I don’t have much time to write about this one, I didn’t even think about writing about it (as I was too busy at work today) until after today’s game had already started.
I did get to hear a little of it. I had to spread some weed killer down on my lawn, so I slapped on the headphones,and walked around out there. After that was over, I played some MLB:09 the Show and listened some more, and then my family and I had to go to a Sunday night church event, so I had to stop. At the time I stopped, the score was tied 2-2. I missed the big party.
That was Greg Golson’s grand slam in the ninth which sealed the win, if it didn’t win it. That was definitely the big offensive highlight, as the rest of the offense was scattered. Which seems to be a pattern so far this spring.
Pitching wise, nobody embarrassed themselves out there Matt Harrison gave up both runs the Cubs got over his three innings of work.
Sorry about the cut short. I didn’t want to take a complete mulligan, but I didn’t have time to sit here and invest a lot of time into this report. :)

The first Rangers game on TV this season comes way earlier in camp than it usually does. I talked about the schedule before, so this isn’t new, but we have five TV games this year, as opposed to the usual two. As with most Spring Ranger games, it was filled with ads for the team itself, the gift shop, tickets, etc.. That’s not a problem, just stating what I saw.
BTW, there was a “commercial” that ran twice during the game talking about new scoreboards and such featuring Chuck Morgan. On Wednesday, I’m going out to the Ballpark, Chuck Morgan was kind enough to let me come out there and take a few pictures of what the stuff looks like. I’ll bring those to you when I get them done.
As for the game itself, it was lightning fast. It was 2:03. When I told my wife about that, she said “That’s a big surprise, given the usual substitutions in the spring”. It did make me think. There were no subs made during play. All the subs were start of inning ones that don’t delay anything. And other than the trip to the mound in the ninth with the trainer, there were no mound visits that I recall, either. Extremely fast game. That did help keep the chatter down with people in the booth you don’t care to see (Mayor of Surprise, woman from Southwest Airlines – does anyone except them really care?)
Still, part of what made the game move was pitching. We had a lot of the good kind. In all, each team had just seven hits. The only Ranger to give up a run was Eddie Guardado in the ninth. Vicente Padilla was especially good. He went four gave up no runs on just a single hit. Outstanding. Dustin Nippert went two innings on three hits. Warner Madrigal & Elizardo Ramirez also tossed scoreless single innings. Even Guardado who gave up the lone run had just one hit.
Offensively, the only guys who really appeared to have anything going on were David Murphy, who finally got the first run of the game in the fifth with a solo home run. Murph was 2-3 overall. The other guy was Andruw Jones, who was 2-4 with a double (which was a dicey call, it should have been a single and an error I think). The only other run came on a Josh Hamilton sac fly, which was not too far away from being a grand slam as I recall.
Taylor Teagarden threw out two Sox trying to steal – both times it wasn’t funny – they were dead on nailed. That was nice to see.
I would have preferred a slightly longer game for the first one on TV, but I couldn’t complain too much. Was nice to see the Rangers back on TV with a new game (not the games that turn up on ESPN Classic or MLBN now). :)

Meh. The first game of the season I got mad at, and it only took nine games, none of them really counted, either.
We were hanging in there, hanging in there, were losing 4-2 after six innings. We scored two to tie in the sixth, and then three more in the seventh to take a lead. Then we blew it, let them tie the game in the bottom of the eighth, and then lose the game by allowing the Royals to walk off with the win.
Netfali Feliz was the one that had a hard time and gave up the three runs to let them tie it after we had taken the lead.
Brandon Boggs had a good game. 3-5 with a double, a home run, 3 RBI’s, and two runs scored. Since this was a spring training game, those stats doubly didn’t count.
Darnit!

For the second straight game, both the Rangers and their opponent were kept in check offensively – at least hits wise. In yesterday’s game, both the Royals & Rangers had six hits. In today’s game, the Padres had five hits, and the Rangers had six.
Amusing thing about the Rangers six hits is that two guys (Kinsler, Hamilton) had two each. That left just two other guys with hits at all (Blalock & Metcalf). While we’re looking at those kind of numbers, three of the six hits were doubles (Kinsler, Hamilton, Blalock). A strength of ours in 2008, that was. One of the remaining three was a home run (Kinsler again). So it was a pretty power heavy set of hits, even if there weren’t a lot of them.
Kinsler did the 2-2-2 thing. Two hits, two RBI’s and two runs scored.
Elvis Andrus had his first stolen base of the spring, too.
Taylor Teagarden threw out David Eckstein trying to steal (while Benson was on the mound).
Scott Feldman though was perfect on the mound. In his two innings, he gave up donut. Spring training box scores generalky don’t have the number of pitches, so I can’t comment on how easily the two innings went, but that many zeroes (the good ones) are always a good thing to see on a pitcher’s linescore. The remainder of the Rangers pitchers (we used six more) were all pretty decent. Derrick Turnbow was the only one who really wasn’t. He gave up just one run, although he probably should have given up more, since he walked THREE in one inning. In fact, he didn’t give up any actual hits, so one of those walks was with the bases loaded, apparently. Mr. Anna Benson also threw two innings in direct relief of Feldman, and he too gave up no runs. I don’t know what to make of him. He’s bounced around, not been much of anything the last few years. Although he could be OK in a Sydney Ponson sort of way if he holds it together.
In all a nice win (even if I was in meetings all day and couldn’t listen) We’re now 5-3 in spring training, which is always a good thing.

After a scheduled day off on Tuesday, the Rangers bounced back into action against their usual and most common spring training foe, the Royals. I didn’t get to see or hear anything from this game – I got tied up with work again, and this is a box score only report. :)
This game had pretty decent pitching for the most part. For Texas, Kevin Millwood started the game, and threw three scoreless innings, giving up just two hits, one walk, and punching out a pair of Royals. I believe that’s the first Ranger pitcher to go three innings this spring. A good sign. He was followed by four relievers. Two of them (Derek Holland & Doug Mathis) threw two innings apiece, and Willie Eyre & Frank Francisco threw a single inning each. Holland & Mathis gave up the two runs (one each). The run off of Mathis was a home run. In all, the Royal hitters had just six hits the entire game. Two of them by Coco Crisp. One of the others was by Crisp’s replacement, so the hits were pretty scattered other than the leadoff slot. In all, Rangers pitching threw nine innings, allowed six hits and two runs. A good day.
Offensively, we were led by Justin Smoak, although his name didn’t really come into play until later. Early on the Rangers plated a single run in the first and second innings. The funny thing here is that the Rangers also had just six hits this game. No Ranger had more than one of them. Michael Young & Jarrod Saltamacchia each had an RBI hit, but the big one was Justin Smoak in the bottom of the seventh. He jacked a three run home run off of KC reliever Dan Cortes. That was the big moment, because at that time, the game was tied 2-2.
Yay! Two game winning streak! ;)

I’m going to have to take my first mulligan of the season, and bow out of real commentary for this game. Project came up at work today, which was when I planned on writing about this one. Just putting this here for a placeholder for the game.

I got to listen to about half of this game. I started listening in the top of the second, and we were already down 4-1. Any baseball fan will tell you that’s never an encouraging thing to start off with. I was actually playing a videogame again for the second day in a row in the afternoon. Only this one I was playing for myself. It was a version of Monopoly for my Xbox 360. :)
As if starting down 4-1 wasn’t bad enough, the first thing I heard was “…and we’ll get back to you if we get a report on Josh”. Oh great, he’s come out with an injury. They’re saying he’s strained his left Achillies tendon, and are making a big deal about it not being a big deal. I hope this doesn’t amount to anything serious. Turns out I missed a possible inside the park home run. There was a quote by Josh after the game that he was mad he didn’t have an inside the parker, because he didn’t hustle out of the box. Inside the parkers are always nice to get.
Anyway, from the point I started listening (which was past Padilla walking in a run), it didn’t seem so bad, we were chipping away, and got back to 4-3, and then 5-3, but in the fifth, the floodgates opened again, and we gave up five runs there. I stopped listening shortly after that, because the pull of playing with my daughter was put on me again. :)
I’m not going to write a ton, as it’s late, and I want to get off the computer for the evening, but there were a ton of pitchers in this game. Seven for Texas, eight for Seattle. Hit up the MLB.com recap link for a proper story and a box score.

The Rangers evened their spring training record at 2-2 behind a 6-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a game I was unable to listen to again. It was Daddy & Daughter day as Mommy was at work. To that, I spent most of my day playing a videogame on my Wii, “Disney Princess: Enchanted Adventure“. It wasn’t quite listening to Eric Nadel call a game in FM, mind you, but I had fun.
I did get to hear about half an hour of the game, and fortunately it was a decent part. I got to hear the top of the fourth inning where Greg Golson (who came over in the trade for John Mayberry Jr) hit a bases loaded double, plating Saltamacchia & Andruw Jones. That wasn’t all Golson did, as he beat out an infield hit earlier in the game which scored Saltamacchia again. So Golson had a good day. His official line was 2-3 with 3 RBI’s.
One of the Rangers’ strengths last season was doubles. We continued that today with five of our fourteen overall hits being doubles. Travis Metcalf, who appears to be the forgotten man of the infield hit two of them. There was the aforementioned one by Greg Golson, and the other two were by Max Ramirez and Justin Smoak. Metcalf actually had more hits than Golson, with three. It was all doubles and singles, no other hits besides five doubles and 9 singles. In fact, the bulk of our offense came from three batting slots (6 through 8). Saltamacchia was 2-2 with 2 runs scored in the six spot. Max Ramirez subbed for him in that slot and went 2-2 with a run scored himself. In the seven hole was Travis Metcalf, who went 3-5 with an RBI. In the eight spot was Greg Golson, going 2-3 with 3 RBI’s. Outside of these guys, there were only five other hits, so the 6-8 spots were definitely the offense for the day (although Joaquin Arias had an RBI in the 9 slot).
Turning an eye to pitching, Brandon McCarthy started. There’s been a lot of talk this spring about how he finally may have turned the corner into the pitcher we gave away John Danks for. Something to do with a talk with Nolan Ryan helping his mechanics. I’m hoping that’s the case, as I remember being very excited when we traded for him. Typically in Texas, they come here and don’t deliver. His line today was “eh”. Not really bad, but no number strikes you as “Oh my god – that’s IT!”. He went two innings, gave up just two hits, but also two earned runs on one walk and one strikeout. The guy who followed him, however was a bit better line wise. That’s Netfali Feliz, one of our true untouchables, I think. Two innings pitched. Gave up three hits and an earned run, but struck out four guys for four of the six outs on his register. Josh Rupe, CJ Wilson, & Derrick Turnbow each followed with a scoreless inning. Tommy Hunter finished up with two innings, giving up one hit and one run – a solo home run to Chris Roberson; the only home run of the day.
While I really wished I could have listened to this game (Saturday afternoon with a beer and a baseball game on the radio is great), I did have an awesome day with my daughter. I wouldn’t have been able to drink the beer either, as it’s forbidden due to the medicine I’m taking from my leg surgery last October. But the day with my daughter was way better than any Rangers game I’ve ever listened to. I love the Rangers, but I love my family a heck of a lot more.

I was knee deep in work today, and when I remembered the Rangers game started at 2PM, it was already quarter after three. Realized it was a “box score only” spring training game, so I checked it out, and saw the 7 spot in the top of the second inning. Lost my desire to want to keep up. To be fair, box score only games are hard to stay with, as they only update after half innings are done (usually). So you go off doing something else, waiting for the next update, and frequently forget about the refreshing box score in your other browser window.
Scott Feldman harnessed his inner Mark Clark today by allowing a seven spot in the second inning. From the article I read, he barely escaped giving up a bunch in the first two, by allowing four baserunners, but still not giving up a run. His line was pretty darned ugly. Nine hits, one walk, seven runs (although three were unearned). Gave up two home runs. Pretty stinky. We had five other pitchers in the game besides Feldman. Two of them gave up runs (Poveda – 2, Madrigal – 1). The other three were scoreless.
In the field, we had two errors. German Duran booted one, and Elvis had a throwing error.
Offensively, we had nine hits, which were pretty scattered again. Jarrod Saltamacchia was the only player with more than one hit. He had two, both doubles. His replacement at catcher, Adam Melhuse had another double, but his also plated two runners. Joaquin Arias had an RBI (but w/o a hit), and Josh Hamilton also batted in one.
We’re now 1-2 so far in the first week of spring. Tomorrow the Rangers go on the road, and are on the radio in the afternoon. I’ll try and listen, but tomorrow I get to be Daddy while Mommy is at work. Doesn’t always work with a three year old. :)
I TiVo’ed the Josh Hamilton show. My wife wanted to watch Battlestar Galactica instead, and I didn’t want to upset the pregnant wife, so we went with Galactica. I’ll watch Hamilton over the weekend. It’s not like I was only going to watch it once anyway. It’s been green dotted on my TiVo, so it’ll be there for awhile. I plan on showing it to friends from church who are not baseball fans when they visit. Figure I can draw them into baseball with that. :)

There’s been a lot of talk that Kevin Millwood is in a “contract year” (even though he technically isn’t). There’s a lot of talk that he’s in better shape and has lost a bunch of weight, and is supposed to be better in 2009. I recall hearing similar type things before last season, too. Anyways, Kevin started today’s game, and this early, the starters pretty much never go beyond two innings. That’s what happened here, too. However, Kevin was quite good in his two innings. He allowed no runs, only a single hit, and struck out three Royals. An encouraging first outing.
The Ranger pitchers that followed him, however. Not so encouraging. Especially Derek Holland, who gave up two solo home runs (and a couple of walks) in his frame of work. Doug Mathis also gave up a bunch (four hits, one walk, two earned runs), although his work was over two innings, not just one. However, Eddie Guardado gave up the most, three runs in his inning of work. He didn’t help himself, really. He loaded the bases (couple of hits, a walk), then gave up a bases clearing triple. Wasn’t all bad, though. Willie Eyre & Joe Torres both pitched scoreless innings.
Offensively, we didn’t put up much. The Royals helped a little with two errors, but we couldn’t translate those into anything really useful (one of the errors did lead to one unearned run). The high point was another home run by Josh Hamilton, but no Ranger had more than one hit, it was a pretty spread out offense, not the kind that leads to a ton of runs.
Got to listen to Rangers coverage. I coudn’t listen on a real radio, I had to listen on MLB Gameday at my computer, so the move to FM was lost on me (Gameday audio sounds somewhat tinny). Anyway, I got to hear Dave Barnett for the first time. I have the same opinion of him I did when I first heard Victor Rojas when he replaced Vince Cotroneo. Which is basically “OK, no major gaffes, voice is not grating, I can probably get used to that”. Radio announce adulation comes from time, not from anything (in my opinion) that happens generally, so I’ll need time to get used to him.