It was immediate right away that Yu Darvish wasn’t going to have the same kind of game against the Angels that he did against the Astros. That’s not simply because the Angels are a better team. He was wild. It felt a little like his first ever start here in Arlington last year. He recovered, and kept the damage to a minimum, but we were down 2-0 pretty quickly in the top of the first.
We bounced back with some quick strike offense – a two run home run by Lance Berkman, and another solo home run by David Murphy. Se we’re up 3-2. We punched across another couple of hits in the fourth to go up 4-2. The big hit however, was a three run home run to right by Ian Kinsler. This was right after the Rangers got Weaver out of the game by a batted ball that missed him, but caused him to go down in a heap, and out of the game. In came Mark Lowe, the former Ranger, and he was.. well… You saw why he wasn’t a Ranger anymore. Three run home run. That was the end of the scoring for both sides (although the Angels had put up a single in the top of the 5th).
This one felt like ours from the time we took the lead in the bottom of the first.
Also of note, Yu Darvish came out of the game after five with blister issues. A lot is being made of him pitching a lot in the attempt for the perfect game. I think it’s just start of season stuff – if he had pitched say 25 less pitches the other day and 25 more today, I’d wager it would happen anyway.
Kinsler definitely led the offense here. Her was 3-3 with 4 RBI, a walk, and two runs scored. Outside of Kinsler, the rest of the lineup managed just five hits. Fortunately, two of those were home runs.
I’m not writing about Josh Hamilton.
I am writing about our pen. Robbie Ross, Tanner Scheppers, & Joe Nathan all looked dominant. Scheppers has been a very nice early season surprise. I know he had a good spring, but man – he’s looking lights out so far in 2013. Liking that a lot.