On a day when the Rangers’ catching situation turned itself upside down, the guy who was left after the round of musical chairs holding the starters’ job (for now) took advantage of that. Matt Treanor went 2-3 with three RBI’s and a run scored. That run was on his own solo home run, a line shot over the left field wall for the first run of the game in the second inning. He definitely seemed to be boosted by the fact that he’s now the #1 guy here, when he probably expected to get a cup of coffee at best when the season started. Treanor also had a double, so he had the power stroke going. An interesting stat – that was the first home run by a Rangers catcher since Pudge did it last season on September 9th.
Speaking of doubles.. Hamilton & Guerrero chipped in there. In fact the two of them both went 2-4. Other than these guys and Treanor, the only other hit by anything was a single by Ryan Garko.
Rangers pitching was pretty good this game. CJ Wilson continues to be strong early on. In fact, he’s pitching the way I thought Feldman was going to be coming into the season. No matter, we’ll take the wins. Wilson went six innings, giving up five hits and 3 walks for 2 earned runs. Punched out five. Few too many pitches though (104 through six). Get that down a little, and there probably could have easily been another inning pitched on his ledger. I got into his performance – I forget which inning it was now, but one of them ended with him getting a called strike three. The pitch was obviously a strike, and I realized after that that I was into it as I fist pumped on the sofa. Enjoyed that moment, actually. :) Nice stat on Wilson – he’s the first Ranger to begin the season with four consecutive quality starts since two guys did it in 1993 (Charlie Leibrandt & Kevin Brown). Keep on going Christopher.
I do have to confess to being surprised that we beat up a bit on Mark Buehrle. He usually shuts us down well.
We’re 9-11 after this game. I was hoping to be better than this now. Our bullpen has let us down. Still, it could be worse, so I’m not all panicky about the record. It’s close enough to .500 that I’m not worried about it, and the division is too tight for anyone to claim it yet (we’re in last place, but just 2.5 games out). So things are OK. Get Kinsler back, get our bullpen sorted, and our catching stabilized, and we should be OK. It seems like a lot saying that, but it doesn’t feel like it.
I’m the same way. We’ve gotten DECENT enough hitting to allow our pitching some run support, but man…the bullpen’s gotta come through better. Once we get Frankie or Feliz on a roll, we should be okay. And if they don’t, we gotta find ourselves someone who can actually close.
Still can’t believe Kinsler’s not back after 20 games seeing as they were talking like he could be back for opening day. So much for wishful thinking.