Rangerfans.com

First off, what was with Fox Sports Southwest last night? At least here in Garland, I was shown the Astros Cubs game. Everything said it was to be FSS, but the Astros game was on there. What’s more annoying was that it was also on ESPN, too! CRAP! I suspect someone was asleep at the wheel either at FSS or my cable company and was showing the wrong feed. At least I got to hear it, but I was all ready to watch the game. Grrrr….
Mark Clark started the game off well, I thought he was going to repeat what Sele had done the night before. It went that way until the fourth. Actually, if you count all three games played so far, the Rangers held the Tigers scoreless for 15 innings, as they didn’t score in the final three of the opening day fiasco, either. Clark gave up two home runs, which seemed to be his undoing. I didn’t think he was all that bad, but he didn’t do as good as Sele did last night. Still, it’s only his first game, I’m not gonna blast him yet. Crabby, though, is not pitching very well so far. Tonight it was no outs, and three earned runs. At this rate, he might end up back in the minors, and we could bring up Zimmerman (Jim says more or less the same thing below). Mike Morgan continued to impress, but he may be hurt now (as is Clayton, too). It ended up that Mark Clark got the win, his 10th different club he got a win for. There was some talk on the radio that a ball might go to the Hall of Fame with the hat that went there from opening day.
Raffy finally hit a home run (would have been nice to see it, FSS!), and our offense just kept battling back. Was nice to see a come from behind win, and to hang on to it, even though some of our pitching was trying to give the Tigers the game. Lee Stevens had another great night, pushing four runs across the plate. Also, Todd Zeile had another good night with two doubles. One run last night was a gift – you always like to see bases loaded with a 3-0 count on your batter. Yup, we got the free pass. Only thing more embarrassing than that would be a bases loaded balk. :)
The Tigers look much improved over last year so far, and I’d like them to have some success this year (just not enough so it’s a problem for the Rangers). :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers’ offense brought out the big bats Wednesday to thrash the Tigers, 10-7. The Boys from Arlington pounded out 18 hits including 6 doubles and a home run.
Starter Mark Clark pitched well for three innings then completely lost control of the ball game. His line stats were similar to Rick Helling’s on Monday but not quite as bad. He still gave up 2 homers, 2 bases on balls and 2 wild pitches, not to mention the 4 earned runs and 6 hits in a span of 1.1 innings.
Fortunately, the Rangers were bailed out again by Mike Morgan, who’s sweaty cap was recently turned over to Cooperstown. He pitched brilliantly, inducing a double play ball on the first batter he faced in the fifth to clean up a messy Clark jam.
While the game was close at times, the Tigers’ bullpen just couldn’t stop the Rangers’ relentless hitting attack. The bats took on dimensions seldom seen last year, as the Rangers showcased the team’s newly-found (and 67% left-handed) power from designated hitter Rafael Palmeiro, first baseman Lee Stevens and third baseman Todd Zeile. Palmeiro led off the 7th with a very important solo home run that cleared the Rangers’ bullpen and made the upper deck in right-center. Amazingly, only two balls were hit into the Home Run Porch last year by Ranger hitters; Stevens did so early in the year and Will Clark accomplished the feat late in the ’98 campaign.
Stevens rapped out 3 hits and drove in 4 runs, all which were important when he drove them in. He drew a bases-loaded walk off lefty CJ Nitkowski and singled off Sean Runyan and made the Tigers’ relievers pay for walking Zeile to face him with a lefty. If Stevens can hit left handers like this, then the team can survive the loss of Mike Simms quite easily.
Zeile, known for his notoriously slow starts, had 2 more doubles (he already has 3 on the young season) and 3 hits and is hitting over .600. In the field he shined as well, as he dove to his right to snare a screaming liner off the bat of suddenly-scary-to-see-him-come-up Juan Encarnacion in the 5th.
The Rangers somehow found a way to finally shut down the Tigers’ offense, which looks to able to score a bunch of runs this year. In what can only be described as a l-o-n-g (it lasted about 19 minutes) and gut-wrenching top half of the 8th inning, the Rangers’ bullpen was both effective and ineffective. When the Rangers needed the outs, they managed to get them. Otherwise, it was nail-biting and cover-your-eyes time for Rangers’ fans.
Tim Crabtree was simply terrible. If he has another outing like last night’s (see box score), there’s a chance he could go to AAA since he still has a Minor League option left. The Rangers could then call up Jeff Zimmerman.
Eric Gunderson threw one pitch and retired the lone hitter he faced, otherwise they might still be playing at The Ballpark. Ok, there’s a curfew, but you get the point.
Danny Patterson was only slightly better than Crabtree – and I use the word better quite loosely.
John Wetteland finally put a cap on the scary 3-run Detroit eruption in the 8th and nailed down the save in the 9th. He certainly seemed like his old self.
The Rangers, in fact, were their old offensive selves too as they completely leveled the visiting Tigers with impressive precision.

As I put this page together, it’s 1AM, and I’m kinda tired. I’ll write my commentary tomorrow when I get into work.
Still.. No errors – nice. Roberto Kelly came within two feet of two home runs for the night – nice. Aaron Sele – awesome!
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
What a terrific rebound for the Rangers. The Rangers really were horrible on Monday but Tuesday’s vengeful affair was sweet. Aaron Sele, who has been projected as a pitcher who won’t be nearly as effective this year as last, was dominating Tuesday as the Rangers shut out the bewildered Detroit Tigers, 6-0.
Sele was stingy, allowing only 7 baserunners in his 7 shutout innings, with 6 strikeouts. 70 of his 111 pitches were for strikes.
Setup men Tim Crabtree and Danny Patterson pitched the final two innings as the Tigers managed only 8 total baserunners and one extra base hit, a Tony Clark double that lead off the 9th.
The Rangers offense got it going early. Johnny Oates’ special lineup against lefties, which has Royce Clayton leading off, saw the first 2 hitters reach. Rusty Greer drove Clayton and catcher Pudge Rodriguez both in with a stinging double to the left-center alley.
Oates’ tough decision-making came into play again the 7th. After two quick outs, Juan Gonzalez smoked a single through the left side of the infield. Surprisingly, he stole second. A passed balled later, he was on third. Then a wild pitch scored him. Later in the inning, Oates’ stuck with Roberto Kelly even though a right-hander was in the game and Tom Goodwin available to hit. Kelly promptly delievered a towering 2-run homer. Four batters later, Luis Alicea drove in the final run of the ball game with a bloop single that scored Todd Zeile, who had barely missed a home run earlier.
The defense played well, with Clayton and Zeile both making tough plays to throw out runners.
As stinky as the Rangers were yesterday, Tuesday had them smelling like a rose.

I’m walking into the Ballpark today (I’ve been to the last three opening day games), and I was running late. I thought I was going to miss the first inning. I’m walking really fast, and my feet are hurting by the time I actually get into the park. Anyways, I see the Rangers are on the field, and are about to throw the first pitch. I stop walking to my seat, and stand next to the wall at the back of Green’s hill. There goes the first pitch.. and there goes the first pitch!! Home run on the first pitch of the season. Boy, if that wasn’t an open for things to come, I don’t know what was. I was sitting in Section 10, which is right next to the left field foul pole. That means one thing. The sun!! Ugh.. It was a nice spot, I thought, but probably would have been better if I wasn’t in the sun so much.
Who made the first error of the season? That’s right – Todd Zeile. Dammit. I want Tatis back! The other two errors were by Clayton (4th) & Stevens (7th). Actually, I didn’t think things were going all that bad until the fourth inning; I mean it was only 1-0. However, the floodgates opened in the fourth inning, the Tigers scored 7 runs, mostly on the longball (2 HR in the inning), helped by an atrocious outing by Helling & Loaiza (there’s a shocker).
Actually, I felt that innings 7-9 weren’t that bad, it’s just the 4th through 6th were so bad. We finally broke the no hitter in the 7th, as Raffy doubled in Greer, who had been hit by a pitch. Mike Morgan & Mike Munoz both pitched some shutout ball, which was nice to see, and we scored 5 runs from the 7th to the 9th, one of which was a Stevens HR to left field. Juan Gonzalez had two RBI’s, and the rest were spead out over several other players. Overall, the game stunk, and Helling better not pitch like this again much, or we’re in big trouble. One down, 161 to go. There goes the perfect season. smile.gif (93 bytes)
To summarize.. I’m sunburnt. Section 10 isn’t the best place to sit in the middle of the day. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Finally, Opening Day arrives. The smell of precious, green, spring grass. The wonderful smell of ballpark hot dogs. The nauseous fumes of bad pitching and defense. You knew there would be a sour stench all day when leadoff hitter Juan Encarnacion hit the first pitch of the game to the moon.
Rick Helling pitched as poorly as he can possibly pitch. In the first inning alone he threw 24 pitches – and it went downhill from there. He hit 2 batters. He gave up 7 runs (5 earned). He gave up 7 hard hits, including 2 homers. He stunk.
Esteban Loaiza was no better. He was actually worse. I’ll spare you the details. Trust me, he stunk.
The defense stunk too. oh sure, Ivan Rodriguez threw out a couple of would-be base thieves. Oh yeah, the infield made a couple of double plays. This only served the cause of not letting the Tigers score 15 runs.
The bright spots were few and far between. Rafael Palmeiro drove a ball to right for a double. Juan Gonzalez had 2 hits and a walk and a couple ribbies. But until the 7th inning, the Rangers couldn’t even collect a hit off Brian “Who is this guy, Nolan Ryan?” Moehler, who threw ground ball after ground ball.
It was a long, lost, smelly Opening Day. The good news is…it can only get better.

Sorry, I was totally offline for a few days, and am just hitting the office again after being out for a few days. Too much to do today before I’m supposed to go see the Opening Day game. Sorry ’bout that. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers lost their final exhibition Saturday 6-4.
Despite the loss, the Rangers pitched well. especially the bullpen. The Rangers were victimized by two errors and three unearned runs in a 5 run Mets eruption in the middle innings. Juan Gonzalez’s miscue was the key error in the frame.
It was announced that OF Scarborough Green and IF Jon Shave made the ballclub and that Mike Munoz and Eric Gunderson sewed up the lefty spots in the bullpen.