Not much to say. Couldn’t play Friday night. But several reports came out of the Rangers sliding on the tarp. That’s always amusing to see. :)

I have to say, this was the game I figured we’d have the hardest time with. Felix Hernandez, the Cy Young winner last year is not a guy you “just beat”, no matter how bad the Mariners are. To be honest, he was quite good. We scored four runs off of him in all. Three of them we really should not have. The three spot in the second was helped by some really shoddy defense by Seattle. Led to the runs. The one we scored in the seventh off of him we did get, I think. But it should have been just the one against Felix, in which case, we might not have won, so thanks Jack Wilson.
CJ ended up matching Hernandez quite well overall. Check out the compared lines:
Hernandez: 7IP, 6H 4R, 2ER, 3BB, 6K, 107P
Wilson: 7IP, 6H, 3R, 2ER, 2BB, 2K, 108P
Pretty similar lines there. Hernandez was dancing, though. He was more dominant than his line led on. We just managed to get it together just enough to beat him. Which is always good.
Kinsler & Andrus took an ofer, but everyone else had at least one hit. Almost all were singles. Seven singles, two doubles. That was it. But bunched together well enough to get two three run innings in the game.
I’m writing light about this one, but I have to say, it was quite shocking that we got out of the gate 6-0. I’m quite pleased, mind you, but QUITE surprised. Next up is Baltimore. Let’s see how we do against a much improved Orioles team from last year.

Well, the final piece to the 2011 starting rotation hit the mound. That being Alexi Ogando.
While Ogando has been in the majors before, this was his first ever start up here. He’s had mixed success in the past, having spent a lot of time doing the AAA roster roller coaster ride more. He’s looked fairly decent in spring, but it’s never the same as a real mound, with real players, and real stats. You always wonder what a first timer will do with that.
He does quite well, actually. Six innings pitched. Just two hits and two walks for zero earned runs. That was it, man! His ball had lots of movement, and he looked pretty darned awesome. Man, if he can hold this together, it might be hard removing him from the rotation when Tommy Hunter is healthy again. Also, as I was writing this on Wednesday morning, a tweet came over about Ogando from Buster Olney of ESPN. Cool quote:

Alexi Ogando was impressive — and it should be known they got him in Rule 5 draft as OFer for $12 K, based on rec. of scout A.J. Preller.

Hell of a bargain, eh? That kind of performance would have been great too, even if we hadn’t gotten Ogando that way. After the first run through, I have to say I’m looking forward to the next pitching performances of Harrison, Holland, & Ognado more than I am than Wilson & Lewis. Surprised at that reaction, actually. But quite QUITE pleased.
Offensively, there were no more home runs from the new 27 Yankees foundation of Ian Kinsler / Nelson Cruz. So all of those historic streaks stopped. Still, nice NICE early run of power from them.
This game, our offense was even MORE efficient than it was the last game. This game we had just five hits and one walk. Total offense list:

• Single by Kinsler
• Triple by Moreland
• Doubles by Moreland, Hamilton, & Young
• Walk by Cruz

That’s it. The first run scored on a triple by Moreland to left center, which was misplayed by Seattle’s centerfielder Michael Saunders. He jumped for a ball, he realy didn’t have to. Probably could have caught it for an out if he didn’t do that. Hit off the wall, and he never actually touched it, so triple (mental error, though).
This was all because Seattle sent out one of their own kids making his major league debut. That’s Michael Pineda. He looked quite good. We always seem to not do good against guys like that. If he can hold it together, and adjusts and all that, he should be a good pitcher for Seattle.
But we kept it together enough (despite Mark Lowe’s ineffectiveness) to get the win, and push our record to 5-0. This is not exactly a shock, but I’d say somewhere between surprised and quite pleased. :) What IS shocking is that Boston is 0-4 now. :)

Derek Holland’s line will show he had a quality start. Six innings, three earned runs. His outing wasn’t like Matt Harrison’s the other night, but he was still decent enough. The first three innings Holland was out there, I thought he was going to have the same kind of performance that Matt did. Then for the innings after that, he was more pedestrian. Few too many pitches (105 over 7, not too outrageous) in places. He battled, and did pretty good. Not Cliff Lee like, but still, a great start to the season for him. Hopefully he can build from that.
Darren O’Day pitched, and was like the real O’Day. Not that guy who was in spring training. Given how awful he was in the spring, we’ll need quite a few more performances like this one before I ignore what happened in Arizona this year.
Arthur Rhodes gave up a run, but was OK. Nothing spectacular, though.
Neftali Feliz pitched again, only this time with his first save opportunity. Converted itw with a perfect inning. Gotta love that. As much as I love scoring a ton of runs, I also want him to get some save opportunities!
Offensively, we were quite efficient with our hits, as we didn’t have a ton of them. Total of seven hits and four walks. Of the hits, we had two doubles (Hamilton, Young), a triple (Borbon), and two home runs (Andrus, Cruz). Both home runs were notable for different reasons. Elvis’ was the first regular season home run since the 2009 season, spanning something like 700+ at bats or so. Cruz’s tied a record that only two other players have done. The other two players were Mark McGwire and Willie Mays. Cruz is the first player ever to do it in the AL. “That” is the fact that he’s had a home run in each of the team’s first four games of the season. What’s amusing is the times of the other guys. Saw on TV where the year that McGwire did it, he ended up with 70 home runs that year. The year that Mays did it, he ended up with just 16. :)
Anyway, we’re 4-0 to start the season, our best start since 1996. Feels good. I wonder how long it will last. Hopefully quite awhile.

Now go ahead and tell me. Which of you Rangers fans thought we were going to sweep the Red Sox – BEFORE any of the series was played? I’d say you were probably lying if that was the case. I admit now that before the first game was played, I thought we were going to go either 1-2 in this series, or 0-3. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the first three against Boston.
Boy was I wrong!
The Rangers just annihilated Boston’s pitching this whole series, and while five runs isn’t an “annihilation” as such, you felt once this game got started that we had a good vibe going, and five was going to be plenty. Turned out that was definitely the case. The Rangers were apparently running the 1927 Yankees out there against the Red Sox (so says Peter King), and man, did it feel good.
But before I talk about the offense any more, I have to talk about Matt Harrison. When we got him originally from the Braves in the Teixeira trade, I think most fans thought he might be a servicable piece. An “OK” guy, but not the #1 starter type. While I’m not convinced he’s the #1 starter type, I have to say he wowed me on Sunday. A lot was made about Harrison being left off the post season rosters getting on his nerves, and he seems to have fought back. He had a great spring, and much was made about how his attitude is totally different, he’s a completely different guy. Man, did he show all that on Sunday. Just to start with, his line.. 7 innings pitched, a total of 108 pitches. Five hits, one earned run, and two walks, but EIGHT punchouts. His command was great, he was making guys look silly, and he pitched with a determination and desire which definitely shows off the “new attitude” he’s talked about with so much recently. He was running out of gas a bit towards the end of the 7th, and he was left out there. Tom Grieve said on TV that the old Harrison would have been pulled ages ago, but the new incarnation was left out there to finish the job. He got the job done, striking out the final batter he faced (Jacoby Ellsbury). At the moment he did that, there was a great camera shot of Washington in the dugout with Mike Maddux fist pumping and getting excited. I felt the same way. That performance was something to be excited about, and if is any indicator of how Matt will do this series, well, it will go a long way to where we want to be this year. Looking forward to his next start with far more eagerness than I can say I’ve ever looked forward to one of Matt’s starts.
Offensively, Ian Kinsler didn’t break his own record with a third straight game with a leadoff walk (in the first three). But he did get a home run later on, which was half of a record. Why half? Well, it depended on Nelson Cruz. You see, Cruz also had a home run in each of games 1, 2, & 3. That makes the two of them the first ever teammates to lead off the first three games of a season with a home run in all of the games. Three days into the season, and Ian Kinsler has set two records in MLB that had never been done before. Quite impressive. Just hope he doesn’t become homer happy again. Those weren’t the only home runs. David Murphy also got one, which off the bat didn’t look like one. But you know. Jetstream. Mike Napoli also had a home run, his second of the young season. Andres Blanco & Michael Young also had doubles in this game. Lots of extra base power.
The Rangers are just destroying the Red Sox on home runs. In the first three games, the Rangers have hit a total of 11 home runs. {Darth Vader}That’s impressive. Most impressive.{/Darth Vader}
Both Neftali Feliz & Jonathan Papelbon got an inning in at the end of the game. Neither was a save situation, but then again, no team has been in the position to get a save the way these games have gone. :)
I’ve never been this excited about seeing Matt Harrison pitch again than I was after Sunday.
A sweep. I wonder how homer happy we’ll be against Seattle, who comes in here Monday night? We’re likely to get shut down by Felix Hernandez, but then again, I thought Boston was going to shut us down, too. We’ll see. :)

I went to my first game of the year, and boy did I pick a good time to go. I briefly stopped by a tailgate in Lot B, but wanted to see the new scoreboard stuff. Got a friend of mine from the tailgate to get me in early before everyone else did, got in through the Season Ticket Holder entrance. That was nice, as the place was pretty empty for about 20 minutes before the seething hoards came in.

I walked out through a walkway in Section 18, and I have to say.. You know those stories you always hear about you never forget the first time you walked into a park and you “see the green field”? Well, I had that same kind of feeling when I saw the new scoreboard. I picked the perfect area to enter into the ballpark. The new video board in right was framed PERFECTLY by the walking up, so I saw the board first, then the rest of the field kind of “opened up” around me. It was a seriously nice view. Yes, the thing is huge. There were times when 100% of the board was showing video, and man, that looks great (especially when the footage is HD). Even when it was framed by lineups on either side, it was still seriously larger than what we had for the last 17 seasons in this park previous to this one. The Tigers/Yankees game was on the screen during batting practice, and man, you could watch the games now. On the old postage stamp video board, it was so small, you might as well not have bothered.
When the new video board had 100% video, it tended to dominate the view up there. Look at this shot of the Rangers taking the field. What’s on the screen was the shot of Feliz striking out Arod to get to the World Series (that clip never gets old). You can see what I’m talking about even in the reduced size picture here.

You need to see this new guy to experience it properly. The video board in center has been upgraded, and it’s the same exact size as the old one, but now it’s color and HD and all that happy stuff. Things look nice out there, but the fonts chosen for some of the in game text updates is a bit hard to read. Looks like something that a small font change can address. Hopefully it is.

The ringed video boards appear to be the same, and the video board above Sections 3-7 has been updated – I think. It could just be a change in presentation on the same exact video board. Right now at almost 2AM, I’m unclear on whether that board is truly new or not. There’s a lot to like about the new board presentation. The most obvious being the board above home run porch. But that’s not the only thing. You need to come and check it out. Definitely makes things feel a little different, and I also got that “first time” feeling again when I FIRST saw the board (mentioned that above), so it was cool to get that kind of feeling in a park that I’ve seen hundreds of games over the better part of two decades in.

I’ve always liked scoreboards in parks, so this is a big deal to me. Chuck Morgan knows I was whining for years about new scoreboards, so I’m glad to see this FINALLY happen. Lord knows it wouldn’t have happened if Hicks was still running the show, so good on that!

Enough scoreboard stuff. :)

The players got their ALCS rings tonight. They looked quite nice. Every Ranger player who is still on the team got theirs tonight. During the game, I saw tweets saying that Jarrod Saltamacchia will also get one (tomorrow). And all the players that are in the minors are going to get theirs shortly. I have to assume guys on other teams will be the same.

OK, the game..

Started off well. Ian Kinsler set an all time major league record – he did something no other player has ever done. Homer to lead off a game for the first two games of the season. Nobody has ever done that. Ever. Most impressive. I just hope he doesn’t fall in love with the home run stroke again. We know what that did to him in 2009. If it keeps coming fine – but he fell in love with that, and couldn’t do anything but jack balls up in the air. Hence my calling him “Capt. Uppercut”.

David Ortiz took the lead back in the top of the second with a two run home run, which felt deflating. Turns out it realy wasn’t, but that the time, I rolled my eyes at that home run.

That feeling didn’t last too long, as Ian Kinsler doubled in the bottom of the third, and was driven home by the next batter, Elvis Andrus, who tripled to the right center field wall. He too was brought home by Josh Hamilton, who singled up the middle. So it felt good to take the run back. :)

The fourth was a biggie, and pretty much the point where you felt the Red Sox were put away for good. It actually started off with a couple of quick outs. Cruz lined out to Adrian Gonzalez, and Mitch Moreland flew out to Jacoby Ellsbury. But that was the end of the easy road for the Sox. Torrealba hit a double to right center, which Ellsbury almost caught. Had he cought it, things would have been a lot different. Because after that, the floodgates opened. Julio Borbon tripled to almost the same spot. Kinsler walked. Elvis Andrus doubled, scoring Borbon. Lackey then intentionally walked Josh Hamilton. I thought at the time it probably was’t a great idea, due to Beltre’s power. It turned out to be the right idea, as Beltre got his first four RBI’s as a Ranger, all at the same time. Grand slam to left, and it pretty much was the end of the night. Lackey was chased, and he left with an ERA of 22.09. Gotta love that. Michael Young also singled after this point, but nothing happened with that, as Cruz grounded out.

Lackey left with 3.2 innings pitched, 10 hits, two walks, and NINE earned runs. He always seems to not do as good here in Arlington, but not nearly THAT bad!

No, that’s not Beltre’s Grand Slam swing, but I can pretend it is! :)

After the big six spot in the bottom of the fourth, we added on three more runs. Two of them on a home run by Torrealba, and the last one a home run by Nelson Cruz into the camera well in the lower left hand corner of Greene’s Hill. Which at the time was huge, as Nelson was the only Ranger left without at least one hit. If you’re gonna get ONE, that’s a good way to do it.

So all told, the Rangers had three doubles (Kinsler, Torrealba, & Andrus), two triples (Andrus & Borbon), and four home runs (Kinsler, Beltre, Torrealba, Cruz), one of which was a grand slam. Six singles, too. A lot of the hits were early in the count too. We were fairly aggressive at the plate this night.

Pitching wise, Colby Lewis technically had a quality start, but it didn’t feel like it live. He wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t pinpoint precise like he was late in last season. Still, he got a win, and that’s the bottom line.

Mason Tobin made his major league debut, and he was obviously well aware of that. He was all over the place. Felt bad for the kid, you always want to see them do good, but sometimes they get pounded. He wasn’t quite that bad, but he was really wild. He started off by hitting Saltamacchia, then got an out on a really nice play by Nelson Cruz in the right field foul area against the large wall. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a two run home run over the Rangers bullpen. Tobin then walked the next two batters (Lowrie, Crawford), and was looking pretty bad when he got Adrian Gonzalez to ground into a really nice looking double play to end the inning. It’s also if I’m not mistaken the only out Gonzalez made the whole game at that point.

Pedro Strop & Darren O’Day both threw a scoreless frame. It’s a way better thing to see from O’Day who looked horrible this spring. When I saw him in Round Rock, he was still pretty dreadful. This was not the same pitching I saw in his final spring appearance last Wed night. Hopefully THIS is the O’Day we get. Not that bad spring training version.

Was a great game, but the ride home was horrendous. I left the park about 10:30. I didn’t get home until about 12:15 back in Garland. That was just stupid. Speaking of stupid, WHY WHY WHY did the police take away the left hand turn onto Division from Stadium drive? What was the point in that?