Game 3 of the spring was one I didn’t get to listen to at all. I was tied up almost all afternoon with church duties, which is good. I love the Lord and am happy to serve, but it does sometimes push other things aside, which for today was the Rangers game. Didn’t hear any of it. So we’re onto another recap based on reading a box score after the fact. :)
The biggest story (for me, not for national writers) was how well the Rangers pitching was. Obviously a shutout is always good, but looking down the respective stats in the box score, we gave up only three hits and walked just two. That’s five baserunners for Kansas City for the entire game. Quite an accomplishment.
Brandon McCarthy was by all accounts the pitcher we thought he’d be when we sent away John Danks. He’s gonna have to be for some of the Ranger fans to accept that trade going forward. In fact, if you go just by line scores, McCarthy, Scott Feldman, & Franklyn German all had the same line. Two innings pitched, one hit, no runs. However, something’s not right there, as the Ranger box score for pitching only shows seven innings pitched, that’s not right. Two innings are missing from the box score. :) Edit: Oh wait, in looking at another box score, it appears Bruce Chen also pitched, and he was better, going two innings, giving up no hits. :)
Offensively, the big headline was that Sammy Sosa got his first home run of the spring. Several wire stories were glad to point out that it was his first home run since August 4, 2005 when he was with Baltimore. That was Sammy’s only hit of the day, but it got more attention than the other numbers for our team (Marlon Byrd 2-3, Joaquin Arias 2-2, Nate Gold 2-4, Ian Kinsler 1-1 with HR, 2 RBI). If Sosa makes the team (which my gut feeling is he will unless he totally tanks in March), then we’ll be hearing a lot about Sosa’s 1-5 instead of someone going 3-4 with 5 RBI’s.
But I will look at this as a very well pitched game, not one about Sosa’s home run. Makes me feel good about taking Brandon McCarthy on the two fantasy drafts I’ve participated in so far. :)
CAC FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - TEXAS 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 5 11 0 KANSAS CITY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 FINAL
WP - BRANDON MCCARTHY (1-0) LP - LUKE HUDSON (0-1)
HOME RUNS: TEX - SAMMY SOSA (1) OFF LUKE HUDSON IN THE 2ND IAN KINSLER (1) OFF ZACK GREINKE IN THE 5TH
TIME: 2:19 ATT: 4,955
TEXAS (5) AT KANSAS CITY (0)
TEXAS AB R H BI KANSAS CITY AB R H BI K Lofton cf 1 0 0 0 D DeJesus cf 3 0 0 0 M Byrd cf 3 0 2 1 M Maier cf 1 0 0 0 F Catalanotto lf 2 0 1 0 E German 2b 3 0 0 0 J Botts lf 2 0 0 0 F Cortez 2b 1 0 0 0 M Young ss 2 0 0 0 R Gload rf 3 0 0 0 R Vazquez ss 2 0 0 0 S Costa rf 1 0 0 0 H Blalock 3b 2 0 0 0 R Sanders dh 3 0 0 0 D Meyer 3b 2 0 0 0 E Brown lf 1 0 0 0 S Sosa rf 3 1 1 1 J Gathright pr-lf 0 0 0 0 V Diaz rf 1 0 0 0 A Gordon 3b 3 0 1 0 B Wilkerson dh 2 0 0 0 A Gonzalez 3b 0 0 0 0 J Arias ph-dh 2 1 2 0 R Shealy 1b 2 0 0 0 N Gold 1b 4 1 2 0 J Huber 1b 1 0 1 0 G Laird c 2 1 1 1 J LaRue c 2 0 0 0 M Ojeda c 1 0 0 0 P Phillips c 1 0 0 0 I Kinsler 2b 2 1 1 2 A Berroa ss 2 0 1 0 D Relaford 2b 2 0 1 0 A Blanco ss 1 0 0 0 TOTALS 35 5 11 5 TOTALS 28 0 3 0
TEXAS 010 030 001 -- 5 KANSAS CITY 000 000 000 -- 0
DP--TEXAS 1, KANSAS CITY 1. LOB--TEXAS 5, KANSAS CITY 3. 2B--D Relaford. 3B--N Gold. HR--S Sosa 1 (1) (off L Hudson), I Kinsler 1 (1) (off Z Greinke). S--M Ojeda. IP H R ER BB SO HR TEXAS B McCarthy (W,1-0) 2 1 0 0 1 4 0 B Chen (H, 1) 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 S Feldman 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 F German 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 M Wood 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 KANSAS CITY L Hudson (L,0-1) 3 2 1 1 1 2 1 Z Greinke 2 4 3 3 0 1 1 N Musser 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 O Dotel 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 J Bale 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 J Standridge 1 3 1 1 0 0 0
SO--TEX: S Sosa, G Laird, M Ojeda, I Kinsler. KAN: E German 2, A Sanchez 2, J LaRue, D DeJesus, M Maier, A Blanco, R Gload. BB--TEX: K Lofton. KAN: E Brown 2. T--2:19. A--4,955.