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I didn’t get to hear the start of this game, I came in right as Chan Ho Park was coming out. From the looks of the reports here, I didn’t miss much. While he didn’t give up 618 runs, he did give up 4 earned runs (5 total), which wasn’t stellar, it’s an ERA around 9 or so. Chan Ho also had a wild pitch and a hit batter. Not a whole lot positive to say here. The rest of our pitching (Almanzar, Nelson, Shouse, Mahay) was pretty good, going 4 innings giving up 3 hits and one run. All told, we had 10 strikeouts (5 by Park, 5 by everyone else). K’s are good sign.

Offensively something happened that hadn’t happened yet this spring. Home runs. We had four of them, which is the most we’ve had in a game so far. The HR probably won’t be as prevalent as it used to be in our offense this year. Chicks aren’t the only ones who dig long balls. Other highlights were Soriano’s hitting streak getting to 13 games. Mike Young has a .382 on base percentage for the spring batting leadoff.

It was a see-saw game until we finally took the lead for good in the eighth with a solo shot by Jason Conti. Was kind of surprised that Cordero didn’t come in for the save.

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I was working out in the yard tilling dirt and pulling weeds while listening to the game. It was gorgeous out yesterday, so having a Ranger game on the radio made it a really nice afternoon – I didn’t mind working in the dirt. :)

When it started, I thought we were going to get destroyed by another former Ranger pitcher. Jeff Fassero was starting this game for Colorado. In fact, there were several former Rangers in this game for Colorado. Fassero, Royce Clayton, & Todd Greene. The Rocks even have Benji Gil in their camp this year. :) Anyway, when we went behind, I wasn’t thrilled – but the one run we gave up was the only one (although it was close a little later in the game).

It was a nice smooth game – no major outbursts by either side (like 7 runs in an inning or something like that). A friend of mine once said, I don’t mind 15-1 games, but I prefer them to get the 15 2 runs here, three there, one that inning – not 13 in a bunch in one inning. I can see his feeling somewhat (while a 13 spot can be fun). It makes the game more even keel. That’s what happened here. We scored our 6 in the middle three innings. We should have had more, as we lost a couple of home run balls to the wind.

Was a nice pitched game, although Jay Powell gave up 3 walks in less than two innings – never good.

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Ugh.

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No commentary from me – but it was nice to see a crooked number in the linescore. ;)

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Glendon Rusch continues to pitch his way into the plans for the season. He’s done very well this spring, and yesterday’s outing was no different. He went 4 innings, giving up just a lone run on 4 hits. He only struck out one, but he walked no one. In fact, none of our pitchers walked anyone the entire day – which is a big shocker. There’s also an article about Rusch on the Rangers site here. While I’m all for a pitcher that can do well for us pitching, Rusch is a non roster invite which means he’d have to be added to the 40 man roster. That means of course dropping someone. Unless some of our “won’t play” players (like Rusty Greer) haven’t already been moved to the 60 day DL. Don’t know. I’ll ask Jamey Newberg, he might know.

Rusch gave up the only run of the day, as I said before. The other pitchers we used (Powell, Cordero, Shouse, Mahay), all gave up no runs, with no walks, and on a total of only two hits (both by Powell). Was an extremely well pitched game.

Offensively, Michael Young is the star of the game. He went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI’s, and 2 runs scored. He also stole a base, too. In fact, we had four stolen bases yesterday (Young, E Young, Soriano, and Laird (!)). That’s uncharacteristic of the Rangers. Although with most of our big boppers gone from the team now, that might be something we see more often. Speaking of Laird, he too had another great day, going 2 for 3, scoring twice. He keeps that up, and the current talk of trading Einar Diaz somewhere will probably be more than just talk.

One nice side point is that we did this all against Greg Maddux. All 6 runs came against a Hall of Fame pitcher. Gotta love that.

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This was another game where I couldn’t pay very good attention to it, as I was busy doing work while the game was on. However, looking at the scores, I didn’t really miss much. Odd, as the parts I listened to didn’t seem all that bad, really. :)

You always expect to give up a ton of runs in spring training. It’s distressing when your opening day starter does that. Rogers gave up 7 runs (6 earned) on 10 hits over 3.1 innings. Not good. John Wasdin (is he still here?) gave up three more over his one inning of work. Three other pitchers pitched (none of which I expect to stick) – Williams, Almanzar, & Mabeus giving up one run amongst all three of ’em.

Offensively, we picked up a few runs, including some more home runs (which seem to be a missing thing so far this spring). Fullmer went 3 for 4 and Blalock went 2 for 4. However, the start of the day was Rod Barajas, who I might expect to make the club as a backup with Laird going to AAA for the season (unless of course Diaz is traded). Barajas went 3 for 4 with a HR, a triple, 4 RBI’s, and 2 runs scored. Great day for him.

I think after this weekend, I’ll be ready for the real thing. My season tickets arrived Monday, and I have my games planned out. I’m going to get to the “Oh come on, let’s start it” feeling. We do however have two games on TV the final week of spring training, and 4 games on the radio next week, so things will pick up a bit.

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