Well, the Rangers opening day had a lot of themes from the past. One was that our pitching wasn’t up to the level that the opponent’s was. Another was a lot of wasted opportunities, both in the form of too many men left on base, and no hits with runners in scoring position. In fact, that’s the theme of this night. Twice we had two men on with nobody out and got nothing.
In fact, the only run we did get was a gift, as it came a couple of pitches after Anaheim catcher Mike Napoli dropped a foul ball, allowing Ian Kinsler to hit a home run. That was it. In fact, there was a very long stretch where we didn’t get any hits at all, something like 4 innings towards the end of the game.
Kenny Lofton was as advertised, walking to start the game, and immediately stealing second. That was his 600th steal of his career, and he added another one later on in the game. He is already everything you want in a leadoff hitter, and surprisingly, he got to lead off in three of his at bats, which is unusual in itself.
Gary Matthews was all over this game, making quite a few plays. He had six putouts in the outfield alone, and he also did commit an error out there, which led to a bases loaded opportunity for us, which we did not cash in on. He made a couple of great catches in the outfield – if it wasn’t for Gary, we probably would have more runs than we did.
Hank Blalock was our best offensive player, getting two of the only 5 hits overall we had. Tex & Lofton had singles, and there was the aforementioned home run by Kinsler to round it out. Not a lot of output – and we had John Lackey on the ropes early, we let him off the hook. He didn’t deserve that win, but then we didn’t step on his throat when he was down, either.
This was a surprisingly sloppy game, both sides committed two errors.
It was quite odd seeing Sammy Sosa in a Rangers uniform. I’d always seen that footage of him in a Rangers uni back in the 80’s in Fenway Park, but to see it now is quite bizarre, to tell you the truth.
A game we probably should have won. But still, it was nice to sit there on the couch with a few beers, scoring the game. Yeah, we lost, but I enjoyed watching the Rangers again.
I also just noticed I never did an update for the final spring training game two nights ago against the Brewers. At this point, I don’t think I’m going to bother. :)
Welcome back to baseball! We watched about half of the game and had the radio on for about half that time as well. It was nice to hear Eric again. Just for the record, my wife and I can’t stand the new ‘pitch tracker.’ Keep up the good work, Joe.
The pitch tracker doesn’t bother me. It’s the same thing as the ESPN K-Zone more or less. At least it’s not that stupid talking ball that Fox has during the playoffs.
Vomit.
I wasn’t able to see the game last night! I am right on that boundary where I’m far enough away I don’t get the local broadcasts (although I think they may have some contract this year) but close enough to be blacked out by ESPN 2!
I was stuck listening to Angels Radio personalities on XM (who designates what team does the broadcast by the home team). An interesting note was that they change play-by-play guys like every other inning.
Like how Hank went from 0-2 to 3-2 and fouling off pitch after pitch to get the count up with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Had GMJ not made that good catch to end the inning that would have been the highlite of the night.