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There are just a few things I want to cover quickly, because we all know that the absolutely worst thing about this entire game was Mitch Williams. Mitch Williams, of the MLB Network, one of their "analysts" whose idea of "analysm" is talking about his experience in the game. But we'll get to him in a minute.
Samuel Deduno (a name that Williams had a really tough time reading off his cheat sheet) pitched well, holding the Rangers to two runs over five innings. Gardy brought him back out for the sixth, where he promptly gave up a game-tying home run, but considering the Texas offense and the fact that this was his first start at the MLB level (wow did I miss Bert in this game) it's a performance to be proud of.
On the other side of the diamond, the Rangers would have to be happy with the performance of Derek Holland who, up until tonight, had good reason to not want to pitch in Arlington this year. Holland went six and allowed just the three runs the Twins scored, including Josh Willingham's 19th homer.
Both teams had chances to score runs in multiple innings, particularly having chances to take the lead after the game was tied at three. Jeff Gray pitched well, Alex Burnett was huge in picking up a mess in the seventh, and Jared Burton looked sick while striking out two in the ninth. For the Rangers, Joe Nathan fended off a pair of Twins rallies in the ninth and tenth to secure the win thanks to Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz teeing off on Kyle Waldrop.
Finally, there's the issue of Mitch Williams being a "broadcaster". I wasn't terribly complimentary about his skills this evening, and to illustrate that I'll now share with you my top five retweeted tweets of the evening - in ascending order. (Follow Twinkie Town here.)
Hey Mitch, nobody cares about how you felt in your day. Your experience is not everyone else's. This is not analysis.
— Jesse Lund (@TwinkieTown) July 8, 2012
"Wow. Ball 1 right down the middle." Shut. Up. Williams.
— Jesse Lund (@TwinkieTown) July 8, 2012
Shut up, Mitch. Everyone heard quite a bit about Nathan...even when he was in Minnesota.
— Jesse Lund (@TwinkieTown) July 8, 2012
"A player's worst enemy is his brain." You never had to deal with that, eh Mitch?
— Jesse Lund (@TwinkieTown) July 8, 2012
Mitch Williams really can't keep his mouth shut when it comes to what he'd do in any given situation.
— Jesse Lund (@TwinkieTown) July 8, 2012
Studs
Duds
Kyle Waldrop