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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, August 3, 1999
Rodriguez, Rangers stay hot with 5-4 win
ARLINGTON, Texas, Aug. 3, 1999 (AP) — Texas Rangers manager Johnny Oates
left himself open to second-guessers when he gave All-Star catcher Ivan
Rodriguez some extra games off earlier in the season.
Oates reasoned that he wanted Rodriguez fresh for the stretch run. Now
that rest is paying dividends.
Rodriguez maintained his personal hitting streak, homering twice and
driving in four runs, as the Rangers remained unbeaten against the Minnesota
Twins with a 5-4 victory Monday night.
"It's been a while since I've seen somebody in as good a groove as he's
in," Oates said. "He's not going to be sitting down much from here on out."
Rodriguez expects to see little time off the rest of the way.
"I've told Johnny Oates I don't want to be on the bench," Rodriguez
said. "I want to be in there all the time."
He'll get no argument from anyone connected with the Rangers. Rodriguez
is 15-for-23 with four homers and 13 RBIs in five games.
"This is the best streak I've ever seen a guy have in a short span,"
teammate Rafael Palmeiro said. "He's on some kind of hot streak. Everything's
coming together for him as a player. Experience and talent are coming into
play."
Texas trailed 3-2 in the seventh when Royce Clayton tripled off LaTroy
Hawkins and Mark McLemore drew a walk from reliever Eddie Guardado (2-3).
Rodriguez followed with his 21st home run into the left-field seats.
On Sunday, Rodriguez was 5-for-6 with four RBIs in the Rangers' 12-5
win over the Royals.
"I feel great right now," Rodriguez said. "I'm healthy and feel stronger.
I'm just trying to see the ball, hit the ball and put it in play. I just
want to win and help the team into the playoffs."
Guardado took the blame for his high pitch to Rodriguez.
"I take nothing away from Rodriguez or the Rangers," Guardado said.
"The ball was high and he did what you're supposed to do."
Rodriguez hit a solo shot in the third to give Texas a 1-0 lead and
join Lance Parrish and Carlton Fisk as the only American League catchers
with 20 or more homers in at least three straight seasons.
Minnesota has lost all eight meetings with the Rangers this season.
Rangers reliever Jeff Zimmerman (9-0) had his string of scoreless appearances
end at a club-record 26, but still managed to pick up the victory.
The victory enabled Zimmerman to tie Whitey Ford and Joe Pate for the
AL record for consecutive wins at the start of a career. It also matched
Pate's mark of consecutive wins by a rookie relief pitcher.
Woods rallies to wim match with Duval
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Aug 3, 1999 (AP) — Great start, rocky finish.
That made David Duval a loser to Tiger Woods in golf's first appearance
on network television in prime time.
Playing not far from where he grew up, Woods overcome a sluggish start
and dominated the par-3 holes to beat Duval 2 and 1 in the "Showdown at
Sherwood," a made-for-television match-play competition Monday night.
It was nothing more than an exhibition match, but the world's top-ranked
golfers were paid very well for their three-plus hours of work.
Woods earned $1.1 million, while Duval collected $400,000. Each will
donate $200,000 to charity, including $100,000 each to the PGA Tour-sponsored
First Tee program.
If either felt any pressure, it certainly wasn't evident, although neither
was at his best.
At a time where the pressure perhaps should have been on, Woods and
Duval were giggling like schoolchildren as they chatted while walking down
the 15th fairway. Woods led 1-up at the time.
"I approached the match that David and I are good friends, and we were
going to come out here and put on a good show," Woods said. "I think it's
a wonderful concept."
So is this sort of thing the start of something new?
"I hate to say it, but it's basically up to the ratings," Woods said.
"How high the ratings are will determine how successful it was."
Duval won the first two holes with a birdie and a par, but Woods won
the next two, and added wins at the sixth and ninth holes for a 2-up lead
at the turn.
A win on 12 put Woods ahead 3-up, but when Duval won 13 and 14, it was
anyone's match.
The players halved 15 before the match's biggest shot.
Duval hit what he would later call his best shot of the day down the
middle on the par-4, 449-yard 16th hole, but the ball took one bounce into
a rock formation some 300 yards from the tee.
That meant a one-shot penalty.
Meanwhile, Woods hit two terrific shots to leave him 10 feet from the
hole. Duval conceded, giving Woods a 2-up lead with two holes left.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 1999 by Pecos Enterprise
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