Sunday’s game featured four home runs accounting for nine of thirteen runs. Monday’s game featured four more home runs, this time accounting for all seven of the runs! Here’s Monday’s list…
Taylor Teagarden – Three run shot in the second inning off Matt Cain
Andruw Jones – Solo shot in the fourth off of Matt Cain
Justin Smoak – Solo shot in the ninth off of Luis Perdomo
David Murphy – Two run shot in the 10th to win the game off of Felix Romero
That’s eight home runs in two games accounting for 16 runs. That’s some nice power. But then again, that should be no surprise to anyone who follows Texas Rangers baseball. Overall, we’re looking at ten hits, of which four were home runs, one was a double, and the other half were singles. It was another scattered hits day, as only Andruw Jones had more than a lone hit (home run and double).
The pitching. We had six guys on the mound this game. Only one of them is actually on the 40 man roster right now (Josh Rupe). The last two innings were thrown by three guys who won’t be with the club when we break (Kasey Kiker, Beau Vaughn, & AJ Murray). Those guys gave up one run (Kiker) between them. The other guys have a realistic shot, although if you had asked me a couple of weeks ago, the starter had zero chance, but seems to be pitching his way into contention. This of course is Mr. Anna Benson. However, we’ve seen this kind of NRI “bag of magic beans” before in spring training. If he does make the club, it had better not be for just two good starts, and cost us someone else off the 40 man roster (Doug Davis, anyone?) Anyway, Benson went six innings, giving up six hits and zero walks for three earned runs – a technical quality start. Not a bad performance, actually. Josh Rupe, who seems to be saving his spot, threw a scoreless inning, and Eddie Guardado had a blown save. He hasn’t been in 2009 what he was in 2008, his ERA is over 10 in the spring. Not exactly confidence building. If that doesn’t work out, call Mike Venafro. He’s not doing anything now. :)
What I found amusing tonight when I sat down to write this was the fact that it’s still March, and we played our thirty first spring training game. I know that’s because of the World Baseball Classic and all, but it still seems like a lot, even knowing that. Something else is I haven’t heard hardly anything about the WBC since the US was eliminated. I mean, I know it’s out there, but I’m not being hit in the face with it like I was before. When I wrote this paragraph, I didn’t even know who was in the finals, so I hit the site for the thing, and found out Japan won again. And it was a week ago. I didn’t even know it was over! Wow.

This game was all about home runs. There were quite a few of them.
Josh Hamilton – Two run shot in first inning off of Sean O’Sullivan
Josh Hamilton – Three run shot in second inning of of Sean O’Sullivan
Chris Davis – Solo shot in fifth off of Darren Oliver
Taylor Teagarden – Three run shot in seventh off of Marc Bulger
That wasn’t all the offense, mind you, but those four hits (of the 17 we had total) accounted for nine of the thirteen runs we had in total, so I’d say that was the game right there. While I didn’t hear or see it, the stories say that the home run by Chris Davis was probably the furthest hit of the spring. We don’t get distance calls in spring training (why not?), but the reports say it went totally over the berm and the party tent beyond that. Sounds like a titanic shot to me.
Two other hits were extra base jobs, both doubles (one by Chris Davis, one by Nelson Cruz). The remaining eleven hits were all singles. With seventeen hits total, you know there were several guys with multiple hits. A glance at the box score shows this to be true. Kinsler was 3-4, Young was 2-3, Hamilton was 2-5, Chris Davis was 3-4, even Elvis Andrus was 2-3. Everyone else had just one hit.
Brandon McCarthy started the game, and was OK. I’m unclear why he came out when he did (I can’t really figure that out by the box score), but he went four innings, gave up just two runs on six hits and no walks. Normally I’d pass that off on pitch count, but we don’t get that in spring box scores, either. Derrick Turnbow had the worst performance, giving up a three run home run to Torii Hunter in the sixth. Warner Madrigal & Frank Francisco each gave up a solo run in their respective innings. The only zeroes were CJ Wilson & Josh Rupe.
Nice to see the big sticks come out against a division foe. Hopefully that can continue into the regular season.

In a game that I knew was on the radio, but due to life, had no chance to listen to, the Rangers won 8-5 over their Surprise roommates.
Scott Feldman started this game, and if the recent rumors are to be believed, it might be one of his final starts for awhile. There’s a lot of talk about him going to the pen and giving the fifth starter spot to Mr. Anna Benson. Whether that’s smart or not, I don’t know, but Feldman didn’t help his case today. He went five innings, giving up six hits and a walk for a total of four earned runs. He did strike out six, though – that’s something good, but not enough to overcome the earned runs. He was briefly followed by Jimmy Gobble, who pitched just one third of an inning, before being relieved by Jason Jennings, who finished the game with a 3 and 2/3 inning performance to get the win. Jennings allowed just three hits, and one walk with four strikeouts for his shutout performance.
Offensively, we had ten hits that were pretty fairly well spread out. Only one Ranger had more than one, that was Nelson Cruz, who went 2-4, one of which was a two run home run in the first inning. Omar Vizquel & Frank Catalanotto had doubles. Hank Blalock & Jarrod Saltammachia had triples, and there was Cruz’ home run. However, the most important hit was by back of the book guy Marcus Lemon, who had a sac fly in the ninth, giving the Rangers the lead they would keep for the win.
I did miss this game, but had a lot of fun having an afternoon out with my daughter. Explained about a letter about the return and regular addresses, the stamp, and how the letter gets to where its’ going. Given how much time I’ve put into this site over the 11 years I’ve been doing it now, it’s quite easy to NOT do it do do something like explain to your kid how to mail a letter. Hopefully she likes the Rangers game we’re going to on Saturday as much. :)

After the fiasco of losing 11-10 to the Brewers, one was hoping for some redemption on Friday night. In a televised game, the Rangers went up against the Milwaukee Brewers. Kevin Millwood took the mound, and had a line that looked fairly ugly, even if it pretty much wasn’t his fault.
The good stuff in Kevin’s performance was that he went six innings and gave up just four hits. He did however, walk three, and allowed six runs, although three of them were unearned. That came after an Elvis Andrus error. If you take out the unearned runs, it qualified for a quality start, but it still was six runs surrendered. It just felt “bad”, even if the line wasn’t terribly awful. The three relievers was pretty decent. CJ Wilson had a scoreless inning with no hits, Derrick Turnbow went one, gave up a run on one hit and a walk, and Josh Rupe had a one hit no run inning. Wasn’t awful, but the three unearned runs really hurt this game.
Offensively, we were led by Chris Davis, Taylor Teagarden, & Michael Young. Young, in his first game back from the minor injury went 2-3 with a solo home run to right center field in the first inning. Teagarden went 3-3, although he didn’t have any RBI’s. Chris Davis, however, went 3-4, scoring twice, and with two RBI’s. He was definitely the leader here. His two RBI’s came on a two run home run in the sixth inning. Other offensive notes were three doubles (Andrus, Teagarden, & Davis), a triple by Taylor Teagarden, and the aforementioned home runs by Young & Davis.
Michael Young also had an error in addition to the Andrus one. A disappointing loss for sure, the three unearned runs in the first inning definitely were a major factor in this loss.

Oh, I could write about how Padilla and now departed Brendan Donnelly let the Diamondbacks back in the game. I could write about the two double plays in the first two innings, I could write about the hot line drive by Hamilton, I could write about the fact the Rangers were on TV, and how I’d rather have Vin Scully at 82 over Josh Lewin now. However, all I want to say is this…
DID YOU SEE THAT FREAKIN’ GRAND SLAM BY CHRIS DAVIS!?!?!?
THAT WAS THE WHOLE GAME RIGHT THERE!
I mean I didn’t want to write about anything else after that happened. hahahaha. :)

Quick – call Bud Selig! Expand spring training rosters, hold out pitchers or something. There was a tie! If we were playing the Brewers, I could get more mileage out of that.
Anyway, that really good feeling about Brandon McCarthy after the last start was pretty much squashed after he came out and pitched like Brandon McCarthy on Tuesday. His line shows 4.2 innings pitched, eight hits and three walks for six earned runs. That was a big pile of stink for sure. I still think he’s going to be better in 2009 than he has been since he got here, but that was not an encouraging outing. Of the eight hits he gave up, five of them were doubles, so he was getting smacked around a bit, it wasn’t just bloops and lucky falls. The rest of our pitching staff was pretty decent. Combined the four pitchers that followed McCarthy (Rupe, Turnbow, Wilson, Gobble) went 5.1 innings, gave up just five hits, and one run (Rupe), while walking nobody. Rupe did chime in with a wild pitch, however. I’m unclear if that led to a run or not, that’s not shown in the box score.
Offensively, we had fifteen hits, the highlights were a three run home run by Nelson Cruz, and a 2-3 with 2 RBI day by Satalamacchia. What I found interesting about this game was that of the nine guys we started the lineup with, every one of them was substituted for during the game, except for one. Andruw Jones started as DH and finished the game as DH. Everyone else who started didn’t finish the game. Find that amusing, I wonder if it’s a case “Please Andruw, catch fire, give us a reason to keep you on the roster”.
However, Michael Young leaving with an injury was not a good thing. He had to leave the game early with “an aggravated quadriceps” injury after the first inning. Ron Washington said that it was no big deal and that he’d be back Wednesday. If that was the case, why did you remove him at all then, if it’s “no big deal”. Something to keep an eye on.

Well, this game was on TV. That part was good. Not a lot else was. :)

The Rangers were shut out in this game through the first seven innings. In fact, through about four or so at the start, Randy Wolf was perfect. The Rangers managed just five hits in the whole game, and in true Rangers fashion, two of them were home runs. But before we got to that there was a whole lot of nothing. Our bad day at the plate was finally stopped in the top of the eighth when Chris Davis hit an opposite field wind aided home run. That broke the shuout. In the ninth, when we had guys with uniform numbers above 90 playing the game, Andy Fox jacked a two run home run on a pitch that seemed at the time to be eyeball level. Was a no doubter. Two home runs and a double accounted for 3/5 of our hits. We had nothing really, and it wasn’t even as close as 11-4 “seems”.

Going the other way, Josh Rupe, who seems to be on the way down the pecking order gave up a home run on his first pitch thrown. Flashbacks to Rick Helling and the home opener in 1998 there? There was for me. Our pitching could be summed up as bad. The only guy who didn’t give up a run was newly acquired Jimmy Gobble, who threw one scoreless frame. Everyone else seemed to suck from the fountain of well.. SUCK.

The big highlight was the inning of Vin Scully. That was pretty cool having Vin do an inning of broadcast. It’s amazing when you think this guy started broadcasting Dodger games back in Brooklyn in 1950. I mean wow. The guy’s 82, and while he does seem old, he doesn’t have that “old man” slow speech. In just that short inning, you can see why he’s such a gem. I kind of have that in Philly to a lesser degree with Harry Kalas, but Scully is really smooth. Enjoyed that. I wouldn’t mind them doing the same thing again when the Dodgers are in Arlington this summer.

One amusing play was a grounder down the third base side that Metcalf got going away. Threw across the diamond, and it resulted in Chris Davis with his rear end on the ground straddling first base. Was a funny play to see.

Day off on Monday – which was useful as I was backed up, and had to write about Saturday and Sunday’s games on Monday night.

Kevin Millwood didn’t get a win today, but pitched one of those “technical quality starts”. You know, six innings, three runs – a 4.50 ERA. In these six innings, he gave up five hits, three runs, and two homers. Not good. He did strike out five, but multiple homers is never really a good sign. I missed this game utterly, so I have no idea how he sounded, but the line is “meh”, even if it qualifies as a quality start.
Willie Eyre followed and had that fun line of “Blown Save” as well as the win.
Offensively, we played the Rockies to a 4-4 tie after six and a half innings. The big tie breaker was a grand slam by Chad Tracy in the bottom of the seventh. That won the game, and also closed out the scoring. That was the obvious highlight, but in all the Rangers had twelve hits, and only Jarrod Saltamacchia had more than one, although both of his were doubles. Speaking of doubles, the “Arlington Doubles Hit Parade” churned up and got going again. Seven of them in fact. Seven of our twelve hits were doubles. Nelson Cruz, Salty for two, Travis Metcalf, David Murphy, Chris Davis, & Andruw Jones all got into the two bagger.
Three of the doubles came against a pitcher that a few years back used to give us fits, but not so much anymore. Gustavo Chacin, then of the Toronto Blue Jays was a guy I never wanted to see pitch against us. Today though, he went 2.1 innings, gave up five hits, five earned runs, and walked four guys. Five hits and four walks in 2.1 innings is pretty atrocious.
Brandon Boggs & Joaquin Arias stole a base in this one.
Cruz and Arias also left five men on base, they didn’t have a lot of clutch.
Still, a win is a win, and it’s now six in a row. Nice to see, even if it doesn’t count.

The Rangers have now won five in a row, and are now in 3rd place in Cactus league play (out of 14 teams) with a 13-9 record. The did this behind an 11-5 pounding of the Colorado Rockies on Friday afternoon. Again, I was really busy with work, and couldn’t listen. Couldn’t even look at a box score, I didn’t know who won until the evening, right before I started watching the series finale of Battlestar Galactica.
But I digress. Let’s get the bad news. Michael Young had to come out of the game with a quad injury, and is expected to miss a couple of games. It’s probably not a serious threat, but you never want a star player to go out at all. Hope that all goes well. Before he left, he was doing well at the plate, going 2-2.
Nelson Cruz also jacked his fourth home run of the spring, completely pushing out Andruw Jones. Cruz was not the only guy with a home run. Forgotten man Frank Catalnotto had a three run jimmy jack. But it was again a doubles team, we had six of them. 15 hits in all, a d eight extra base hits. That’s the Rangers for ya.
Matt Harrison started this one and was ok. Five innings, five hits, two runs and two walks. Nothing to really write home about, but there has been a lot worse. Another inning and it would have been a pretty decent outing. Overall, the pitching waspretty decent, although no performance really stands out. But I’ll take that over godawful like we’ve had a lot over the last decade or so.
I entered this entry through my new iPod Touch. While you can do it if you want, it’s a bit of a pain in the… I can’t recommend blog posts this way. :)