Well, the first official spring training game of the season ends in a 5-5 tie after 11 innings. As I’m sure you’ll read from a lot of fans today it was great to have baseball back. It always is. But it’s always tempered by the fact that it’s not our announcers. We got to listen to the Royals’ announcers, who really irritated me (more on that later).
I missed the start of the game due to it being on while I was working, but I tuned in just in time to hear Phil Nevin take one out of the park for a home run. In the third, our offense was aided by an error by Mark Grudzilanek, allowing another run to score, giving us three. It should have actually been a lot more than that, but we left the bases loaded in that frame against Jeremy Affeldt. Kevin Mench had a sac fly in the fifth, ending our offense. At that point we were up 5-0, and feeling good, as none of our pitchers had given up much.
In the top of the sixth, Buck Showalter made wholesale changes in the field – something that started me on the Royals announcers calling our entire team on the field “a bunch of players no onas hever heard of”. Oh, like anyone’s ever heard of guys like Mat Tupman or Ryan Baerlocher, either you twonks. Really irritated me. Anyway, the players that Buck brought in for the sixth were Jamie Burke 1B – Aarom Baldiris 2B – Joaquin Arias SS – D’Angelo Jiminez 3B – Jason Botts LF – Adrian Brown CF – Adam Hyzdu RF – Nick Trezniak C.
And that was just the fielders. Buck made a boatload of pitching changes – having used 8 pitchers in all. Josh Rupe started, and went two innings of shutoutball. Thomas Diamond followed, and went 1.2, giving up no runs, but did allow a hit and two walks. A little shaky, but got the job done. Of the 6 that followed (Volquez, Walker, Durocher, Wasdin, Diaz, & Mahay), we gave up 5 runs over 7.1 IP. 2 were by Durocher, who we won’t see in the bigs, and two were by Wasdin, who we will. The other was by Edison Volquez, who probably won’t break camp with us, but will be up at some point, I’d wager.
However, the guy of the day was our old buddy Benji Gil, who is still floating around. He’s in camp with the Royals on a non roster invite, and today looked good. He had a double and a triple driving in the Royals’ first and the tying runs. Another former Ranger was in this game, pitcher David Elder. David Elder is known for two things. First he was the guy we sent to Cleveland in a trade for John Rocker. Second, he was the pitcher on the mound when Rafael Palmeiro got his 500th home run (which I was there to see). Elder was pretty good in his one inning of work – he was perfect.
One final thing about the Royals announcers. They were riding Buck Showalter pretty hard about all the pitching changes. All I wanted to do was to tell these guys to shut up and announce the game and stop whining about the opposing manager. Especially when their own manager used two MORE pitchers than Buck did. The Royals threw 10 pitchers, we only had 8. Really irritated me. Remind me not to listen to thse twonks again, OK?
The game went extra innings, but I was forced to stop listening after 9 due to being called away at work for something. It’ll be nice to hear Eric Nadel & Victor Rojas tomorrow afternoon. :)
Game Recap
SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) — Mark Teixeira and Michael Young each hit an RBI single, and the Texas Rangers tied the Kansas City Royals 5-5 in 11 innings Thursday.
Young’s RBI single in the fifth put the Rangers up 4-0 before Teixeira followed with his second hit. Kevin Mench added a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0.
“It’s great to be in a real game,” said Teixeira, the All-Star first baseman who won Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards last season.
Kansas City tied the game by scoring twice in the eighth and ninth. All the run-scoring hits came off John Wasdin. Alex Gordon had a two-run single in the eighth, and Chip Ambres had a two-out RBI single in the ninth before Benji Gil’s double.
“My expectations aren’t real high for the first week to 10 days,” Royals manager Buddy Bell said. “We’re just letting them get used to changes we’ve made. We did some good things.”
Teixeira and Young left Rangers camp after the game to join Team USA for its first workout Friday in nearby Phoenix. They won’t be back until after the World Baseball Classic.
“That put a damper on the day, Mike and Tex shaking hands and saying goodbye,” Rangers manager Buck Showalter said.
Teixeira said he and Young, a two-time All-Star shortstop who finished 1-for-3, will be doing the same hitting drills with Team USA that they would with coach Rudy Jaramillo in Rangers camp.
“I’m still going to be playing baseball, still getting my work in,” Teixeira said. “The team might miss me a little bit, but at the same time, when we get back, it will be like we’ve never left.”
Phil Nevin led off the Texas second with a home run to center off Mark Redman, the left-hander obtained by Kansas City from Pittsburgh in a December trade. That was the only hit Redman allowed in two innings.
Rangers starter Josh Rupe, one of several candidates for the No. 5 spot in the rotation, allowed two hits in two shutout innings.
Second baseman Mark Grudzielanek made two errors in his first game for the Royals. He misplayed David Dellucci’s short-hopper in the first, then committed a throwing error after fielding Nevin’s slow roller in the third, leading to an unearned run.
Dellucci led off instead of newly acquired center fielder Brad Wilkerson, who hit seventh. Dellucci walked twice and scored a run, while Wilkerson was 0-for-3.
Notes
Gil, a former Ranger and a non-roster invitee, had an RBI triple in the sixth for Kansas City’s first run. … Kevin Millwood, the Rangers’ new No. 1 starter, will throw a simulated game Friday morning rather than pitch in an exhibition game against Kansas City. … The Rangers and Royals, in their fourth season sharing the Surprise complex, play again Friday and Saturday. They play six times this spring. … Rangers owner Tom Hicks was at the game, then went to nearby Glendale to watch his other team, the NHL’s Dallas Stars, play Phoenix.
Box Score
CAC FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - - - - - - - - - KANSAS CITY 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 TEXAS 0 1 2 0 2 0 0 0 0
10 11 R H E -- -- - - - KANSAS CITY 0 0 5 9 3 TEXAS 0 0 x 5 7 2 FINAL IN 11
HOME RUNS: TEX - PHIL NEVIN (1) OFF MARK REDMAN IN THE 2ND
KANSAS CITY (5) AT TEXAS (5)
KANSAS CITY AB R H BI TEXAS AB R H BI D DeJesus cf 2 0 1 0 D Dellucci lf 1 1 0 0 K Robinson cf 4 1 2 0 A Brown cf 2 1 0 0 M Grudzielanek 2b 2 0 1 0 M Young ss 3 0 1 1 E German 2b 3 0 0 0 J Arias ss 2 1 0 0 M Sweeney dh 1 0 0 0 M Teixeira 1b 3 0 2 1 D Murphy dh 3 1 0 0 D Jimenez 3b 2 0 1 0 R Sanders rf 2 0 1 0 P Nevin dh 2 1 1 1 C Ambres rf 1 3 1 1 G Laird pr 0 0 0 0 D Mientkiewicz 1b 1 0 0 0 E Durazo dh 2 0 0 0 E Brown lf 1 0 0 0 H Blalock 3b 2 0 0 0 S Costa lf 3 0 0 0 A Hyzdu rf 2 0 0 0 M Teahen 3b 2 0 0 0 K Mench rf 2 0 0 1 A Gordon 3b 3 0 1 2 J Burke 1b 2 0 0 0 A Bernero ss 2 0 0 0 B Wilkerson cf 3 0 0 0 A Blanco ss 3 0 0 0 N Trzesniak c 1 0 0 0 J Buck c 1 0 0 0 I Kinsler ph 0 0 0 0 P Phillips c 2 0 0 0 R Barajas c 2 0 0 0 B Gil 1b 3 0 2 2 J Botts lf 3 0 1 0 M Tupman c 2 0 0 0 M Derosa 2b 2 1 1 0 A Baldiris 2b 3 0 0 0 R Yan ph 0 0 0 0 TOTALS 41 5 9 5 TOTALS 39 5 7 4
KANSAS CITY 000 001 022 00-- 5 TEXAS 012 020 000 00-- 5
E--M Grudzielanek 2, J Nelson, J Botts, A Baldiris. LOB--KANSAS CITY 12, TEXAS 7. 2B--B Gil. 3B--B Gil. HR--P Nevin 1 (1) (off M Redman). SB--E German 1 (1), A Brown 1 (1). CS--D DeJesus, D Dellucci. SF--K Mench.
IP H R ER BB SO HR KANSAS CITY M Redman 2 1 1 1 0 0 1 B Bass 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 L Nunez 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 J Nelson 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 J Affeldt 1 2 2 1 2 0 0 E Dessens 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 K Snyder 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 J Peralta 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 A Sisco 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 D Elder 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
TEXAS J Rupe 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 T Diamond 1 2-3 1 0 0 2 0 0 E Volquez 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 K Walker 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 J Durocher 2-3 0 2 2 2 0 0 J Wasdin 1 1-3 4 2 2 0 0 0 J Diaz 1 1-3 0 0 0 0 2 0 R Mahay 1 0 0 0 2 1 0
WP--R Mahay. HBP--D Murphy by J Durocher, I Kinsler by J Nelson. BALK--E Volquez. SO--KAN: K Robinson, D Murphy, S Costa, A Blanco, P Phillips, M Teahen, M Tupman. TEX: M Derosa, J Botts, A Baldiris. BB--KAN: C Ambres 3, E Brown, D Mientkiewicz, B Gil, M Sweeney, E German. TEX: D Dellucci 2, P Nevin, H Blalock. T--3:49. A--4,481.