Game 2 of the spring was another one that I wasn’t able to pay close attention to. If only there was TiVo for radio. :) Saturday was watch the baby day (who is a toddler now), so I couldn’t really pay attention. I did have the game on the radio, but didn’t pay much attention to it, because one is always watching the toddler run around the house. One funny thing about that, I don’t think she understood that I had a radio on, because she would hear Eric & Vic talk, but it wasn’t in a place where either of our usual stereos at home is, so she’s not used to voices coming from the kitchen table like that. She would walk over there a few times, give the radio a funny look, and then walk away. :)
After checking out the recaps and box scores online, it appeared to be a rather back and forth kind of game. I’ve seen worse than this in terms of lead changes, but it was a game that both teams lost the lead. Rangers starter Vicente Padilla was decent in his two innings. Just gave up two hits and one run – a solo home run to Mark Teahen. Oddly enough, of the six other pitchers the Rangers used, the one with the worst line was Rick Bauer, who gave up four hits and two earned runs in his one inning. Bauer was the winning pitcher, too! Line scores don’t show you how well the pitchers pitched in terms of crispness, but nobody had a really bad line score at all – even Bauer. In total, Rangers pitching gave up 13 hits and 5 runs. More hits than you’d want to see, but with that many, you’d’ expect more than 5 runs given up, so that wasn’t bad. Ian Kinsler also committed an error in the field.
It’s hard to put together a name who “leads the offense” during spring training – especially early on. That’s because people don’t stay in the game long enough generally to get 4-5 at bats to have a 4-5 day or so. Still, having said that, the closest would be Hank Blalock who went 2 for 3 with an RBI. The remaining 10 hits were scattered, not a player had more than one except Blalock. There were several doubles in this game (Hairston, Kinsler, Botts, & Lofton). The Rangers didn’t hit any home runs, and we were one for two (Wilkerson was successful, Arias was not) in stolen base attempts. Kind of interesting that we see stolen base attempts in the stats, didn’t see much of that at all with Showalter. Oh yeah, and Sammy Sosa got a single in his first at bat which was played via local TV on recaps. Have to show that, eh? :)
From what little I did hear on the radio, it was nice to have Eric & Victor back. I’ll be glad when they’re on every day in April. :)
CAC FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - KANSAS CITY 1 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 5 13 0 TEXAS 2 2 0 0 0 3 1 0 x 8 12 1 FINAL
WP - RICK BAUER (1-0) LP - TODD WELLEMEYER (0-1) SAVE - FRANCISCO CRUCETA (1)
HOME RUNS: KAN - MARK TEAHEN (1) OFF VICENTE PADILLA IN THE 1ST JOHN BUCK (1) OFF RICK BAUER IN THE 6TH
TIME: 3:12 ATT: 5,226
KANSAS CITY (5) AT TEXAS (8)
KANSAS CITY AB R H BI TEXAS AB R H BI J Gathright cf 3 0 1 1 K Lofton cf 2 1 1 1 M St. Pierre c 1 0 1 0 F Guzman cf 2 0 1 0 E German 3b 3 0 0 0 I Kinsler 2b 3 1 1 1 M Aviles 3b 2 0 0 0 R Vazquez 2b 1 0 1 0 M Teahen rf 3 1 1 1 M Young ss 3 0 0 0 S Costa rf 2 1 1 0 M Kata ss 2 0 1 1 E Brown dh 3 1 1 0 M Teixeira 1b 3 1 1 1 G Koonce ph-dh 0 0 0 0 N Gold 1b 1 0 0 0 B Butler lf 3 0 2 0 S Sosa dh 3 0 1 0 C Lubanski lf 2 0 1 0 J Arias ph-dh 1 0 1 0 J Buck c 1 1 1 1 H Blalock 3b 3 0 2 1 M Maier ph-cf 2 0 0 0 J Hairston Jr pr- 1 2 1 0 J Huber 1b 3 0 0 1 N Cruz rf 2 1 0 0 A Berroa ss 3 1 1 0 M Byrd rf 0 0 0 1 F Cortez 2b 1 0 0 0 B Wilkerson lf 0 1 0 0 A Blanco 2b-ss 4 0 3 0 J Botts lf 2 1 1 1 G Laird c 2 0 0 0 S Manriquez c 1 0 0 1 TOTALS 36 5 13 4 TOTALS 32 8 12 8
KANSAS CITY 100 102 100 -- 5 TEXAS 220 003 10x -- 8
E--I Kinsler. DP--KANSAS CITY 2, TEXAS 1. LOB--KANSAS CITY 10, TEXAS 7. 2B--E Brown, S Costa, B Butler, J Hairston Jr, I Kinsler, J Botts, K Lofton. HR--J Buck 1 (1) (off R Bauer), M Teahen 1 (1) (off V Padilla). SB--B Wilkerson 1 (1). CS--J Gathright, J Arias. SF--J Huber, M Byrd, S Manriquez. IP H R ER BB SO HR KANSAS CITY O Perez 1 1-3 5 4 4 2 2 0 T Wellemeyer (L,0-1) 2 2 3 3 2 2 0 L Nunez 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 TEXAS V Padilla 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 R Mahay 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 A Otsuka 1 3 1 1 1 0 0 C Wilson 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 R Bauer (W,1-0) 1 4 2 2 0 0 1 A Galarraga 1 2 1 1 1 0 0 F Cruceta (S,1) 2 2 0 0 1 1 0
HBP--J Gathright by V Padilla. BALK--F Cruceta. PB--M St. Pierre. SO--KAN: E German, A Berroa, A Blanco, M Teahen, C Lubanski. TEX: G Laird 2, S Sosa, S Manriquez, N Cruz. BB--KAN: G Koonce 2, J Buck 2. TEX: B Wilkerson 2, K Lofton, R Vazquez, N Cruz. T--3:12. A--5,226.