Well, the other half of the Rangers team stayed behind in Surpise to play the Royals, and this half of the squad didn’t fare as good as the one that went away to play LA.
The story of this game was the effectiveness of former Ranger pitcher Robinson Tejeda. He went four innings, gave up four hits and three walks, but also struck out seven Rangers of the 12 outs recorded. Another former Ranger, Jamey Wright followed with two innings of shutout ball. The remaining two KC pitchers also threw goose eggs. I wouldn’t get too worked up about Tejeda. I followed him in Philly, I obviously followed him in Texas. You should know as well as I do he has these flashes for short periods, and relapses.
Anyway, our offense was pretty darned ineffective. Only one guy had anything going on, and that was Joaquin Arias, who had three of the seven overall hits the guys wearing Texas on their chests got, however none of his hits led to a score. The only run we got at all was a double by Marlon Byrd, who scored Hank Blalock. That was it.
Pitching wise for Texas, Vicente Padilla threw three, gave up three hits and two walks and three earned runs. Meh. One of the hits was a two run home run. In fact, the other run of the game was against Frank Francisco; again a home run.
So no, neither game on Friday was particularly fun for a Rangers fan.
Saturday brings something unannounced. A Rangers game on television. It’s not the Rangers guys, but the game will be on MLB Network on Saturday afternoon, presumably using White Sox coverage (assuming it’s not blacked out).