Another box score only game. No radio coverage with the Rangers, or with the opponent via MLB’s Gameday Audio. So much so that the Official Rangers site had a “Live box score” link on their site; that was the only way to “watch” the game.
Anyway, early on, it seemed like a rout after yesterday’s rout the other way. It was 9-1 after four innings. The big inning was of course the third where we put up a six spot. There were two home runs that inning, one from Gerald Laird, and Sammy Sosa’s second of the spring. This was all off Arizona starter Livan Hernandez, who also gave up a couple of doubles to Mark Teixeira & Kenny Lofton in his 3.1 innings of work. In all, Hernandez was on the hook for 10 hits, and all 9 Ranger runs (7 earned). The remainder of the Arizona bullpen kept the Rangers off the board in the 4.2 innings they pitched.
That’s significant, because the Rangers had one of their classic bullpen meltdowns late. The score was still 9-1 after six innings. Feeling good. Then after seven, they were up 9-5. OK, a four spot isn’t good, but we still have a comfortable lead. OK, after 8 it was 9-6. A tad concerned, but still not really worried. Then in the ninth it jumped to 9-8 – OH CRAP! While spring training games don’t give you a complete breakdown of what happened in what order, I can’t imagine that was fun to watch. I know a win is a win, and there’s all the platitudes of “these guys aren’t going to be with the club come April” (Cruceta, Vargas, Wood), and all that… But it seems a heck of a lot worse looking when watching it only on a linescore refresh on a website.
This isn’t helped by what I feel is way too many errors in the spring. Of the six official games we’ve played, only one was error free, and that was the 5-0 shutout of the Royals a couple of days ago. We’ve had a total of 8 errors so far in six games. When you have more errors than games played, things aren’t good. Yeah, yeah – it’s only game six, but I think you get my point.
G1: 2
G2: 1
G3: 0
G4: 1
G5: 2
G6: 2
On the positive side, John Koronka gave up nothing in his three innings of work. Kameron Loe gave up an unearned run in his three innings of work on 3 hits. Not bad for either of those guys. The wheels came off after that, but it was nice to see some zeros up there from guys who have a realistic shot of breaking camp with us.
CAC FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - ARIZONA 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 1 2 8 14 2 TEXAS 0 0 6 3 0 0 0 0 x 9 14 2 FINAL
WP - JOHN KORONKA (1-0) LP - LIVAN HERNANDEZ (1-1) SAVE - MIKE WOOD (1)
HOME RUNS: ARI - DANNY RICHAR (1) OFF FRANCISCO CRUCETA IN THE 7TH TEX - GERALD LAIRD (1) OFF LIVAN HERNANDEZ IN THE 3RD SAMMY SOSA (2) OFF LIVAN HERNANDEZ IN THE 3RD
TIME: 2:40 ATT: 5,206
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