Well, it’s two nights in a row we lost at the end of the game, although it’s not as annoying as the Yankee loss; but then again what’s as annoying as losing to the Yankees? :)
This game was looking good, being up 3-1 into the 8th inning. We were up on two home runs – one by ARod, and the other by the pleasant spring surprise, Bo Porter. I’m hoping we can move someone (Curtis, or Ledee) so we can add Porter as the 5th outfielder. That speed is something we just don’t have otherwise.
Our pitching was pretty good for the most part. Darren Oliver continues his good spring giving up just one run on four innings. Mark Petkovsek went 3 innings giving up nothing. Danny Kolb (who looks like he’ll start the season on the DL) had a bad outing giving up 3 earned runs in less than an inning – Tim Crabtree came in and stopped that, pitching 1 1/3 giving up nothing. Overall, some great pitching, except for Kolb.
Even though it’s a loss, the team’s lookin’ good!

The Yankee curse continues, damnit! We were down to the last strike in closing the game out in the bottom of the 9th, and then they come back. Crap – crap – crap! It’s too bad, as I thought Kenny Rogers pitched good at the start, as did everyone who followed him – except Pete Munro.
You know, in the couple of years I’ve been doing this site, I’m tired of writing about the Yankees beating us, so I’m not going to do it now, either.

The spring fun continues. Heard something at the start of the broadcast where we have the #1 pitching staff in baseball to this point, and the #1 defense in the AL. Quite impressive. I realize we’re less than a dozen games into spring training, but I’ll take that now, it’s always nice to hear.
Our offense got off to a steady start – with 1 run in each of the first three innings. First was a home run by Chad Curtis to lead off the game. Andres Galarraga came through with another solo home run in the next inning, and Doug Davis looked great. While his line showed that he gave up two runs, they didn’t really belong to him – it was one of those fielding gaffes that wasn’t technically an error; the most annoying kind to a pitcher, I’m sure.
After the fifth inning, I had to stop listening to the game, as my wife and I had a few things we needed to take care of, but by this time, we were already up 4 to 2. We’ve now won 4 in a row, and the test comes tomorrow night against the Yankees.

Not available – too busy with work today.

Still no “Arod vs. Ken Griffey Jr” – as we didn’t bring Arod to the Reds park.
Well, today’s game falls into the “great game, not a lot to talk about” department – at least for me. Games like this are great to watch (and not too bad to listen to), but there isn’t a whole lot to report about when it comes time to talk baout the game.
The pitching on both sides was great – we only had two runs, and they had one. Ryan Glynn went three innings, with 3 strikeouts, and more importantly, no walks. Mark Petkovsek went two, giving up nothing, Mike Venafro pitched two scoreless as well. Jeff Brantley gave up our only run (quite frankly, I don’t expect him to make the club, so I don’t care). Aaron Meyette got the save in the ninth, I guess Tim Crabtree didn’t make the trip – I would imagine he would be tested in a true save situation would he have been here.
On the offensive side, the only thing we had going was a big two run home run by Pudge, but it turned out that’s all we needed.
The only other news is bad – being from the injury front. Ricky Ledee who got hurt yesterday has a torn hamstring tendon in his left leg. He’ll be out a minimum of two weeks, and may need surgery. He’s unlikely for opening day; longer if surgery is needed.
Gabe Kapler was hit in the hand with a pitched ball – was sent back to Port Charlotte immediately, more will be known later.
Chad Curtis, from a purely selfish standpoint, must like this, it increases his chances for playing time.

I didn’t get to hear all of this game, I was out doing some furniture shopping today. I got to hear the first three innings. When I left the house, we were winning 4-1, but we should have been leading by more – we left the bases loaded at least once that I can remember. We scored 10 runs, all by different players. We had 14 hits, by 11 players – pretty balanced attack. In the second inning, Galarraga hit a home run that sounded great on the radio (almost hit the ospry nest), and looked pretty impressive on the Fox 4 TV replay I saw later in the evening. Arod came into this game batting .571, and Frank Catalanotto also has a batting average above .600 I believe. Both did nothing to sour that today – Arod going 1 for 2, and Catalanotto going 2 for 3. Speaking of hitting, in the 5 run 6th, we had consecutive hits by 6 or 7 (I don’t remember, I was driving at the time) straight batters!
Darren Oliver already has more wins this spring training than he had all of last season, which is pretty sad. Still, I’m hoping he can pull it together this year – he looks good so far, but then again Eric Nadel pointed out today that he had a good spring last year, too. We also had some good defense saving Oliver, as the Orioles had singles in the first 4 out of 7 batters (3 were bloops). We did have double plays in both the first and second. This kind of saving didn’t happen a lot last year. Hope it’s a good sign for this year.
In other notes, Ricky Ledee sounded like he pulled his hamstring – he’s getting an MRI on Sunday, and a prognosis will be made then as to what might be wrong with him. Also, several kids fell 3 feet when a railing in the stands collapsed before the game started – no one was seriously hurt, though. And, we moved 6 players off the spring training roster, all pitchers not expected to make the club anyway.
Where was all this offense yesterday? :)

Don’t have time to write about this – I’m extremely busy at work today. However, there isn’t much to say. First bad game of the Spring. Only thing worth writing about is ARod, who was 2 for 3 with a solo home run.
Kenny Rogers went three innings, and gave up 3 runs, but NONE of them were earned. That’s not promising. Chris Haney didn’t give up anything, and Mike Munoz pitched another scoreless frame.
However, that’s about the gist of it. :)

When I saw the line score start up for this game, I had forgotten we were hitting against Esteban Loaiza. He didn’t do all that bad, giving up just two hits and one run in two innings. For some reason, I just felt that we’d tee off against him, I guess not. Then I saw the game going back and forth on the scoreboard, and figured we’d end up losing. Had to go back to work and couldn’t watch that, so I was surprised when I saw the final score in our favor. Don’t know why, but it always seems when we play against a former Ranger, we never do good.
Pudge looked good, he had two RBI’s (one off Loaiza, one off Pedro Borbon). Pudge was the standout offensive player of the day. No other Ranger had two hits, and no one had two RBI’s. The rest of the hits and RBI’s were scattered all over the box score.
Doug Davis pitched three innings, allowing one run on four hits. Unfortunately, we gave up three home runs – one each off of Doug Davis, Pat Mahomes, & Mike Venafro (who got a save). Fortunately, they were all solo home runs. Pat Mahomes didn’t fare too well today, giving up 3 hits & 3 runs in his three innings of work. Petkovsek was perfect in his two innings.
Overall, not a bad game, but not a great one. Nice to see a comeback win, though.

A great pitcher’s duel, but we ended up on the wrong side of the stick.
I listened over the Internet with the MLB Radio coverage – and I have to say. I miss Eric Nadel. Listening to someone else call a Rangers game is just wrong. These guys obviously don’t have a lot of experience (the MLB guys) calling a game, and it showed. While they were enthusiastic, and fairly knowledgeable (I thought) – something wasn’t right. There’s only one other game with these guys for the Rangers this spring training, but I have to say, I want Nadel.
Anyway, not much happened during the game, it was a good pitcher’s duel. At the time I’m writing this, the box score isn’t available, so I can’t give a lot of detail (as I was working while listening, and couldn’t take notes). However, Rick Helling only allowed one hit over his three innings of work, and as I recall, the one run we gave up in the fifth was due to a fielding issue.
We had a great comeback in the ninth with an RBI single by Bo Porter, after we were down to our last out. A passed ball helped, and Porter’s single tied it in the ninth. Not much else until the bottom of the 11th when Spike Lundberg gave up the winning hit to the Rays.
Nice to hear the game, not great to lose, but sounded like some great pitching again on both sides!

Our hope of an undefeated Spring Training comes to an end today with an 8-5 loss to the Twins. :)
Once again, we got pretty good pitching, with one exception. Brian Sikorski had a major meltdown, giving up 6 earned runs on seven hits in two innings. Other than Sikorski, our pitching was great, giving up 6 hits over 8 innings, and 2 earned runs. The two earned runs were by Glynn & Benoit. Jeff Zimmerman struck out the side the one inning he pitched, and Mike Munoz had two strikeouts the one inning he pitched. Again, some great pitching to start the spring.
On the other side of the coin, we had two guys go 2 for 2 (Dransfeldt, Sheldon, with Sheldon getting a dinger). Sheldon also had a couple of RBI’s, and probably does himself good this spring. The remaining hits were scattered through the lineup with everyone else getting just one. Seemed like a pretty balanced offensive attack.
Losses are never nice, but hey, overall we got some mostly decent pitching here.