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Taking a mulligan on this one.

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.