The Rangers got behind quickly in this game. They were down 3-0 in the first inning on the strength of a three run home run by Kevin Kouzmanoff. However, that shot was the only runs the A’s got the whole game. After that, the A’s were kept off the board. In the first, there were only two hits (a double and the HR). After that, the A’s had just five more hits total spread out over 8.1 innings. And all of those were singles. No more extra base hits. So overall, I’d say this was a good pitching performance by the Rangers. The overall line certainly shows that.
Offensively, we got back quickly – in the top of the second, we got two back on a two run home run by Taylor Teagarden. Two more in the top of the third on a two run single by Mitch Moreland. Added another on a Esteban German single in the fifth, and finally our last run came in the ninth on a small ball sequence of events (single, walk, bunt, fielder’s choice).
Arthur Rhodes continues to impress so far this spring. While it’s a rather small sample, I’m far more pleased to see him get off to a start this way than the other way, which usually is followed up by “Well, I was working on some pitches”. Yeah, I know spring is the time for that, but you don’t want to HEAR it. Even in games that don’t count, you’d rather have your guys do well, then resort to spring training “explanations”. :)
We’re now 5-2 in the spring. Great start!

The second of the day’s two split squad games was in Mesa against the Cubs.
It had Michael Young playing his original position with the team, second base. Got a hit and a walk. Raised his spring batting average to .625! ;)
Both teams sported a four spot on the line score. The Cubs went up first, scoring a run against Rangers starter Derek Holland. Derek only went two innings, and gave up three hits and a run, but that was it. OK outing. Darren Oliver followed up with a perfect frame.
Then Tanner Scheppers. Great prospect. Not today, though. Five hits and two walks in 0.2 innings. Four earned runs. Bleargh. Pretty awful. Most of the rest of the relievers were pretty good, except Tateyama, who gave up four hits and two runs in his 1.2 innings pitched. Overall, I’d say the pitching was OK with moments of “Ugh”. Again, a pretty typical early spring performance.
The Rangers four spot came in the sixth, but not all the runs were earned. Error, Walk, wild pitch, then a three run home run by Mitch Moreland were the way this was mostly done. It was Moreland’s first home run of the spring.
We took the lead finally in the 8th when we were up against former Ranger Thomas Diamond. After a single, and a walk, David Paisano tripled, scoring two. That was the win there. We put up an insurance run in the 9th, which was important, as we tried giving the game back in the bottom of the ninth, but fortunately hung on for the win.
After the two split squad wins, the Rangers spring record is now 4-2. So far, so good.

Today the Rangers played two games, split squad games home and away. This game is the “primary” game to me. Mostly because it was played at home. And it had Eric Nadel on the mlb.com webcast. I listened to about half of it, and then had some real life stuff to do (talk to mother, pick up kid from school, etc)..
The big deal with this game was that Neftali Feliz was starting. Although to be honest, this early in spring, the “slot” that a pitcher appears isn’t nearly as much of a concern. Even starters go just two innings, so having Feliz go two isn’t a huge stretch for him. Still, there’s some “status” at a pitcher “starting”, even this early in spring. His stats for the game aren’t bad at all. 2IP, 36P, 9 batters, 2 hits one walk, no runs, no strikeouts. Actually, while the bottom line numbers don’t look bad, he was a bit wobbly. However, first “start” jitters, early spring performance. Don’t put much weight in the numbers either way – but you never want to see “wobbly”. I still think he ends up in the bullpen as the closer, as it makes things so much easier that way in terms of the overall roster layout. Feliz was a great closer last year, if we move him into the rotation, it’s unknown for him, and we’d have an unknown at a closer. I’d rather take a question mark as a starter, as it’s just one unknown, not two.
We continued to show the power this game, with five doubles and three home runs. But the biggest power show here was Chris Davis. Clearly the best offensive performance of the game (on either side). Crush went 3-5, scoring twice, and had 3 RBI’s. He’s fallen behind in the pecking order for the most part, and with the influx of recent signees (Napoli, Beltre) as well as Michael Young, he’s now blocked in a few places, too. He’ll need to sustain this kind of performance to worm his way back into the plans of the big club, as I don’t see a spot for him – he starts in AAA this year, barring injury to someone.
This moving of Chris Davis from third to first back to third reminds me of the ping-ponging there was with Mark Teixeira very early on his career. Be nice if Crush can pick it up and end up like Teixeira. I know a few female friends who would like it if he stuck around. :)

Hi Vic!
This is a game that was on the radio (well, XM Radio), but I didn’t get a chance to listen much, as I was bouncing around running errands. My wife had an appt with some doctors for our son, then I had to go pick up my daughter from school. Then the four of us hung out in a playground near my daughter’s school for awhile. Was a nice afternoon. It did keep me from listening to much of the game at all, though. We need TiVo for radio still! Gah!!
Anyway, the two biggest points of this game are the powersticks came out in force today. Also, Tommy Hunter looked pretty good. First the Big Game Hunter…
Tommy went two innings (pretty standard for early March), and threw 22 pitches to 7 batters. Struck out two, walked nobody, and gave up just one hit. Looked pretty efficient, and you get the feeling that he could have kept going at this point. But again, March 2nd. That’s not the time to stretch out your pitchers. Maybe three next time.
Relievers didn’t fare nearly as well. There were seven of them. Relievers 1-4 all gave up runs. I didn’t hear any of those, to be honest. The only one I “heard” pitch was the last one, Pedro Strop, who only threw eight pitches to four batters. He allowed a hit, but no damage. He sounded sharp. Even the Angels broadcasters I was listening to thought the same thing.
The power was four longballs along with a double. The home runs were David Murphy, Ian Kinsler, Chad Tracy, and David Deeds. That was Murphy’s first of the spring.
This win gets us back to .500 for the season. Thursday is a pair of split squad games.

This was a game there was no broadcast for. No radio, no TV, and no mlb webcast, either. In the dark. Except for the twitter guys. That was the closest to a broadcast we got. But I couldn’t hang around the computer when this game was on.
The Rangers didn’t have a ton of power this game. In all, we had 10 hits, only two were doubles. And both of those were by guys I didn’t know (Jose Felix & Brian Barden). Everything else (save for two walks) was a single. We had a two spot in the third, which briefly put us up in the game (2-1 at the time). Barden’s double was the only “big” hit in the third. The others were singles, a bunt, and a groundout RBI – small ball there for sure.
The other two spot came in the 9th when we were mounting a comeback, but couldn’t complete the job. That two spot was a bit more bang bang in that it was a walk, a double, and then a single, scoring two. Just couldn’t get across the finish line.
I did see a clip of Arthur Rhodes on TV pitching from this game, and the clips they showed made him look quite good. His line was quite good. One inning, only faced three batters, struck two of them out on a total of nine pitches. If he can sustain that all season, it will have been a great move.
Other than that, most the of the pitching lines were OK. Four guys gave up runs – three guys did not. Of the four that gave up runs, only one is likely to be on the club (Matt Harrison), and he only gave up one. I know one of the others (Brett Tomko), and the others, nope, can’t help you there.
Hard to write a lot of unique stuff on just a box score, because as I’m writing this two days later, the link to the game summary story on mlb.com is coming up as a blank page!

I was in and out on this game yesterday. I had forgotten it started – I wasn’t yet in the habit of remembering game times during the season. it was after all only Game 2. :)
I started listening when picking up my kid from school, and it was 0-0 going into the third at that time. It was at that point that the sloppy bullpen play started. Colby Lewis pitched the first two innings, and while he was not sharp, he got the job done, and put up zeroes. Of the six relievers the Rangers threw out there, only one of them put up a zero. That was Corey Young in the 8th.
Michael Kirkman was first out. He gave up a three spot pretty darned quickly. But he then got out of the inning just as quickly. Darren Oliver gave up three as well, as did Zack Jackson later on. Three spots all over the place. But it was a sloppy game. Despite there being only three errors, it felt like about a dozen. Yeah, second game of spring, and subs and all that play into it for sure, but man. What a mess.
We had six doubles, a triple, and two home runs. We had five guys with two hits, the rest were singles scattered around the lineup. Definitely a sloppy game on both sides, but it’s not anything I haven’t said before. 25 hits and 23 runs don’t allow for commentary that talk about “crisp” performances. :)
Due to helping out with family duties at the time, I got to listen to the game partially on my computer, partially in the car on XM Radio, partially on my iPad cleaning up dishes. Was hart to focus on what was going on for sure.

Well, the Rangers 2011 campaign started with the first game of the season, a loss to the Royals. I wasn’t able to listen to any of this game. Mostly because this was a webcast game, and I couldn’t be tied to the computer. I could listen on my iPhone or iPad or something, but something different came up for me. My daughter and I ended up spending the day together after we got home from church. It was a fun day with her, and I wanted to do that more than listen to a webcast game. :)
Pitching wise, things were OK from what I see in the box. No glaringly ugly lines (like someone with an era around 80.00). Of the four runs the Royals got, two were unearned. Only two Rangers pitchers (CJ Wilson & Dave Bush) threw more than an inning (two each). Everyone else (Mark Lowe, Tanner Scheppers, Tateyama, Tucker & Strip) were just one inning each. Combined, the entire staff gave up just six hits, but it was well put together, as it was coupled with four walks to allow the four runs the Royals got.
Offensively, we had just seven hits and three walks. Nobody had more than one hit, and only one player had a hit and a walk. Our only runs came on a two run home run by a guy by the name of Doug Deeds in the sixth (don’t know him).
But as I said, can’t have a ton of insight into this one. I do plan on listening Monday, as it’s the 2011 debut of Eric Nadel!

And so it begins. Well, sort of. Today was an intersquad game. Doesn’t count in the spring training standings or stats, but it’s the first baseball the Rangers have played since losing to the Giants in early November.
We got a box score for the game, there were reports from the game (1 | 2), but it was’t broadcast anywhere. Did see some footage on MLB Network, though. Where’d they get that? Film it themselves? I would have liked to have seen that anyway.
I’m not going to get into player reports, you can read the reports from the guys who get paid to do this. I’ll write once the games are “real”. :)
There’s another one of these Friday. Not sure what they’re doing Saturday, but the first game is Sunday (the charity game), and then the first broadcast game is Monday. Looking forward to that.