The Rangers lost totally to the Angels on Tuesday after a day off. The less said about this one, the better.
ST17: Rangers shut out Cubs, 2-0 on Sunday
These are the kind of games that are easy to write for. First off, your team does really well. That makes it a lot easier to write about the team. Second, low scoring shutouts also mean there’s less to write about, as not as many things happened. :)
This game started off with Adam Eaton pitching for Texas. He unfortunately came out of the game in the second, as he was hit by a batted ball. Apparently, he’s OK, but it’s never good to see one of your starters (and the projected #2) come out of a spring training game being hit by a ball. From what I’ve read since, we’re fortunate it wasn’t a serious injury. However, his removal from the game didn’t stop our pitching. Fabio Castro came in and went 3 innings, giving up just two hits. What’s amazing to me about this game wasn’t so much the shutout, but the fact that we didn’t walk anyone. Texas sent out seven pitchers in all, and they all combined for a 6 hit shutout of the Cubs, walking none and striking out 9. A really nice looking game in the box scores. A lot of zeroes. :)
Offensively, we couldn’t get much going against the Cubs, either. Texas only had 6 hits overall (2 by Dellucci). In fact, it was Dellucci who gave us all we needed, going 2 for 2 with an RBI triple. Kevin Mench had the other RBI. In all, we had 6 hits, Chicago had 5. Not a lot of offense, but we had enough, because our pitching carried us on Sunday.
ST16: Rangers lose to DBacks 6-5 on Saturday
The Rangers had their usual power display today. They had three home runs, one each from David Dellucci, Brad Wilkerson, & Adam Hydzu. But it wasn’t enough. We lost to the Diamondbacks, 6-5. Dellucci had two RBI’s in the game, but the other 3 were by others – two were home runs, and the other was Rod Barajas.
Kevin Milwood started his first A-game spring training contest for the Rangers, and early on, looked fine. Eric & Vic seemed to be telling the story that he was looking good this day. He appeared to run out of gas in the fifth, as he gave up three runs there, for a total of 4ER over his 4.2IP. Not a great line at all, but one gets the feeling that it’s nothing to worry about. The remainder of our pitchers went 4.1IP, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits with 5K & 3BB.
Of course, the big news for the day for me was TO being a Cowboy. Hahahahahaha! Can’t wait for the trip to Philly. :D
ST15: Back to .500 with 10-9 slugfest win on Friday
The project continues. This was on TV, actually, I picked it up off of the Chicago channel, but I had seen the score before I came home, so there’s almost no point when I know the score.
The short notes version:
Back to .500.
Blalock, Nix, Laird all had home runs
All four Ranger pitchers gave up at least two runs
Mark Buehrle got bombed.
Nix & Laird had 3 RBI each
Hopefully I’ll get to listen to Saturday’s game on the radio. :)
ST14: Rangers win on Thursday, 4-3 over Giants
This was another game that I didn’t get to pay attention to due to my big project at work this week. This will probably extend into next week, too. However, a quick glance at the box score shows a few highlights:
Kevin Mench had a home run.
Our pitching was fairly decent – 9IP, 3ER, 7H, 7K, 5BB (too many walks)
None of our batters had more than one hit total.
Nice to stop the losing streak.
ST13: Rangers drop fourth in a row, 8-5 to Angels
Mench picked off in the first
Ian Kinsler caught stealing in the second
D’Angelo Jimenez mental error on the bases doubled off.
Runner thrown out at home
Those were my only notes I took during yesterday’s game, as I’ve been horribly busy with a big project at work. Was nice to see Kinsler get a home run, too. That’s about all I have time for today. :)
ST12: Rangers drop under 500 after losing to Giants 3-2
This game was available on MLB’s Gameday audio with the Giants feed. They were nowhere near as bad as the Royals announcers have been – in fact one day when the Royals guys were available, I didn’t even listen – UGH! Anyway, I didn’t get to hear much of the game, but what I did hear was entertaining. Mostly because I enjoyed the guy the Giants had on who normally did Spanish broadcasts, and the English guys kept asking him what this was or what that was in Spanish. I liked that. However, if you listened to the game, you’ll recognize this.. “Hello Chicago! – I’ve got $100 to give away”, or “Here we go Giants, Here we go!”.. Does the Giants radio coverage have any other commercials? It seems that’s all they played was these two!
I did get to hear Bonds’ sacrifice bunt – the Giants announcers really seemed surpirsed by that. In reading the coverage of this, Bonds only has 4 in season bunts his entire career, not once since 1998. So it was amusing. Of course he jacked a home run off of John Danks which wasn’t surprising in the least. Danks wasn’t all that great, going 4, giving up four hits and 2ER, and walked two. Not terribly dominant, but overall, not as horrible as I’ve seen, either. The other 5 Ranger pitchers combined to go 4 innings, giving up 3 hits and one run. They struck out four and walked no one.
We didn’t have a lot of offense to match San Francisco. We had a total of 9 hits (2 each by Nix & Blalock), the rest were scattered amongst the Ranger batters. Not much pop, although D’Angelo Jimenez had a home run in the second which was about it for us.
We’ve now dropped three in a row and have fallen under .500 with a 5-6-1 spring record.
ST11: Rangers drop second in a row, 3-2 to Royals
The Rangers threw out four pitchers today. Only one of them is one I think will make the big club (Edison Volquez, unless Roger Clemens decides to sign here (ha!), in which cose it’s zero). Of the four, two of them gave up runs (Volquez, Mahar), although one of the two Volquez gave up was unearned. Alfonseca was scoreless (gasp), as well as Fabio Castro (who I think we’re probably gonna lose having to give back on the Rule 5 rules). I don’t have any big inside info, just a gut feeling.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad pitching performance if you add our four pitchers together. 9 IP, 6 hits, 3R (2 ER), 8K, 3BB. Would rahter not see three walks, but overall it wasn’t too bad, really.
And yet we lost again – for the second game in a row, dropping us to 500 (5-5-1). KC’ starter was Mile Wood, and he was better than our guys, going 5 innings, giving up no runs on four hits. Matter of fact, of the four relievers KC used, there was a combined 6 hits for 2 runs (only 1ER) over the remaining four frames. KC’s pitching didn’t dominate, but it was certainly enough for them to get the win.
ST10: Rangers lose to M’s Sunday 4-2
Since Saturday’s game was rained out, I was looking forward to this one, because it was on the radio with Eric & Vic. However, after I came home from church, I passed out on the couch, and all I got to hear of the game was the final out. Oh joy. :) If this were TV, it wouldn’t have mattered, as I would have TiVo’ed the game. :)
It appears that the big star of this game is Seattle pitcher Felix Hernandez. I don’t think anyone who follows baseball well doubts this kid’s ability, so I won’t go into that here (getting tired of hearing the word phenom). Anyway, he did a great job against us, something I expect to be saying a few more times this season. He went three innings, gave up no runs on three hits and three strikeouts (with one walk). Overall, a really good performance, although the box score can’t tell you about his “stuff”, which when he’s on is pretty much impossible.
Josh Rupe was our starter and went 3.1 innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and no walks, while striking out three. Not a great performance numbers wise, but not horrible, either. Juan Dominguez, who by all acounts is falling out of favor with the team, gave up the other two runs in his 2.2 IP. Scott Feldman & Kevin Walker combined for two innings of shutout ball to finish up the game.
Offensively, we were led by Kevin Mench, who went 2 for 3 with a run scored. Phil Nevin continued his offensive barrage, going just 1 for 2, but he did drive in 2 RBI on a double, giving him about 5,000 RBI this spring so far. :)
Funny, my report sounds pretty positive, but we lost the game. :(
Rangers rained out Saturday
Saturday’s game against the Rockies was rained out. This ended a streak of 143 straight days without rain the Phoenix area. The Dallas area had a taste of that not too long ago.
Kameron Loe lost his start today because of the weather, but did get work in with indoor simulated games.
Here is a story on the Rangers site about the rainout.