This was a game that was notable in the wire stories about Sammy Sosa’s “return” to a Cubs game, but in a Rangers uniform. Do any Rangers fans really care about that? I mean honestly. I certainly don’t.
The biggest story of this game to Ranger fans is the regression of Jamey Wright in this game. As I’m sure you’ll read or hear everywhere, this is the time of year where guys on the bubble can’t afford to have games like that. Jamey’s line was 8H, 4ER, 2BB, 2K in 3.1IP. Not good. He has pitched well during the spring, but as has been said, you’re only as good as your last start. I’ve felt for awhile that Kameron Loe will be the fifth starter anyway – I’m also not thrilled with the other candidate (Bruce Chen). Loe hasn’t pitched bad at all, but he’ll probably win by default – I think (I hope, really) that Chen won’t get it based on his past track record.
Rick Bauer appears to have crashed and burned – after doing well last year, I don’t think he had a really good outing at all this spring, did he? Without looking it up, today’s line (1.2IP, 6H, 3ER, 1BB) isn’t the only one like that he’s had, so he’s probably off the club, and is also untradeable due to his performances, too.
Jack Benoit was told he had all but made the club – so I saw in an article a day or two ago. That’s not a surprise, after almost being given up on when he was out of options, he seems to have developed into a rather good bullpen guy, surviving several managers here in Texas (Narron, Showalter, and now Washington). He had a good line today as well.
Gerald Laird has come on strong at the end of spring training. Today he hit two home runs – both off of Jason Marquis. Texas also had another home run, this one by Ramon Vazquez.
Chicago had two home runs as well, but the second one was the backbreaker. The second one was a grand slam by Daryle Ward in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cubs the win 11-7.

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The Rangers had three home runs and four runs.
The Giants had two home runs and three runs.
That’s pretty much the story of this game. :)
Robinson Tejeda went four innings, and from the box score had a decent outing. Bit too many hits for the number of innings he pitched, but no runs, which was the important thing. Both closers on our team gave up solo home runs, although the one off of Otsuka was Barry Bonds, and there’s no shame in that. Frank Francisco who needs to turn it around in a hurry pitched two scoreless frames.
Nelson Cruz & Ian Kinsler accounted for four of the only seven hits we had the whole game. Cruz’s two hits were both home runs, so that was a nice display of power. Kinsler’s two were a double and a home run, so these two definitely were the offense today. Matt Kata provided the other RBI for the Rangers.
I’m just so excited the stupid bell will be gone from Section 201. w00t! :)

As good as the Rangers pitching was yesterday (9IP, 0ER), today’s was a swing of the pendulum the other way (9IP, 8R, 4ER). Wasn’t completely horrendous, but nothing worthy of praise, either.
Rangers: 3 doubles, 3 home runs, 10 singles, 4 walks
Rockies: 2 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs, 8 singles, 4 walks
So there’s a pretty respectable amount of offense to go around there. I don’t have time at the moment to break down all the hits, but when there’s 20 runs and 29 hits, you can lose yourself in the box score anyway.
Bruce Chen continues to make a case to be this year’s Pedro Astacio. If he makes the club, I’ll be scared, despite his line.

In a headline I hope to repeat a lot in 2007, “Rangers beat Mariners”. That hasn’t been an issue the last couple of years (for anyone, really), but you always want to beat your division foes, even in spring training.
This was a very well pitched game from the Rangers standpoint. Unlike a lot of spring training games, we used only two pitchers. Kevin Millwood started, and went 4 innings. He gave up two hits and one unearned run with three walks. A pretty good outing. However, Kameron Loe followed him, and gave up even less. Loe went five innings, and gave up just a lone hit, and no runs with two walks. That’s all there really is to report. Oh sure, I can quote more stats, but their lines to me are the most important thing of the day for Ranger pitchers.
Not a ton of offense either, just seven hits in all. The clear leader here was Brad Wilkerson, who went 2-4. He had two rbi’s and scored twice. Hairston also went 2-4, but didn’t score, and had just one RBI. Wilkerson’s RBI’s were also on a home run.

In a statement that seems odd to this Rangers fan, Marlon Byrd returned to the lineup and led the Rangers to victory Friday night. He singled in two runs in the sixth inning, giving us the lead, and the eventual win. As regular readers of my site know, I also follow the Phillies, and I remember Byrd from his time there. My sister in law is also a big Byrd fan, so she has been glad to hear that he’s doing well here. As we creep closer to the end of camp, it is starting to feel like Byrd will be the fourth/fifth/whatever outfielder we carry.
Sammy Sosa, who is also on the team has now hit in 11 straight “A” game spring training games. Spring is spring – so we shall see if he Nevins us on this, or if he really has learned to hit again.
We used seven pitchers Friday night (in order; Jamey Wright, Willie Eyre, Frank Francisco, Akinori Otsuka, Joaquin Benoit, Scott Feldman, & Ron Mahay). Officially Otsuka got the win, and Mahay got the save. I have to admit to being concerned we still have not seen Eric Gagne in an “A” game this spring. For as much money as we gave him, I think he should be in these “A” games, not pitching against scrubs in the minor league games. Not liking that at all. Course, I didn’t think we should have signed him in the first place; Aki was fine. Jamey Wright is also starting to look like a pretty strong candidate to make the roster. He went 3.1IP, giving up 2 runs, and his spring ERA is 2.16. If he does make the club, that’s three guys who are not on the 40 who are expected to be added (Wright, Sosa, & Hairston).
Nice to see our old buddy Doug Brocail’s name in the box score. Still liked him when he was here, even if he wasn’t the best pitcher we had.
It was another scattered offensive night for us. The box score says we had no extra base hits at all, everything was a single (10 of them). And again, we had just one guy with more than one (spring catcher Chris Stewart). Also looking at the box score, I see Kenny Lofton’s averge is under the Mendoza line. Even at Apr 16, that’s not good for our anointed leadoff guy. :(

Simpsons fans should recognize that. That’s about what I was thinking when I saw the linescore of this game after the fact. There’s little positive that can be said about a game when there are numbers 9 and 10 in the linescore, and they’re not in the columns that say R H E, but the ones that have numbers on top of them. U-G-L-Y!
The worst part about it is one of the guys who is expected to be with the club had the worst damage – Josh Rupe. 8ER in 2+ innings. Blech.
Course, there’s offense all over the place with those gaudy numbers in the pitching lines. But it’s just an ugly game, I think I’ll say little about this, and let my Simpsons graphic do the talking. :)

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