Mute is an interesting choice of words to describe our offense. We did score, but we certainly couldn’t muster much of anything. In all the Rangers managed just three hits against the Cubbies. They had a single by David Murphy, another single by Taylor Teagarden, and a home run by Justin Smoak. The home run by Smoak was all the offense we got.
Our pitching wasn’t exactly awful – 4 runs for a whole game, while not stellar, isn’t BAD either. Overall, the three Rangers pitchers combined for nine hits and four earned runs. We did, however, go back to our good ways with walks – just one (Beltre). Neftali Feliz started, and I’m starting to think he won’t make the rotation, he seems to have issues with guys when they get to the second time around in the lineup. Feliz went three innings, gave up six hits and three runs. There was one scoreless inning tossed by Omar Beltre, who was then followed by four innings by CJ Wilson, who also was pretty good. Three hits, one run, and five punchouts.
But the lack of offense was disappointing, for sure.

This was the first night I was home from my trip to see my Grandparents, and I thought it was cool the Rangers were on TV that night. However, when I sat down to watch it, the 1,500 miles of driving I had done on Sunday and Monday caught up to me, and I passed out cold. Gave up, and went to bed.
I missed Rich Harden being pretty bad. 3.2 innings, five hits three walks, and five earned runs. Meh. His successor on the mound was no better, really. Doug Mathis went two innings, gave up two hints and FOUR walks, and just one run. Edwar Ramirez followed, gave up his own run, as did the final pitcher, Darren O’Day who gave up a run. The seven walks is by far the worst walk performance of the spring, something that’s caught my eye a lot this year. Our walk totals are fantastic. I just hope it holds up long term.
Offensively, we got another home run – this one by Nelson Cruz, who is really hot (.417 average so far). Vlad Guerrero however is NOT hot, going 0-3, and posting a spring average of just .217. Matt Brown is batting .538, and I wonder if he’ll make the club, as I believe he’s our Rule 5 guy we have to keep up. Justin Smoak had a double, and there were five singles. Another distinct lack of power.
After that modest three game winning streak, we’ve now lost the last three games, so that’s fairly disappointing.

The second split squad game of the day was also a loss, this time a 6-4 game to the Dodgers.
Chris Davis went 2-3, continuing his torrid pace of spring hitting. Jarrod Saltamacchia doubled, driving in a run. Nelson Cruz also doubled, but again, no home runs, no real power, as it was more singles.
Pitching wise, Derek Holland started, and did well in his three innings. Just gave up two hits, and walked nobody. No runs, either. However, that’s about where that kind of pitching stopped. Of the six relievers used, only the last one (Eyre) didn’t give up any runs. Although Clay Rapada really tried to. He went one inning of work, but in that inning, gave up two hits and THREE walks, but just a single run.

I’ll copy this from the official Rangers report on the game, since I liked the text:

Josh Hamilton’s daughter, Julia, turned nine on Sunday. Hamilton promised her at breakfast that he would hit a home run for her, and he did just that. Hamilton hit his first home run of the spring with a two-run shot in the first inning. He also had a double in the third in going 2-for-3 on the day. He is 8-for-17 in the Cactus League after having to deal with a bruised left shoulder earlier in the month.

It broke a power outage problem the Rangers have been having lately. Josh Hamilton also had a double, too. Overall, the Rangers were shut down offensively this game, as we had just six hits. In a reversal of the way things have gone, four of the six hits were extra base hits (the three doubles and a home run).
Pitching wise, Colby Lewis started and pitched like OLD Colby Lewis. 3.1 innings, six hits, six earned runs. Was pretty bad.
Despite the bad pitching performance, we walked just one batter (Lewis).
Meh indeed.

The Rangers took their third game in a row to raise their overall record to 3-5-1 behind a very strong pitching performance overall. The Rangers shut out the Indians, 5-0 on Friday.
There were far more walks this game than usual by the Rangers this spring. In fact, there were more walks given up than hits. Five walks, four hits. None of it mattered really, as none of them scored.
Brandon McCarthy started, and went three spring innings, giving up just three hits. Darren Oliver tossed a perfect inning after that, followed by Luis Mendoza. Mendoza went three innings, gave up no hits, but two walks. Finally there was Guillermo Moscoso, who went two innings, giving up just one hit and two walks.
Offensively, we had twelve hits. Still no home runs. There were two doubles and a triple. In fact, Matt Brown was the best, as he went 2-3, with a double and a triple. Chris Davis had just one hit, but the hit raised his spring average to .522, which is really quite awesome looking. Be nice if holds a .300+ average when the games count. Nelson Cruz is raking, too, batting .421.

The Rangers picked up win #3 and their second in a row on Friday with a 6-2 win over the San Diego Padres.
The Rangers scored early with a 4 spot in the first, and a two spot in the second, and then that was it for their offense. Still not much power this spring. 13 hits, two double, 11 singles. No home runs, yet again. That’s turning out to be a bit of a surprise, tell you the truth. So long as we win, it’s not a problem, but it does seem uncharacteristic for sure.
The pitching was a better story here. Matt Harrison started, went three innings, gave up just three hits and no runs, walking nobody. Tommy Hunter followed, gave up just two hits and a single run in his three innings. The remaining three pitchers aren’t guys who are supposed to be in the majors, so their numbers aren’t as much of a concern to me, but it’s still nice to see a combined three innings and one run with no walks by them.
A couple of former Rangers made appearances in this game for the Pads. Jerry Hairson Jr went 1-3, and Adrian Gonzalez took an ofer. Former catcher Chris Stewart went 0-1.

The Rangers finally unloaded on someone in a way their general reputation says they should. Sadly, it’s just win #2 out of seven games so far. A 16-5 win is always good no matter where it comes in the year, whether it’s Game 7 of spring, to Game 25 of the regular season to Game 4 of the World Series in a sweep.
I’ll start with the Rangers pitching. Scott Feldman started, and continues to have a “meh” spring. Gave up three runs on five hits in 2 and a third innings. However, the pen that followed him was significantly better. In particular, Dustin Nippert was quite good, tossing three shutout innings and giving up just a lone hit. The only other pitcher to give up any runs was Warner Madrigal, who had three hits and two runs in his lone inning of work. The pitching was good in regards to walks again. Only two, and both of those by Scott Feldman.
There was a lot of offense, but again, not a lot of power. There was one home run, by Chris Davis, and seven doubles (by seven different Rangers). There were also 15 other singles, so there was a lot of offense, just not a ton of power. Taylor Teagarden drove in three, as did Chris Davis. Elvis Andrus, Nelson Cruz, & Pedro Borbon each drove in two, all the rest were scattered amongst various Rangers with single RBI’s.
Colorado helped with three errors. Their starter (Aaron Cook) was pretty awful, gave up nine hits and nine runs (only 5 earned – see errors) in 2.2 innings of work. Only walked one, though.
Nice to see the big win, but kind of a bummer it’s just #2 of the spring, however.

The Rangers record this spring drops to an abysmal 1-4-1 after another loss, this one a 6-3 game to the Seattle Mariners.
For the third game in a row, we hit double digits in hits, but still came up on the short side of the offensive stick. The offensive leader for Texas was a guy by the name of Ray Olmedo. Not a household name, and I’d bet some money he won’t be with the big club terribly long. But this game, he went 3-4 with a run scored. Again, we had little power. Of the 13 hits, 12 of them were singles. There was just one double (Chris Davis).
Speaking of Davis, he’s raking this spring. As I write this, I still have recaps for about six games after this one, and taking that into account, he’s got some gaudy numbers overall.
Our offense was spread out, despite there being 13 hits. Only Olmedo & Mitch Moreland had more than a single hit.
Piching wise, CJ Wilson made another start. Not too bad. Three innings. Had more earned runs than hits (2 vs 1). Only walked one, so the Mariners were highly efficient there in scoring, since both their runners against Wilson scored.
Neftali Feliz gave up four hits and four runs in his two innings of work. That’s not good.
The rest of our pen was scoreless over four innings. The entire staff walked just two this game, continuing a good trend this spring.

Ian Kinsler led the offense this game going 2-2 with a walk. He wasn’t the only one with two hits, though. Pedro Borbon & Nelson Cruz had two each. Overall, three doubles, a triple, and 10 singles – still no home runs, though. David Murphy had the most RBI’s with 3.
Rich Harden appeared to be pedestrian again, going 2.2 innings, and giving up four earned runs. But that was mostly his own fault as he broke the tradition this spring and walked three guys. I believe a record so far for Rangers pitching in 2010.
Darren Oliver had another scoreless inning, as did Clay Rapada & Willie Eyre.
Meh. A tie.

Brandon McCarthy started this game against the Angels, and immediately proceeded to let the first four Angel batters get on base. It’s spring, so it’s not such a big a deal, but you never really want to see that, as it led to an early 2-0 hole the Rangers never climbed out of. Those were the only two runs McCarthy gave up in his two innings of work, but almost everyone else gave up runs. In fact, the only Ranger pitcher (there were 7) who didn’t give up any runs was Geoff Geary. Zack Phillips was the worst, giving up five hits and four earned runs in a single inning (facing eight batters). However, it wasn’t all awful, as the general lack of walks stayed here, too. The Rangers gave up just two walks.
Offensively, the Rangers banged out 13 hits. Still no home runs to speak of. We have a few, but we’re down near the bottom of the league in that regard. Three doubles and a triple, and pile of singles accounted for the 9 runs we did score. It wasn’t enough, though, as the Rangers gave up 13.
Strangely enough most of the offense gave from the fifth inning on (Angels got 11 then, and the Rangers got 7). The only inning where nobody scored was the second.