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Quick – call Bud Selig! Expand spring training rosters, hold out pitchers or something. There was a tie! If we were playing the Brewers, I could get more mileage out of that.
Anyway, that really good feeling about Brandon McCarthy after the last start was pretty much squashed after he came out and pitched like Brandon McCarthy on Tuesday. His line shows 4.2 innings pitched, eight hits and three walks for six earned runs. That was a big pile of stink for sure. I still think he’s going to be better in 2009 than he has been since he got here, but that was not an encouraging outing. Of the eight hits he gave up, five of them were doubles, so he was getting smacked around a bit, it wasn’t just bloops and lucky falls. The rest of our pitching staff was pretty decent. Combined the four pitchers that followed McCarthy (Rupe, Turnbow, Wilson, Gobble) went 5.1 innings, gave up just five hits, and one run (Rupe), while walking nobody. Rupe did chime in with a wild pitch, however. I’m unclear if that led to a run or not, that’s not shown in the box score.
Offensively, we had fifteen hits, the highlights were a three run home run by Nelson Cruz, and a 2-3 with 2 RBI day by Satalamacchia. What I found interesting about this game was that of the nine guys we started the lineup with, every one of them was substituted for during the game, except for one. Andruw Jones started as DH and finished the game as DH. Everyone else who started didn’t finish the game. Find that amusing, I wonder if it’s a case “Please Andruw, catch fire, give us a reason to keep you on the roster”.
However, Michael Young leaving with an injury was not a good thing. He had to leave the game early with “an aggravated quadriceps” injury after the first inning. Ron Washington said that it was no big deal and that he’d be back Wednesday. If that was the case, why did you remove him at all then, if it’s “no big deal”. Something to keep an eye on.

Well, this game was on TV. That part was good. Not a lot else was. :)

The Rangers were shut out in this game through the first seven innings. In fact, through about four or so at the start, Randy Wolf was perfect. The Rangers managed just five hits in the whole game, and in true Rangers fashion, two of them were home runs. But before we got to that there was a whole lot of nothing. Our bad day at the plate was finally stopped in the top of the eighth when Chris Davis hit an opposite field wind aided home run. That broke the shuout. In the ninth, when we had guys with uniform numbers above 90 playing the game, Andy Fox jacked a two run home run on a pitch that seemed at the time to be eyeball level. Was a no doubter. Two home runs and a double accounted for 3/5 of our hits. We had nothing really, and it wasn’t even as close as 11-4 “seems”.

Going the other way, Josh Rupe, who seems to be on the way down the pecking order gave up a home run on his first pitch thrown. Flashbacks to Rick Helling and the home opener in 1998 there? There was for me. Our pitching could be summed up as bad. The only guy who didn’t give up a run was newly acquired Jimmy Gobble, who threw one scoreless frame. Everyone else seemed to suck from the fountain of well.. SUCK.

The big highlight was the inning of Vin Scully. That was pretty cool having Vin do an inning of broadcast. It’s amazing when you think this guy started broadcasting Dodger games back in Brooklyn in 1950. I mean wow. The guy’s 82, and while he does seem old, he doesn’t have that “old man” slow speech. In just that short inning, you can see why he’s such a gem. I kind of have that in Philly to a lesser degree with Harry Kalas, but Scully is really smooth. Enjoyed that. I wouldn’t mind them doing the same thing again when the Dodgers are in Arlington this summer.

One amusing play was a grounder down the third base side that Metcalf got going away. Threw across the diamond, and it resulted in Chris Davis with his rear end on the ground straddling first base. Was a funny play to see.

Day off on Monday – which was useful as I was backed up, and had to write about Saturday and Sunday’s games on Monday night.

Kevin Millwood didn’t get a win today, but pitched one of those “technical quality starts”. You know, six innings, three runs – a 4.50 ERA. In these six innings, he gave up five hits, three runs, and two homers. Not good. He did strike out five, but multiple homers is never really a good sign. I missed this game utterly, so I have no idea how he sounded, but the line is “meh”, even if it qualifies as a quality start.
Willie Eyre followed and had that fun line of “Blown Save” as well as the win.
Offensively, we played the Rockies to a 4-4 tie after six and a half innings. The big tie breaker was a grand slam by Chad Tracy in the bottom of the seventh. That won the game, and also closed out the scoring. That was the obvious highlight, but in all the Rangers had twelve hits, and only Jarrod Saltamacchia had more than one, although both of his were doubles. Speaking of doubles, the “Arlington Doubles Hit Parade” churned up and got going again. Seven of them in fact. Seven of our twelve hits were doubles. Nelson Cruz, Salty for two, Travis Metcalf, David Murphy, Chris Davis, & Andruw Jones all got into the two bagger.
Three of the doubles came against a pitcher that a few years back used to give us fits, but not so much anymore. Gustavo Chacin, then of the Toronto Blue Jays was a guy I never wanted to see pitch against us. Today though, he went 2.1 innings, gave up five hits, five earned runs, and walked four guys. Five hits and four walks in 2.1 innings is pretty atrocious.
Brandon Boggs & Joaquin Arias stole a base in this one.
Cruz and Arias also left five men on base, they didn’t have a lot of clutch.
Still, a win is a win, and it’s now six in a row. Nice to see, even if it doesn’t count.

The Rangers have now won five in a row, and are now in 3rd place in Cactus league play (out of 14 teams) with a 13-9 record. The did this behind an 11-5 pounding of the Colorado Rockies on Friday afternoon. Again, I was really busy with work, and couldn’t listen. Couldn’t even look at a box score, I didn’t know who won until the evening, right before I started watching the series finale of Battlestar Galactica.
But I digress. Let’s get the bad news. Michael Young had to come out of the game with a quad injury, and is expected to miss a couple of games. It’s probably not a serious threat, but you never want a star player to go out at all. Hope that all goes well. Before he left, he was doing well at the plate, going 2-2.
Nelson Cruz also jacked his fourth home run of the spring, completely pushing out Andruw Jones. Cruz was not the only guy with a home run. Forgotten man Frank Catalnotto had a three run jimmy jack. But it was again a doubles team, we had six of them. 15 hits in all, a d eight extra base hits. That’s the Rangers for ya.
Matt Harrison started this one and was ok. Five innings, five hits, two runs and two walks. Nothing to really write home about, but there has been a lot worse. Another inning and it would have been a pretty decent outing. Overall, the pitching waspretty decent, although no performance really stands out. But I’ll take that over godawful like we’ve had a lot over the last decade or so.
I entered this entry through my new iPod Touch. While you can do it if you want, it’s a bit of a pain in the… I can’t recommend blog posts this way. :)

This game started off poorly. Kris Benson started the game, and went four innings, giving up five hits and a walk. This lead to four earned runs on his slate. All in the first inning. So we were in an immediate hole. A feeling Rangers fans should be used to, unfortunately.
Offensively we brought it back in the third with a six spot of our own. That was enough to win the game, actually right there. It reminds me of something a friend of mine said a few years back. That was he doesn’t mind lots of offense, but he prefers it be balanced out, and not in bombs like that. He said 12-9 games don’t bother him, but when you get like a 2-2-1-3-1 type of deal, not a 9 and a 3. Anyway, we had twelve hits in all, and the hits were pretty balanced. Everyone had just one, except Omar Vizquel who I think had his best day of the spring, going 3-5 with a run and an RBI. One of Omar’s hits was a double. We had two more of those (Murphy & B Harrison) as well as a triple (Boggs), and a home run (Marlon Byrd).
Byrd is doing pretty well, and has apparently pushed out Andruw Jones, as some quotes came out saying that Jones would not be added to our roster by Friday (first out day for him).
Yesterday and today were busy days for me at work, I didn’t even get to box score watch this game, and I probably shouldn’t be taking the time to write this little bit, but I didn’t want to take two mulligans in a row. That’s for an 8 or 9 game losing streak in August (which I hope doesn’t happen, mind you).

Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. I’m afraid to admit it after so many years of so many failed attempts at this… But I’m starting to get excited about Brandon McCarthy again. Today he was darn near perfect in the game against the Padres.
Brandon went four innings, gave up NO HITS, two walks, and struck out three. His spring ERA is (I believe) now at 1.80 and is 2-0. According to the radio guys, the only reason he came out at all was that other pitchers needed to get work, and Brandon continued to work down in the bullpen. I have a good feeling. Granted, being a Rangers fan having a good feeling about a pitcher can mean jack, but man it feels good, doesn’t it?
Josh Hamilton went 3-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Two of his hits were doubles, and he sounded good on the radio. Ian Kinsler also went 3-3 with two runs scored.
Joaquin Arias went 1-2 and kept his batting average at at stupid high rate (.522). Funny thing is it’s not as high as Adam Melhuse’s which is sitting at .615! Obviously that won’t stay, but it’s always amusing to see gaudy numbers like that.
Nelson Cruz got it going early with a three run home run in a part of the game I didn’t get to hear due to work. Cruz appears to have pushed out Andruw Jones, I can’t see where Jones fits now especially with Cruz doing so well.
Willie Eyre also threw a scoreless inning, striking out two in his comeback from Tommy John.
Nice to see such a dominating performance by Brandon McCarthy. Hopefully my saying he is the key a couple of days ago in a season preview was what he needed. :) hahahahaha

Time for another mulligan. Too busy at work today.