Rangers Vs Giants: Game 3 Live Blog

I have the great fortune of attending game 3 of the World Series in person, so I’ll be providing a live blog of the game.

Pregame:

4:33 – Giants are taking batting practice at the moment. Pablo Sandoval, the Giant’s DH for this game, is absolutely destroying the ball. He’s hitting everything into the second deck in right field.

5:28 – The video board shows a George W. Bush sitting by Nolan Ryan. He gets a hearty applause and cheers from the crowd and one “You suck” from a Giants fan sitting near me.

5:40 – Kelly Clarkson comes out to sing the national anthem. Rangers season ticket holders come onto the field bearing a flag that is in the shape of the United States. The final lyrics are drowned out by 4 F-14s that perform the flyover. The crowd goes wild.

5:44 – Rangers legends Pudge Rodriguez and Nolan Ryan come out for the first pitch of the game. Nolan climbs to the top of the mound and promptly fires a 80 mph fastball down the middle of the plate.

Gametime

Top 1st – The crowd is raucous from the beginning of the game. Everyone is standing as Colby Lewis starts the game off with Andre Torres grounding out. Towels are waving throughout the crowd, causing a huge cloud of dust to flow to the top of the stadium. It’s a bit hard to breathe right now.

Bottom 1st – The beer vendor for the upper section I’m sitting in has already run out of beer, only 15 minutes into the game. He races back toward the concession stands to refill his bucket.

Bottom 2nd – Mitch Moreland blasts a 3-run homerun to right field. Has a great 9-pitch at-bat where he fights off multiple breaking balls. Cody Ross takes two steps toward the wall before realizing that this ball has been crushed out of the ballpark. Towels start waving wildly again.

Top 3rd – Colby Lewis follows with a quick 1-2-3 shutdown inning. The crowd starts chanting “Colby, Colby, Colby” as he walks toward the dugout. One fan about three sections to the left has a vuvuzela and is blowing it with every chant of “Colby.”

Bottom 4th – Two Rangers fans that have been standing the entire game draws the ire of a couple of Giants fans sitting a couple of rows behind them. Giants fans starts throwing peanuts before security is called in and promptly escorts them out of the ballpark. This section of seats starts chanting “Nah, nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye” as they are escorted out.

Top 5th – Rangers crowd is just absolutely amazing today. The entire upperdeck is shouting “TEXAS” at the top of their lungs while the middle and lower decks follow with “RANGERS”. The seats are literally shaking right now and no one is sitting down. Claws and antlers are being flashed everywhere and giant Texas flags are being waved throughout the stadium. Lewis gets another 1-2-3 inning.

Bottom 5th – Josh Hamilton blasts a homer to right field as the crowd chants “MVP”. The chants can be heard even over the fireworks and continue through the next batter. Vlad is walked and Jonathan Sanchez is taken out of the game. The video board shows an animation of the pitcher getting kicked out of the ballpark by a giant boot.

Top 7th – Cody Ross finally gets the Giants on the board with a solo homerun. Ross has been absolutely amazing this postseason and is a candidate for the postseason MVP. He’s batting .318 with 5 homers and 10 RBI in 13 games.

Mid 7th – A 12-year-old girl is given thirty seconds to run from the left field wall to third base, then back again. She completes it with 6 seconds left and is given third base to take home as a souvenir. That will be an interesting item to put on the fireplace mantle.

Top 8th – Andres Torres hits another solo homer for the Giants. The fan who catches the ball fires it back onto the field and the crowd reacts by giving him raucous cheers. The crowd starts to get really anxious and nervous when Lewis hits Aubrey Huff with a pitch. They fear turning this game over to the bullpen. Darren O’Day relieves Lewis and the O’Day chants start going.

Mid 8th – Official announcement comes in that tonight’s crowd is 52,419. That’s the largest crowd ever to attend a baseball game at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. It may have been 52,419 officially, but it sounded and felt like 100,000 people.

Top 9th – Feliz comes in to close the game. He strikes out Pat Burrell. Burrell is having a horrible World Series, going 0-9 with 8 strikeouts, including 4 strikeouts this game. Crowd is on its feet for every pitch and explodes when strikes out to end the game. Multiple fireworks go off an enormous number of flashbulbs go off as cameras are going crazy. Fans are chanting “Let’s go Rangers” in the parking lots and along the streets as they walk to their cars.