Well, the second straight loss in a row to the Reds leads now to our 0-3 Spring Training record. Not a terribly great start. They don’t count, of course, and most of these players won’t be with the team when we head north, but 0-3 is never good.
It started off good enough, with Darren Oliver on the mound. In the first inning he struck out Ken Griffey, Jr. – a great moment. In fact, Oliver pitched two shutout innings – which seems to be the norm for our starters the first three games of Spring training. Unfortunately, the next three pitchers didn’t fare as well – Zimmerman giving up 1 run (although in fairness to Zim it was a solo home run to Griffey), Cordero giving up one run, and Kolb giving up three. RA Dickey pitched the 8th, and had a shutout inning.
Zimmerman actually sounded good, and with the exception of the long ball to Junior, pitched two good innings. Francisco Cordero was wild, with three walks and a hit in there, but lucked out in only giving up one run during his one inning of work. Danny Kolb fared much worse, giving up three earned runs (even though there was a Scarborough Green error in there). What I took away from this game was that Oliver, Zimmerman, & Dickey pitched well, and Cordero did not (he was really wild), and Kolb was behind a lot of batters (as Cordero was), and wasn’t all that great, either. Cordero sounded like what his reputation was like. Insanely fast stuff, but has control problems. In fact, he lucked out leaving the bases loaded in the inning he pitched.
The first inning brought a hit by Chad Curtis right away, but that was it. In fact, that was the story of the first three innings – a single hit, but nothing more. We never really got anything going offensively all day – our hitters were swinging at first pitches a lot, and we only got the two runs we did because Lee Stevens & Tom Evans connected, and hit solo home runs. Our bats didn’t sound too hot over the radio today at all.
Some other highlights: In the fourth, Pudge had his somewhat disturbing problem of losing the bat out of his hands two straight pitches – the second one went into the stands. In the seventh, Scarborough Green got an infield bunt single – however, that memory was erased by a poor through he made while in the field for an error, allowing a run to score.
One thing that struck me as funny was the SHORTNESS of the game. When it was done, I walked into my kitchen, and saw the time was 2:20! It started at 12:05 – this was a very short game! Some other stuff to take out of this that I liked – For the third straight game, our starters pitched extremely well, and Tom Evans hit another jack – leading the Grapefruit league in these. If he keeps this up, he’ll have to be a serious contender for the club’s opening day roster.
Tomorrow, we play the Boston Red Sox, and Esteban Loaiza pitches for us, and Pedro Martinez for the Red Sox. Rusty Greer could return tomorrow from his right ankle inflammation.
Unfortunately, tomorrow begins the annoying habit of no radio games on during Spring. The next radio game is FRIDAY. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I found out why there aren’t as many games on the radio during Spring Training at the recent Rangers Winter Carnival. I asked Eric Nadel that question, and he rolled his eyes and said “Dr. Laura”. It seems that when Ranger games are on during the week, the KRLD switchboard lights up with complaints from Dr. Laura fans. What we need to do is call up and complain when she is on – there has GOT to be more baseball fans than Dr. Laura fans (ughhh) – I can’t imagine SHE ALONE is the reason we don’t get to hear more pre-season baseball. KRLD’s number is 817-543-5400 in case anyone’s interested. :)

Well, we’re now 0-2 after the first two games of the Grapefruit league. Today’s loss came in the form of an 8-1 lackluster effort against the Cincinnati Reds, our regular opponent, it seems. We tend to play the Reds a lot.
I was cleaning the spare bedroom closet today while the game was on, so I didn’t terribly pay attention to the game, but to be honest, from what I heard, it wasn’t worth paying attention to – it just seemed like a half effort from what I heard on the radio. Pitching was just “eh”, and we never got anything going offensive wise. Actually, Helling & Munoz gave up most of the runs, we had a few pitchers in the middle who went scoreless too, but it just “felt” like an “eh” pitching effort. We also seemed to have several defensive miscues in the 8th inning. The Reds had 16 hits – rather a lot, and we only had 8. The one run we did get came in on a double play ball hit by Raffy, I believe.
This seemed to be another game like yesterday, with a big shuffling of players, both off the bench, and in the field. The radio guys made a comment about Johnny Oates “clearing the bench” at one point, and then they seemed to move players around in the field in the later innings, too.
It’s hard to come up with a lot to write when you weren’t paying a lot of attention (I could tell you some of the cool junk I found in my closet, though), and when you turn in a big loss like this. I know, I know – it’s still very early, but it’s never nice to see a loss, no matter how early in March it is. Oh well, better luck tomorrow when we play the Reds again at their park. Should get to hear Junior then – was kind of hoping that’d happen today.

Well, the annual “best day of the Spring” happened today. The first baseball game of the season. Yeah, yeah, I know the Rangers played an intrasquad game yesterday, but that doesn’t really count, does it? It’s not a true “game” against another team. Today, we opened the season in the Twins camp, and lost to them 10-9, in a really thrilling game. Last year we opened with a loss too, and I didn’t care. I didn’t much care about this one, either. Even if we lost 35-1, I’d still be into it, because baseball is back on the air!

I also started the season with my own personal tradition – a baseball lunch brought to me at work by my wife Lynn. This year, it consisted of hot dogs with kraut and my favourite Jalapeno mustard, home made potato salad in a Rangers cap (the kind you get ice cream at when at the Ballpark), a Texas Rangers cup, and special ‘Texas Ranger cookies’ (which were chocolate chip cookies with Red & Blue M&M’s in them). There was also a real baseball thrown in – it was again a quite cool thing for her to do (there’s a picture of the lunch below).

The starting lineup was a bit different than usual, both with the influx of new players, plus two minor injuries to Rusty Greer & John Wetteland. The radio guys (Hi Vince & Eric!) both said it wasn’t anything major, though. The starting lineup was:

Clayton SS
Alicea 2B
Mateo CF
Palmeiro 1B
Kapler RF
Simms DH
Haselman C
Lamb 3B
McDonald LF
Rogers SP

Royce seemed eager to prove he belongs in the #1 hole by starting off with a single and stolen base, but we couldn’t do anything with it. Kenny Rogers seemed sharp, pitching two shutout innings, throwing 22 pitches. He was replaced by Ryan Glynn, who also pitched two shutout innings, including 2 of the first 3 batters being K’s. Unfortunately, that’s about the end of the great pitching for the Rangers today. As I write this, the wire stories aren’t in yet, so I’m not sure who all pitched, but Jonathan Johnson, Brian Sikorski, Chuck Smith, & Corey Lee pitched. Base running boo-boo by Jason McDonald, being picked off to end the third with Ruben Mateo on base.

Shortly after this, Johnny Oates started playing musical chairs – the only player from the starting lineup to finish the game was Mike Simms – everyone else was out after only a few innings – most of the names who played the game won’t be with the club in the spring, but some late inning power might change some opinions, if they hold it up over all of camp.

In the fourth, we had two leadoff singles, a walk, a double for Simms for 2 RBI’s – then Haselman was hit. We did score the two, but totally failed with the bases loaded to do anything more than that with 0, 1, & 2 outs. Not good. As the game progressed, it seemed like this was going to be the bane of the loss. You could say it was, but it didn’t feel like it to me.

The fifth inning I didn’t hear, because I was busy with some other stuff at work, which was good, because I came back, and it was 5-2 Minnesota – I missed all the junk with the Twins teeing off against Johnson. The Twins added a 6th run in the 6th off of Corey Lee with a solo home run.

We started to come back in the 7th with a two run home run off the bat of Tom Evans, making it 6-4, but those hopes were dashed when the Twins scored 3 runs in the bottom of the frame pulling back out to a 9-4 lead.

The 9th brought another HR for Texas, this time by Edwin Diaz to make it 9-6. Tom Evans hit his second of the day with a totally monster home run to make it 9-7 – Eric Nadel’s voice was insanely loud over his regular speaking voice on this one – must have been a real blast. Sheldon got a single – the fourth in a row with no one out, and was followed by a Kelly Dransfeldt home run (the third of the inning) to tie up the game STILL with no one out. I was sitting in my chair with my hands in the air for the Dransfelt home run – a cool feeling on a Friday afternoon. :)

Unfortunately, the Twins pulled it out in the bottom of the 9th with a 10-9 win with “Alphabet (Doug Mientkiewicz (sp!)” scoring from second on a 2 out single to left. While the game was a loss, it still felt like a good game, and the pitchers most likely to be with the club during the season (OK, Glynn is probably a long shot, but still) pitched well.

I’m glad to have Ranger baseball back – and it’s now only four weeks until the first game at the Ballpark when Mark McGwire & Fernando Tatis return with the Cardinals in an exhibition game. Can’t wait!