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After losing game one of the DH 5-0, you wondered what would happen in game 2. For the first two innings, pretty much the same.
The Rangers went down without a fight in their first two frames. 1-2-3 both times. Three groundouts, two flyouts, and a strikeout. Nothing much to say there. Same on the other side, too. We gave up a home run in the second to Adam Jones that put us down 1-0. Given what happened in game one, you kind of thought game two was off to the same feel at that point. But that’s pretty much where it ended.
Before I get to the Rangers offense.. I need to mention Adam Jones’ home run again. That apparently irritated Matt Harrison, as he went all Cliff Lee on the Orioles after that. He didn’t allow anyone else to reach base after that. Period. Retired 18 Orioles in a row until he exited the game after the seventh inning. That’s 1-2-3 innings in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, & 7th. He also had one in the second, sort of – he went 1-2-3 after the home run. :) Harrison looked great. His line was 7 IP, 2H, 1ER, one BB, 3K. The one run came on the home run ball. But man, he was dealing. Many people said if we were going to overcome the loss of Cliff Lee, one of the 3-5 guys would have to step up and pick up that slack. If this is what we’re gonna get from Harrison all season, I’d say yeah, that will be covered.
Adrian Beltre, who was VERY close to dipping below a batting average of .100 got himself on the right track this game. He went 3-5 in Game 2, with 3 RBI’s and three runs scored. Hs average is still just .182, but a few more 2-4, or 3-5 nights, and he’ll be where he needs to be. He’s getting a lot of bad breaks – very hard hit balls right at people.
The fourth was interesting, as it started with a walk. Another single, and a second walk loaded the bases. Kinsler grounded out into a force play at home, which made it still bases loaded and one out. I’m thinking “Uh-oh”. Never ever like to load the bases with nobody out and get nothing. Fortunately, we got three straight hits after that. And all three of them were two RBI hits. It was started with a single to right center, which I thought might have split the outfielders, but not quite. It scored Napoli & Moreland. Andrus then proceeded to steal second, which was huge, as almost immediately Hamilton put a single to the same general vicinity as Elvis’ hit, and Josh scored both Kinsler & Andrus. Beltre followed up with a two run home run, for the third consecutive two out, two RBI hit by the Rangers. It added up to a six spot in the third, and you were feeling OK again.
We added a couple more in the fourth when Napoli jacked a home run into the upper bullpen in left center. Moreland singled, and Josh Rupe came in to relieve. Greeted immediately by an Ian Kinsler double, scoring Moreland.
Picked up another on a sac fly by Nelson Cruz in the 7th.
Nelson Cruz finished off the scoring with a three run home run in the 9th, after Beltre had an RBI double. We finally had a reason to play the bottom of the ninth for the first time this season, but before we get to that…
I need to mention Pedro Strop. What a bizarre case of pitching there. His first six pitches were completely filthy stuff. I mean, it was dazzling to watch. He struck out Mark Reynolds & Robert Andino. Reynolds strikes out all the time anyway, but these six pitches would have struck out anyone. He looked.. I mean I said out loud “Wow” after the Andino K. Then he lost it. Gave up a single to Felix Pie. Then balked TWICE in a row, moving Pie over to third. Proceeded to walk Izturis, and then Nick Markakis. Uh-oh. What happened to the guy in those first six pitches? Fortunately, he got Derrek Lee to strike out without any runs scoring, but man. After the second out of the inning, I was ready to proclaim it a better pitching performance than Harrison’s. While Harrison got the job done, the pitching to the first two batters in the 8th was a show, man. No damage done, but man, it was a Wetteland moment for sure.
Mark Lowe came in for the bottom of the ninth. Let a few base runners onboard, but nobody crossed the plate, which is the ultimate point.
Glad to see the Rangers roar back after being shut out. We’re now 7-1, and look to take the series on Sunday afternoon. Which is amusing, as it’s the first of four consecutive games in a row during the day. All three games in Detroit on M-Wed are day games. That almost never happens. Even when you play the Cubs. In fact, five of the next six games we play are during the day.

The Rangers finally dropped a game. We all knew there wasn’t going to be a 162-0 season. I’d say it’s a safe bet we weren’t going 120-42 either. We’re losing a bunch, so it might as well be to a team that’s started the season as hot as we did. I just didn’t think we’d lose quite so convincingly.
Sometimes when you lose, and you know you’re gonna lose, it’s a game with a score like 22-1 or something like that. This was different. We only lost 5-0, but it felt like more. That was mostly due to the Orioles starter Zach Britton. Much has been written about how Showalter has turned around the Orioles. But even the best manager of all time can’t do jack if his players don’t play. We keep hearing about how Baltimore has a bunch of young arms, and we ran into one in the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday afternoon. Britton looked great. Kept us off balance, and while he didn’t punch out a lot of guys, we never got much going. We had just five hits in all. Four of them off Britton, and never more than one in an inning. In fact, it took till the 8th inning for us to get two guys on at the same time. Despite our futility, we had the first ban on multiple innings, but had three of them wiped out by double play. Was a great team effort there. Britton was lifted after 7.2 innings when he allowed two men on base for the first time. He had thrown 103 pitches at this point, and I thought was still looking good, but Showalter must have seen something. He got a nice standing O by the O’s fans there, so that was good to see, even though it was at the Rangers expense. Britton’s season ERA after this game was 0.66. Quite nice. He’s 2-0 now, too.
Colby Lewis was far more pedestrian. Six innings, six hits, one walk, but two home runs. That accounted for the four earned runs he allowed (one unearned, too). He wasnt’ awful, but wasn’t going to scare anyone this night.
Mason Tobin pitched the final two innings, and was pretty good. Two innings, just one hit and a walk. 21 pitches to seven batters total. Good appearance there for sure.
The Rangers streak of not playing the bottom of the ninth continues. Seven games in, and we still haven’t needed that. See what happens when they play the bottom of the ninth in the final exhibition game, and they didn’t have to? :)
So much for repeating the 30-3 score in the first game of the last doubleheader played in Baltimore. :)

Not much to say. Couldn’t play Friday night. But several reports came out of the Rangers sliding on the tarp. That’s always amusing to see. :)

I have to say, this was the game I figured we’d have the hardest time with. Felix Hernandez, the Cy Young winner last year is not a guy you “just beat”, no matter how bad the Mariners are. To be honest, he was quite good. We scored four runs off of him in all. Three of them we really should not have. The three spot in the second was helped by some really shoddy defense by Seattle. Led to the runs. The one we scored in the seventh off of him we did get, I think. But it should have been just the one against Felix, in which case, we might not have won, so thanks Jack Wilson.
CJ ended up matching Hernandez quite well overall. Check out the compared lines:
Hernandez: 7IP, 6H 4R, 2ER, 3BB, 6K, 107P
Wilson: 7IP, 6H, 3R, 2ER, 2BB, 2K, 108P
Pretty similar lines there. Hernandez was dancing, though. He was more dominant than his line led on. We just managed to get it together just enough to beat him. Which is always good.
Kinsler & Andrus took an ofer, but everyone else had at least one hit. Almost all were singles. Seven singles, two doubles. That was it. But bunched together well enough to get two three run innings in the game.
I’m writing light about this one, but I have to say, it was quite shocking that we got out of the gate 6-0. I’m quite pleased, mind you, but QUITE surprised. Next up is Baltimore. Let’s see how we do against a much improved Orioles team from last year.

Well, the final piece to the 2011 starting rotation hit the mound. That being Alexi Ogando.
While Ogando has been in the majors before, this was his first ever start up here. He’s had mixed success in the past, having spent a lot of time doing the AAA roster roller coaster ride more. He’s looked fairly decent in spring, but it’s never the same as a real mound, with real players, and real stats. You always wonder what a first timer will do with that.
He does quite well, actually. Six innings pitched. Just two hits and two walks for zero earned runs. That was it, man! His ball had lots of movement, and he looked pretty darned awesome. Man, if he can hold this together, it might be hard removing him from the rotation when Tommy Hunter is healthy again. Also, as I was writing this on Wednesday morning, a tweet came over about Ogando from Buster Olney of ESPN. Cool quote:

Alexi Ogando was impressive — and it should be known they got him in Rule 5 draft as OFer for $12 K, based on rec. of scout A.J. Preller.

Hell of a bargain, eh? That kind of performance would have been great too, even if we hadn’t gotten Ogando that way. After the first run through, I have to say I’m looking forward to the next pitching performances of Harrison, Holland, & Ognado more than I am than Wilson & Lewis. Surprised at that reaction, actually. But quite QUITE pleased.
Offensively, there were no more home runs from the new 27 Yankees foundation of Ian Kinsler / Nelson Cruz. So all of those historic streaks stopped. Still, nice NICE early run of power from them.
This game, our offense was even MORE efficient than it was the last game. This game we had just five hits and one walk. Total offense list:

• Single by Kinsler
• Triple by Moreland
• Doubles by Moreland, Hamilton, & Young
• Walk by Cruz

That’s it. The first run scored on a triple by Moreland to left center, which was misplayed by Seattle’s centerfielder Michael Saunders. He jumped for a ball, he realy didn’t have to. Probably could have caught it for an out if he didn’t do that. Hit off the wall, and he never actually touched it, so triple (mental error, though).
This was all because Seattle sent out one of their own kids making his major league debut. That’s Michael Pineda. He looked quite good. We always seem to not do good against guys like that. If he can hold it together, and adjusts and all that, he should be a good pitcher for Seattle.
But we kept it together enough (despite Mark Lowe’s ineffectiveness) to get the win, and push our record to 5-0. This is not exactly a shock, but I’d say somewhere between surprised and quite pleased. :) What IS shocking is that Boston is 0-4 now. :)

Derek Holland’s line will show he had a quality start. Six innings, three earned runs. His outing wasn’t like Matt Harrison’s the other night, but he was still decent enough. The first three innings Holland was out there, I thought he was going to have the same kind of performance that Matt did. Then for the innings after that, he was more pedestrian. Few too many pitches (105 over 7, not too outrageous) in places. He battled, and did pretty good. Not Cliff Lee like, but still, a great start to the season for him. Hopefully he can build from that.
Darren O’Day pitched, and was like the real O’Day. Not that guy who was in spring training. Given how awful he was in the spring, we’ll need quite a few more performances like this one before I ignore what happened in Arizona this year.
Arthur Rhodes gave up a run, but was OK. Nothing spectacular, though.
Neftali Feliz pitched again, only this time with his first save opportunity. Converted itw with a perfect inning. Gotta love that. As much as I love scoring a ton of runs, I also want him to get some save opportunities!
Offensively, we were quite efficient with our hits, as we didn’t have a ton of them. Total of seven hits and four walks. Of the hits, we had two doubles (Hamilton, Young), a triple (Borbon), and two home runs (Andrus, Cruz). Both home runs were notable for different reasons. Elvis’ was the first regular season home run since the 2009 season, spanning something like 700+ at bats or so. Cruz’s tied a record that only two other players have done. The other two players were Mark McGwire and Willie Mays. Cruz is the first player ever to do it in the AL. “That” is the fact that he’s had a home run in each of the team’s first four games of the season. What’s amusing is the times of the other guys. Saw on TV where the year that McGwire did it, he ended up with 70 home runs that year. The year that Mays did it, he ended up with just 16. :)
Anyway, we’re 4-0 to start the season, our best start since 1996. Feels good. I wonder how long it will last. Hopefully quite awhile.

Now go ahead and tell me. Which of you Rangers fans thought we were going to sweep the Red Sox – BEFORE any of the series was played? I’d say you were probably lying if that was the case. I admit now that before the first game was played, I thought we were going to go either 1-2 in this series, or 0-3. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the first three against Boston.
Boy was I wrong!
The Rangers just annihilated Boston’s pitching this whole series, and while five runs isn’t an “annihilation” as such, you felt once this game got started that we had a good vibe going, and five was going to be plenty. Turned out that was definitely the case. The Rangers were apparently running the 1927 Yankees out there against the Red Sox (so says Peter King), and man, did it feel good.
But before I talk about the offense any more, I have to talk about Matt Harrison. When we got him originally from the Braves in the Teixeira trade, I think most fans thought he might be a servicable piece. An “OK” guy, but not the #1 starter type. While I’m not convinced he’s the #1 starter type, I have to say he wowed me on Sunday. A lot was made about Harrison being left off the post season rosters getting on his nerves, and he seems to have fought back. He had a great spring, and much was made about how his attitude is totally different, he’s a completely different guy. Man, did he show all that on Sunday. Just to start with, his line.. 7 innings pitched, a total of 108 pitches. Five hits, one earned run, and two walks, but EIGHT punchouts. His command was great, he was making guys look silly, and he pitched with a determination and desire which definitely shows off the “new attitude” he’s talked about with so much recently. He was running out of gas a bit towards the end of the 7th, and he was left out there. Tom Grieve said on TV that the old Harrison would have been pulled ages ago, but the new incarnation was left out there to finish the job. He got the job done, striking out the final batter he faced (Jacoby Ellsbury). At the moment he did that, there was a great camera shot of Washington in the dugout with Mike Maddux fist pumping and getting excited. I felt the same way. That performance was something to be excited about, and if is any indicator of how Matt will do this series, well, it will go a long way to where we want to be this year. Looking forward to his next start with far more eagerness than I can say I’ve ever looked forward to one of Matt’s starts.
Offensively, Ian Kinsler didn’t break his own record with a third straight game with a leadoff walk (in the first three). But he did get a home run later on, which was half of a record. Why half? Well, it depended on Nelson Cruz. You see, Cruz also had a home run in each of games 1, 2, & 3. That makes the two of them the first ever teammates to lead off the first three games of a season with a home run in all of the games. Three days into the season, and Ian Kinsler has set two records in MLB that had never been done before. Quite impressive. Just hope he doesn’t become homer happy again. Those weren’t the only home runs. David Murphy also got one, which off the bat didn’t look like one. But you know. Jetstream. Mike Napoli also had a home run, his second of the young season. Andres Blanco & Michael Young also had doubles in this game. Lots of extra base power.
The Rangers are just destroying the Red Sox on home runs. In the first three games, the Rangers have hit a total of 11 home runs. {Darth Vader}That’s impressive. Most impressive.{/Darth Vader}
Both Neftali Feliz & Jonathan Papelbon got an inning in at the end of the game. Neither was a save situation, but then again, no team has been in the position to get a save the way these games have gone. :)
I’ve never been this excited about seeing Matt Harrison pitch again than I was after Sunday.
A sweep. I wonder how homer happy we’ll be against Seattle, who comes in here Monday night? We’re likely to get shut down by Felix Hernandez, but then again, I thought Boston was going to shut us down, too. We’ll see. :)