This was the first night I was home from my trip to see my Grandparents, and I thought it was cool the Rangers were on TV that night. However, when I sat down to watch it, the 1,500 miles of driving I had done on Sunday and Monday caught up to me, and I passed out cold. Gave up, and went to bed.
I missed Rich Harden being pretty bad. 3.2 innings, five hits three walks, and five earned runs. Meh. His successor on the mound was no better, really. Doug Mathis went two innings, gave up two hints and FOUR walks, and just one run. Edwar Ramirez followed, gave up his own run, as did the final pitcher, Darren O’Day who gave up a run. The seven walks is by far the worst walk performance of the spring, something that’s caught my eye a lot this year. Our walk totals are fantastic. I just hope it holds up long term.
Offensively, we got another home run – this one by Nelson Cruz, who is really hot (.417 average so far). Vlad Guerrero however is NOT hot, going 0-3, and posting a spring average of just .217. Matt Brown is batting .538, and I wonder if he’ll make the club, as I believe he’s our Rule 5 guy we have to keep up. Justin Smoak had a double, and there were five singles. Another distinct lack of power.
After that modest three game winning streak, we’ve now lost the last three games, so that’s fairly disappointing.