Well, that was a mess. About the only good thing is that Chan Ho Park gave up 9 hits and 8 runs in 5 innings. And today is decision day on the roster according to the local press. Look at the line score. It was brutally ugly going back and forth.

1  2  3   4  5  6   7  8  9  10   R  H  E
-  -  -   -  -  -   -  -  -  --   -  -  -
TEXAS                0  1  2   4  0  1   0  0  2   2  12 15  1
SAN DIEGO            4  0  0   0  2  3   0  1  0   3  13 16  1

You can view the rest of my update on this game here.

As I write this, the game has ended, but I haven’t seen any box scores on the game. But with a score of 2-1, you can be pretty assured of one thing. There was a lot of pitching and defense. There always is in a 2-1 score. Was definitely a crisp moving game, coming in at only 2:13.
The linescore is in, and that alone tells me a few things. Chris Young pitched well. The two runs he gave up were in the first and the sixth. The run from the first was a home run to JT Snow, and the Rangers tied it up in the fourth with our only run, a solo home run by Gary Matthews Jr (who seems more and more to be not just a backup outfielder). But that was it for Rangers offense. We did have seven hits all told, but the only one that mattered was Matthews’ jack. Chris Young was a hard luck loser today. :(
Our old buddy Al Levine, who is with the Giants (I wasn’t aware of that) got the save. Nice to see him hanging around. I rather liked him when he was a Ranger awhile back.

This game started off pretty much like one would want it to. The starting pitcher was great, we got off to a lead early, and it held up. Kenny Rogers went 4 strong innings, giving up just one hit, one walk, and had six strikeouts, for no runs. The guys who followed for the next 3 innings (Montero, Bukvich, & Feldman) all gave up a total of no runs and 2 hits (both by Feldman). It was looking like a walkway win, a great one with great pitching.
Then we hit the eighth inning. RA Dickey came on for the eighth, and after some glowing praise by Josh Lewin (might have been Tom Grieve, I can’t remember now), he proceeded to not only let the Brewers back in the game (at that point, we were winning 4-0), but let them tie and then TAKE the lead by giving up an ugly six spot. After the top of the 8th, we were losing 6-4. Dickey was totally ineffective in this game, and even gave up a balk.
That was pretty disheartening. But in an inning that had shades of last May against the Tigers, we managed to pull off our own six spot in the bottom of the frame to retake the lead, and the game. I believe we had 7 straight singles at one point – although at least one of them probably should have been an error. It was nice to see the team (although at this point, the regulars were all out of the game) come back. Laynce Nix was a later inning replacement, and went 2 for 2 with 2 RBI’s. In fact, two was the number of the day, as several of our guys had two hits.. Soriano, Mike Young, Adrian Gonzalez, Mark Teixeira, & Kevin Mench. A pretty nicely balanced attack.
The bonus for me was that this was the first Rangers game on TV with Josh & Tom. There were two games on ESPN earlier in the spring, but we didn’t have our guys in the booth. This time we did. It’s likely going to be the only spring TV game I get to see, as there are two this weekend, but my brother will be in visiting, so I doubt I’ll be watching much Ranger baseball.
You can view my full update for this game here.

One of the guys who has been a phenom this spring has been the White Sox pitcher Brandon McCarthy. His line has been fabulous. But not anymore. The Rangers torched him. McCarthy gave up 9 hits and 7 earned runs in 3.2 IP. The amusing thing is that none of the other White Sox pitchers gave up anything. We had scored all our runs in the second (5) and third (2) innings. After that, donut. Cotts, Hermanson, & Walker kept the Ranger bats under check for 5.1 innings. But the pasting we put on McCarthy was more than enough.
In the pasting was a home run by Hank Blalock (his first of the spring). In total, Blalock and 3 RBI’s. Gerald Laird had two, and Adrian Gonzalez had one. In fact Gonzalez went 3 for 4, and is looking more like a guy who is ready to come up to the majors in my eyes. I suspect if he doesn’t make it up this season, he might get moved, unless we’re holding on to him incase Teixeira/Boras wants insane money for Tex to stay. Richard Hidalgo also went 2 for 4, and is looking like an awesome acquisition so far this spring. Alfonso Soriano seems to have broken out of his slump, going 2 for 3 this game, although from what I’m reading, he still isn’t at 100%, and it might be mental.
Pitching wise, Ryan Drese pitched like he was in mid season form, going 6 innings, 5 hits, and just one earned run. The only downside is that he walked 4 and only struck out 3. But still, he got the job done, and has earned the opening game nod from Buck Showalter; Kenny Rogers gets the home opener. Our other pitchers (Nunez, Tejera, Wasdin, & Brocail) gave up just one run (it was Tejera) over their combined 3 IP.
Overall, a very well played game. Too bad we haven’t had more of these this spring.
You can view my full report for this game here.

I don’t know what you know about Christian Holy Week ceremonies, but I spent the night before at church in a vigil, and as such I got under two hours of sleep for the night. I crapped out early on Friday night, I was blowing z’s by 9PM, which means I heard little of the Rangers game.
Ricardo Rodriguez broke his streak of awesome pitching performances this spring with a real “Chan Ho” type of outing, going 4.1 innings, giving up 12 hits, and 6 earned runs. Ron Mahay who also has been spectacular all spring had a stinker of his own, giving up 3 hits and 3 earned runs in his one inning of work. Not a good night for our staff at all, save for Ryan Bukvich who gave up nothing in his 1.2 innings of work.
Offensively, I can’t really tell what happened with the Rangers, as all the online box scores are broken, giving zeroes across the board for every Ranger player, and it only lists the starters, too. Some highlights I can glean from repots are that Kevin Mench had a home run, as did Gerald Laird (his third), who seems to be trying to win back his job again, he’s playing as well as he did last spring too, I think.
You can view my full update for this game here.

The Rangers beat the Royals 6-4 behind a mostly good performance by Chan Ho Park (damn). Proper update on Friday.

No time to write a proper story for this, as I didn’t get to do THIS until after 5PM the day after this game happened. I will say this. We finally won, and it’s interesting that the combined scores of today’s and yesterday’s game was A’s 25, Rangers 22. Lots of runs in the last 18 innings of baseball. :)
You can view my full update for this game here.

Ugh. In the first two innings, I felt like we were going to have a good second half of spring training. That died in the third inning. We went into the third up 6 to nothing. We left the top of the third losing 7-6. Then after the fourth, we were losing 9-7. Only two runs, and 5 more innings to play at that point, but it just felt bad. I did listen to this game over MLB.com’s Gameday Audio on the A’s feed. Was nice of them to have Eric Nadel & Victor Rojas on there as guests, and they made a couple of shoutouts to “Ranger fans listening”. Nice of them to be cognizant of that issue.
Anyway, in listening it felt like there wasn’t any pitching at all in the game. It was hit after hit after run scored, etc.. Total of 24 runs and 25 hits between the two teams – not much good pitching going on. In fact, Ron Mahay was the only real bright spot for us pitching wise, going two innings and giving up no hits, and no walks. Wes Littleton only pitched .1 of an inning and he didn’t give up anything, but that doesn’t really count, IMO. The other guys (Regilio, Hughes, & Bukvich) just stunk up the place.
Offensively, it was nice to see a couple of home runs from Sandy Alomar (that still seems weird talking about him as a Ranger), and Laynce Nix, who needs to turn it around in a hurry to keep from losing his starting job to Gary Matthews, who in my opinon has earned it. Scary moment in the first inning though as Teixeira got plunked with a pitch, and came out of the game after trying to stay in. It didn’t sound good listening to the game, and on Wednesday it doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal, but still – you never want to see that to one of your better players.
We’re awfully close to having the worst record in the majors during spring training. We’re already the worst in Cactus League play. We’re 6-14 (.300), and the next worst are the Royals at 7-11 (.400), and two games ahead of us. Over in Grapefruit League play, only the Marlins have a worse record than us at 6-15 (.295), but we’re pretty close to falling below them. :(
You can view my full update for this game here.

Well, we’ve reached the “unofficial” half way point of spring training (at least for me). This is the lone scheduled off day, and we reach this point with a winning percentage of 315, having gone 6-13. Most of the games (including Sunday’s) have been of the kind where our “regular” players are doing OK, but the guys who won’t be here come opening day are tanking the games, and are causing this record. The cliché of “it’s only spring training” leaps to mind here, but even with that, it’s still disturbing to see your team 6-13 with only 13 more games to go. That means we have to win 10 of the remaining 13 games to get to .500 for spring, and that’s not happening. I can see the DMN & FTW papers having a gloomy outlook.
Something that’s not gloomy is Ricardo Rodriguez’ performance in Spring Training. He’s looked really awesome the last few times out, and my gut feeling says that assuming Ranger management doesn’t screw it up and hand the job to RA Dickey or someone else, RicRod should be a great addition to the starting rotation. I rather like what he’s doing, which is something I can’t say about most any other of the starting pitchers. While no one has really stunk up the joint completely, RicRod just feels electric, and Sunday was no different. His line was 5IP, 0R, 6K, 1BB. Kameron Loe & Travis Hughes got torched, between the two of them, they gave up 7H, 6ER in 1.2IP. That was pretty much the game there.
Offensively, our leader of the day was an unusual one, it was Manny Alexander, who went 4 for 4 with 1 RBI, 2 runs scored, and a double. Alfonso Soriano had a mini hitting streak, going 2 for 5, increasing his total number of spring training hits to 4. Sandy Alomar, who has been mostly absent from spring training games that I’ve noticed went 2 for 4 as well, as did Kevin Mench.
I doubt much we’re going to get back to .500, but it would be nice to see us play a bit more consistently – hell, I’ll take good as spring training winds down.
You can view my full update for this game here.

I was finding myself in a weird position yesterday. I was rooting against my own starting pitcher. When a Ranger would catch the ball, I’d get mad. When Park would strike someone out, I’d be irritated. In fact, I got four and two thirds innings of that, as Chan Ho Park pitched well again for the second outing in a row. Only one of the 3 runs Park gave up were earned (thanks to Soriano). All told Park’s line was 4 hits, 3R, 1ER, 4K, OBB. No walks again. It’s even been a couple of outings since Park plunked someone with a HBP. The scary thing is if Park does this two more times in a row, people might start to believe he’s figured it out, and I just can’t bring myself to do that. I think it’s a given he’ll make the club out of camp, but how long will it last? Even if he does pitch well into the season, no one will believe it. They’ll wait for the other shoe to drop, for him to walk 5, give up 4 home runs, and hit 3, and then people will say “The real Chan Ho is back”. The three years before were an enigma. He was expected to pitch well, and didn’t. Now he’s NOT expected to pitch well (or even keep his job according to a lot of folks), so he goes and is having a fairly decent spring. I’m scared.
Other folks who aren’t doing what they’re supposed to are Laynce Nix, who still hasn’t gotten it going. He’s never really been a “tear it up and bat 340 hitter”, so I wonder how he’ll recover from his slow spring. Alfonso Soriano, who possibly still could be hurt, either physically, or can’t bring his mind to bear on getting past that mental barrier folks need to get past to get back to where they were playing wise. He’s got two hits out of about 5,000 at bats this spring, and he made two errors yesterday. Neither Nix nor Soriano are doing very well at all this spring, for whatever reason. With Gary Matthews doing really well, if Nix doesn’t get it together soon, he’s likely to find himself on the bench, or in AAA. Soriano will stay simply because of his contract, but if he keeps doing this into May, we might find Ian Kinsler at second, or someone else entirely. Who knows?
Anyway, about this game – we had a few longballs in the third (Young, Barajas) to give us a 3-2 lead in the third. The Angels tied it up in the 5th, and it stayed that way until extra innings, where we did what we usually do. Give up a couple in the top of the 10th, and then don’t score any ourselves. RA Dickey pitched the 10th, and was the losing pitcher, having given up both of those runs.
We play the Brewers on Sunday afternoon, hopefully we can pick up a win, something that has been hard to come by lately. Be nice to have a win going into our lone scheduled off day on Monday.
You can view my full update for this game here.