This game was a mess. A ton of stuff happened.
First off, Derek Holland started, and has been generally good this spring. He WAS NOT on Friday night. No command, was pretty hittable. I’m a bit surprised he stayed in the game as long as he did. To be honest, it was’t all his fault. While the official box score shows no errors by the Rangers – man, there were a ton of mental errors.
Borbon misplayed a ball in center. Josh Hamilton lost a ball in the lights in left (and then fell down trying to play it – was kind of funny), Elvis Andrus threw a ball away at first (kind of casually). Ian Kinsler tossed a ball almost into the stands. Very sloppy game back there.
Holland was out there for 4.1 innings, and gave up THIRTEEN hits. Added three walks. Wow. Gave up EIGHT EARNED RUNS. It was pretty awful. Some of it could have been avoided with the guys behind him, but still. That’s a lot. Actually, in the second and third innings, he looked pretty decent. Most of that mess came in the first and the fourth. He got into the fifth, but was pulled.

Let’s see, what else happened…
Julio Borbon was pulled from the game after I think the second inning, and was shown to be sitting by himself in the dugout with noone anywhere near him. He appeared to be in the doghouse. Tom Grieve on TV speculated that the ball he misplayed (later referred to as a “teachable moment“) wasn’t completely Julio’s fault. Wouldn’t know it by the doghouse look he had. It’s starting to see more and more like he will lose the center field job. I’d be happy with Hamilton in Center, Murphy in left. We’ll see.
Also later on, Arthur Rhodes came in, and had to come out of the game with an injury. It was later referred to as tendinitis. He received a cortisone shot on Friday night, and it was said this wouldn’t affect his opening day roster spot. Still, he’s not 22, so I wonder how he’ll bounce back from that.
I watched most of this game – I stopped late. I also scored it for awhile, but once the Rockies made like six substitutions at once, including more than one that changed roster spots (man I hate NL spring training games), I gave up.
Rangers never got much together. Combined, they had just seven hits – six singles and a double (Cruz). The Rockies on the other hand had twenty hits. You’re not winning a game with those kinds of numbers. Not usually, anyway.
This was not a usual game.

I watched this game, and scored it for awhile, until I realized I was going to be too tired to finish. If you were following me on twitter, that’s why the game “ended” with a 2-2 score. :) I started watching very late, around 11PM, and even attempted to score. Should have known better.
Anyway, the game started off with another back and forth affair. In the first three innings, both teams scored each frame. Rangers added one in the bottom of the fourth. The scoring stopped there for awhile. At that point it was tied 4-4. Stayed that way until the 9th. More on that later.
The Rangers took on one of their old farmhands, Aaron Harang. Harang was traded with Ryan Cullen to the Oakland A’s on Nov 17, 2000 for Randy Velarde. Velarde didn’t last the year with the Rangers, then being traded on to the Yankees in August. If you remember, 2001 was our attempt to win with a bunch of older guys. Randy Velarde, Ken Caminiti, Andres Galarraga – all to go with Alex Rodriguez. :) Anyway, I get sidetracked. Harang has bounced around for awhile, but spent a decent amount of time with the Reds. He’s now in camp with San Diego, and pitched “eh” against the Rangers. 5 innings, 6 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB. Eh. In fact, all the Rangers runs came against him. The five Padres relievers all shut us down.
Our offense was spead out. Only seven hits in all, and just one guy (Chad Tracy) who had more than one. Michael Young, Doug Deeds, & Chad Tracy all had doubles. In fact, Tracy had two of them. Josh Hamilton added a solo home run as well. So, five of our seven hits were extra bases. Problem was that was it. Couldn’t put together more than four runs.
The outing here by Brett Tomko looked good, and could have helped him towards the fifth starter spot. It was cemented earlier in the day, then Hunter got hurt. It would not surprise me if we see Brett Tomko in there in that slot. It scares me given the way Tomko has performed at times in his past, but he’s done OK this spring. It could work.
Pedro Strop also looked good. Hopefully he gets a proper look this year, as opposed to the rubber banding he was doing last year between the big club and AAA.
We’ll see about the starter. Ugh.

This was the first of two games played on Thursday. Was a split squad deal with one game being during the day, and the other during the night.
This was another of those no pitching games. I talk about that lot. This would be a story where you wouldn’t write about the pitching at all, since there was virtually none of it good. Today’s no exception, and there was one extra lovely piece of news coming out of this game which I’ll get to later.
The game was one of these kind. Rangers up 2-0, tied 2-2, Rangers up 6-2, tied 6-6, Rangers down 8-6, Rangers up 10-8, tied 10-10, Rangers down 12-10, Rangers up 15-10, final score 15-13. Of the 18 half innings, nine of them had scoring going on, including three innings where there were more than 2 scored (fortunately, all three of those were by the Rangers – 4 in 3rd, 4 in 6th, 5 in 8th).
The box score also looked weird, as this was one of those games in an NL park, and the Rangers got permission to use the DH. So other than pitchers, we had just two subs – the other seven starts played out the game. Not on the Reds side. Everyone was subbed out, and the ninth slot had 7 names in it alone. That’s why I don’t like scoring spring training games.
The Rangers had 17 hits in all, and there was a good percentage of power. Moreland, German, Cruz, & Borbon all doubled. Chris Davis & Nelson Cruz also had home runs – but Cruz was the story.
He finally woke up, and was EASILY the leader in offense this game. 3-4 with SIX RBI’s and two runs scored. 4 of the 6 RBI’s came from a grand slam in the third inning.
The hits were pretty sorted out. The only started who took an ofer was Matt Treanor. Everyone else was hitting. In fact, most guys had more than one. Only Blanco & Chris Davis had single hits.
Pitching? Bah – it stunk. BUT the worst part was Tommy Hunter came out of the game with an injury that is expected to keep him out six weeks. That’s three springs in a row that he’s had an end of camp injury. He’ll start later, and it makes for an interesting discussion on Starter #5, but man. Dude can’t catch a break. Feel bad for him.

When I watched a game earlier in the spring training season, there was a TV interview with Matt Harrison, talking about how he’s changed his approach, how he approaches things much differently now. It seems to have come out well, as Matt had another good outing.
Six innings, six hits, three walks, and three earned runs. Not dominant, but _technically_ a quality start. 86 pitches. Well, OK – we’re not winning Cy Young here with that performance, but it’s better than what he’s been in the past, and you just have that “gut feeling” that he’ll do OK this season. Or at least I do.
However, Arthur Rhodes was this game’s winner of the “big pile of stink” award. One inning, two hots, one walk, yet FOUR earned runs. Bah.
Darren Oliver was the only guy who didn’t give up any runs.
Alexi Ogando, who had gotten brief talk as replacing Feliz as closer gave up a run.
Five doubles and Nine singles. That was our offense.
Julio Borbon didn’t have any errors, but then he didn’t play, either. Michael Young made an error at first.
Not exactly tearing it up as we head into the last week of spring training here, guys.

The game won’t be made up, either. Will be a big break as Tuesday was a scheduled day off.
We’re now ten days away from the home opener. No major cuts have been made yet – just guys you’d expect to be sent down. Should be getting some big moves shortly, I would think.

I got to watch all this game. Scored it, too. I also used my spring training cheat by ignoring the substitutions that the Royals made (except for the pitchers). The Rangers subs I kept up with, but I’ll be glad when the starting nine is the ending nine. Makes scoring a whole lot easier.
Derek Holland put an end to the week of bad pitching. He went out there and dominated, except for one or two blips. Five innings, gave up five hits, and no earned runs (one unearned). Struck out three, and his command looked pretty good. Not as totally dominating as Cliff Lee’s kind of stuff can be, but man, he looked good. If he does this for the rest of the spring (what, two more starts), he’ll probably be a lock to start in the rotation.
The only other pitcher Texas ran out was Brett Tomko, who got a four inning save. He gave up just one run on four hits and a couple of walks in that time. I was surprised he kept coming out – especially the last inning. I thought they’d give one of the possible closer guys a shot at one.
The first runs of the game came in the fourth by an opposite field two run home run by Mitch Moreland, who will probably be the regular first baseman.
Suddenly the poster boy for dropped balls (Julio Borbon) had the most hits of anyone – three. All singles. Mitch Moreland had a single to go with his home run for his two. Everyone else had just one.
Overall, it was a fairly well pitched game. Not dominant overall, but the numbers aren’t ugly. I was just glad I got to watch the whole game. I’ve missed a ton of games this spring, which is unusual.
Got our first look at one of the “regular” lineups we might be seeing out there. Didn’t look too bad.

I didn’t get to see or hear any of this game, as I was busy doing some family stuff. Probably a good thing I didn’t, as I would have gotten mad at it. I’ve written many times about how I don’t like ten inning games, we usually lose them. More than 10? I’m all for it, but games that last exactly ten we seem to lose all the time.
The Rangers were up 6-2 going into the eighth. The M’s tied it, 6-6. We went up 8-6, then they tied it again to send it to 10. Scored one in the 10th? Of course, game over.
Bah.
Feliz started the game, went five. Wasn’t too bad – four hits, two hits and two earned runs.
Darren O’Day was pretty awful – four hits, four earned runs in one inning.
Pedro Strop gave up a couple, as did one by Miller, but they’re not making the roster, so that doesn’t so much matter to me.
Couple of home runs for the Rangers by guys who also aren’t making the 25 man roster. Those being Kevin Cash & Omar Quintanilla.
Bah.
Sigh.
Any number of those words you want to sub in there (for words that look like @$%)@$^) usually) are fine here.

This has been a BAD week for pitching. The numbers combined were so awful, it makes me feel completely bad about the entire bullpen. I’m sure a lot of it is just spring training stuff, but you always want your guys to be better than worse in spring.
Matt Harrison got bombed (well, not super bombed, but enough), and so did Cody Eppley. Eppley’s since been sent down (I’m writing this 4 days after the game happened). Mark Lowe also got bombed. Darren Oliver & Zack Jackson didn’t give up any (earned) runs, and Jackson’s been sent down as well.
Harrison gave up four hits and four walks for four earned runs in four innings. His strikeouts and home runs allowed totaled four as well. Not that it’s a relevant stat (or a real one) at all, but I ran out of fours to use for him. Oh, the icing is he had two wild pitches, too. Bad outing.
Cody Eppley gave up two hits and two walks for three earned runs in his ONE inning.
Mark Lowe gave up three hits and two walks for four earned runs in his ONE inning.
Mr Yuck, indeed.
We were actually in the lead after three innings (4-3), but that didn’t last. Our offense was fairly scattered. Two guys (Murphy, Tracy) had two hits, everyone else had one. However, Elvis Andrus’ one was a good one – a home run. Something he hasn’t done in bloody ages. David Murphy also had a double.
Six runs isn’t anything to sneeze at, but when the pitching coughs up that many, you just want to hang your head and scream “Put in the Horse!”