The game was good up until the third inning. The Rangers parked a five spot on the Padres ledger in the top of the third. Most of that came from a three run Nelson Cruz home run.
But then the Rangers surrendered a six spot in the bottom of the fourth, and then an EIGHT spot in the bottom of the eighth.
That was just ugly. Bleargh.

Before this game started, I told my wife it was the Dodgers, and I wanted to watch it on TV in the hopes that the Dodgers and Rangers would do something that happened in spring training the previous year. For one inning, the Dodgers and Rangers switched broadcast teams, which means we got Vin Scully doing the game. So I was looking forward to that, and then Scully got hurt this past week, and he did a Dodgers game, but he did the other split squad game back and their own park.
Still, it was nice to see the Rangers on TV. David Murphy, who on paper looks to have a hard time getting regular playing time in 2010, made a case for himself today. His first two at bats were a home run and a triple. Which immediately brings forth the idea of a cycle. That didn’t happen, mind you, but it set a tone for him. Later on, our Rule 5 guy, Matt Brown had his own home run. Taylor Teagarden had a double, and that accounted for half of our eight hits being extra bases. So we had some power this game.
Colby Lewis started this game, and I have to confess he looked better than I remembered him looking. His Japanese strikeout stuff was on display here, as he had six of them in his five innings of work. I wouldn’t call the outing dominating, but he certainly did well. Five innings, five hits, one walk, and two earned runs, one of which was on a solo home run he allowed. Had too many pitches for my taste (79). That’s not an obscenely huge number. In fact, it’s only four pitches over “recommended”, but it just felt like a lot more than that.
The only other pitcher the Rangers used was Derek Holland, who really hasn’t had a a dominating spring. Four innings, six hits, one walk, and three earned runs. Derek was charged with the blown save and the loss.
We had a shot to come back late, and blew it when we left a couple of men on base late (I think 2nd & 3rd). We didn’t, and those kind of losses bug me more than others, as we COULD have won. The kind of games that teams like the Yankees always seem to find a way to win.

This sentence from the mlb recap says it all, IMO..

Brandon McCarthy allowed Marte’s grand slam and threw 42 pitches in the first inning.

After the fourth batter of the game, Brandon McCarthy & the Rangers were down 4-0. That was the entire tone of the game. McCarthy actually settled down a bit after the grand slam, and allowed just one more run in his four innings of work. However, Luis Mendoza was just as bad, and Pedro Strop also allowed a bunch (although some of his were unearned).
Blah. That’s about it for this game.

I must still be whacked out from my big trip, because I sat down to watch this game, and I think I fell asleep somewhere in the second inning or so, as I don’t remember what happened with the game. Had to check online this morning when I woke up. :)
When the game started, it was delayed because Tommy Hunter ended up getting hurt during warmups. Guillermo Moscoso started the game for the Rangers, which definitely wasn’t the plan. Still Moscoso did decently enough. 2.1 innings, three hits, two earned runs. He did do well with strikeouts, as he punched out 4. Two of them were the first two batters of the game, which was cool to see. Willie Eyre followed with some scoreless relief.
Matt Harrison was third on, and pitched four innings. He did fairly well, too. Same thing as Moscoso. Same number of hits and runs allowed (two & three). However, Matt did VERY well with strikeouts. He punched out eight of the twelve outs he got while on the mound. I slept through that, so I didn’t get to see it, but that’s an impressive number for sure. Chris Ray finished up with a scoreless inning.
All told, the four Rangers pitchers combined for a total of 16 strikeouts, which is extremely unusual for Texas. Not sure if that’s a factor of an easy umpire, or Brewers who fanned too much or what, but it was definitely a number that sticks out.
Offensively, the Rangers hits were scattered amongst six different Rangers (only Elvis had more than one), but they were bunched together enough to make it count. We did have some power this game. Josh Hamilton had a monster first inning home run (which I did see) – it went out of the stadium completely as far as I can tell. Taylor Teagarden had a triple, and Elvis Andrus & Esteban German had doubles.
Hopefully Tommy Hunter isn’t hurt seriously and misses a lot of time.

The Rangers finally opened up with some power. Something that’s been lacking all spring. Nelson Cruz had two of them. Josh Hamilton & Chris Davis both had home runs as well. Nelson Cruz did quite well this game. Went 3-3 with 3 RBI’s, and three runs scored. Brought his batting average up to .448.
Outside of the home runs, we had just one double (Salty), and a bunch of singles. But the home runs were definitely the story of this game.
On the pitching side, the Rangers looked quite good, too. Not at the start, though. The first eight pitches of the game by Scott Feldman were balls, as he walked the first two batters of the game. But he calmed down after that, as those were the only two walks of the game. In all, Scott went four innings, giving up just three hits and one run. Which isn’t bad at all considering the way the game started. Darren Oliver followed, tossed two scoreless innings, and Dustin Nippert tossed three. Really great performance by our pitching staff.
Amusing moment when Milton Bradley was called out. He did a Milton for sure, dropped his bat at the plate, and got himself ejected for doing that.
I did get to watch this game on TV, which was cool, as I haven’t been able to see or hear many games this year so far.

Mute is an interesting choice of words to describe our offense. We did score, but we certainly couldn’t muster much of anything. In all the Rangers managed just three hits against the Cubbies. They had a single by David Murphy, another single by Taylor Teagarden, and a home run by Justin Smoak. The home run by Smoak was all the offense we got.
Our pitching wasn’t exactly awful – 4 runs for a whole game, while not stellar, isn’t BAD either. Overall, the three Rangers pitchers combined for nine hits and four earned runs. We did, however, go back to our good ways with walks – just one (Beltre). Neftali Feliz started, and I’m starting to think he won’t make the rotation, he seems to have issues with guys when they get to the second time around in the lineup. Feliz went three innings, gave up six hits and three runs. There was one scoreless inning tossed by Omar Beltre, who was then followed by four innings by CJ Wilson, who also was pretty good. Three hits, one run, and five punchouts.
But the lack of offense was disappointing, for sure.

This was the first night I was home from my trip to see my Grandparents, and I thought it was cool the Rangers were on TV that night. However, when I sat down to watch it, the 1,500 miles of driving I had done on Sunday and Monday caught up to me, and I passed out cold. Gave up, and went to bed.
I missed Rich Harden being pretty bad. 3.2 innings, five hits three walks, and five earned runs. Meh. His successor on the mound was no better, really. Doug Mathis went two innings, gave up two hints and FOUR walks, and just one run. Edwar Ramirez followed, gave up his own run, as did the final pitcher, Darren O’Day who gave up a run. The seven walks is by far the worst walk performance of the spring, something that’s caught my eye a lot this year. Our walk totals are fantastic. I just hope it holds up long term.
Offensively, we got another home run – this one by Nelson Cruz, who is really hot (.417 average so far). Vlad Guerrero however is NOT hot, going 0-3, and posting a spring average of just .217. Matt Brown is batting .538, and I wonder if he’ll make the club, as I believe he’s our Rule 5 guy we have to keep up. Justin Smoak had a double, and there were five singles. Another distinct lack of power.
After that modest three game winning streak, we’ve now lost the last three games, so that’s fairly disappointing.

The second split squad game of the day was also a loss, this time a 6-4 game to the Dodgers.
Chris Davis went 2-3, continuing his torrid pace of spring hitting. Jarrod Saltamacchia doubled, driving in a run. Nelson Cruz also doubled, but again, no home runs, no real power, as it was more singles.
Pitching wise, Derek Holland started, and did well in his three innings. Just gave up two hits, and walked nobody. No runs, either. However, that’s about where that kind of pitching stopped. Of the six relievers used, only the last one (Eyre) didn’t give up any runs. Although Clay Rapada really tried to. He went one inning of work, but in that inning, gave up two hits and THREE walks, but just a single run.

I’ll copy this from the official Rangers report on the game, since I liked the text:

Josh Hamilton’s daughter, Julia, turned nine on Sunday. Hamilton promised her at breakfast that he would hit a home run for her, and he did just that. Hamilton hit his first home run of the spring with a two-run shot in the first inning. He also had a double in the third in going 2-for-3 on the day. He is 8-for-17 in the Cactus League after having to deal with a bruised left shoulder earlier in the month.

It broke a power outage problem the Rangers have been having lately. Josh Hamilton also had a double, too. Overall, the Rangers were shut down offensively this game, as we had just six hits. In a reversal of the way things have gone, four of the six hits were extra base hits (the three doubles and a home run).
Pitching wise, Colby Lewis started and pitched like OLD Colby Lewis. 3.1 innings, six hits, six earned runs. Was pretty bad.
Despite the bad pitching performance, we walked just one batter (Lewis).
Meh indeed.

The Rangers took their third game in a row to raise their overall record to 3-5-1 behind a very strong pitching performance overall. The Rangers shut out the Indians, 5-0 on Friday.
There were far more walks this game than usual by the Rangers this spring. In fact, there were more walks given up than hits. Five walks, four hits. None of it mattered really, as none of them scored.
Brandon McCarthy started, and went three spring innings, giving up just three hits. Darren Oliver tossed a perfect inning after that, followed by Luis Mendoza. Mendoza went three innings, gave up no hits, but two walks. Finally there was Guillermo Moscoso, who went two innings, giving up just one hit and two walks.
Offensively, we had twelve hits. Still no home runs. There were two doubles and a triple. In fact, Matt Brown was the best, as he went 2-3, with a double and a triple. Chris Davis had just one hit, but the hit raised his spring average to .522, which is really quite awesome looking. Be nice if holds a .300+ average when the games count. Nelson Cruz is raking, too, batting .421.