The Rangers played two games today. This one is the one that I didn’t hear or see anything about. Generally you don’t get to “witness” both split squad games, one of them is the odd man out. This was the odd man out game.
This game had decent pitching at the start, and at the end. But the middle three innings.. not so much. Scott Feldman started this one, and went into the fifth inning. From the looks of things, he was pretty decent early on. But he ran out of gas when he got into the fifth. He allowed a single run in the fourth, not a big deal, but ended up with five earned runs on his ledger. Wasn’t 100% his fault, Uehara allowed one of those runs to score. Not that Koji did much better.
He allowed three of his own earned runs. Bleargh. This raises Uehara’s spring ERA to 16.20. A tad alarming. I’ve pretty much got no confidence in him at this time. If he doesn’t get better, I wonder if he’ll get cut. He won’t get traded if his line stays like that. Nobody will want him.
Offensively, we had a bigger attack than Arizona did. We had 15 hits in all (to their 12). There was some power on display, mostly from #5. Ian Kinsler hit his first home run of the spring. Ian also contributed to his awesome day by having two doubles as well. Michael Young also doubled. In fact, Ian Kinsler’s overall spring batting average at the moment is .417. A great number to have, especially if he remains at the top of the lineup.
Kinsler’s not the only one on fire offensively this spring. David Murphy went 2-4 this game, raising his spring average to .393. If he stays anywhere near that, it might be difficult to put him on the bench come April 6th. If Murphy keeps this together, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Game 1 starting outfield is Murphy – Hamilton – Cruz. Good for him. Murphy has been around for awhile, and we’ve seen far sexier names come through here as can’t misses in CF. Murphy sticks around. Maybe this is the year he finally puts it together and forces them to play him all the time. It’d be nice. Thanks again Eric Gagne.
Still, the Rangers lost. This one didn’t seem as bad as the others this past week, so I actually wrote about this one, instead of posting a short, smart ass commentary on the game. We ARE losing too many, though.