Where have we heard that headline before? Eh? Anyone? Certainly not with the Texas Rangers.
C.J. Wilson took the hill, and like most Rangers fans, I probably wondered how this would work out. Yeah, he was brought up as a starter some time ago, but he’s been a reliever for such awhile that I don’t think most fans saw him as anything else other than a reliever. So it was to my surprise that he wasn’t only decent in his first start of the season, but quite good! His total line was seven innings pitched, five hits, two walks, and nine strikeouts. For an ERA of zero! That’s because he ALLOWED NO RUNS.
Neftali Feliz came in and struck out the side in the eighth and set it up for Frank Francisco.
Who stunk up the joint, giving up four hits, a walk and three earned runs in just 0.2 innings. His ERA is now 16.20. Bleargh. Darren O’Day and Darren Oliver cleaned up the mess, but the damage was done. This was a really spectacuarly pitched day, save for the 5 minutes Frank Francisco was on the mound.
The real shame of it was that we only scored one run. And that one was a gift – we scored on a wild pitch run in from third. That was it. The Rangers had just five hits. THREE of them were from Vlad Guerrero. Nelson Cruz & David Murphy each had one, too, but man. That’s some weak offense. Guerrero is batting .636 after the first three games. If you took him out of the equation, I bet our entire team batting average would be around .100. It’s pretty pathetic. That we scored enough in the first game to win is now looking like something of a miracle.
Ricky Romero & CJ Wilson both battled well. Was a great afternoon pitcher’s duel in great weather. It’s a shame neither of them got anything out of their efforts.