Game 2 of the spring was another one that I wasn’t able to pay close attention to. If only there was TiVo for radio. :) Saturday was watch the baby day (who is a toddler now), so I couldn’t really pay attention. I did have the game on the radio, but didn’t pay much attention to it, because one is always watching the toddler run around the house. One funny thing about that, I don’t think she understood that I had a radio on, because she would hear Eric & Vic talk, but it wasn’t in a place where either of our usual stereos at home is, so she’s not used to voices coming from the kitchen table like that. She would walk over there a few times, give the radio a funny look, and then walk away. :)
After checking out the recaps and box scores online, it appeared to be a rather back and forth kind of game. I’ve seen worse than this in terms of lead changes, but it was a game that both teams lost the lead. Rangers starter Vicente Padilla was decent in his two innings. Just gave up two hits and one run – a solo home run to Mark Teahen. Oddly enough, of the six other pitchers the Rangers used, the one with the worst line was Rick Bauer, who gave up four hits and two earned runs in his one inning. Bauer was the winning pitcher, too! Line scores don’t show you how well the pitchers pitched in terms of crispness, but nobody had a really bad line score at all – even Bauer. In total, Rangers pitching gave up 13 hits and 5 runs. More hits than you’d want to see, but with that many, you’d’ expect more than 5 runs given up, so that wasn’t bad. Ian Kinsler also committed an error in the field.
It’s hard to put together a name who “leads the offense” during spring training – especially early on. That’s because people don’t stay in the game long enough generally to get 4-5 at bats to have a 4-5 day or so. Still, having said that, the closest would be Hank Blalock who went 2 for 3 with an RBI. The remaining 10 hits were scattered, not a player had more than one except Blalock. There were several doubles in this game (Hairston, Kinsler, Botts, & Lofton). The Rangers didn’t hit any home runs, and we were one for two (Wilkerson was successful, Arias was not) in stolen base attempts. Kind of interesting that we see stolen base attempts in the stats, didn’t see much of that at all with Showalter. Oh yeah, and Sammy Sosa got a single in his first at bat which was played via local TV on recaps. Have to show that, eh? :)
From what little I did hear on the radio, it was nice to have Eric & Victor back. I’ll be glad when they’re on every day in April. :)

[Read more…]

The first official spring training game was against, who else. The Kansas City Royals. We have traditionally opened against them several times in a row since we’ve moved spring operations to Surprise, AZ. So the next couple of reports will probably have the same names in it. But that’s the most exciting part about doing a recap for Friday’s game. It’s all we get. I enter the 9th season doing this website, and the one thing I’ve said many times in the past is I hate these games where all we get are the recap sheets. Can’t hear ’em can’t see ’em. Now that I’ve got my regular annual gripe about that out of the way…
I’m thoroughly embarrassed I missed all this earlier. I do websites for a side business, and was dealing with some server issues relating to one of them, and the fact we were starting games completely slipped my mind. Not that it would have made much difference due to it being a “box score only” game, but still – I should have said something. :)
The “A” game was a loss to the Royals by the score of 8-6. This game can be summed up in a couple of words – “John Koronka got bombed”. In a performance worthy of Chan Ho Park or Mark Clark, John gave up a six spot in the fourth inning (after pitching a shutout third). That was essentially the game there from the Royals offensive standpoint. In fact, Alex Gonzalez for the Royals was the only guy to get more than a lone hit (two). The only other Ranger pitcher to give up a run was Wes Littleton (1). Willie Eyre also gave up one, but it was unearned. Kameron Loe, Edinson Volquez, & Jack Benoit all pitched shutout ball. Take out Koronka, and it was a decently pitched game.
Offensively, we had the same thing as KC did. Of our 10 hits, only one player had two (Catalanotto, two doubles), the rest were scattered. However, two of those were home runs, by Guillermo Quiroz & Victor Diaz.
Fresh off his contract, Mike Young committed one of the two errors the Rangers made this game (yeah, yeah – I know. But I still got a chuckle out of it).
There was also a B game earlier in the morning where Kevin Millwood made his spring debut, as did Sammy Sosa. You never get box scores for B games, so I can’t find Millwood’s line. Although of course, the press reported that Sammy Sosa went 0-3 with a walk and a couple of strikeouts. Couldn’t pass up that info, eh? :)
Still, it’s nice to get the juices flowing again – nice to be writing again.
Couldn’t find a combined box score/recap at MLB’s site, the line/box score is below. I’ll only do that for games that I can’t find a combined recap/box score link at mlb.com for during spring training.

[Read more…]