Dallas Braden is a guy I liked last year. Yeah, he pitched for the A’s, but that team has a lot of young pitching that’s quite good. QUITE good. Braden was one of them. I’ve drafted Braden (along with Trevor Cahill) on a few of my fantasy leagues. However, this game, Braden was NOT a guy I wanted to draft.
His line was pretty bad. In his 2.2 innings of work, he gave up six hits and a walk. Five runs, three earned. 59 pitches – yeah, not good. The Rangers teed off on him. I still think he’s a good pitcher – even the best guys have the occasional bad outing. Not that Braden’s “the best”, but it’s not uncommon when the date in March is a single digit.
Our old pal Brandon McCarthy threw against us, and had the best outing of any of the A’s pitchers this day. He too went three innings, gave up four hits and a run with no walks. A lot of pitches though (54). Still, his bottom line was better than any other Oakland pitcher. Oh, and Blevins gave up three late in his one inning of work.
None of that compared to Texas pitching. Derek Holland started, and nailed it – he had a great performance. He too went three innings, but gave up just two hits. That’s it. No runs, no walks, and punched out four. Only 37 pitches, so he was fairly efficient too. Gotta love that. In a spring where so much was made (at least nationally) about us not having Cliff Lee, several of our guys (Holland, Matt Harrison for starters) are having really good springs. It’d be nice if this is real, and not just a mirage, as it’s time (get it – last year’s slogan – ha) for these guys to be what they can be. “They’re just young guys” isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Offensively, we had a lot of things going on, but not a ton of power. Of the 14 hits overall, three doubles (Young, Torrealba, & Chavez) and a home run (Napoli) were it. Four of the guys had two hits, and the rest were scattered all over the lineup. Even three of the late inning subs got in on the fun, too.
But for me, the best thing of this game was Derek Holland. Man do I hope this is real and not just a spring training mirage. There even was a separate article on mlb.com about Holland and his spring. Check that out, too.

I didn’t see or hear any of this game, as I was somewhat sick last night. However, the recaps I read and all that show a very strong pitching performance turned in by the Rangers.’
Eric Hurley started this game, went three innings, and gave up no runs and no hits. Walked two, but that was it. Seth McClung & Brett Tomko also tossed no run outings. Cody Eppley gave up an unearned run, and the other run was given up by Ryan Tucker. Combined, the staff only gave up two runs (one earned), and four hits overall. Very strong performance.
Problem was that the Angels staff was just a tad better. They only allowed one Ranger run, if we had double the hits the Angels did.
Still, one doesn’t mind 2-1 losses, although too many of them, and it can get aggravating. :)
We’re now 6-5 in the spring.

While the score wasn’t outrageous, it felt like October again. Lost to the Giants, 4-1.
I’m skipping writing a lot about this game as I’ve been feeling sick the last day or so, and saw very little of this (the TV broadcast for the Giants was available on mlb.tv as a freebie).
Tommy Hunter was rocked in the fifth – he gave up all four runs the Giants got all in the same inning. Pat Burrell’s two run shot was the big driving force there.
The Rangers offense was mostly not there – just six hits total. Two by Chris Davis (both doubles), who continues to play well. In fact, three of the six hits were doubles (Torrealba had the other one). Yorvit also had the lone Rangers RBI.
Former Ranger Casey Daigle pitched in this one for San Francisco.

The Rangers got out to a lead on Sunday, and never looked back. Wasn’t a big lead early on (just 1-0 after one), but we never lost that lead after that. Was 2-0 after 3, 5-1 after 4, 6-1 after six, and 8-1 after eight. So the lead pretty consistently rose.
A large part of that was Matt Harrison who looked (well, sounded) quite good on the mound Sunday. He only pitched three innings, but from the sounds of it, he could have gone a lot more. Overall, it was 3IP, with 1 hit, 1 walk, and 36 pitches to 11 batters. Pretty decent line. If he can keep that up, it’ll be a good shot and making – AND HOLDING a slot in the rotation. He’s one of those guys who needs to get it together now, the years of being a young pitcher are past, he needs to get the job done, or he’ll fade pretty quickly from attention.
Tateyama followed, and gave up the run the Brewers did get. Three hits, and it could have been worse, had it not been for some nice D behind Tateyama. Yancy Brazoban did the best tightwalk rope impression. He walked the bases loaded, then didn’t allow anything to score. Bit surprised by that. The other bullpen appearances all went one inning, didn’t allow any runs, but all allowed at least one hit, except for Cody Eppley, who was perfect in his inning of work.
Offensively, we had 15 hits in all. Two doubles (Hamilton & German), two triples (Young and Hamilton), and a home run (Chris Davis). In fact, Chris Davis sounded extremely good. His line bears that out. 3-4 with a run scored, and three RBI’s.
Crush wasn’t the only one with 3 hits this game. Josh Hamilton & Michael Young also had three hits apiece. Young actually did crush one better in the RBI department. He had four. Between Davis (3) and Young (4), that accounted for 7 of the 8 runs the Rangers got right there. Listening on the radio, it just clicked. The offense sounded good. The pitching (well, most of it) was good too. Good game in general!
I even managed to make it all the way through scoring the game util they started changing like 6 and 7 guys in the lineup all at the same time. :)

I listened to this game on the radio all the way through. That’s the first time that’s happened this spring so far. Most of the games have happened when other “real world” stuff was happening for me. This time I sat down to score the game – which is a challenge on the radio during the spring. But I tried anyway. Ran into a problem with my new scoring software, and had to stop, but I still listened to the game.
Despite being in it until the end of the game when we lost in a walkoff, the Rangers didn’t have much offense to speak of. We did have some power, but not much of it. Here’s the total Rangers offense:
Double by Esteban German
Solo home run by Ian Kinsler
Solo home run by Mitch Moreland
Single by Elvis Andrus
Walk to Mitch Moreland
That’s it. In fact, the home runs were the only runs we got. One in the first, one in the third. In fact, the Diamondbacks got their single runs in the first & third as well. Problem is they had one in the bottom of the ninth, too. Bah.
Colby Lewis was all over the place. Pitched three innings, allowed three walks and four hits. His first and third innings were wild. His middle inning went quite well, but it was sandwiched around a couple of teeter totter innings. They didn’t quite fall down and stink up the joint, but it was wobbly enough to let a few runs across.
Michael Kirkman however, was really quite good. His three innings had just two hits and a walk, with no runs allowed. Sounded good on the radio.
Despite the loss, it was a pretty well pitched game, outside of two innings.

The Rangers got behind quickly in this game. They were down 3-0 in the first inning on the strength of a three run home run by Kevin Kouzmanoff. However, that shot was the only runs the A’s got the whole game. After that, the A’s were kept off the board. In the first, there were only two hits (a double and the HR). After that, the A’s had just five more hits total spread out over 8.1 innings. And all of those were singles. No more extra base hits. So overall, I’d say this was a good pitching performance by the Rangers. The overall line certainly shows that.
Offensively, we got back quickly – in the top of the second, we got two back on a two run home run by Taylor Teagarden. Two more in the top of the third on a two run single by Mitch Moreland. Added another on a Esteban German single in the fifth, and finally our last run came in the ninth on a small ball sequence of events (single, walk, bunt, fielder’s choice).
Arthur Rhodes continues to impress so far this spring. While it’s a rather small sample, I’m far more pleased to see him get off to a start this way than the other way, which usually is followed up by “Well, I was working on some pitches”. Yeah, I know spring is the time for that, but you don’t want to HEAR it. Even in games that don’t count, you’d rather have your guys do well, then resort to spring training “explanations”. :)
We’re now 5-2 in the spring. Great start!

The second of the day’s two split squad games was in Mesa against the Cubs.
It had Michael Young playing his original position with the team, second base. Got a hit and a walk. Raised his spring batting average to .625! ;)
Both teams sported a four spot on the line score. The Cubs went up first, scoring a run against Rangers starter Derek Holland. Derek only went two innings, and gave up three hits and a run, but that was it. OK outing. Darren Oliver followed up with a perfect frame.
Then Tanner Scheppers. Great prospect. Not today, though. Five hits and two walks in 0.2 innings. Four earned runs. Bleargh. Pretty awful. Most of the rest of the relievers were pretty good, except Tateyama, who gave up four hits and two runs in his 1.2 innings pitched. Overall, I’d say the pitching was OK with moments of “Ugh”. Again, a pretty typical early spring performance.
The Rangers four spot came in the sixth, but not all the runs were earned. Error, Walk, wild pitch, then a three run home run by Mitch Moreland were the way this was mostly done. It was Moreland’s first home run of the spring.
We took the lead finally in the 8th when we were up against former Ranger Thomas Diamond. After a single, and a walk, David Paisano tripled, scoring two. That was the win there. We put up an insurance run in the 9th, which was important, as we tried giving the game back in the bottom of the ninth, but fortunately hung on for the win.
After the two split squad wins, the Rangers spring record is now 4-2. So far, so good.