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No commentary due to me being sick – don’t remember much about this game 2 days later. :)

No commentary due to me being sick – don’t remember much about this game 3 days later. :)

Got to listen to most of this game over the Internet via mlb.com while I was at work, as they carried the Rays radio coverage. Was pretty funny to hear Eric Nadel there, as he was a “guest” on the Rays coverage, he talked mostly about Hank Blalock. I suspect Blalock will start at third, unless he completely falls apart the next two weeks. Question is, do we keep Mike Lamb? If we could trade Lamb and the guy we just got yesterday for Justin Duchscherer for a decent middle of the rotation guy (someone from Baltimore? They need a young third baseman), it could work. Anyway, back to this game..
Dave Burba sounded decent here. He wasn’t dominating (although it took less than 10 pitches his last inning of work), but he did have a good line. 6IP, 1ER, and only two hits. A good performance there. Rocker gave up a home run, and didn’t look all that good, but Powell & Miceli weren’t bad either. Overall, a good pitching day.
Was really nice to see us win in the bottom of the 9th with a HR by Gabe Kapler. I really hope we can find a way to make our outfield situation work, as I don’t want to lose Kapler. Speaking of that, Carl Everett played DH today in a major league game and went 1 for 4. I suspect he’ll be ready, but will be treated gingerly at the start. Can’t wait for the start of the season – less than two weeks now!

Ugh. Four in a row. They can’t make up their minds, can they? 6 straight wins, then 4 straight losses. No fun.
Didn’t get to listen to the game, plus work combined for no commentary from me today.

This game started off great – the first batter (Ranger Jason Romano led off the game with a home run), the rest was pretty much blah. The opening home run was our only offense of the game, and our pitching again was “eh”.
Hidecki Irabu once again just pitched “OK”. Didn’t exactly suck, but didn’t set the world on fire, either. A pretty boring game for a Ranger fan, actually. :)

I was busy doing house stuff this afternoon, and totally forgot this game was on until there was about 5 minutes left. Oh well, didn’t miss much – we lost for the second day in a row.
In looking at the scores, it was a tight game, but mostly because of Arod’s grand slam. Todd Van Poppel’s line was the worst of the pitchers we used. Rocker looked pretty unimpressive too, but I’m not worried – yet. We did have another HR, one by Herb Perry.
Found it interesting that Rob Bell was sent down today. I know he’s not lighting the world on fire, but I find it surprising that this happened – figure if he was to be sent down, it would be late in camp.

This game can be summed up by just pointing the finger at two players. Vincente Padilla & Hank Blalock. Padilla because he pitched quite well for the Phillies, and Blalock for providing our offense with a two run hr in the 5th (yeah, we scored one in the 9th, but it was really over by then).
I follow the Phils too, and I was aware of Padilla (he came over in the Curt Schilling trade), but he certainly sounded good on the radio. As I have the MLB Extra Innings package on DirecTV this year, I’ll probably get to see a few Phillies games. Anyway, he shut us down except for a monster home run by Blalock.
In listening to the game, I don’t recall us doing anything really bad to deserve 8 runs scored against us. However, I was driving around at the time and went in and out of several stores, so I did miss a few minutes here and there. Anyway, after the big run of the last week, I suppose a loss here and there isn’t too bad for the soul, eh? :)

The wins keep coming. We’re now 12-3, we’ve won 6 in a row (actually, there’s a tie game in the middle of that), and we’re rolling along well in spring training. Seems the only questions are:
Who will be our starters past Park / Rogers / Davis – and who will open the season at third? Lamb is OK, but his defense is still suspect. I suspect it will still be Lamb, but whether he lasts the year is another question.
This game was long ball. It was being covered by MLB.com’s MLB radio folks – although they cut out in the middle of the game to cover the Cubs / Giants game – Grrr… They read an email of mine on the air, too! If you were listening, I was the one who asked about Arod’s salary). Longballs from Greer, Raffy, & Kevin Mench accounted for 4 of the 6 runs we got, and Rusty had a great day with a single, double, and a home run. Dave Burba pitched well, as did Rudy Seanez. Jeremi Gonzalez did not, but he’s a kid, so I’m not gonna harp too much on that.
Can’t wait for opening day – now only a couple of weeks away! :)