Given this Wednesday was my daughter’s birthday, and my mother was in town this week for the event, I didn’t spend much time thinking about the Rangers outside the time I watched the games, so I tuned in for this one, and saw Roy Halladay, and got bummed. He dominated us last week, and generally it’s hard to beat a pitcher like that. But, as the saying goes, that’s why you play the games.
The Rangers started by making a few roster moves, and rested some guys. Michael Young did not play, nor did Hank Blalock. Playing short was swiss army knife (thanks Josh) Ramon Vazquez. Playing third was a kid making his major league debut, German Duran. A few other roster moves had to be made to make room for Duran, as he wasn’t on the 40 man roster, either. The 40 man roster was to move Thomas Diamond to the 60 day disabled list, and the 25 man move was to put Marlon Byrd on the 15 day DL. I don’t recall much being said about Byrd being hurt, I wonder if this is one of those fake DL moves or not. Anyway, watching Duran at the plate against Halladay was somewhat painful. Felt bad for the kid, as he was up three times, and struck out three times. He also looked like a kid. He was born after I graduated high school (June 1983), which is becoming a far more common occurrence. Still, it probably was a major thrill for the kid, which was cool to see. For some reason, seeing kids make their major league debut continues to be something fun to watch. Haven’t gotten THAT jaded about the game yet. ;)
Vicente Pidente took the hill for the Rangers, and followed up the previous game’s performance by Kason Gabbard with one of his own. Vicente went seven innings, giving up seven hits, three walks, but most importantly just a single run. Jamey Wright and CJ Wilson followed up with scoreless frames of their own, sealing the win. But Pidente looked pretty darned good, and I’m wondering if all the talk about him being a different player in the spring is true. He’s now 2-1 with a 3.12 ERA. Pretty decent numbers for the first couple of weeks of the season. Extrapolated over the whole season, that’s 24 wins. That’s probably dreaming, but it’s a great start, I hope it continues.
David Murphy had three doubles in this game. Too bad some of them couldn’t have come in the previous game when we had 6,334 men left on base. Still, three doubles against a Cy Young pitcher is nothing dismiss too lightly. Murphy was the only Rangers batter to get anything other than a single against Halladay.
Josh Hamilton’s monster home run power hasn’t shown up yet, but he continues to hit the ball hard, no matter what he does (single, pop up, or foul). When that light goes on, I wonder if we’ll start hearing talk about the old “Hit it here – win a suit” sign that used to be on top of the scoreboard in right field at our park. You think if all the planets align right, he probably COULD do that. Or, he could hit one into one of the hotel rooms in Toronto, too.
Come on Josh, “Hit it here!”
