Another game I didn’t see, but again, another loss. Too many this spring. This one came to the Reds (who used to be in Florida during March until recently). Odd thing about this game is that there was really only one part of it I’d call “awful”.
That was Tanner Scheppers appearance. He was the second Rangers pitcher of the day. He only went 1.2 innings, but allowed five hits and three earned runs. Sheppers only faced ten batters, so the Reds batted .500 off of him! Good Lord that’s awful. Struck out two, but who cares about that? He was pretty horrendous.
The Rangers starter was Scott Feldman, who did better than Scheppers did, at least. He went five, allowed eight hits, one walk, and two earned runs. Not horrendous, but not anywhere close to great, either.
Joe Beimel (who has been released since this game happened, I’m writing this 5 days after the fact) gave up a run in his inning, and Michael Kirkman pitched a scoreless frame, striking out two.
The Reds Starter was Matt Latos, who did pitch pretty good. Five innings, four hits, one earned run. The one earned run was a home run to that powerhouse of a batter, Julio Borbon!
Borbon was 2-3, and with a run scored and an RBI (both on the home run). His spring average is .345, which is pretty decent. Keeps playing that way, and he might muscle himself into playing on April 6th. We’ll see.
Rangers overall offense was eight hits. Two by Borbon, six by six other Rangers hitters. We also had doubles by Brad Hawpe & Ben Synder. Hawpe is doing “OK” – I always kind of hoped he’d catch on, but I’m unclear what roster fit he’ll have here with the outfield clog we’ll have assuming everyone plays well.
The Reds middle relievers held the Rangers in check until we tacked on a second run in the 9th against our former reliever, Ron Mahay. The “other guy” we traded with Mark Teixeira some years ago. :)
In the last ten games (including this 0ne), the Rangers are 2-9-1. Not good.