Well, we’ve reached the “unofficial” half way point of spring training (at least for me). This is the lone scheduled off day, and we reach this point with a winning percentage of 315, having gone 6-13. Most of the games (including Sunday’s) have been of the kind where our “regular” players are doing OK, but the guys who won’t be here come opening day are tanking the games, and are causing this record. The cliché of “it’s only spring training” leaps to mind here, but even with that, it’s still disturbing to see your team 6-13 with only 13 more games to go. That means we have to win 10 of the remaining 13 games to get to .500 for spring, and that’s not happening. I can see the DMN & FTW papers having a gloomy outlook.
Something that’s not gloomy is Ricardo Rodriguez’ performance in Spring Training. He’s looked really awesome the last few times out, and my gut feeling says that assuming Ranger management doesn’t screw it up and hand the job to RA Dickey or someone else, RicRod should be a great addition to the starting rotation. I rather like what he’s doing, which is something I can’t say about most any other of the starting pitchers. While no one has really stunk up the joint completely, RicRod just feels electric, and Sunday was no different. His line was 5IP, 0R, 6K, 1BB. Kameron Loe & Travis Hughes got torched, between the two of them, they gave up 7H, 6ER in 1.2IP. That was pretty much the game there.
Offensively, our leader of the day was an unusual one, it was Manny Alexander, who went 4 for 4 with 1 RBI, 2 runs scored, and a double. Alfonso Soriano had a mini hitting streak, going 2 for 5, increasing his total number of spring training hits to 4. Sandy Alomar, who has been mostly absent from spring training games that I’ve noticed went 2 for 4 as well, as did Kevin Mench.
I doubt much we’re going to get back to .500, but it would be nice to see us play a bit more consistently – hell, I’ll take good as spring training winds down.
You can view my full update for this game here.