With my wife due to give birth almost any day, I spent this evening out to a nice dinner with her, and wasn’t thinking much about writing commentary for my site. I did watch the game, it was a good win, but I’m not going to write much, as I need to head to bed (as I write this, it’s 1:15AM).
Drese wasn’t terribly good today, Dellucci got a HR off a lefty, and we got some help from a fan in right field who Bartmanned a foul ball.
Of the six games we’ve played so far this year, this was the fifth decided by one run.
Tomorrow’s the home opener! Yeah!
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Let’s hear it for the new guys!
This was a game where our new acquisitions had a major part in the win today. First off is Pedro Astacio. I have to admit I was in the camp of “Why the hell did we sign this guy”? He struck me a someone who wouldn’t pitch will in our park, he has a history of big ERA’s, etc… So it was much to my amazement, and I suspect every Rangers fan, that he was absolutely masterful today. He went seven innings, giving up 6 hits, only 2 runs with seven strikeouts, and NO walks. Watching his fastball tail back in against left handers was stunning – there was some pinpoint control, he was getting both corners. It really made me excited to see him pitch again. If he keeps this up all season – wow, would that be a steal of a signing.
The other new guys who were a big deal today were Richard Hidalgo and Sandy Alomar. Alomar was someone again who most Ranger fans thought “Uh, why?” But for this day, he was really on the ball with his offense. He went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI’s. They were all singles, but hey, they were productive, as he drove in three. Richard Hidalgo, who made some nice running catches in the field was only 1 for 5 today, but WOW was the one a big one. It was a two run home run in the ninth to give us the win. On TV we saw him running the bases with his arms both outstretched. Was a great moment. Can’t forget Hank Blalock’s two run home run too, which was set up my Mr. Boone. :)
So let’s hear it for the new guys! Something else that’s new that I didn’t care for is this really nasty trend the first week for the bullpen to not be able to hold anything. I know Almanzar & Francisco aren’t here, but that alone shouldn’t account for the almost total collapse of the bullpen. I don’t have numbers to back up this feeling, but it seems that everyone they bring up lights it up. It feels like spring training again, only with guys that matter instead of the guys you won’t be seeing again like you get in spring training. I mean – OUCH! At least Cordero got a save today, although he was very Wetteland like in allowing two men on base before closing the door.
The end of the game was definitely a rollercoaster, what with allowing four runs in the bottom of the 8th to blow the lead, and then scoring 4 runs in the top of the ninth to win it. A most enjoyable finish to the game, if the road to get there wasn’t so wonderful. It saves us from the embarrassing potential start of 1-4. We’re 2-3 now, which is just fine, as the rest of our division is pretty much with that same record. :)
Still, a win is a win, and I’m really encouraged by Astacio’s performance today.
P.S. Thanks again, Bret Boone. That really helped.
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I’m just too mad to do an update on this on Friday night. :( It’s our bullpen letting us down again, which is a disturbing trend, even if it’s only Week #1.
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The 9PM start time problem hit me early this season. I fell asleep in the middle of the game, and then I got so tired, I stopped watching before it was over. I really wish we could get out of the AL West, not because of the competition, but of the late start times.
Anyway, what I did see wasn’t that great. Chris Young did not get off to a good start, throwing a boatload of pitches in the first few innings (92 over 4IP), giving up seven hits and 3 earned runs in his 4 innings pitched (for an ERA of 6.75). R.A. Dickey who followed him didn’t do much better. He pitched only two, and gave up an additional 3 earned runs. New pickup Matt Riley looked pretty decent, even getting Guerrero in a rundown between third and home. Bukvich, who is probably headed back to AAA when Almanzar comes back, or when we activate Astacio on Saturday. Brian Shouse took the loss, giving up the winning run to Steve Finley in extra innings (our second of those in 3 games).
Offensively, we were shut down for the most part by John Lackey, who looked even better than Colon & Washburn the last few nights. For the first four innings, he was lights out. But he ran out of gas in the fifth, and we put up a four spot to (at that time) take the lead. We even scored two runs on two wild pitches (including one that doinked catcher Molina in the facemask) – but Dickey couldn’t hold it. Of the six hits, only Mike Young had more than one (2). Hank Blalock got a hit, but he’s still slow getting out of the gate, with an average of .077 at the moment. One of the big highlights was the 15 pitch at bat by Adrian Gonzalez which lead to a walk (and later a run) when Dave Dellucci doubled him (and Hidalgo). Soriano’s hit was a home run, and it seems his power is OK.
General comment: The more I watch him, the better I feel about the acquisition of Richard Hidalgo. It could change of course, but for now, he seems like a really good pickup. The only real worry is that the stated reason of using this year as a springboard means we likely won’t bring him back next year, as we have several kids behind him.
You can view my full update for this game here.

The second game felt an awful lot like the first one. We gave up a run in the first inning, and then it stayed that way for a long time. We were “right there” the whole way, but couldn’t bring anyone across. It got a bit more irritating when we left five men on base in the first two innings alone! Just couldn’t get it done. In fact, the game stayed 1-0 until the eighth.
In the middle of that, Kenny Rogers had a ball batted up the middle pretty fast that he tried to catch with his glove, but replays showed it nicked the top of his pitching hand. That’s two games in a row that Jamie Reed had to come out and deal with something (in fact, twice in this game too, as Hidalgo got hit in the kneecap with a pitched ball earlier). Rogers stayed in after that, but eventually came out of his own request after six innings. Unfortunately, Jarrod Washburn was like Colon the night before, and was pretty untouchable in terms of runs anyway. :) So Kenny left with a loss on the hook.
However, in the eighth, our new right fielder paid dividends. Richard Hidalgo jacked a two run home run over the short left field corner wall in Angel Stadium for a 2-1 lead. These kinds of games tend to turn emotionally pretty quickly – at that time, I assumed the game was won. It felt like a win. But Cordero couldn’t hold it. Actually, Cordero came in early in the 8th after Doug Brocail & Ron Mahay left him with bases loaded. Got out of that, but in the bottom of the ninth, but a ground rule double scored Josh Paul to tie the game up and send it to extra innings. We almost really blew it the bottom of the eleventh. Ryan Bukvich had pitched a good 10th, but in the 11th, he was wild, putting two on with nobody out, but some picking and choosing of relief pitchers by Showalter got us out of that.
It set the stage for Alfonso Soriano’s game winning HR in the top of the 12th. Brian Shouse, who pitched the final 1.1 innings, picked up the win. There were a lot of pitchers used total. The Rangers used 7 (Rogers, Brocail, Mahay, Cordero, Bukvich, Dickey, Shouse) and the Angels used 6 (Washburn, Shields, Donnelly, Yan, KRod, & Prinz).
Did anyone think that Tom Grieve was really going to give out his phone number? Was amusing, though. He did narrow it down, if someone wants to dial 1,000 phone numbers, they could get through. :)
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The season started. I was messing with my wife while watching the game – I said “You know when this game is over, that’s one less game in the season to look forward to”. I almost got slapped upside the head for that, but I did get a good solid glare. It was nice to have Josh & Tom back on the TV, but I’m sure Tom doesn’t like those intros where the camera is looking top down. :)
Ryan Drese was our opening day starter, and we haven’t had the same guy do two consecutive opening day starts since Ken Hill in 96-97, so he’s another on the carousel. Speaking of that, we had another opening day center fielder this year which is like 10 out of the last 11 years with a different guy or something. Drese was really well – in fact, other than Vlad Guerrero, he was spectacular. No shame in falling to Guerrero, he could probably golf a ball out of a home run if it was underground! We got our first quality start in the first game of the season. Drese went seven innings, giving up six hits and 3ER. Two of which were directly attributable to Vlad. So while it was disappointing that the birthday boy did not get a win, he pitched really well, and it was a good sign of things to come, I would think.
On the other side, our nemesis, Bartolo Colon went 6.2 innings, giving up just one run and six hits. He did seem to labour a lot more (Colon had 108 pitches in 6.2 and Drese had just 87 in 7 IP). We did have our chances, we left nine men on base, including four in the first two innings. Colon felt beatable last night, but we couldn’t cross the line and get the win, although we played really well.
Offensively, we only had a total of seven hits. Only four of our players had hits, everyone else was an ofer. Soriano went 2 for 5, Tex went 2 for 4, and had a HR, Gary Matthews went 2 for 4, although one of his hits was wiped out when he tried to stretch a single into a double, and almost made it with a really weird acrobatic “slide”. The final hit was from Mike Young, who got a hit to the right side of the field (what a shocker). In fact, one of Teixeira’s hits was a single that should have been a double. It looked like a HR off the bat, but hit the wall, and Guerrero absolutely cannoned the ball back to second – it was quite amazing to watch. I always liked this guy for years in Montreal when no one had heard of him. Glad to see him getting a bigger audience.
We lost the game, which is never good, but I didn’t much mind. It was Game #1. :)
You can view my full update for this game here.