It’s been awhile since we’ve had a game like this. We were out in front early, and kept it – no looking back. We’ve not had many of those. We’re usually down 4 or 5 to nothing in the first inning, and we have to hope. Not this time.
Milton Bradley had a no doubter of a three run home run in the bottom of the first. His home run got me to say something I haven’t said much this season – GOODBYE! the second the ball hit the bat. There was no doubt about this one. One funny thing I was surprised that Josh didn’t talk about with the home run was some guy near where the ball landed had his popcorn fly up in the air – and it looked like a pretty full bucket. Whether it was an accident or he was throwing it at the ball is unknown, but popcorn was a flyin’ when the ball went over the fence. That wasn’t the only home run of the game for the Rangers. Josh Hamilton & Jason Botts also launched balls over the stands (but no more popcorn).
But this game wasn’t about the offense, even though there was a lot of it. It was about Vicente Padilla looking very much like the pitcher that Arizona and Philadelphia hoped he would be. Looked strong, pretty good pitch count (121 for nine innings), and most importantly, a complete game shutout. We haven’t had one of those in several years now, and I could go for seeing more of those. We all could. Question is next time out, which Padilla are we going to get? He needs to string together several of these before I think people will really buy into him. I don’t mean complete game shutouts (although that’d be nice), just good strong outings. On the whole, he’s been better in 2008, but I don’t think Rangers fans are ready to completely buy into him just yet.
Josh Hamilton and Michael Young both had three hits, not a huge surprise there. Gerald Laird was 2-5 and is now batting .269. Respectable, definitely an improvement over last year. If he keeps going up, I suspect he’ll get traded in July.
Ian Kinsler had two hits in the #1 hole, and has an OBP of .359. Not bad at all, but you’d like a little better from the leadoff guy.
This was a good game. Something we needed. Next up are the Kansas City Royals starting on Tuesday. They’re not as light a touch as they used to be, so we better keep our heads about us.

Our huge one game winning streak is over, having been thrashed by the Twins 12-6 on Saturday night. To be honest, I wasn’t filled with confidence when the game started. That’s mostly because of who was starting for us. Sidney Ponson. I’m thinking – GREAT. It’s April 26th, and we’re already using guys to start games for us that are now journeymen trying to resurrect a career, and if they don’t make it here, they’re done. I have issues with that for two reasons. First, that we’re using guys like Ponson, and second that we’re considered the last line. Can’t make it in Texas? Well, you’re done then. That’s fairly annoying.
So anyway, Sir Sidney Ponson took the hill for the Rangers. Didn’t look too bad early on, actually. His pitches had a lot of movement on them, and actually looked decent. His line is actually pretty good too, so he’ll probably stay in rotation for awhile, now with Brandon McInjury going to be out for awhile. Ponson’s line was 5.1 innings, seven hits, one walk, and five runs, although only ONE was earned. Finished with an ERA of 1.69 for his work.
Yeah, four unearned runs. That’s thanks to more errors by the Rangers. In all we had THREE errors (plus a passed ball by Saltamacchia). One of the errors was by Ponson himself, the others by Ramon Vazquez, and one by Michael Young. The one by Vazquez was one I saw happen, and it was just “Come one dude, you can make THAT”. The fielding does seem extremely sloppy this season.
Of course when the team gives up sixteen hits and twelve runs, there’s not going to be much in the way of great pitching lines. In fact, only Franklyn German gave up a donut, and he went just 0.2 innings. Blech.
Offensively, we had twelve hits. All were singles except one double by Josh Hamilton, who seems to be going to left field an awful lot. David Murphy was 2-5 with three RBI’s, and is turning into quite a steal from Boston last year. Josh Hamilton was 3-4, and Ian Kinsler was 2-5. Not much power, and we did have a decent number of hits, and of course, we left a dozen men on base.
Ron Washington looked fairly blah in what little of the post game interview I saw. Looked pretty flat. Whether it’s a product of the team just being bad, or everyone (except me) seemingly calling for his head, I don’t know, but the team does seem fairly lifeless now.

Hands up those of you who thought that Justin Morneau’s home run was the end of the game. It was for me. Fortunately, I didn’t just skip past the bottom of the third inning.
The third inning was an active one. The Twins got two singles (one of which was a bunt single), and a walk. Morneau followed that with a grand slam, putting the Twins up 5-0. Given how our last week has gone, that was a “Oh crap, here’s #8” feeling. Fortunately, though the Twins put a stinker of their own up there in the bottom of the frame.
If my box score is right, the Rangers started off with five singles in a row, and then two doubles. Unfortunately, the second one had a boneheaded baserunning play. Jason Botts doubled to right field, which sent Blalock home. Hank was thrown out, though, and on the play, Botts stupidly tried to advance to third – he was so out it was laughable. That killed the momentum we had that inning, as Catalanotto struck out looking right after that. Now, a five spot is nothing to sneeze about, but had we not had the bonehead play, five runs would have been in and men on second and third with nobody out. Could have been a heck of a lot more.
What made that feel worse is that in the sixth inning, Catalanotto was called out at the plate, too. Two outs at home – something you never want to see.
Kevin Millwood’s line obviously wasn’t good, but he seemed better than his line showed. He did go six, but gave up eight hits and three walks. Struck out six, but did give up five earned runs. Even with that, his ERA is still a VERY respectable 3.32.
Our bullpen threw four innings of shutout ball. Something nice to see after the bad performance on the losing streak. Eddie Guardado came off the DL and was the first of the four relievers (including Wright, Wilson, & Benoit) to toss a scoreless frame.
Offensively, we had a lot of hits (fourteen in all). Every Rangers starter had at least one, and we had four guys with multiples. We were led here by David Murphy who went 3-5. Hank Blalock had two doubles in this game. Jason Botts & Josh Hamilton also had doubles. Hamilton’s double was one of those that stopped in between two outfielders, and Josh chugged his way to a double where most guys would have settled for a single – nice hustle on that one (if you saw it, you know what I mean). Murphy would have had two doubles, except the walkoff one was far enough for a double, but was only credited with a single; the game having ended at that point.
Unfortunately, though in the bottom of the 10th inning, Hank Blalock came up gimpy going to second base, and was quite clearly in pain, clutching his hamstring. That looked bad when it happened, but he was going to be evaluated today. The fact that he wasn’t put on the DL last night is hopeful, but hamstrings are never a good thing to see happen in a game. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t end up on the DL.
Also, there was an enormous amount of press yesterday about this weekend bringing the firing of Ron Washington. Some of my blogging brethren were actively calling for it. Quite frankly, I don’t see the need for this. Washington reminds me a lot of Johnny Oates, and Wash I think needs more time than the one year and a month he’s been given during the regular season. Are things going great? No. Does someone need to be accountable? Oh sure, my gut just doesn’t say it’s time yet.
Having said that, if Wash is let go, my guess for interim replacement is probably Art Howe, as he’s already here. But I really don’t want to see Wash go yet. I don’t think it’s time, even given the horrendous start we’ve gotten off to.

That’s one Wash for each loss in a row. Seven of them. As with most of the recent games in the 2008 edition of the Texas Rangers, there’s little to like. It did, however start off pretty decently, at least for me.

I work across the street from a Chili’s. I had gotten an email from them recently saying they had a new Soup & Salad deal for lunch (the express lunch). So I decided to walk across the street for that. I’m siting there eating my bowl of really extremely good Chicken Enchilada soup, and the TV’s there were on. Baseball Tonight was just finishing, and it was noon, so I mentioned to my waitress that the Rangers game was starting, and she had the bartender change the channel, so I got to see the first inning of the Rangers game in High Def. I have not seen a Rangers game that way before – at least not like this (meaning not at demo setups in your Best Buys, that kind of thing). It was seriously cool watching it that way. Michael Young’s home run was pretty cool, too.

Jason Jennings took the hill, and I got to see Curis Granderson’s leadoff home run – which actually got me to say out loud at Chili’s “here we go again”. I was pretty much done at this point, but I hung around to see the whole first inning in High Def. If I was’t on my lunch hour, I might have ordered some beers and watched the whole thing that way. :)

The problem today was the longball. Jennings gave up three of them, and Kaz Fukumori gave up two. Seven of the eight Tigers runs all came off one of the longballs. Speaking of Fukumori, man, what the heck happened to the guy in spring training? He was lights out, and when the lights went on for the season, his lights were knocked out. Thing is, his ERA went DOWN to 20.25 after this outing. Ugh.

We never could get much going this game. After the initial high of being in the lead (gasp), we never could get anything going. The Rangers managed just four hits total (two were by Michael Young), and looked pretty lifeless.

We limp home to play the Twins at home this weekend. Hopefully, maybe, the team will show some life after getting home. We’ve already tied the record for worst start in team franchise history (even including the Senators days?) according to the local press, so some home cooking might help.

Something’s gotta.