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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. :)

I went to my first game of the year, and boy did I pick a good time to go. I briefly stopped by a tailgate in Lot B, but wanted to see the new scoreboard stuff. Got a friend of mine from the tailgate to get me in early before everyone else did, got in through the Season Ticket Holder entrance. That was nice, as the place was pretty empty for about 20 minutes before the seething hoards came in.

I walked out through a walkway in Section 18, and I have to say.. You know those stories you always hear about you never forget the first time you walked into a park and you “see the green field”? Well, I had that same kind of feeling when I saw the new scoreboard. I picked the perfect area to enter into the ballpark. The new video board in right was framed PERFECTLY by the walking up, so I saw the board first, then the rest of the field kind of “opened up” around me. It was a seriously nice view. Yes, the thing is huge. There were times when 100% of the board was showing video, and man, that looks great (especially when the footage is HD). Even when it was framed by lineups on either side, it was still seriously larger than what we had for the last 17 seasons in this park previous to this one. The Tigers/Yankees game was on the screen during batting practice, and man, you could watch the games now. On the old postage stamp video board, it was so small, you might as well not have bothered.
When the new video board had 100% video, it tended to dominate the view up there. Look at this shot of the Rangers taking the field. What’s on the screen was the shot of Feliz striking out Arod to get to the World Series (that clip never gets old). You can see what I’m talking about even in the reduced size picture here.

You need to see this new guy to experience it properly. The video board in center has been upgraded, and it’s the same exact size as the old one, but now it’s color and HD and all that happy stuff. Things look nice out there, but the fonts chosen for some of the in game text updates is a bit hard to read. Looks like something that a small font change can address. Hopefully it is.

The ringed video boards appear to be the same, and the video board above Sections 3-7 has been updated – I think. It could just be a change in presentation on the same exact video board. Right now at almost 2AM, I’m unclear on whether that board is truly new or not. There’s a lot to like about the new board presentation. The most obvious being the board above home run porch. But that’s not the only thing. You need to come and check it out. Definitely makes things feel a little different, and I also got that “first time” feeling again when I FIRST saw the board (mentioned that above), so it was cool to get that kind of feeling in a park that I’ve seen hundreds of games over the better part of two decades in.

I’ve always liked scoreboards in parks, so this is a big deal to me. Chuck Morgan knows I was whining for years about new scoreboards, so I’m glad to see this FINALLY happen. Lord knows it wouldn’t have happened if Hicks was still running the show, so good on that!

Enough scoreboard stuff. :)

The players got their ALCS rings tonight. They looked quite nice. Every Ranger player who is still on the team got theirs tonight. During the game, I saw tweets saying that Jarrod Saltamacchia will also get one (tomorrow). And all the players that are in the minors are going to get theirs shortly. I have to assume guys on other teams will be the same.

OK, the game..

Started off well. Ian Kinsler set an all time major league record – he did something no other player has ever done. Homer to lead off a game for the first two games of the season. Nobody has ever done that. Ever. Most impressive. I just hope he doesn’t fall in love with the home run stroke again. We know what that did to him in 2009. If it keeps coming fine – but he fell in love with that, and couldn’t do anything but jack balls up in the air. Hence my calling him “Capt. Uppercut”.

David Ortiz took the lead back in the top of the second with a two run home run, which felt deflating. Turns out it realy wasn’t, but that the time, I rolled my eyes at that home run.

That feeling didn’t last too long, as Ian Kinsler doubled in the bottom of the third, and was driven home by the next batter, Elvis Andrus, who tripled to the right center field wall. He too was brought home by Josh Hamilton, who singled up the middle. So it felt good to take the run back. :)

The fourth was a biggie, and pretty much the point where you felt the Red Sox were put away for good. It actually started off with a couple of quick outs. Cruz lined out to Adrian Gonzalez, and Mitch Moreland flew out to Jacoby Ellsbury. But that was the end of the easy road for the Sox. Torrealba hit a double to right center, which Ellsbury almost caught. Had he cought it, things would have been a lot different. Because after that, the floodgates opened. Julio Borbon tripled to almost the same spot. Kinsler walked. Elvis Andrus doubled, scoring Borbon. Lackey then intentionally walked Josh Hamilton. I thought at the time it probably was’t a great idea, due to Beltre’s power. It turned out to be the right idea, as Beltre got his first four RBI’s as a Ranger, all at the same time. Grand slam to left, and it pretty much was the end of the night. Lackey was chased, and he left with an ERA of 22.09. Gotta love that. Michael Young also singled after this point, but nothing happened with that, as Cruz grounded out.

Lackey left with 3.2 innings pitched, 10 hits, two walks, and NINE earned runs. He always seems to not do as good here in Arlington, but not nearly THAT bad!

No, that’s not Beltre’s Grand Slam swing, but I can pretend it is! :)

After the big six spot in the bottom of the fourth, we added on three more runs. Two of them on a home run by Torrealba, and the last one a home run by Nelson Cruz into the camera well in the lower left hand corner of Greene’s Hill. Which at the time was huge, as Nelson was the only Ranger left without at least one hit. If you’re gonna get ONE, that’s a good way to do it.

So all told, the Rangers had three doubles (Kinsler, Torrealba, & Andrus), two triples (Andrus & Borbon), and four home runs (Kinsler, Beltre, Torrealba, Cruz), one of which was a grand slam. Six singles, too. A lot of the hits were early in the count too. We were fairly aggressive at the plate this night.

Pitching wise, Colby Lewis technically had a quality start, but it didn’t feel like it live. He wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t pinpoint precise like he was late in last season. Still, he got a win, and that’s the bottom line.

Mason Tobin made his major league debut, and he was obviously well aware of that. He was all over the place. Felt bad for the kid, you always want to see them do good, but sometimes they get pounded. He wasn’t quite that bad, but he was really wild. He started off by hitting Saltamacchia, then got an out on a really nice play by Nelson Cruz in the right field foul area against the large wall. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a two run home run over the Rangers bullpen. Tobin then walked the next two batters (Lowrie, Crawford), and was looking pretty bad when he got Adrian Gonzalez to ground into a really nice looking double play to end the inning. It’s also if I’m not mistaken the only out Gonzalez made the whole game at that point.

Pedro Strop & Darren O’Day both threw a scoreless frame. It’s a way better thing to see from O’Day who looked horrible this spring. When I saw him in Round Rock, he was still pretty dreadful. This was not the same pitching I saw in his final spring appearance last Wed night. Hopefully THIS is the O’Day we get. Not that bad spring training version.

Was a great game, but the ride home was horrendous. I left the park about 10:30. I didn’t get home until about 12:15 back in Garland. That was just stupid. Speaking of stupid, WHY WHY WHY did the police take away the left hand turn onto Division from Stadium drive? What was the point in that?

Well, if you’ve been reading my site the last few weeks, you’ll know that I missed my first opening day in awhile. The last year I did not go to a home opener was 1996. I’ve ranted enough about the stupid lottery concept, so beyond this sentence, I won’t mention it again. I did miss the tailgate stuff, though, but I still had fun at home. We cooked up some hot dogs, my wife made some brownies, and had a couple of friends from church over, one of which is a huge baseball fan. His name is Stan, and he’s a bit older than me. I only bring that up, because he’s seen guys from days gone by I can only dream of having watched. You know, guys from the era of Gehrig, DiMaggio, Richie Ashburn. I think he told me once he saw Babe Ruth as a kid, I can’t remember for sure. Anyway, just thinking of all the baseball stuck up in that man’s head is great. So he was my watching partner for yesterday’s opening game. Plus the 46″ HDTV doesn’t exactly hurt either, eh?

So after all the pomp and circumstance was out of the way, we got to some baseball. Was a great day for it, too. CJ Wilson took the mound as our opening day starter, and based on the way he pitched early on, I think the nerves got to him a bit. He was a bit rough early on, but settled down as he went along. Officially, CJ went 5.2 innings. He gave up six hits and four runs, although two of them were clearly not his fault. In the first inning, we got another Julio Borbon fielding misadventure. He and Nelson Cruz crashed into each other, and allowed a ball to drop, which led to two unearned runs. Much was made in the spring of Borbon’s misadventures in center field. This certainly did not help. Whether it was his fault, or Cruz’ fault, that he was involved was enough.

Texas got one back quickly, though, as Ian Kinsler jacked a leadoff home run on the second pitch of the game. That one was followed by a second solo home run in the bottom of the second inning. Cruz’s home run though was one off the bat I thought was a jam shot fly out to left. Replays clearly showed the ball to be up and in. Not a place you expect a home run to come from. Even when the camera tracked back to follow the ball I thought it was still a fly ball, but it kept going. It was rather high, but not far enough back I thought. Wrong – barely went over the fence, but it was a home run. Rhadigan (or was it Grieve) had an interesting observation. That if this was Boston, Cruz’s home run would have been a no doubter, due to the height of the hit ball, and the far closer wall (despite the height). Kinsler’s would have been a ding off the wall.

CJ was a little wobbly again in the third, allowing his two earned runs. He wasn’t awful, mind you, but enough happened in a row there to make you think “Uh-oh. That’s it. He’s not pulling through”. But he got out of it with just two runs scored.

Going to the bottom of the fourth, we got another power boost by newcomer Mike Napoli, who had a three run jimmy jack in more or less the same general area that the previous two home runs had gone. Although Napoli’s was far more clearly over the fence. I did say at the time that off the bat I thought it was going to go foul, perhaps hit the pole, but it stayed fair enough for a home run. I also commented to Stan at the time that this is old school Rangers offense. We had five runs, and all five were accounted for by the longball. Juan Gonzalez, Dean Palmer, & Rafael Palmeiro would have been proud of that outburst.

CJ Wilson got into a little bit of trouble in the sixth inning, but Washington pulled him. Also presumably because at this point, he was up to a total of 109 pitches. Which is a lot when you haven’t cleared the sixth inning. I attribute a lot of that to not pinpoint control, and mostly to Boston, as they tend to work the count a lot. Still, he was relieved by Mark Lowe, who finished out the inning, not allowing anyone else to score. Lowe only threw seven pitches to get out of the inning. Nice work there.
It stayed scoreless until Darren Oliver allowed a solo home run to David Ortiz in the 8th to tie the game, and take CJ Wilson out of the running for a win. Blown save earned there, yeah. There’s no real shame in allowing someone like Ortiz to get you, but man, to tie the game, that’s the bad part of it.

Then in the bottom of the eighth came the put away blow. The Sox had tied it 5-5 in the top of the inning, but in the bottom, we actually started off with a simple flyout to right. Then Mike Napoli walked, and Torrealba singled to right. I believe I exclaimed out loud, “OK, now we’re in business”. Next up was Borbon, but they pinch hit for him with David Murphy. I was behind that, mostly on the more veteran player kind of move. Turned out to be rather fortuitious, as Murphy jacked a pinch hit double right down the left field line, scoring both Napoli & Torrealba. It was a right on the line shot, too. Kicked up dirt, and everything. You can see this play if you go to the “Video” tab of the linked “MLB recap” from the top of this post on my site.

It didn’t stop there. After an Ian Kinsler strikeout, we had two more doubles in a row. One from Elvis Andrus, and another from Josh Hamilton, which plated two more runs. Elvis scored Murphy, and Josh scored Elvis. That last one I was a bit disappointed in, actually, as it removed the save chance for Neftali Feliz. Oh well, never TRULY going to argue against scoring more, but I would have preferred Feliz get a save opportunity.

Feliz came in anyway, and 1-2-3’d the Red Sox. Two of the guys on a strikeout. The other one on a 3-1 putout, so Feliz was directly involved in all three outs.

To be flat out honest, I figured the Rangers would go 1-2 in this series, and while they still possibly can, I wouldn’t have thought the “1” would come on the home opener. Glad to be proven wrong on that. I’d also prefer to be proven wrong on my 1-2 thought, as I’m going to the game tonight (I’m writing this on Saturday morning), and would prefer not to lose while I’m there.

I’ll also have more to say about the new in stadium scoreboards and presentation after I witness a game, and get some pictures, and all that. :)

Big thanks to Stan & Sharon from our church who hung out at our place during the game. Had fun watching the game, and while I obviously would have preferred to have been at the game, I was thankful for the blessings of home, and the blessings of friendship we had which was just as enjoyable of an experience. Hope to do it again soon.

We’re on our way to my pre-season prediction of 162-0! :)

Oh, the pictures used in this post were not taken by me, since I wasn’t there. An old friend of mine, Rose East Conkwright allowed me to use a few of hers. Thanks, Rose!

Well, the final game of the spring happened, and it was down in Round Rock against the Express. I went down to Round Rock with three other Ranger bloggers..

Patrick McCullough from rangersfanradio.com, Joshua McMurray from IrishP1, & Jonathan Collander from NolanWritin.com. We were part of a promotion with Chevrolet called the “Chevy Line Drive to Round Rock”. We drove down there in 2011 Chevy Equinox cars. Was quite nice, even if the OnStar nav blew it trying to get to Southside Market & BBQ. I didn’t drive it, but it was comfortable, quiet, and we got some great gas mileage. We almost made it all the way to Round Rock and back to Dallas without refueling.

We got there about an hour before the game, and had some pre-game promotional stuff to do with Chevy. Filmed a video interview, which I believe will turn up online shortly. Once I find out for sure where that is, I’ll post about that. Once we got in, though the game got underway shortly. We missed batting practice due to the video interview, but that was OK, was fun talking about the team on camera. Oh, most of us tweeted from the game. If you want to see what we were saying DURING the game, get on Twitter, and check out the hashtag #ChevyLDTRR.

Derek Holland started for the Rangers and went five innings. Six hits, and a couple of walks. Allowed one run. However, watching him live, his stuff looked better than that.

Bush, Pedro Strop, & Darren O’Day followed. Bush was OK. Strop looked quite good. Darren O’Day did NOT. He was quite hittable, including a home run. Three hits, two earned runs. He was credited with a blown save, and the loss. He deserved it. Looked bad. He’s been pretty awful most of the spring, and I have to say I have zero confidence in him now.

On the other side, it was a lot of Rangers players we know anyway, so it was amusing to see the “regulars” against other guys who have also been on the big club, and have been (to some extent) regulars themselves. The biggest thing along these lines clearly had to one of the weirder things in this game, and there were several weird things in this game.
Click through to read the weird stuff. :) [Read more…]

CCC? Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. The team in Myrtle Beach that’s owned by now former Rangers owner Chuck Greenberg. One of the last two games of the spring where the big club was to play the minor league teams owned by (then) co-owners Chuck Greenberg & Nolan Ryan. Only Greenberg was pushed out resigned after that was set up, so this was an interesting appearance for sure.
I’m not going to write much about this one, except to say that we BETTER have won this game, playing against that level of ball.
Alexi Ogando, who was just named the fifth starter, due to Tommy Hunter’s injury started this game and went six innings. He gave up just one run, but a few too many walks (four).
That’s about all I wanted to say on this one.
I leave in the morning for Round Rock to go see the final spring training game. Can’t wait – will be fun!

The Rangers played their final spring game in Arizona, and packed up and took off. They left a player behind, though – Matt Treanor was traded to the Kansas City Royals earlier in the day. More on that in my end of spring post coming up later, but I’ll be sad to see him go.
This game featured a pitching staff, which by several accounts was made up of guys who will be on the opening day 25 man roster.

• Matt Harrison – Lock. Went 4IP, 2ER, 2BB. Not bad.
• Mason Tobin – Rule 5 guy. Might be the final man added to the 8 man bullpen made possible by the trade of Treanor. He’s had a great spring. Threw a perfect inning this game, with two punchouts.
• Darren O’Day – In pen. He’s had a bad spring. His ERA is 8, although in this game he threw a scoreless inning.
• Neftali Feliz – Closer. Gave up one run this game, but overall has had a great spring despite the Rangers attempt to do with him what the Yankees have done with Joba Chamberlin. Fortunately, that will be confined to spring training.
• Pedro Strop – Probably in pen. He’s had a great spring, and while he gave up a run in his two innings of work, I hope they give him a solid look, and not the constant up/down he had last year between the big club and AAA

Combined the staff went nine innings, allowed nine hits and 4 earned runs. Walked four. Not dominating, but not really bad, either.
Offensively, there wasn’t a lot of power here. Three doubles (two by Moreland, one by German) and nine singles were our offense (with three walks thrown in).
The big deal here is that our offense came late. We tied the game 2-2 in the top of the 7th with a two run spot. Then going into the ninth, we were down 4-2. We came up big against Diamondback reliever Juan Guiterrez in the 9th, putting up a four spot to take the lead, and the win. One of the runs scored on a bases loaded hit by pitch (Doug Deeds). That’s not something you get a lot of.
On to Myrtle Beach to play the minor league club owned by Chuck Greenberg. I suspect that team won’t be our minor league property all that long based on Greenberg’s exit earlier this spring.