Giants/Rangers Series Preview

For some generations: "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?"

For ours: "Where were you when the first interleague game was played?"

Stan Javier: First interleague home run. Mark Gardner: First interleague win (140 pitches!). Rod Beck: First interleague save (four pitches!). Glenallen Hill: First NL designated hitter (0-3, SF, two errors). We all remember it as if it were yesterday. I was, uh, with that guy in my dorm with the hair, unless I was at the bank or something. I could have been in the quad playing hacky-sack. Maybe I was at a Crash Test Dummies concert -- I can't remember what people did in the '90s.

Alright, so maybe the Giants/Rangers, June 12, 1997 game isn't a cultural touchstone. That's a shame, as the Giants actually won the game. But now the Rangers are coming to our turf! Is it payback time???!!! zomginterleaguexcitementfevertimezomg

Note: The third series is when I start to tire of interleague play. The curiosity is still there -- I haven't watched a whole lot of Ranger baseball over the past couple of years, so I'm interested in a few of their players -- but it's pretty hard to get more excited that I would be for, say, a Pirates or Phillies series. Sorry, Bud. At least it's not the 50th series of the season against the Padres, I guess.

The Rangers are doing well this year, leading the AL West, in case you were wondering. Suck it, The The Angels Angels of Anaheim.

Hitter to watch:

Chris Davis -- player 139C on your Matt Cain Trade Decoder Ring -- just struck out against Randy Joh...wait, he just struck out again. He's struck out 97 times in 230 plate appearances this season. Context: Fred Lewis, the target of the casual fan's K-related wrath, has struck out 54 times in 210 plate appearances. Davis has a ton of power, but his approach has never been especially refined. It's odd to think that he was the short-term fix/pre-arbitration fantasy of a lot of Giants fans this offseason; he's a pretty special talent, but he's going to need some time to develop. Let's hope he waits until after this series. Let's also hope that Giants' third-rounder Chris Dominguez has a similar development path.

Pitcher to watch

Scott Feldman: The second-most famous person to graduate from Burlingame High. I'd like to write that my blogging mastery has moved me up from #892 on the list to the top spot, but that'd be a pretty substantial lie. The list of famous people from BHS:

So I'm rooting for Feldman in an 8 IP, 0 ER, no decision in a Giants 1-0 win kind of way. We totally have mutual Facebook friends and everything. I think I also might have given up an earned run once for the Rangers (in 2003 -- you probably did too), so there's another thing we have in common. Somehow, I don't think that I have to actively root for Feldman to do well against the Giants lineup, so I'll just stay out of this.

Prediction:

At some point, someone on this site covets one of the Rangers' under-30 hitters.