I’m kinda busy today, so I’m not going to be able to write much. A few points I noticed..

• Juan continues to not come through in big RBI situations. He’s getting RBI’s, but he again didn’t get much of anything with a bases loaded situation.
• Burkett was great the first time through the lineup, but after that, no so much so. That’s too bad, I thought he looked great the first three innings.
• Jeff Zimmerman – where’s this guy been? I still maintain it’s only two MLB appearances, but damn – he looks spectacular so far!
• This is the second time in two straight nights the word “fuck” got out over the air on TV.
• Ken Griffey Jr. – Oh man, what a catch – looked awesome! Thought Juan was going to get a couple RBI’s there, but he did one of those back to the plate catches.
• Lynn (my wife) commented that it seemed like the Kingdome looks dirty – like they don’t care about “cleaning it up” this season.
• Rusty Greer continues to have a great run at the Kingdome!
• I really hope the Rangers can do some sort of realignment move so all of our division people aren’t on the West coast anymore. 1AM finishes bite. I suppose it would be worse if I lived back home in Philly, though. :)
• Bases loaded is becoming an Achillies Heel for us – we don’t seem to want to do anything with them loaded. :(

Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Living here on the East Coast and being a morning person smile.gif (93 bytes), I didn’t get a chance to see or hear Wednesday’s game, so I’ll use this opportunity to reveal some things to you that you may have missed, by reviewing the boxscore and a few other notes:
Every 12.3 pitches John Burkett threw on Wednesday became a Mariners’ double…As badly as Burkett pitched Wednesday, his ERA actually lowered quite a bit…Every hitter in the Rangers’ lineup had at least one hit…Rusty Greer was on base 5 times for the second straight night, as he had a single, a double and 3 walks…Roberto Kelly hasn’t had the opportunity to play much this year, but perhaps he should play more often. He is hitting .615…the Rangers had 3 stolen bases, 2 by Goodwin and 1 by Clayton. Clayton should steal 20-25 bases…Juan Gonzalez left nine runners on base, although he was simply robbed by Ken Griffey on a line shot to the deepest part of the field (I did see that on ESPN’s Sportscenter)…Gonzalez has yet to homer this year, his longest drought ever, starting a season…As a team, the Rangers left 13 men on base, which is hard to fathom, considering they scored 9 runs on 17 hits…Seattle did give up 8 free passes on bases on balls…The Rangers are now hitting .322 as a team, with a whopping on-base percentage of .391…Anaheim lost again to the A’s, meaning the Rangers are back in first place all alone. The Rangers are the only team in the AL West with a winning record, not bad for a team that has horrible starting pitching…The Rangers have already won this series from Seattle. This is the second consecutive series the Rangers have beaten the Mariners in the Kingdome, something I don’t think they have accomplished since the early 1980’s…No midweek blues for the Red Shoes: Texas has played 2 games on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday and have won all 4.
Lastly and without commentary, let’s have a look at Burkett’s two starts this season:

DATE   ip  h  r er bb so hr
April  9  2.2 7  5 5  0  2  2
April 14  4.1 8  4 4  1  6  0
---------------------------------------
totals    7.0 15 9 9  1  8  2  ERA-11.57

Pudge Rodriguez beat the Seattle Mariners 9-6 last night (OK, the real score was 15-6, but 9 of the 15 were Pudge’s). He whacked a third deck home run in the first inning, scoring three runs. That was only the 21st person to hit a ball up there in the history of the Kingdome. He then went on to hit a two run single in the second, which possibly could have been more than just a single if Jay Buhner didn’t make a really awesome sliding stop of the ball headed to the wall. That put Pudge’s RBI total at 5 for the first two innings. Then comes the third. With the bases loaded, Pudge fouls off a really good pitch for him to hit – if you were watching this on TV, they showed a closeup of Pudge after he fouled off the ball, and he knew it. Then a couple of pitches later came what Bill Jones described as “The ultimate hanging curve ball” that Pudge almost put into the third deck again in left field.
It was Pudge’s first ever grand slam, and boy did he know it. When the ball went, he started running down the first base line, and most of that time was spent looking in the dugout smiling. As he was going around the bases, he was bursting with smiles. It’s funny, as my wife Lynn had just commented not 2 minutes before that you hardly ever see Pudge smile at all during the game. That gave Pudge 9 RBI’s. He had a chance the next at bat to tie the AL record at 11, but he popped out. He was then taken out for Zaun in a complete rout. What a night for Pudge! Check out the pics below for some of the smiling. :)
As great as this was, it wasn’t all that happened tonight that was good. Mike Morgan was really good through the first 6 innings he pitched. The first three innings were perfect – as was the fifth inning. He had only allowed three hits through the end of the sixth inning – although two of them were solo home runs. He was also really economical with his pitching – he had only thrown 24 pitches through the first 3 innings, and a total of 48 through the first 5. Not sure what his final pitch count was, though. He did seem to run out of gas in the 7th, allowing two doubles, and then a home run to bring the run count to 5. Still – it was the best starting pitching performance this season outside of Aaron Sele (who wears glasses – I didn’t know that. Sele was shown in the dugout wearing glasses). One other thing about Morgan. Grieve said this was the first time that Mike Morgan had beaten the Mariners since 1979(!). They also joked that if Mike Morgan is still pitching next season, he’ll be the first pitcher ever to pitch in four decades, and 2 centuries. :) When you look at him, he doesn’t seem like he’s been around quite that long.
After Morgan, we brought in Jeff Zimmerman, who made his major league pitching debut and pitched for 1 2/3 innings, striking out 4 batters of the 6 he faced (one of which was former Ranger Domingo Cedeno & Edgar Martinez). Zimmerman looked VERY impressive. After Zimmerman, Danny Patterson came in for the ninth, and allowed one run (total of 6). Patterson seemed just “OK”. He wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great, either.
One bad thing, though – Raffy came out in the first inning after an RBI single to right with a slightly pulled hamstring. He’s listed as day to day, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the knee surgery – but anytime you hear the word “hamstring”, you worry.
In unbaseball remarks, there were two VERY funny Ranger commercials on TV last night. The first was one about Nolan Ryan and the Hall of Fame, and the other was one of the regular Ranger commercials with John Wetteland. I’m going to try and get them on tape in the next few days – when I do, I’ll have ’em here as downloads. One final thing. The final batter for the Mariners popped up, and when he did, you could quite clearly hear someone screaming “FUCK”. Not sure who it was for sure, but after the out, Danny Patterson was quite clearly shown going “SHIT” & “FUCK” (if you could read lips, that is). :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
It looks like Rodriguez is back in Seattle. Future Hall of Famer Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, that is.
Pudge set a new Texas Rangers’ individual record by bustin’ out the whoopin’ stick and driving in nine runs as the Rangers proved they weren’t the only team with pitching problems – as they destroyed the Mariners, 15 to 6. The 9 RBI’s break a record set by Jose Canseco which was later tied by Juan Gonzalez at 8.
Pudge went nuts in this game, hitting a three-run homer, a grand slam and he hit a couple of singles. The Rangers’ offense thrived off Seattle starter Ken Cloude, who was making his 1999 debut. After this outing, his ERA sits at 37.80. If he could give up a few more earned runs, maybe Doug Melvin will try and make a trade for him…tongue firmly implanted in cheek.
The Rangers literally hate playing in Seattle. In the mid-1990’s, Rangers’ radio announcer Eric Nadel appropriately nicknamed the dome the “House of Horrors” and for good reason – they rarely win there. But they had no problems Tuesday. Just about every Ranger went goo-goo with the bat, (Rusty Greer had 4 hits and a walk, for example). The score was 13-0 before 3 innings were up. End of ball game, time for bed…yawn.
We’ve bitched and moaned the first week of the season about the Rangers’ pitching, but look at Seattle’s pitching, which is touted to be much better than the Rangers’ staff.
Going into the game, the Rangers weren’t even close to being the worst pitching team in the American League. Now just try and imagine two worse pitching teams. Along with the Detroit Tigers, the Seattle Mariners reside statistically. The Mariners now have a team ERA of 7.38. That’s 1/100ths of a run lower than the Tigers.
Ranger Mike Morgan became the first pitcher other than Aaron Sele to even pitch long enough to qualify for a win. Morgan wasn’t perfect, but pitching in the Mariners’ Pinball Arena, at least he survived, despite giving up 3 home runs in 6.1 innings.
Jeff Zimmerman, just called up to provide relief in the bullpen, pitched superbly. He struck out 4 in 1.1 scoreless innings. He’s a welcome addition to this staff.
I may still complain about bad pitching in future columns, but I have come to realize that the grass is not always greener on the other side, folks. Especially, in this case, when the grass is artificial.

Another stinker. We really need to get it together with our pitching. It’s digusting that after Game 7 of the season, our bullpen has more innings pitched than the starters. Only Aaron Sele is anywhere near effective, and if he wasn’t, our only win would have been from a bullpen pitcher. Ugh! We gave up 20 hits again. Not counting last night’s game, we gave up fifty-one hits to the Angels in three games (13, 19, & 20). Johnny Oates must have a locker full of Pepto Bismol now. The game took 3 hours and 28 minutes, probably bolstered by the fact that the total number of pitches thrown by both teams was 368 – 195 by the Rangers and 173 by the Angels. We also gave up 10 doubles in the game to the Angels. Don’t really feel like talking about bad pitching anymore – look below at the numbers. Except this. Anyone notice that last year’s castoffs are pitching decent (Bobby Witt, Julio Santana) – hell, even Darren Oliver is pitching better than we are! :)
I thought we had a shot in the beginning when Juan Gonzalez was up with the bases loaded against a really ineffective Ken Hill. He popped out to first, ending the inning. That seemed like the omen to me. Juan is impotent against Hill, now going 0-8 (or is it 0-9) in his career against him. In the sixth, we almost had two home runs as Rusty Greer really rode one, but Orlando Palmiero hauled it in, and Tim Salmon robbed Juan Gonzalez on an opposite field shot that should have gone, but Salmon pulled it in.
The one bright spot here was Todd Zeile, who continues to be on fire so far. He went two for four with a home run and two RBI’s, and scoring two runs. His average now is .440 – Makes me wish I had kept him in my fantasy league. :)
As bad as all of this looks, it’s still only the first week (give or take a day) of the season, and standing this early in the season don’t mean a whole lot. We’re off to the West Coast for a bit, so I’m hoping that the change in scenery does something good. However, it’s bad when you need to go on the road for a “change of scenery boost”.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Finally, they are gone. Monday, the Angels left town, but not before collecting 20 hits, 10 of them doubles. It’s safe to say the Angels had more doubles than an alcoholic on payday.
This was another ugly, smelly, – insert your own sarcastic adjective that ends in ly – pitched game. Mark Clark pitched like banjo player Roy Clark. Eric Gunderson, the sacrificial lamb to finish the game, was even worse. Only Esteban Loaiza pitched with any kind of command at all, and even he wasn’t pretty.
Everything the Angels hit was hit with authority. This wasn’t a ‘dumb luck’ game where the opposition hits bloops and Texas Leaguers, this was a team possessed with winning the ball game and destroying the memories of last September.
Even though Angels’ starter Ken Hill pitched really badly, the Angels’ bullpen bailed him out, surrendering no runs in the last five innings. The Rangers were actually ahead 3 to 1 at one point, but that seems like years ago (the contest lasted 3 hours and 28 minutes but seemed more like 6 hours and 59 minutes).
This is getting to be old hat. With the Rangers departing on a long road trip to Washington to face the Mariners, it seems very likely that a personnel move or moves will be made. Firstly, it’s very probable that Scarborough Green will be sent down to the minors and Jeff Zimmerman, impressive in spring training and impressive in two appearances for the Oklahoma RedHawks this year, will be called up to give an extra arm to the bullpen. After all, there’s no need for a pinch-runner when the score is 13 to 5, is there?
As far as other possible moves, there is no telling what Doug Melvin has going. Rest assured however, he’s be on the phone with several other general managers looking for help.
With the way the Rangers’ have been pitching, perhaps he simply dialed 9-1-1.

Great game. Great seats. Oh my god, did I have great seats. I was offered two seats that belonged to the law firm that represents my company. If you’re familiar with the Ballpark seating chart at all, these were Section 32, Row 5, Seats 5-6. One thing to note – there are no rows 1-3 in Section 32. :) This unbelievable view afforded me the opportunity to take some really awesome shots of the game and the ballpark.  See below.

Anyway, about the game.. Sele pitched better than anyone else on our staff (except maybe for Morgan out of the pen) again last night. He wasn’t as impressive as the first time, but he still pitched a really great game, and finally left due to fatigue (he had pitched 125 pitches when he was pulled). He looked good from where I was sitting, even striking out the side once. The curve was awesome again – I hope he can keep this up for more than just April. :)

Our offense woke up early this time, scoring three times in the first inning. Goodwin led off with a triple to right center, losing his shoe as he ran around the bases (see below for a shot of that). Then Mac had another triple (could have been an error, too, but it was called a triple). We also had two doubles in the inning, and a sac fly by Rusty, scoring a total of three in the first inning. Looked great! We scored a couple more in the 5th on a few singles and an infield fielder’s choice play. We didn’t have any home runs (although Disney had one), but the offense looked in the groove. I wonder where the hell they were last night.
I spent a lot of time just admiring the ballpark tonight, as I don’t ever get to sit in these kinds of seats. Even the ticket itself looks better than the regular tickets (see the scan of my ticket stub). On the flip side, Al Levine came in for the Angels for Belcher (man, what a silly name), and he pitched awesome. I really wish we didn’t have to let him go – I loved him last year, and was disappointed that he had to go. I hope he does well for them, just not when he pitches against us. :)

It was a great game, but I don’t feel overly wordy about it. The seats I were in just overshadowed the game. It was great that we won, and it was a great game, but man, when you get to sit where I sat last night, that tends to be the thing you remember the most. :)

Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers won 6-3 Sunday night against the Angels, behind an explosive offense and a valiant Aaron Sele.

The Rangers needed at least 5 innings out of Sele because the bullpen has been overworked of late. No Rangers’ starter had lasted 5 innings except for Sele in his start last Tuesday.

Sele lasted 5.2 innings. His curve ball was as wicked as I have ever seen it. He fooled the Angels into striking out 10 times. He gave up 3 runs but only 1 was unearned. Jon Shave, filling in for the injured Royce Clayton, made two errors that led to those two runs.

Sele would have lasted longer, but on a humid evening such as it was, the Angels had some long innings (again, thanks to Shave’s errors). The top of the third inning in particular lasted forever, yet the Angels only scored one run, as Sele threw about 35 pitches.

The Rangers’ offense, shut out on Saturday, were open for business Sunday. All 12 of their hits came before the 6th inning. Although there were no home runs, they did smoke the ball for a total of 4 extra base hits.

Every Ranger hitter in the lineup, with the exception of Lee Stevens, got at least a hit.It

was Sele and his 125 pitches though that was the story of this ball game. Mike Munoz, an effective Tim Crabtree and good ole’ John Wetteland (who got his second save) shut down the Angels completely the last 3.1 innings of the game.

Sele has come through twice. Let’s hope Mark Clark can come through once on Monday afternoon.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention two last things; first of all Al Levine threw 4 innings of work for the Angels and he looked fantastic. It’s a shame we don’t have him in our bullpen any longer. Secondly, Jon Shave not only committed two costly errors Sunday, (his second and third errors of the series) but he struck out early in the game on a pitch that I swear was ear level. Shave has no business being in the big leagues playing this way. Either Rafael Bournigal or Scott Sheldon at AAA could do a better job.

This game was so disgusting, I don’t want to even talk about it. Worse than opening day – which I thought sucked for the most part.
Commentary from Jim Meeks:
Ugly.
If I had to write this column in one word, that’s the word I’d use.
10 to zip. Ten to nada. Ugly.
Rick Helling, who won 20 games last year, is pitching like he may lose 20 games this year.
Let’s compare his two 1999 outings:

ip  h  r  er bb so hr era
Monday April 5th   3   7  7  5  2  0  2 15.00
Saturday Aprl 10th 3.2 9  6  6  3  2  0 14.73
------------------------------------------------------------------
totals             6.2 16 13 11 5  2  2 14.85

Ugly.
Each inning he pitched, Helling was in more jams than grandma’s butter knife. He didn’t seem to think he was so bad, however. After the game, he was quoted as saying, “A lot of hits were ground balls. A few were up there but that wasn’t my problem tonight. Not to say that they were weak hits but they were just doing it single, after single, after single. The ball kept finding the holes.”
Yeah Rick. There’s a word for that: ugly.
Omar Olivares, the Angels’ starter, pitched extremely well. The Rangers managed just 3 hits off him in his 7.1 innings of duty.
The only starter to last more than 5 innings so far this season has been Aaron Sele, who pitched a masterpiece on Tuesday. What will the Rangers do if this keeps up?
Well, they’ll lose.
Perhaps though, they’ll make a trade. I know it’s bold, but I propose trading Juan Gonzalez. The Rangers can survive the loss of Gonzalez. The Rangers have Ruben Mateo a phone call away at AAA. In 3 games at Oklahoma City, Mateo is 6 for 12 with 2 doubles, a homer and 4 RBI.
The Diamondbacks and their fans would love to have Gonzo (and get rid of Esteban Loaiza while you are at it, Doug Melvin) – and we’d love to have Luis Gonzalez to take Mike Simms’ spot, plus underrated lefties Omar Daal and Brian Anderson – and the Minor Leagues’ best pitching prospect, Brad Penny, who pitches for AA El Paso. The season is still young. If the Rangers wait until July to make a deal for a pitcher(s), it may be too late.
Do it now. Make the bold move. Otherwise, it could get uglier.

First off, what’s with these damned red clickers that are all over the ballpark? If you go to the ballpark and you have one of these things, and you’re reading this, tell me. WHY? They’re the most annoying thing I’ve ever heard. It sounds like the ballpark has been invaded by crickets, and they friggin annoying as all hell. I complained to the customer relations people, and they said it was a promotion from the Ft. Worth newspaper. Whomever there thought of this should have a bullet in his head. This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen, and the most annoying thing at the ballpark in all my time here. Period.
This was the first of my 13 Ranger mini plan ticket games, and already two two regular season games I’ve gone to (I was at the pre season game vs. the Astros, too) have been losses, both with a home run by the first batter. Chuck Finley beat the Rangers for the first time in 5 years, and in the second regular season game I’ve already been to this season, the first batter of the game hit a home run off Ranger pitching. Ugh. I didn’t really have a good feeling about Burkett walking into the park, and I know he can pitch, but he seems to have a harder and harder time getting it together. Of course, Palmiero’s home run (no, not that Palmiero) didn’t help the feeling. Speaking of Home runs, there were a total of three by the Disney Angels (the other two being Todd Greene, and Ranger killer Tim Salmon). Salmon’s almost wasn’t a Home Run, as Roberto Kelly missed catching it off the wall by inches. It ws a helluva try, and it bounced on top of the wall, and went up several rows of seats. However, Roberto Kelly got himself picked off second base back in the second inning, or we might have got some more more runs there, too.
When Esteban Loaiza (anyone notice Warren Morris is tearing it up early for the Pirates) came in, I thought “Oh god”. However, he actually pitched good – he came in with two outs in the third, and allowed only one hit (a double to Sheets) to the first eleven batters he faced (two 1-2-3 innings). Then in the seventh, it fell apart, with a single, a double, and a home run. He did finish the seventh, but was relieved in the eighth. Loaiza was hit in the leg by a batted ball, I don’t know if that had anything to do with his breakdown or not. I don’t think so, but still… Mike Munoz came on and pitched the final two innings, giving up the only walk by the Rangers of the night in the 8th, and a double in the 9th, but no damage done there. So far this season, I like our pickups pitching wise.
Our hitting was fairly decent, if not earth shattering. Jon Shave continued his six year hitting streak last night by getting a single in the third (he was on base in the second when Kelly was picked off) – I believe that makes a 10 game Ranger hitting streak for Shave now. Not counting the two pinch hitters in the bottom of the ninth (Alicea for Shave, & Goodwin for Kelly), everyone on the team had some hits except for Raffy & Stevens, who both went ofers. The best offensive player was Pudge, with a single, a stolen base, an RBI, a run scored (himself) on his solo home run in the 5th. Juan had an RBI, but didn’t seem rather impressive tonight.
We lost the first game to the Tigers then won the other two. If we win the final 3 of 4 against the Disney Angels, then I’ll overlook tonight, which seemed to be Burkett’s fault.
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Call me Bill James, but anytime your starting pitcher gives up a homer to the first guy he faces, he’s going to be in major doo-doo the rest of the game.
Or at least, so far has been the case this young season for the Rangers’ hurlers.
John Burkett, coming off a bad Grapefruit Season, pitched like he was launching rockets at Cape Canaveral Friday as he gave up two balls that cleared the fence and 2 doubles. The Rangers and Burkett lost to the hated Angels, 8 to 4.
Burkett began the game by giving up a home run to Orlando Palmeiro. Palmeiro’s homer was only the third home run he’s ever had, including all his years in the Minor Leagues. To allow a homer to this guy is like allowing your 80 year-old grandmother to bust out a can of whoop-ass on you. The Rangers’ pitchers have given up more home runs this season – 8 – than they have walked hitters – 7.
Burkett pitched like he did most of last year and as he did in the spring. He finished his short outing giving up – hold your nose – 5 earned runs in 2 and one-third innings.
And you knew Johnny Oates thought the game was out of reach in the 3rd inning when he summoned the Rangers’ version of Theodore Kazynsky in from the bullpen. Yes, that wacky unibomber himself, Esteban Loaiza.
Loaiza actually surprised, at least for a while. He came into the game with 2 outs in the 2nd and pitched four plus innings. No damage done until the 7th, when the wheels fell off his uniwagon.
Offensively, the Rangers knocked around “Mr. California”, Chuck Finley pretty good. Finley gave up 2 homers in his 6 innings of duty, one to the red hot Todd Zeile and the other to Ivan Rodriguez. Every starter in the Rangers’ lineup managed a hit Friday night – except Rafael Palmeiro, the lone Ranger with a history of killing Finley. The Rangers managed a total 9 hits off of him in 6 innings, but it wasn’t enough.
The Rangers had their chances to get even, but saw them go up in smoke. In the first, the Rangers had 2 on and 1 out, only to have Juan Gonzalez bounce into an inning-ending double dip. In the 3rd, they scored a run but wound up stranding runners at 2nd and 3rd.
Don’t blame the offense though. Blame John Burkett.

First off, what was with Fox Sports Southwest last night? At least here in Garland, I was shown the Astros Cubs game. Everything said it was to be FSS, but the Astros game was on there. What’s more annoying was that it was also on ESPN, too! CRAP! I suspect someone was asleep at the wheel either at FSS or my cable company and was showing the wrong feed. At least I got to hear it, but I was all ready to watch the game. Grrrr….
Mark Clark started the game off well, I thought he was going to repeat what Sele had done the night before. It went that way until the fourth. Actually, if you count all three games played so far, the Rangers held the Tigers scoreless for 15 innings, as they didn’t score in the final three of the opening day fiasco, either. Clark gave up two home runs, which seemed to be his undoing. I didn’t think he was all that bad, but he didn’t do as good as Sele did last night. Still, it’s only his first game, I’m not gonna blast him yet. Crabby, though, is not pitching very well so far. Tonight it was no outs, and three earned runs. At this rate, he might end up back in the minors, and we could bring up Zimmerman (Jim says more or less the same thing below). Mike Morgan continued to impress, but he may be hurt now (as is Clayton, too). It ended up that Mark Clark got the win, his 10th different club he got a win for. There was some talk on the radio that a ball might go to the Hall of Fame with the hat that went there from opening day.
Raffy finally hit a home run (would have been nice to see it, FSS!), and our offense just kept battling back. Was nice to see a come from behind win, and to hang on to it, even though some of our pitching was trying to give the Tigers the game. Lee Stevens had another great night, pushing four runs across the plate. Also, Todd Zeile had another good night with two doubles. One run last night was a gift – you always like to see bases loaded with a 3-0 count on your batter. Yup, we got the free pass. Only thing more embarrassing than that would be a bases loaded balk. :)
The Tigers look much improved over last year so far, and I’d like them to have some success this year (just not enough so it’s a problem for the Rangers). :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers’ offense brought out the big bats Wednesday to thrash the Tigers, 10-7. The Boys from Arlington pounded out 18 hits including 6 doubles and a home run.
Starter Mark Clark pitched well for three innings then completely lost control of the ball game. His line stats were similar to Rick Helling’s on Monday but not quite as bad. He still gave up 2 homers, 2 bases on balls and 2 wild pitches, not to mention the 4 earned runs and 6 hits in a span of 1.1 innings.
Fortunately, the Rangers were bailed out again by Mike Morgan, who’s sweaty cap was recently turned over to Cooperstown. He pitched brilliantly, inducing a double play ball on the first batter he faced in the fifth to clean up a messy Clark jam.
While the game was close at times, the Tigers’ bullpen just couldn’t stop the Rangers’ relentless hitting attack. The bats took on dimensions seldom seen last year, as the Rangers showcased the team’s newly-found (and 67% left-handed) power from designated hitter Rafael Palmeiro, first baseman Lee Stevens and third baseman Todd Zeile. Palmeiro led off the 7th with a very important solo home run that cleared the Rangers’ bullpen and made the upper deck in right-center. Amazingly, only two balls were hit into the Home Run Porch last year by Ranger hitters; Stevens did so early in the year and Will Clark accomplished the feat late in the ’98 campaign.
Stevens rapped out 3 hits and drove in 4 runs, all which were important when he drove them in. He drew a bases-loaded walk off lefty CJ Nitkowski and singled off Sean Runyan and made the Tigers’ relievers pay for walking Zeile to face him with a lefty. If Stevens can hit left handers like this, then the team can survive the loss of Mike Simms quite easily.
Zeile, known for his notoriously slow starts, had 2 more doubles (he already has 3 on the young season) and 3 hits and is hitting over .600. In the field he shined as well, as he dove to his right to snare a screaming liner off the bat of suddenly-scary-to-see-him-come-up Juan Encarnacion in the 5th.
The Rangers somehow found a way to finally shut down the Tigers’ offense, which looks to able to score a bunch of runs this year. In what can only be described as a l-o-n-g (it lasted about 19 minutes) and gut-wrenching top half of the 8th inning, the Rangers’ bullpen was both effective and ineffective. When the Rangers needed the outs, they managed to get them. Otherwise, it was nail-biting and cover-your-eyes time for Rangers’ fans.
Tim Crabtree was simply terrible. If he has another outing like last night’s (see box score), there’s a chance he could go to AAA since he still has a Minor League option left. The Rangers could then call up Jeff Zimmerman.
Eric Gunderson threw one pitch and retired the lone hitter he faced, otherwise they might still be playing at The Ballpark. Ok, there’s a curfew, but you get the point.
Danny Patterson was only slightly better than Crabtree – and I use the word better quite loosely.
John Wetteland finally put a cap on the scary 3-run Detroit eruption in the 8th and nailed down the save in the 9th. He certainly seemed like his old self.
The Rangers, in fact, were their old offensive selves too as they completely leveled the visiting Tigers with impressive precision.

As I put this page together, it’s 1AM, and I’m kinda tired. I’ll write my commentary tomorrow when I get into work.
Still.. No errors – nice. Roberto Kelly came within two feet of two home runs for the night – nice. Aaron Sele – awesome!
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
What a terrific rebound for the Rangers. The Rangers really were horrible on Monday but Tuesday’s vengeful affair was sweet. Aaron Sele, who has been projected as a pitcher who won’t be nearly as effective this year as last, was dominating Tuesday as the Rangers shut out the bewildered Detroit Tigers, 6-0.
Sele was stingy, allowing only 7 baserunners in his 7 shutout innings, with 6 strikeouts. 70 of his 111 pitches were for strikes.
Setup men Tim Crabtree and Danny Patterson pitched the final two innings as the Tigers managed only 8 total baserunners and one extra base hit, a Tony Clark double that lead off the 9th.
The Rangers offense got it going early. Johnny Oates’ special lineup against lefties, which has Royce Clayton leading off, saw the first 2 hitters reach. Rusty Greer drove Clayton and catcher Pudge Rodriguez both in with a stinging double to the left-center alley.
Oates’ tough decision-making came into play again the 7th. After two quick outs, Juan Gonzalez smoked a single through the left side of the infield. Surprisingly, he stole second. A passed balled later, he was on third. Then a wild pitch scored him. Later in the inning, Oates’ stuck with Roberto Kelly even though a right-hander was in the game and Tom Goodwin available to hit. Kelly promptly delievered a towering 2-run homer. Four batters later, Luis Alicea drove in the final run of the ball game with a bloop single that scored Todd Zeile, who had barely missed a home run earlier.
The defense played well, with Clayton and Zeile both making tough plays to throw out runners.
As stinky as the Rangers were yesterday, Tuesday had them smelling like a rose.

I’m walking into the Ballpark today (I’ve been to the last three opening day games), and I was running late. I thought I was going to miss the first inning. I’m walking really fast, and my feet are hurting by the time I actually get into the park. Anyways, I see the Rangers are on the field, and are about to throw the first pitch. I stop walking to my seat, and stand next to the wall at the back of Green’s hill. There goes the first pitch.. and there goes the first pitch!! Home run on the first pitch of the season. Boy, if that wasn’t an open for things to come, I don’t know what was. I was sitting in Section 10, which is right next to the left field foul pole. That means one thing. The sun!! Ugh.. It was a nice spot, I thought, but probably would have been better if I wasn’t in the sun so much.
Who made the first error of the season? That’s right – Todd Zeile. Dammit. I want Tatis back! The other two errors were by Clayton (4th) & Stevens (7th). Actually, I didn’t think things were going all that bad until the fourth inning; I mean it was only 1-0. However, the floodgates opened in the fourth inning, the Tigers scored 7 runs, mostly on the longball (2 HR in the inning), helped by an atrocious outing by Helling & Loaiza (there’s a shocker).
Actually, I felt that innings 7-9 weren’t that bad, it’s just the 4th through 6th were so bad. We finally broke the no hitter in the 7th, as Raffy doubled in Greer, who had been hit by a pitch. Mike Morgan & Mike Munoz both pitched some shutout ball, which was nice to see, and we scored 5 runs from the 7th to the 9th, one of which was a Stevens HR to left field. Juan Gonzalez had two RBI’s, and the rest were spead out over several other players. Overall, the game stunk, and Helling better not pitch like this again much, or we’re in big trouble. One down, 161 to go. There goes the perfect season. smile.gif (93 bytes)
To summarize.. I’m sunburnt. Section 10 isn’t the best place to sit in the middle of the day. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
Finally, Opening Day arrives. The smell of precious, green, spring grass. The wonderful smell of ballpark hot dogs. The nauseous fumes of bad pitching and defense. You knew there would be a sour stench all day when leadoff hitter Juan Encarnacion hit the first pitch of the game to the moon.
Rick Helling pitched as poorly as he can possibly pitch. In the first inning alone he threw 24 pitches – and it went downhill from there. He hit 2 batters. He gave up 7 runs (5 earned). He gave up 7 hard hits, including 2 homers. He stunk.
Esteban Loaiza was no better. He was actually worse. I’ll spare you the details. Trust me, he stunk.
The defense stunk too. oh sure, Ivan Rodriguez threw out a couple of would-be base thieves. Oh yeah, the infield made a couple of double plays. This only served the cause of not letting the Tigers score 15 runs.
The bright spots were few and far between. Rafael Palmeiro drove a ball to right for a double. Juan Gonzalez had 2 hits and a walk and a couple ribbies. But until the 7th inning, the Rangers couldn’t even collect a hit off Brian “Who is this guy, Nolan Ryan?” Moehler, who threw ground ball after ground ball.
It was a long, lost, smelly Opening Day. The good news is…it can only get better.

Sorry, I was totally offline for a few days, and am just hitting the office again after being out for a few days. Too much to do today before I’m supposed to go see the Opening Day game. Sorry ’bout that. :)
Commentary by Jim Meeks:
The Rangers lost their final exhibition Saturday 6-4.
Despite the loss, the Rangers pitched well. especially the bullpen. The Rangers were victimized by two errors and three unearned runs in a 5 run Mets eruption in the middle innings. Juan Gonzalez’s miscue was the key error in the frame.
It was announced that OF Scarborough Green and IF Jon Shave made the ballclub and that Mike Munoz and Eric Gunderson sewed up the lefty spots in the bullpen.