The Rangers finish the last game on the homestand with a nice win. 9-2 over the Mariners. Our offense woke up, and it wasn’t just Guerrero & Cruz. We had a nice spread of it amongst the lineup. In fact, the only Ranger not to have at least one hit was David Murphy. But he was excused because of the extremely bizarre way he got on base the two times he did. He reached on two consecutive at bats via catcher’s interference. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen. Oh, I’ve seen the interference happen from time to time, but never two straight at bats from the same guy. Very weird.
Vlad Guerrero went 3-5, and his batting average sits at .500 for the season so far. Quite gaudy. However, the bigger surprise here is Joaquin Arias. He went 3-5, making it two consecutive games he had three hits. His average also is at .500. Arias isn’t too far off of Guerrero in at bats, either. To this point, Arias has 16 at bats, and Guerrero has 24. So it’s not one of those “Oh, he’s just gone 3-6 for the season, so he’s .500” deals. I think most people see Arias as a “hanging on” guy – that he’s only here because Kinsler is out, and we didn’t have a seriously better option. He definitely is seizing this time, it will make for an interesting choice once that time comes.
Josh Hamilton looked good, as he had a couple of doubles. Elvis Andrus had a triple. Mike Young had a home run. So we had some nicely spread out offense. Was good to see that. We did have a guy thrown out at home, and also at second to end an inning, on a really bizarre play. But overall, the offense showed up, and showed up well. Nine runs and sixteen hits. Yeah, it was there.
Pitching was pretty good, too. Scott Feldman pitched way better than he did on opening day. This time, it was seven innings, seven hits, and two runs (although one was unearned). He got his first win of the season, and his ERA sits at 2.57 after two starts. Doug Mathis & Chris Ray each pitched scoreless innings (although Mathis’ inning wasn’t terribly smooth).
But it was a good win. Something nice to get out on the road with, as the Rangers don’t come back home until Friday the 23rd. In the interim, we go through Cleveland, the Bronx, & Boston. That could be rough. Cleveland won’t be AS hard as the other two, but it has (on paper) the possibility of being ugly. We’ll get an early test as to how good this team really is.
Perhaps it’s good we’re going in there without a closer that is awfully wobbly. I can see Feliz being the closer for this whole road trip quite easily.