Any long time reader of this site knows that I don’t care for extra inning games. We always seem to lose them. And we always seem to lose them in the tenth inning, too. If we can get past the 10th or 11th, we have a shot, but we usually don’t get there.
So it was quite the surprise when I saw the game score on the 6PM news saying that it was in extra innings. Much bigger surprise when I saw the score on the 10PM news that we had won in extra innings.
This game was driven by Josh Hamilton again. Mr. Tattoo went 3-3 with an RBI and a run scored. The RBI was a home run, which was shown on the Channel 5 10PM news. Bound for AAA (or another team) catcher Adam Melhuse chipped in with an RBI and a 2-2 game. Hamilton’s home run wasn’t the only tater by the home 11 either. Ben Broussard & Nelson Cruz also went yard. (This paragraph turned out to have way more silly phrases than I normally have in my writing).
Most of the Ranger first stringers in this game threw an ofer as well. Young, Cat, Kinsler, Blalock, etc… That was a bit of a surprise.
Vicente Padilla went 3.2 innings, and game out with one of these “minor injuries”. All the quotes afterwards were saying the usual niceties about how it’s not a big problem, how it’s nothing to worry about, etc, etc, etc.. But I’m seeing way too many of these. Something is going on, and I’m not sure I like it. Anyway, Padilla wasn’t helped by defense, as he gave up two unearned runs (and no earned runs). Still had more walks (3) than strikeouts (2). Scott Feldman wasn’t all thatr great either, although he did pitch four innings – I believe the first Ranger pitcher to do that this spring. Feldman gave up three earned runs on six hits and a walk. A few too many for four innings.
Kazuo Fukumori pitched another scoreless inning. That’s all he’s thrown this spring in his six innings of work overall. It’d be nice if he could carry that over into the regular season and keep it going. We could use a performance like that.