I missed most of this game due to family events. Building a block building with my little girl seemed more important than watching the Rangers game tonight. But still, I’m a Ranger fan, so I had to say something about the game after checking out the box score.
The Rangers scored early, putting three on the board in the first two innings. This was powered by a Nelson Cruz triple (scoring Cat), and an Ian Kinsler single (scoring Vazquez & Laird). Unfortunately, this was offset by another pedestrian opening by Kevin Millwood, who allowed three runs to the Blue Jays in the first inning (single, walk, single, double). Kevin’s overall line wasn’t too awful – those were the only runs he gave up. However, too few innings (four), too many hits (eight), and WAY WAY WAY too many pitches (96) combined to kick Kevin out after the fourth. We only used one other pitcher this evening (Jamey Wright), who also went four innings, and gave up three runs to Toronto in the sixth.
Jamey’s appearance in relief will keep him from starting on Saturday. Instead, we’re calling up Mike Wood from AAA to start in place of Kameron Loe who is going on the DL with some back pain (although it doesn’t seem serious from reading about it). Nothing terribly bad here, but I have a “meh” feeling about it.
Offensively, we had one triple (Byrd), and eight singles scattered around the game. Halladay went 6, giving up four earned runs. Not exactly Cy Young caliber stuff, but it was enough to beat us this Friday evening.