TEXAS SWEEP 'EM

I've been spending most of the last 12 hours berating myself for being so far off on last night's final score. How could I have predicted 10-9? What was I thinking?

So, it was 10-8. Oh well. Nobody's perfect. The Rangers bats did in fact come to life. Dellucci led off the game with a dinger, and Teixeira hit two. Even Mark De Rosa got in on the fun. Fortunately, we kept hitting our singles, doubles and a triple in addition to two homers from Burrell, and one each from Pratt and Thome. Padilla struggled again, and Urbina was horrendous, but Geary and Cormier chipped in some good innings for a change, and Wags did his thing. Ho-hum, another series sweep.

I thought the beanball incidents were handled well by Jerry Crawford. Padilla may or may not have been throwing at Teixeira, who had already taken him deep twice, but to issue a warning to both benches at that point would have deprived the Rangers their opportunity to retaliate in kind. As it was, Michael Tejera plunked Abreu in the arm, the warnings were issued, and the situation was defused. Too many times I've seen the warnings go out after the first hit batsman, and the aggrieved party ends up exacting revenge with a hard takeout slide or a plate collision, which only escalates the potential for injury, or they carry over the dispute to the next game or even a series several months later. Of course, the latter can't happen between these two teams, but I still think it's better to let the players police themselves whenever possible.

The Brew Crew round out the 13 game home stand, starting with Brett Myers vs. Victor Santos. Santos has received deplorable run support lately. In five of his last six starts, the Brewers have scored 2, 0, 2, 1 and 1 runs, losing each game. The only win among those losses was against the putrid Colorado Rockies. Let's hope Milwaukee keeps it going. Wolfie takes on fellow lefty Doug Davis on Saturday, and Lidle faces Big Bad Ben Sheets on Sunday afternoon.

I'll be at Bulle Rock in Maryland to check out the LPGA tournament this weekend. I attended annually when it was at the DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, and Michelle Wie is playing, so I don't want to miss that. We'll also we seeing the wondrous Judith Owen again, this time for free at Rodney Square in Wilmington on Sunday. I won't be able to watch it, but I'll be rooting for Afleet Alex in the Belmont. I think they're still playing the NBA Finals, too, although ABC would just as soon show repeats of "Desperate Housewives", or even "According To Jim" at this point.