behind the batting cage elvis burks watching in the dugout well actually you had an ore out of a boat and a ball outside standing outside the batting cage if anything clemons looks like he's getting stronger in the middle innings he went to a lot of breaking stuff sort of cruised for a couple innings now he's coming back with a good mixture of heaters here and a roller to the right side he may beat it out romero can't come up with it it'll be a base hit for steve bouchel [Applause] not a thing of beauty any old way in this game yeah [Applause] well what do the rangers have now they have patrolling we got a pretty good hard base hit between short and third they got a dying pigeon from patrolling and a check swing roller from bushell those are the three hits they're not exactly wearing clemens out meryl no 129. four zero [Music] breaking ball inside [Music] [Applause] drive to left center field and it is hauled in by randy kutcher looked like he had to take a second shot at that one so no runs in a hit we go on now to the eighth inning boston one rangers nothing hse and ranger baseball today from arlington three-game series the sell-out today of 4429 the second consecutive the rangers have never sold out back-to-back games the 116 900 breaks by 3 000 the record sent in june of 1979 when they drew three for a series against the yankees the crowd's just pouring out and we'd have had more merle except in a day game they will not open that little patch of terrace seats or they could have probably stuffed another thousand people or so in there nolan ryan showing randy cutcher some unbelievable pitches here is what it boils down to cutcher has walked twice and the breaking ball blowing away one ball two strikes cutcher replaced ellis burks and the ranger bullpen is now busy i'll show you the activity after this pitch to kutcher nolan missing outside two goals two strikes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] drew hall is the left-hander along with jeff russell [Applause] two and two that one hung up kutcher was looking for a breaking ball away and instead the ball sailed [Applause] three balls and two strikes got him very bad pitch cutter could have his third straight walk 10 strikeouts for nolan that is the 184th time in his career that ryan has struck out 10 or more 184 times isn't that amazing like like we said earlier if you think you're a good solid major league rotation pitcher starts 30 games a year ryan's working on his seventh year of striking 10 out at every star goodness mike greenwell is over two and o from the series check that he's over three it's fouled away it hasn't been a very good visit to texas for mike one ball one strike one out one run three hits for boston no runs three hits for texas [Applause] dialed away i got just what the red sox need the beleaguered red sox rangers get a run bottom of the eighth forced this thing to about 17 innings make the red sox play another another six or seven hours today well they've really had much blown inside the night before they came in here they had an extra inning ball game they didn't get in the night before that they went extreme each two they went next there's wednesday all right and then thursday like you were talking and it traveled and being a travel day you know they'd play an extra yeah then they get in here at six o'clock in the morning then they get a game that wasn't decided for almost 24 hours it was suspended [Applause] fly ball right field not deep sierra right there and two down well look at it this way merle they played about four hours on wednesday they played five hours on thursday they played five and a half hours on friday they played almost five hours last night but they like the weather tell you one thing it cuts down on the post game of carousing doesn't it [Applause] strike one the jim rice who struck out in the sixth inning and is over two today the last time the red sox faced nolan ryan was 1979 breaking ball they got him in a twilight game oh great ryan won six to nothing 12 strikeouts a twilight game he's so much fun at twilight check out jim fastball ryan thought he had it you be the umpire [Applause] that's a tough pitch to take for a hitter yeah this is that maybe one more pitch that jim reserve deserves so he just blows it by him 11 strikeouts for ryan now to the bottom of the eighth inning the rangers have the top of the order and the fans are hoping hoping hoping this will be the inning as they go out against roger clemens the rangers do and we'll show it all to you on hse texas the american league batting leaders with some unusual names just behind him kelly gruber and eddie williams tomorrow night pete o'brien and jerry brown and other mcdowell return to arlington stadium for first time as members of the cleveland indians hsc televises both the monday and tuesday games of the series then the yankees are in town for two big games wednesday and thursday barbara bush the first lady throws out the first pitch thursday night it's a big week of texas ranger baseball in hse check your local listings for the games in your area bottom eight the ranger's still trying to scratch on roger clements here's wilhelm [Music] after the first pitch not connecting sbo for three a strikeout a line drive out to third and a ground out to second fletcher to follow and then palmeira will be up [Applause] too close the red sox got their run in the first inning without a hit a walk of fielder's choice a hit batsman a wild pitch loop to left field and it'll be in there so that's the start here in the bottom of the eighth well merle you're fond of calling paul or paul molitor the igniter in milwaukee this is the igniter here see celeste you get him aboard he can make things happen yes he can espy who is uh second in stolen bases and then runs scored is just four out of the league lead tied for sixth at first with nobody out here is scott fletcher for three clemens a reminder at first that he is aware there's a base runner over there do you go by the book and blend him up with fletcher one run would look very big right now even if it were a tie run well especially with how tired the boston bullpen is this is the game that the rangers i don't think would mind in the least bit going 11 or 12 innings because the red sox bullpen is exhausted from the last few days of work [Applause] sb the base runner scottie fletcher had a five-game hitting streak snapped last night but that hitting streak was a little bit deceiving [Applause] [Music] because he had only eight hits the last 45 times up so now would be a good time for him to break out of it it called upon to hit the ball or right field if they put a play on but let's see what they do and we had time called they do nothing other new call times steve palermo is the only man that can and did fletcher may have asked for it i didn't see anybody at sport did you guessing steve but looks like steve called timeout here are the principles espy trying to get as much as he can at first base rich goodman throws out about 36 or 7 percent of the base runners i think it's in that area [Music] so scott fletcher does not move the runners he pops up on the bus and sb still at first now palmeiro will come now the emphasis shifts on the red sox's ability to hold sb and shoot him down if he tries to steal because you know somewhere in this sequence that's a definite possibility for the rangers well they'd like to you know if you have espionage second with palmeiro being such a good contact hitter you know your percentage of getting that runner home would go up considerably runner back i think the thing here that would be not too good but they would take it would be they'd have to have two or three base hits to get that run now if they can get sp the second one [Applause] basically so roger clemens leading one to nothing has given up four hits [Applause] has to be pretty good lead at first this time holding and it's one ball to those strikes that might be the best lead that he has had [Music] important advantage to texas with ball one to palmero it reduces gedman's ability to pitch out now if he pitches out and guess is wrong he puts his pitcher in a 2-0 hole and even a good control pitcher with flemish you don't like to do that just be going holding and it is two balls of no striker a false break from first gedman came out of there the other advantage the rangers have if they run sb for the left-handed batter up gedman doesn't have as good a shot as he would have with a right-handed battery if palmero just kind of hangs in there two balls no strikes good pitch to put your movement in the game you know clemens wants to throw a strike he did by the way everything in the national league now final the astros have squeezed the mets 7-6 the cardinals have squeezed the dodgers 4-3 montreal over atlanta 9-6 pittsburgh plasters frisco 11-1 cubs seven sago three in cincinnati five philly three all nationally fighters two balls of strike espy at first the rangers trailed one to nothing last half of the eighth inning forty 40 429 a sellout one of the things espy is doing [Applause] [Music] trying to take the concentration away from uh clemens concentration of the hitter i think this is the pitch clemens believes espy's going on he's holding fouled off on the third base side out of play again espy made the false break per second i'm not i'm not sure that was a false breaker who's sb taking a couple of steps and realizing he had no break at all a good base run looks like that and we'll simply say hey i've got no advantage here this is crazy to go and he'll stop [Applause] two balls two strikes the red sox scored in the first on a walk a fielder's choice a hit batsman and a wild pitch and that's been it [Applause] tomorrow night the cleveland indians rich yet against undefeated bobby witt tuesday night frank swindell undefeated against jamie moyer undefeated [Applause] the impatient fans getting on clemens for throwing over to first to hold sp but this is a critical point of this game yes sir two balls two strikes better throw would have possibly gotten sp in trouble and i'll tell you what he looked like he was leaning and going on that one [Applause] espy for the year 13 out of 16 in steals two balls two strikes [Applause] boston opponents have stolen 35 of 46 so the red sox aren't doing a very good job again espy had lengthened his lead by maybe a foot and gedman to the mound now to talk to his pitcher well if you're reading body language and the interior game it appears clemens is doing a lot of concentrating on espy at first base then he causes catcher for a huddle if you're robbing clemens of concentration on the batter that's a plus for texas and the foul ball out of play sb not going [Music] red sox 35 or 46 successful against them they're allowing nearly that's nearly 80 percent wow that's not very good [Music] [Applause] meanwhile boston's stolen eight bases and been caught four times they don't run much no they don't not much reason to run in fenway is there no two balls two strikes espy going this time foul ball he had a good jump [Applause] that duel in california goes on the angels getting terrific pitching they get a wonderful out from jimmy abbott last night and today they've gotten six shot underneath from mike witt 0-0 with cerruti espy as it turned out it pitched picked a good pitch to go on because the pitch was inside of course palmeiro couldn't take a chance that it was going to be in the strike zone but the pitch was close enough that uh and with espy's jump it would have been a little bit troublesome for gedman to come up out of there and throw him look out look up he's okay we're going to patrol deep to right field it's a hooking it is a fair ball home run merle we talked of how espy had distracted clemens concentration and merle this was a fat pitch to palmeiro this definitely was a pitcher's mistake that palmeiro bashed off the screen attached to the power pole the rangers lead 2-1 the crowd is still standing sierra is up there and the crowd has really come to life now as texas goes ahead 2-1 fly ball to center field and kutcher is there two guns so the rangers get on the board and take the lead in the bottom of the eighth and the crowd is still up julio franco coming to the plane i think the ball with the foul pole didn't it hit the screen attached to it but look at the location right down the middle out over the plate and palmeiro hits it off the screen see it hit the screen the yellow screen that screen's there to help the umpires call bears balls fair or foul as it hits the foul pole clemons knew he'd made a mistake [Applause] and franco lays off julio is over three today but he's had two homers in the series one to win the game the suspended game last night and then a home run in the first inning of the regularly scheduled game last night and merle another prediction comes true i told you they'd get runs off clemens before this century was over okay oh no let me have that pitch back [Applause] strike bob stanley is on the right rob murphy on the left for boston [Applause] [Music] well the igniter started it see celestia and the rangers who keep finding ways to win baseball games are in a position to do it again as joe morgan visits clement so franco gets his first hit of this game certainly won't take clemens out at this point would you think 2-1 bottom eight sure he wants to leave clemens in to give him a shot at winning the game yeah i think he just told him hey big guy you got some guys with some big bats coming up and assassin in assassin and gedman and whatever else we need we'll try to do for you in the night or that second run is so big in the bottom of the eighth inning though in a game like this well now let us take you back to ed romero's base running mistake that definitely cost the red sox a run [Applause] two down a runner at first gino patrolli two out of three strike one and you know norm in a game like this so well pitched and generally so well played but basically it's there hasn't been a whole lot to do the pitchers have been in such tremendous control this afternoon but one little mistake well as you say merle the game between these two mistakes get magnified because one mistakes live will be the difference in the game so the rangers lead 2-1 palmero hit the screen on the foul pole [Applause] no balls two strikes [Music] you know around the rim of the outfield seats at the top people are standing all the way around [Applause] 40 429. [Applause] [Music] pitch out nothing moving there julio franco at first they are the folks standing out there they don't want to miss anything [Applause] breaking ball strike three so a two-run homer by rafael palmeiro and look at look at clemens as he leaves the mound for the dugout palmeiro's third home run of the year 15 and 16 rbis have given the rangers a lead as palmero and you see that greeting that uh franco gave palmero as they moved out onto the field at first base way to go big guy now let's get him and go home and a two to one lead for the rangers going into the ninth we'll be right back on hsc waiting for texas to protect a 2-1 lead in a game that belongs to nolan ryan is the pitcher of record [Applause] this is the book on russell 11 in the third innings four saves nine strikeouts in 11 innings pete in cavalia now in left field for texas and it's ball one to nick assassin leading off with the nine nolan ryan threw 136 pitches in eight [Music] innings jeff russell hoping to close it down here strike gets one and one to assassinate who is fanned three times against ryan one ball one strike strike two texas two boston one in the ninth [Applause] that's 12 strikeouts of the game for texas pitching 11 belonging to nolan ryan and rich gedman will back with one earned run in eight innings today nolan ryan's era goes to 2.06 roger clements was 1.89 coming into the game [Applause] strike one to gedman 95 miles an hour on the radar gun on russell's last pitch by and russell quickly jumps ahead of gedman it took the rangers 25 [Applause] plus innings to score on roger clement to two appearances and two wins last year by clemens over the rangers breaking ball chop foul [Music] no balls two strikes roger clemens in the dugout hoping hoping hoping hoping that somehow the red sox can keep him in the game here no balls two strikes chopped to second franco two down 40 429 having to wait till the bottom of the eighth to see the rangers take the lead but now saying oh it was worth every minute of it and sam horn sam horn is coming out of the boston dugout to be a pinch hitter this guy's got a pretty good match so horn comes on the back for jody reid horn hitting only 111 with two rbis he's got some pop though two down nobody on top of the diamond horn wants to step back and think about it a little bit and again time is called porn is 25 years old he's from dallas although his home is in birmingham but he was born here two down strike one no balls one strike ninth inning two to one texas home run by palmero [Applause] great pitching by nolan ryan man relief and patrolling to the mound one ball one strike tomorrow night the cleveland indians with rich yet against undefeated bobby wood who will go for his fourth straight victory tuesday night swindell and moyer they're both undefeated swendell 2-0 for cleveland jamie moyer 3-0 for the rangers having both for you on hse russell is really heating it up picking it up where nolan ryan left off now the crowd is up 40 000 fans are getting up they have had a ball today seeing a brilliant pitching performance and with one swing of the bed rafael palmeiro has turned this game around strike three there's the hero one of them anyway raphael palmeiro a two-run homer bottom of the eighth inning 40 000 plus waited patiently and when palmero took that swing and when jeff russell fired this fastball by the pensioner sam horn bobby valentine says way to go gang hang in there we'll find a way to win and they did today so the great pitching of nolan ryan great relief worked by jeff russell rafael palmeiro's home run and of course seat celestia getting aboard in the eighth inning and nobody is leaving [Applause] standing applauding as the texas rangers take the boston series two games to one stay in first place in the western division with their 17th win of the year against five defeats and the oakland athletics are trailing detroit five to two in the bottom of the fifth let me get open we'll come back to arlington stadium in just a moment [Music] and so raphael palmero is our texaco star of the game a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning texaco the star of the american road salutes rafael palmero [Applause] and so 40 425 some are still standing they're all visiting they're all happy i mean whether they're in the ballpark or out of the ballpark there's one subject of conversation right now

Channel: KDHR TV-44

Views: 2,948

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Id: FsiY9p0MsNI

Length: 142min 58sec (8578 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 21 2020