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Another spring first.  Joe Nathan makes his spring debut.   But before they got to him, Justin Grimm continues to show that his debut last year was his best game, as he got knocked around a lot in this one.  Which seems to be the story every time I write about him anymore.   Let’s put it this way.  This early in the spring, pitchers don’t get taken out mid inning.  Grimm did.  2.1 IP, 6H, 2BB, 6ER, 4K, 2HR.  Not good.  His ERA is 18.69. [Read more…]

The Rangers are now 1-1 in March, which seems much better than their overall crappy record so far this spring. :)

Matt Harrison took the hill, which was no surprise. Lance Berkman led off for the Rangers, which WAS a surprise. I know, it’s early in spring, and people do different things. It’s early for Lance, and he needs to test his battle worn body to see if ti will hold up. It’s not like a rehab game where he gets to lead off every inning, but putting him at the #1 spot will get him some more action than his likely normal spot. [Read more…]

In a game that featured a home run and four doubles, the Rangers managed a total of nine hits for six runs.  Not a bad efficiency rating.  However, our usual spring training nemesis came back to bit us.  That’s the “Guys who have no chance of actually making the club do us in”.   That happens a lot in Spring Training.  It happened here this game, too.

Mitch Moreland’s home run was a highlight.  I liked that.   Michael Kirkman’s outing was quite nice – I say he has a good chance to make the club when we break.   Beyond that, not a ton to write about.   Plus I’m a dozen or so games behind in writing these anyway.  :)

The last game of February brought the first win of the Rangers young season.   They’re now 1-5-1.   What a powerhouse!

Seriously though – the Rangers pitching was pretty good here.  The Rangers used six pitchers in all, and combined, they only allowed five total hits.  And all five of those came with the first two pitchers.  The remaining guys (Robertson, Woods, Beliveau, & Yan) all threw scoreless frames.  [Read more…]

That’s two games in two days against the White Sox.  Two losses in a row to the White Sox.  While this one wasn’t as bad as yesterday’s game, we still gave up eight runs, and well, LOST.

Alexi Ogando technically got the loss, but he wasn’t awful.  He gave up just two runs, but both were unearned.  Robbie Ross gave up two earned runs, and Colin Balester gave up FOUR in his inning.  So yeah, bleargh on pitching for the most part.

The Rangers had eight hits in all.  A good game for the slugging percentage, that’s for sure.   Four doubles and a triple.   That will help that stat.  :)   Only Jeff Baker had more than one hit (two, one was a double).

It’s Feb 27th, but man – enough with the losses already.

Well, this can be summed up quickly.  Yu Darvish was good.  Not much else was.

Darvish went two innings, throwing perfect ball.  Struck out two, throwing just 28 pitches.

By contrast, Cody Buckel had a bizarre line.  0.1 IP, 0H, 5BB, 6R, 4ER.     Evan Meek also gave up five earned runs in his fraction of an inning.

Olt had a home run, but that’s the most exciting thing to talk about offensively.

Next, please.

The Rangers are still winless this spring with a record of 0-3-1 after a big loss to the Rockies on Monday.   In other news, the Cleveland Indians are 5-0.  Guess those big signings of Nick Swisher & Michael Bourn are paying off.  Or it’s Tito.  But I digress.  I’m also tired and pumped full of decongestant, so my head is a bit weird tonight.   :)    Back to the Rangers.   When you have a loss like 9-1, you have to go digging for the positives usually.   Which means trawling the box score and the beat writers’ coverage as again this was a no broadcast game. [Read more…]

Well, I had forgotten this was on, and I was starting work. When I realized I missed the start of the game, I put on the MLB Gameday app, as this was one of those “no broadcast” games during the spring. Well, it was being broadcast by the Kansas City broadcasters, and after having listened to them a few times in the past couple of years, I decided to go no audio and have the game on MLB Gameday only. I thought I would have missed a lot more than I did, but then I saw what happened early… [Read more…]

Tried to pay attention to this game, but I’ve come down with some sickness since yesterday, and it sapped my energy.  Given I had to watch my kids, I didn’t have enough going on upstairs to watch them, and focus on the game.  Heck, I fell asleep twice when the game was on!   This will be a box score recap, since I barely saw just a few minutes of the game on my iPad… [Read more…]

Spring training started back up on Friday afternoon (seems to be Fridays a lot), and with it brought the sound of Eric Nadel coming out of my radio (although for this game it was my computer speakers).   I’m not going to try and describe that.  If you’re reading this post, then you know what I’m talking about.    [Read more…]