ST13: Rangers beat Pads Monday night, 5-2

Josh Hamilton is in spring turning out to be everything we have hoped for so far this spring. His batting average at the moment is .450. He only went 1-3 last night, but had a big two run RBI triple, which at the time gave the Rangers the lead in the game. Rangers fans have been excited about this kind of stuff before, but given the man's background (in baseball, not his personal life story), you have to be just a little excited about this. :)

Rangers minor leaguer Nate Gold also helped here with a solo home run in the eighth inning (off of Trevor Hoffman, no less). This was another of those spread out offensive attacks. The seven Ranger hits in the game were by seven different players. Only Gold and Hamilton had extra base hits, the rest were singles.

Rangers pitching was pretty good too. The only one that really qualified as not great was Matt Harrison, who gave up three hits and one earned run in his two innings of work. In fact, Harrison was the only pitcher who went more than a single inning. Every one of the seven other Ranger pitchers went just one.

The Padres were not helped by their fielding. Three of the five Ranger runs were unearned. Shawn Estes gave up four of the five, only allowing one earned.

Next up is Vicente Padilla against the White Sox on Tuesday. Let's see if his surprisingly good spring keeps going.