Rangerfans.com

You are here: Home / Archives for 2012 Game Recaps

G10: Rangers sweep Twins with 4-3 win

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_15_texmlb_minmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

The Rangers pulled off something they’ve never done before.   Sweep a series against the Twins in Target Field.  We’d been pretty bad up there until this 2012 season.  They did it coming from behind as well.  Coming from behind with power.

The game started off with Neftali Feliz on the hill for the Rangers, and Liam Hendriks (who?) for the Twins.   Feliz was “ok”, going five innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits and two walks.  Not great of course, but not horrendous.  Left with 93 pitches after five, so that part wasn’t good.  Given he walked just two, that many pitches means a lack of control, but “effectively wild”.

Hendriks did much better, allowing just one run and NO walks over his six innings of work.  Allowed seven hits, but they thew out Adrian Beltre at home, and had a double play which helped out in that regard.

Still, the Rangers ended up with the win… [Read more…]

G9: Darvish better, but not great in 6-2 Rangers win

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_14_texmlb_minmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Yu Darvish takes the hill for his second start of the season, and his first on the road.  His first inning in this game was lightyears better than his first inning in his first game.    In his first game he threw 40+ pitches, faced 10 batters, and gave up four runs.  This game wasn’t anything like that.  His first inning he had a ground out, a fly out, a single, and a strike out.  That was it.   In fact, the first run he gave up wasn’t even his fault; it was unearned.

But, he was still a bit shaky.  Overall, his line was 5.2IP, 9H, 4BB, 2R, 1ER, and four strikeouts (102 pitches).  Not dominating by any stretch, but he was definitely dancing the tightrope. There were many times when it looked (yeah, I could see this one!) like he was going to fall off the wagon, and he didn’t.  One earned run in 5.2 innings isn’t that bad at all.  If this was a rookie (a real one, not one of these fake rookies that have years in Japanese ball) making his first starts, I’d probably be excited at the line.  But with the expectations (not to mention the paycheck), one expects more of Yu Darvish.  In the end, I expect he’ll be worth it, but right now, he’s still getting his feet wet, so to speak.   I would love for him to go out there, throw 8+ innings on 75-80 pitches, walk one, strike out 15 or so, and allow no runs on just two hits.  I think that’s the kind of line that will satiate some fans, nothing else would matter. [Read more…]

G8: Harrison’s groundball was working; Rangers win 4-1

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_13_texmlb_minmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

The Rangers hit the road for the first time in 2012, taking the show to the other parks.  Matt Harrison takes the hill in Target Field, a place that’s been pretty bad for the Rangers – we’ve only one once before tonight in the two seasons the place has been open to this point.   Matt went out there and did darned well, kept the streak of good starting pitching going.

Matt went eight innings, and quite easily, too.  Allowed seven hits and two walks, but he had his groundball working, which served him well.  Had a couple of double plays, and overall just had a bunch of groundballs.  He looked great.   Left the game with 111 pitches thrown, and at the time, there was discussion on TV about letting him come back out for the ninth.  He didn’t, but I would have liked to have seen him go for the complete game, to be honest. [Read more…]

G7: Rangers win on Thursday, 5-3 over Seattle

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_12_seamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Holland goes 7.1, allowing just two runs, getting the win.

Michael Young gets a home run.

Ian Kinsler & Michael Young both get three hits.

Two doubles, by Torrealba & Kinsler.

Kinsler also stole his first base of the season.  As did Adrian Beltre.

Rangers are 5-2 and in first place.  Nice way to finish up the last game of the first homestand.

G6: Nathan blows another; Rangers lose 4-3

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_11_seamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

For awhile, I thought we were going to get two straight games that were 1-0 wins.  This game started out that way after the first run was plated in inning one by a Hamilton double and a Michael Young single.   It stayed that way for quite some time.   Colby Lewis was dealing – went 6.2 innings of shutout ball.  The Rangers were up 1-0 the entire time he was on the hill.  It wasn’t until the bottom of the seventh when some more runs scored.

The Mariners had pulled their starter (more on him later), and was replaced by Steve Delabar.  Who appeared to get the job done, and then hung one to Ian Kinsler who whalloped it over the left field wall to put us up 2-0.   What’s more surprising about this was the next at bat.  Was Elvis Andrus, who was battling until he too hit a home run to left center.  A home run for Elvis is not exactly a common occurrence.   This put us up 3-0 after seven.  Feeling good. [Read more…]

G5: Feliz comes through as starter; we win 1-0

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_10_seamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

1-0 wins don’t happen very often at Rangers Ballpark.  There was some dialogue during the game about how infrequent it was.  I know the 2012 edition of the Rangers is supposed to be all about the pitching, but even with that, one doesn’t expect 1-0 games at Rangers ballpark.  That just doesn’t happen.  But it did.  The starter that I had the least confidence in going into this season took the hill; Neftali Feliz.   After what could kindly be called a rocky spring training for him, he went out there and pitched like I hoped he would, but didn’t actually expect would happen. [Read more…]

G4: Rangers survive Darvish nightmare inning, win 11-5

Posted by on at

I was at this game, it was the first of the season for me.  I’ll be honest, I went because Yu Darvish was pitching.  I was sitting in Section 208 out over the left field wall, so I couldn’t get a good closeup view of what Darvish was throwing – but I WAS there.  That was the point.  I’m figuring somewhere down the line, Darvish will end up being a stud, and I wanted to say I was there for his first game.  And not be lying about it, unlike the half a million people who will say they were there and weren’t.   I got there early, as I was set to retake my photos for my seat selector feature here on my site.   That took me from just when gates opened at 5PM until about 6:40PM when I finally finished.   During that time, I got a handle on what Darvish mania was like.

[Read more…]

G3: Harrison and Rangers shut out Sox, 5-0

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_08_chamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap#gid=2012_04_08_chamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

This is another game that tested my ability to avoid the game score.  This was a Sunday night ESPN game, which meant I couldn’t see it.  I was gonna watch it on mlb.tv after the recap became available.  Something I didn’t know is that the ESPN Sunday night exclusive also controls when the recap will be available – even when the game is actually OVER.   Apparently, the Sunday night game can’t be replayed until 90 minutes after the game actually ends.  Which for this game meant I wasn’t able to start watching the game until about 11:57PM.  That is an incredibly late time to start a game – even though I was able to skip the commercials quite quickly.  mlb.tv game archives have the start of each top/bottom of an inning marked as a “chapter” (of sorts).   So when the last out is made, I just hit the right trigger on my Xbox 360 controller, and it goes straight to the next pitch.  That’s nice.   Anyway, I started watching, and got through about an hour or so, and had to stop around 1:10AM, as I was falling asleep.  Came back to the game in the morning, and finished watching around 8:15AM.  heh.  Had some contracters coming to do touchup work on a carpet install, so I had to hang around, but not get into anything, as I had to deal with the contractors.

Anyway, about the game… [Read more…]

G2: Rangers lose 3-2 on Nathan HR

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_07_chamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

So starts the list of games I can’t see.  “Watched” this one on mlb at bat on the computer, since I couldn’t watch it on TV.  Listened to (most of) the radio broadcast.  It sounded to me like Derek Holland was a bit all over the place.

He technically was given a quality start, but let’s face it.  Six innings pitched, three earned runs (ERA of 4.50) barely qualifies.  Men far more erudite than me on the subject of baseball stats have argued that one, so I won’t go into extreme detail.   But Holland didn’t help himself with three walks over his six innings.   His overall line was six innings pitched, three hits, three earned runs, three walks, and five strikeouts.   Holland was a bit wobbly early on, but settled down after the Sox did their scoring against him, and put up three zeroes in the 4th through 6th innings.   Derek exited with 93 pitches, which for six innings was only three over the recommended limit, so he probably could have gone again.  Perhaps it was a gut feeling by Wash, or a “Hey, it’s his first outing, we’ll keep the count down a little” type of thing.  [Read more…]

G1: Rangers take the first one, 3-2

Posted by on at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2012_04_06_chamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap#gid=2012_04_06_chamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Here’s the official short recap of the game.

Ian Kinsler homered, Michael Young drove in the go-ahead run and Colby Lewis struck out nine over six innings to lift the Rangers to an Opening Day win. Chicago’s Adam Dunn tied a Major League record with his eighth home run in a season opener.

That sentence doesn’t do justice to it.  A little short story before I get to game stuff.  As I’ve mentioned the last few days, I was somewhat annoyed that the opening day was on Fox Sports only, and not on free TV like it has been for bloody ages.  Found out earlier this week that Ch 21 was going to replay the game at 7PM, so the challenge becomes avoiding the score until then – which isn’t easy in this totally connected world.  I did manage to do that, and around 5:40PM I noticed that mlb.tv had a replay of the game, so I started watching then.   Wish I didn’t have to do that, but I don’t really want to pay for cable TV anymore either – I’ve gotten quite used to regular broadcast TV, with a few expections (FSSW & Rangers plus MLBN).  Anyway, on to the game… [Read more…]