This game started with a pitcher who has beaten us several times already. Cha Seung Baek. I remember the first time we faced him, he was one of those guys who fit the pattern I’ve noticed where pitchers we never have seen before dominate us. They get rocked by everyone else, but against us – it’s Cy Young time.
Well, Baek has been such a pitcher against us. Today was no different. Today he went four innings, giving up no runs and one hit. He continued his streak against the Rangers. I suspect next time it will be the same. We had nothing for a really long time, because our old friend R.A. Dickey also shut us down. Dickey went three innings of shutout ball with three hits and two strikeouts. Between the two of them, we had next to nothing going on. Eric O’Flaherty came on and pitched the eighth and then fell apart in the ninth.
The two runs the Rangers had were in the bottom of the ninth, and as I recall, we left the bases loaded, or left a few guys on. Made it interesting at least, but we were really shut down by Baek & Dickey in this one. We had six hits in all. Five singles, and a double by Jason Ellison.
Our pitching was pretty good, too. Jason Jennings continues to look good so far this spring. He went four innings, giving up one run on two hits and no walks. Robinson Tejeda threw a scoreless inning, Josh Rupe threw TWO scoreless innings, and Wes Littleton gave up two runs (one earned) in his inning of work. Our final pitcher was Jeff Mathis, who from the sound of Victor’s call was not all that great.
Was nice to hear Victor on the webcast. I’m glad to hear our guys on these mlb webcasts for a change, as opposed to hearing some random mlb guy or worse, another team’s announcer.