The season starts. However, I don’t much care for games that START at 9:45PM. Blech. We need to move out of this division, just so the locals here can watch games at a more human hour Could be worse, when I was growing up in Philly, when the Phillies were in Los Angeles or San Diego, games would start at 10:05! Ugh.. However, it was nice to have “real” Ranger baseball on the TV again. Thank god basketball is done, too. Really sick and tired of seeing college basketball on my TV. I wish it was that which was facing a lockout and a season off instead of hockey. Anyway, it was nice to have Josh & Tom back. They of course, wasted no time getting into their routine (which I enjoyed) – they were talking about movies almost right away. :)
It was Kenny Rogers vs Tim Hudson. I wasn’t expecting greatness out of the game, but when we had a bunch of runners on early, I said we had better take advantage of it, as you don’t get a ton of opportunities against Tim Hudson. We actually had quite a few baserunners, and while we scored four times this game, we left far too many men on. It’s only the first game, so I won’t freak out about it, but I don’t like to start the season on a bad trend like that. Kenny Rogers pitched pretty decently. It wasn’t the greatest I’ve seen him pitch, but he wasn’t bad, going 7 innings, giving up three runs, qualifying for a quality start. He didn’t seem terribly crisp, but he was effective when he had to be. A nice outing by him. His Oakland streak continues. :)
Offensively, we never seemed to be able to follow through on the opportunities presented to us. We left quite a few people on base. I’m not sure how many at the moment, but I think it was around 10 or 12 or so. The new guys were good. Fullmer was as advertised. Hard player, can whack the ball, will have his jersey open. :) Can’t wait to see him face Ben Weber of the Angels. Alfonso Soriano did what he normally does, except strike out. He didn’t do that. He went 1 for 3 with a walk and a hit batter, so he had a decent OBP. I did feel that Soriano got ripped on the error he was charged with. It should have been a it. Mark Teix
I also can’t let this go without saying it’s good that we locked up Mike Young through 2008. That’s a great move on our part – I just wish it hadn’t taken so long. I also think that after next year we need to do the same with Nix, provided he shows improvement. Along these lines, I did say something my wife laughed at when Soriano came up the first time. I said “You’d better do good so we can trade your ass in July.” :)
We lost. Despite all that, I enjoyed watching the game. I just wish it wasn’t so late when the games started.
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - TEXAS 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 4 11 1 OAKLAND 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 x 5 9 0 (FINAL) BATTERIES: TEX - KENNY ROGERS, JEFF NELSON (8TH), RON MAHAY (8TH) AND GERALD LAIRD OAK - TIM HUDSON, CHRIS HAMMOND (6TH), CHAD BRADFORD (8TH), ARTHUR RHODES (9TH) AND DAMIAN MILLER, ADAM MELHUSE (9TH) WP - CHAD BRADFORD (1-0) LP - JEFF NELSON (0-1) SAVE - ARTHUR RHODES (1) HOME RUNS: TEX - MARK TEIXEIRA (1) OFF CHRIS HAMMOND IN THE 7TH, 1 ON OAK - NONE TIME: 3:10 ATT: 45,122 PROBABLES: TEX - CHAN HO PARK (NR) OAK - MARK MULDER (NR) Box Score TEXAS (4) VS OAKLAND (5) - FINAL TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 5 1 2 1 0 0 2 .400 H Blalock 3b 4 0 1 0 1 1 3 .250 A Soriano 2b 3 0 1 0 1 0 2 .333 B Fullmer dh 4 1 2 0 1 0 2 .500 M Teixeira 1b 4 1 1 3 1 0 4 .250 D Dellucci lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 .000 a-H Perry ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1.000 R Nivar pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 K Mench rf 5 0 0 0 0 2 3 .000 L Nix cf 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 .500 G Laird c 3 0 1 0 0 1 1 .333 Totals 37 4 11 4 4 4 21 a-singled to right for D Dellucci in the 9th. BATTING: 2B - H Blalock (1, T Hudson); L Nix (1, T Hudson). HR - M Teixeira (1, 7th inning off C Hammond 1 on, 1 Out). S - G Laird. RBI - M Teixeira 3 (3), M Young (1). 2-out RBI - M Teixeira, M Young. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - K Mench 2, D Dellucci 2, A Soriano 1, M Teixeira 1. Team LOB - 12. BASERUNNING: SB - D Dellucci (1, 2nd base off T Hudson/D Miller). FIELDING: E - A Soriano (1, ground ball). DP: 2 (M Teixeira-M Young-M Teixeira-A Soriano, A Soriano-M Young-M Teixeira). OAKLAND ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Kotsay cf 5 0 0 0 0 0 3 .000 B Kielty lf 4 2 2 0 0 1 0 .500 E Chavez 3b 3 1 1 0 1 1 1 .333 J Dye rf 3 0 2 2 1 0 0 .667 E Durazo dh 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 .333 E Karros 1b 3 0 1 1 1 0 2 .333 B Crosby ss 4 1 0 0 0 1 4 .000 D Miller c 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 a-B McMillon ph 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 b-E Byrnes ph 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 1.000 A Melhuse c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 M Scutaro 2b 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 .333 Totals 32 5 9 5 4 4 13 a-hit for D Miller in the 8th; b-doubled to deep left for B Mcmillon in the 8th. BATTING: 2B - J Dye (1, K Rogers); B Kielty (1, K Rogers); E Byrnes (1, R Mahay). RBI - J Dye 2 (2), E Karros (1), E Byrnes 2 (2). 2-out RBI - E Karros, E Byrnes 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - E Karros 2, M Kotsay 1, B Crosby 2. GIDP - E Durazo, M Kotsay. Team LOB - 8. FIELDING: PB - D Miller. ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS - 001 100 200 -- 4 OAKLAND - 101 010 02x -- 5 ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era K Rogers 7 6 3 3 3 4 0 3.86 J Nelson (L, 0-1; H, 1) 2/3 2 2 2 0 0 0 27.00 R Mahay (B, 1) 1/3 1 0 0 1 0 0 0.00 OAKLAND ip h r er bb so hr era T Hudson 5 6 2 2 3 3 0 3.60 C Hammond (B, 1) 2 4 2 2 0 0 1 9.00 C Bradford (W, 1-0) 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.00 A Rhodes (S, 1) 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 C Hammond pitched to 1 batter in the 8th. IBB - H Blalock (by C Bradford). HBP - A Soriano (by T Hudson); E Durazo (by K Rogers). Pitches-strikes: K Rogers 111-65; J Nelson 17-11; R Mahay 9-4; T Hudson 106-63; C Hammond 34-23; C Bradford 12-7; A Rhodes 16-9. Ground balls-fly balls: K Rogers 12-5; J Nelson 2-0; R Mahay 1-0; T Hudson 6-6; C Hammond 2-4; C Bradford 3-0; A Rhodes 1-1. Batters faced: K Rogers 30; J Nelson 4; R Mahay 3; T Hudson 25; C Hammond 10; C Bradford 4; A Rhodes 4. UMPIRES: HP--Dana Demuth. 1B--Brian Runge. 2B--Kerwin Danley. 3B--Mike Winters. T--3:10. Att--45,122. Weather: 57 degrees, clear. Wind: 22 mph, out to right.