I watched this game, and scored it for awhile, until I realized I was going to be too tired to finish. If you were following me on twitter, that’s why the game “ended” with a 2-2 score. :) I started watching very late, around 11PM, and even attempted to score. Should have known better.
Anyway, the game started off with another back and forth affair. In the first three innings, both teams scored each frame. Rangers added one in the bottom of the fourth. The scoring stopped there for awhile. At that point it was tied 4-4. Stayed that way until the 9th. More on that later.
The Rangers took on one of their old farmhands, Aaron Harang. Harang was traded with Ryan Cullen to the Oakland A’s on Nov 17, 2000 for Randy Velarde. Velarde didn’t last the year with the Rangers, then being traded on to the Yankees in August. If you remember, 2001 was our attempt to win with a bunch of older guys. Randy Velarde, Ken Caminiti, Andres Galarraga – all to go with Alex Rodriguez. :) Anyway, I get sidetracked. Harang has bounced around for awhile, but spent a decent amount of time with the Reds. He’s now in camp with San Diego, and pitched “eh” against the Rangers. 5 innings, 6 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB. Eh. In fact, all the Rangers runs came against him. The five Padres relievers all shut us down.
Our offense was spead out. Only seven hits in all, and just one guy (Chad Tracy) who had more than one. Michael Young, Doug Deeds, & Chad Tracy all had doubles. In fact, Tracy had two of them. Josh Hamilton added a solo home run as well. So, five of our seven hits were extra bases. Problem was that was it. Couldn’t put together more than four runs.
The outing here by Brett Tomko looked good, and could have helped him towards the fifth starter spot. It was cemented earlier in the day, then Hunter got hurt. It would not surprise me if we see Brett Tomko in there in that slot. It scares me given the way Tomko has performed at times in his past, but he’s done OK this spring. It could work.
Pedro Strop also looked good. Hopefully he gets a proper look this year, as opposed to the rubber banding he was doing last year between the big club and AAA.
We’ll see about the starter. Ugh.