The Rangers took the first of two Texas exhibition games against their most played spring foe, Kansas City. KC came north with Texas from Surprise with us to Frisco. I didn’t see or hear any of this game, as it was not available anywhere. I suppose I could have gone out to Frisco to see the game, but I was busy with family stuff. Which will always win out over a baseball game.
Had I been there, I would have wondered with everyone else why Vicente Padilla came out of the game early on. He exited after just two pretty good innings. Two hits, one earned run, and that’s it. Out. That’s the kind of line you have in game 5 of Spring Training, not game 35. It was said he had stiffness in his forearm. After the game, they didn’t seem to be too concerned about it, but you never want to see that kind of thing with your #2 guy in his final spring appearance.
Brandon McCarthy followed him, went four innings, giving up just three hits and a run in what I assume was the rest of the time Padilla was going to be out there. Turnbow, Jennings, & Strop followed, and did not allow any more runs.
Offensively, we had nine hits in all. Nelson Cruz & Elvis had two hits each, the rest were scattered. Four of the hits were doubles, five were singles. Not a ton of power, but we still had a bunch of doubles as per usual. More than enough to win.

Something I didn’t pick up on right away was something that was buried in a Rangers Press release. yesterday, the Rangers published a list of food changes to the ballpark.
It’s the fact that the Rawlings Grill (formerly Friday’s Grill) is gone. There’s no restaurant up there anymore. It’s now been replaced by what I believe to be additional seating for the “All You Can Eat” seats. Here’s the relevant text from the press release:

The All You Can Eat section has been expanded to about 2,100 seats and will be located in the Home Run Porch and the space formerly occupied by the Rawlings All-American Grill. This package is now available for every home game.

I have to say I’m a bit surprised by that. I’m not surprised that the All You Can Eat thing has been expanded, it’s actually a decent value, even if you don’t gorge yourself and get an “average” amount of food. But to completely eliminate the restaurant is a different thing. I enjoyed that up there, and with the Gold Club behind home plate being restricted by where you sit, there’s no “common restuarant” anymore. The Rawlings Grill was a good value. The Gold Club (assuming you were in there) is somewhat overpriced (and they don’t do common things like refills on your soda, or they’re not supposed to anyway). There is the Diamond Club, but that’s a ritzier kind of place, it’s not a quickie burger joint kind of thing like Rawlings was (or Fridays was before it). I wonder if the place was cutting into profit of ballpark food. Or I could be looking too deep, and Rawlings wanted to cut their sponsorship deal in the economy.
Who knows, but the fact that the Rawlings restuarant is not there anymore did come as a bit of a surprise. I’m going to Saturday’s exhibition game, and I’ll be taking pictures, so I’ll get a look at what it looks like, and post something here.

In a game that had the number three all over it, the guy who wore uniform number 3 didn’t even play. The Rangers won the game 9-3, which was three times the runs the Royals got. They had three innings where they scored three runs each. The backup guy playing third base ended up the Arizona portion of spring with a .333 average. Backup outfielder Craig Gentry had a three bagger. Adam Fox had a three run home run for a game total of three RBI’s. As a bonus there, his surname has three letters in it. Josh Rupe had three flyouts in the game. The Rangers had three players hit doubles. Scott Feldman got the win – his third of the spring. The game time was two hours and THIRTY THREE minutes. There were only three umpires in the game (OK, I’m reaching now).
And so ends the Arizona portion of the spring training schedule. Just two more games left, and it starts for real. There’s an exhibition game in Frisco on Friday night, and a game in Arlington on Saturday afternoon that I’m going to with my wife and soon to be four year old.
This last Arizona game featured a drubbing of the Royals by a 9-3 score (no more 3 lines, I promise). Scott Feldman started the game, and accoring to all the press, it will be the last time he starts for awhile. Mr. Anna Benson had better not be a flash, as I really wanted Feldman in there in the rotation from the getgo. Feldman went four innings, giving up just three hits and one earned run. Josh Rupe threw two innings, giving up one run, and the remaining three pitchers (Turnbow, Guardado, Wilson) only gave up one run – it was Wilson, and it was an unearned run. So our pitching was pretty good this game.
Offensively, Michael Young ended the Arizona portion of spring with an 11 game hitting streak, which gives him a .349 batting average. That’s pretty good, hope that carries over to April, we’ll need it. Three doubles, a triple, two home runs, the power was going. This is the time of year when you go “Eh, I don’t want to write about this one, it doesn’t count anyway, let’s get going”.
I’m surprised I wrote as much as I did. :)

Due to work concerns, I was unable to listen to any of this game until about the middle of the seventh inning, when almost all the scoring was done. At that point, the game was tied 4-4, and the only real excitement I got to hear was Andruw Jones’ home run to win the game in the ninth. This is the last time we’ll see the Angels until May 16th (on a Saturday afternoon Fox game of the week). We faced them just two times this spring, and won twice (13-7 on Sunday, 5-4 today).
The Rangers only threw out three pitchers today. None of them are guys making the club. Doug Mathis started. Doug appeared in eight games for the Rangers in 2008, posting a 6.65 ERA. Which is pretty close to what his spring ERA is in 2009 (6.75). In this game he went just four innings, giving up just three hits. However, he accompanied those hits with three walks for a total of three earned runs. Two of those runs came on a home run ball to Matthew Brown. Tommy Hunter followed with a scoreless inning (Tommy was in 3 games in 2008, for a 16.36 ERA). The final Rangers pitcher was Derek Holland, who had the weird line of 4IP, 3H, 1ER, a blown save, and the win.
That win came on the aforementioned home run by Andruw Jones in the ninth to take the decisive lead. Jones had come in for Josh Hamilton in his slot. Josh himself had a solo home run earlier in the game. Jones also had a double in the slot as well, so this hole had some power on April 1st. You know the drill, four doubles, two home runs, six singles, Rangers scored, we won. Old hat, eh? hahahaha
Anyway, it’s nice to see the page flip to April. Next Monday is Opening Day. I’ll be there, as will most others living in this area that read this site, I’d wager. Bunch of roster moves are imminent.

I’m not saying much about this game. The reason is there’s a big Giants fan where I work, and the less said about this fiasco the better. Still, a few comments:

1. This game featured no position player substitutions. I believe that was the first game like that all spring. The same guys who started the game in the field (save for the pitcher) ended it.
2. We had just six hits, two of ’em by Josh Hamilton, and one of THOSE was a three run home run off Barry Zito, accounting for all our runs.
3. Matt Harrison was not good, I actually got a chance to listen to the start of this game at work yesterday. Was ugly.
4. Barry Zito didn’t sound too bad. Of course, it’s the Rangers, so he could go 1-16 all season, the 1 would be against us, naturally. Just like the Oakland days.
5. Of the nine guys who batted this game, the lowest spring batting average at the end of the game was .258 (Blalock). The highest was Josh Hamilton (.384)