The season started. I was messing with my wife while watching the game – I said “You know when this game is over, that’s one less game in the season to look forward to”. I almost got slapped upside the head for that, but I did get a good solid glare. It was nice to have Josh & Tom back on the TV, but I’m sure Tom doesn’t like those intros where the camera is looking top down. :)
Ryan Drese was our opening day starter, and we haven’t had the same guy do two consecutive opening day starts since Ken Hill in 96-97, so he’s another on the carousel. Speaking of that, we had another opening day center fielder this year which is like 10 out of the last 11 years with a different guy or something. Drese was really well – in fact, other than Vlad Guerrero, he was spectacular. No shame in falling to Guerrero, he could probably golf a ball out of a home run if it was underground! We got our first quality start in the first game of the season. Drese went seven innings, giving up six hits and 3ER. Two of which were directly attributable to Vlad. So while it was disappointing that the birthday boy did not get a win, he pitched really well, and it was a good sign of things to come, I would think.
On the other side, our nemesis, Bartolo Colon went 6.2 innings, giving up just one run and six hits. He did seem to labour a lot more (Colon had 108 pitches in 6.2 and Drese had just 87 in 7 IP). We did have our chances, we left nine men on base, including four in the first two innings. Colon felt beatable last night, but we couldn’t cross the line and get the win, although we played really well.
Offensively, we only had a total of seven hits. Only four of our players had hits, everyone else was an ofer. Soriano went 2 for 5, Tex went 2 for 4, and had a HR, Gary Matthews went 2 for 4, although one of his hits was wiped out when he tried to stretch a single into a double, and almost made it with a really weird acrobatic “slide”. The final hit was from Mike Young, who got a hit to the right side of the field (what a shocker). In fact, one of Teixeira’s hits was a single that should have been a double. It looked like a HR off the bat, but hit the wall, and Guerrero absolutely cannoned the ball back to second – it was quite amazing to watch. I always liked this guy for years in Montreal when no one had heard of him. Glad to see him getting a bigger audience.
We lost the game, which is never good, but I didn’t much mind. It was Game #1. :)
You can view my full update for this game here.
I thought Drese was very effective with his pitches; IMO he pitched much better than Colon.
The Rangers had plenty of baserunners…I guess if want to blame someone in that deptartment it would have be Young, Hildalgo and Mench – they left a total of ten runners.
Vlad can hit any pitch…he’s a damn good ballplayer.
Surprising that Delluci got 3 BB, as did Blalock. If the Rangers keep walking , they are going to score a ton of runs.
I’m looking forward to the Rangers tying the series Wednesday…
I also meant to post that I do not understand the reasoning of letting Barajas bat in the 9th when A-Gon is on the bench.
Of course, the largely-inept Barajas was gone quietly in 3 pitches.
I really would like to know Showalter’s thinking on that one…
Hello: I am a fan. Glad I found your website.
After the first two batters i though we might actually beat Colon but the Rangers could not get anybody home. That ended up being a problem all night as the Rangers left 10 runners on base. Hitting wise Blalock and Dellucci both had three walks which is good especially for Blalock because last season it seemed like he was over swinging on a lot of pitches. Only three Rangers had more than two hits in the game. Soriano hit a double to lead off the game and then he singled in the 7th, Teixeira hit a ball off of the right field wall in the third that i thought was going to be at least a double but Vlad had other ideas throwing the ball all the way from the wall to second base on a fly. Teixeira didn’t have to worry about Vlad in the 8th has he put a Scott Shields curveball 10 rows back in right field for his first home run of the season. Gary Matthews Jr. also hit two singles. Ryan Drese pitched very well in the game and if it wasn’t for Vlad they would have won the game. Drese retired 15 in a row at one point and also 10 of 12 of those were on groundouts. But a Home Run and an RBI double by Vlad and a RBI single by Molina proved to be to much for the Rangers. Tonight Kenny Rogers goes up against Jared Washburn at 9:05 pm on Fox Sports Southwest.
The team did look really good, except for hitting with runners in scoring position.
Drese was very good, and I do think he pitched better than Colon, but Colon got people out when he needed to.
And Jim: You’re absolutely right. Why in the hell would Showalter hit Barajas against this guy? The Barajas at bat in the ninth inning was simply horrible. It was like Barajas went up there and just tried to get it over with.