I’ve said this before, and I’ll probably say it again. Whenever you pitch against a guy who is making his major league first start, you either score 50 runs in the first inning, or what happened last night happens – you can’t do anything against them. It’s the nature of the beast with an unknown quantity like that.
We got shut out by Robinson Tejeda (not Tejada, guys!) last night. He went 5 innings of two hit shutout ball. In fact, the Phillies pen (former Ranger Aaron Fultz, Ryan Madson, Billy Wagner) went 4 more innings of shutout ball. Between the four Phillies pitchers, we managed just 5 hits the entire night, with Rod Barajas getting two (the others by Teixeira, Blalock, Hidalgo). That’s pretty much the story of the game. The Phillies pitchers closed us down.
On the flip side, our pitching was pretty decent, too. Starter Chris Young more and more looks like a really good rotation guy every time out this season. He went 5.1, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits (6K, 1BB). Our pen (Tejera, Regilio, Shouse) didn’t give up any runs in their time on the hill.
The highlight of the game for me was the opening of the 6th inning when they showed the Philly Phanatic and Rangers Captain dueling it out with lightsabers, in Jedi gowns. That was most amusing. Stupid me didn’t save the game on the TiVo, I deleted it before I got a chance to take a picture of that. Anyone get one?
But the big talk of the day had to have been the DFA’ing of Ryan Drese. I don’t think anyone following the team would have predicted THAT. A guy who was a 14 game winner just last year, and was this season’s opening day starter gets DFA’ed. I’m really surprised they didn’t carry on with him longer than that, especially since he has a guaranteed contract through next year (and an option for 07). Oh well, I seriously doubt we’ll be able to hang on to him and get him to the minors through waivers. It’s just a surprise to me. Hmm, I know we’re bringing up RicRod from AAA to take his place on Sunday, but an opening in the rotation, eh? Perhaps there’s more to those Roger Clemens rumours.. Nah, just joking. :)
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