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Shit.

As has been my policy for the last few years, I do not write about losses to the Yankees.

As has been my policy for the last few years, I do not write about losses to the Yankees.

As has been my policy for the last few years, I do not write about losses to the Yankees.

This was a pretty good pitcher’s duel.
David Huff tossed a complete game for Cleveland to get the win. 9 innings, just four hits and a walk. Was a great line. Matt Harrison went seven innings, giving up just five hits, a walk, and one earned run. It’s unfortunately the two unearned runs that cost him and the team the game.
There wasn’t much to the Rangers offense. Four hits total. Two of them by Michael Young, and one of those scored both runs. Was a two run home run in the fourth. The other two hits were singles by Elvis Andrus & Vlad Guerrero. Not much offense, but those two runs were holding up well.
We were only six outs away from the win. Then they made two errors in quick succession after having made just four in the first previous eight games combined. One was Elvis, and one was Michael Young, so it was pretty surprising.
Sadly the sweep got away from us.

The Rangers got out early in this game, and never looked back. Colby Lewis started the game. It was supposed to be CJ Wilson, but he came down with a case of food poisoning and couldn’t start. So Lewis took the hill, and did a pretty great job.
He came out a bit earlier than I think he should have, but he did get into a bit of trouble in the sixth – mostly due to his high pitch count (117 in 5.1 innings) Overall, his line was not bad outside of that. 5.1 innings pitched, three hits, four walks, and two earned runs. However, the big deal in his line was the strikeouts. TEN of them in 5.1 innings. That’s sixteen outs on his ledger, and ten were strikeouts. Makes me wish he didn’t throw so many pitches, as he probably could have gotten way more than 10.
Dustin Nippert, Darren Oliver, Chris Ray, & Neftali Feliz came in after him. None of them allowed any runs. Although Ray allowed two walks in 0.2 innings. Feliz got his second save.
But this game was more about offense. First off, the Rangers had 15 hits total. Only Michael Young had none. He’s now batting .156 for the season. He’ll eventually be fine, but it is a very Mark Teixeira style slow start for him. Arias only had one hit, lowering his batting average to just .440 :) Josh Hamilton came alive. 3-4 this game. He drove in the first RBI of the game in the first inning. Elvis Andrus also had three hits. Pedro Borbon woke up a bit after being virtually asleep offensively so far. 2-4 with two RBI’s and a run scored. Chris Davis had two doubles. But the big exclamation point was Nelson Cruz, who had another home run. Sadly it was a solo shot, as Josh Hamilton was thrown out trying to steal third right before the home run.
The win felt good, and felt like a game we were going to win almost immediately. We’re now 5-3, and are in first place in the AL West. That’s quite cool. :)

Rich Harden started his second game of the season. It went better than the first one, although it ended up with the same decision. That’s a no decision. Rich was wild again, walking three and giving up five hits in his six innings of work. The tribe scored one in the first and one in the sixth off of him. The first one though was a solo home run off the bat of Shin-Soo Choo. Given that came with nobody on, and most of the rest of the stuff he gave up led to just one run, one could say he did decently, all things considered. Technically it was a quality start, but it didn’t feel like one. Given the way Harden was presented to us, I expect 7 innings, 12 strikeouts, and 4 hits, maybe one run each game he pitches. Granted, the Harden we know before he signed here says we’re not likely to get that, but he is the guy most likely to strike out 15 or something. He did good, although it still felt like a letdown to me.
Dustin Nippert & Darren Oliver pitched the next two frames, and by this point, it was the bottom of the ninth. So Ron Washington brings in Frank Francisco. This is the same day that Washington said this to the press:

Rangers manager Ron Washington said on Monday he’s going to use reliever Frank Francisco in the sixth or seventh inning — preferably in non-pressure situations — while he gets himself together.

Uh, OK. Bringing him in in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game certainly qualifies for THAT. But, he did manage to pitch a perfect inning, although he had a liner to short, and a flyball that went to the warning track. It could have quite easily been worse.
The Indians threw out Fausto Carmona. He’s an enigma, he could be freakin’ fantastic, or he could be all over the place. We saw a bit of both today, but mostly the good pitcher. Carmona went eight innings (111 pitches), allowed five hits, four walks, but just two earned runs. Both coming in the fifth. And one of those was on a wild pitch by Carmona himself (the other was on an RBI single by Michael Young).
Overall, there wasn’t a ton of offense. The Rangers had eight hits. Two by Joaquin Arias, who has had a torrid few games here. Two by Nelson Cruz, who leads the league in everything. The rest were scattered.
The game went to extra innings, our first of the year, and I hate these. Long time readers of my site have heard me rant about how many times the Rangers lose in the 10th inning. Not this time. Josh Hamilton got on board, and Nelson Cruz hit another home run to win the game 4-2 in 10 innings. Neftali Feliz came in, mowed down the Indians in the bottom of the 10th for a save.
I would have preferred Harden get the win, but I’ll obviously take the win.

The Rangers finish the last game on the homestand with a nice win. 9-2 over the Mariners. Our offense woke up, and it wasn’t just Guerrero & Cruz. We had a nice spread of it amongst the lineup. In fact, the only Ranger not to have at least one hit was David Murphy. But he was excused because of the extremely bizarre way he got on base the two times he did. He reached on two consecutive at bats via catcher’s interference. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen. Oh, I’ve seen the interference happen from time to time, but never two straight at bats from the same guy. Very weird.
Vlad Guerrero went 3-5, and his batting average sits at .500 for the season so far. Quite gaudy. However, the bigger surprise here is Joaquin Arias. He went 3-5, making it two consecutive games he had three hits. His average also is at .500. Arias isn’t too far off of Guerrero in at bats, either. To this point, Arias has 16 at bats, and Guerrero has 24. So it’s not one of those “Oh, he’s just gone 3-6 for the season, so he’s .500” deals. I think most people see Arias as a “hanging on” guy – that he’s only here because Kinsler is out, and we didn’t have a seriously better option. He definitely is seizing this time, it will make for an interesting choice once that time comes.
Josh Hamilton looked good, as he had a couple of doubles. Elvis Andrus had a triple. Mike Young had a home run. So we had some nicely spread out offense. Was good to see that. We did have a guy thrown out at home, and also at second to end an inning, on a really bizarre play. But overall, the offense showed up, and showed up well. Nine runs and sixteen hits. Yeah, it was there.
Pitching was pretty good, too. Scott Feldman pitched way better than he did on opening day. This time, it was seven innings, seven hits, and two runs (although one was unearned). He got his first win of the season, and his ERA sits at 2.57 after two starts. Doug Mathis & Chris Ray each pitched scoreless innings (although Mathis’ inning wasn’t terribly smooth).
But it was a good win. Something nice to get out on the road with, as the Rangers don’t come back home until Friday the 23rd. In the interim, we go through Cleveland, the Bronx, & Boston. That could be rough. Cleveland won’t be AS hard as the other two, but it has (on paper) the possibility of being ugly. We’ll get an early test as to how good this team really is.
Perhaps it’s good we’re going in there without a closer that is awfully wobbly. I can see Feliz being the closer for this whole road trip quite easily.

On paper, I thought this game was going to be a Mariners win. Felix Hernandez versus Matt Harrison. Especially after Matt had not had any mound time (when it counts) in ages.
But what we got was not what I was expecting. Felix Hernandez was good. Yes. But Matt Harrison was just a smidge better. Just look at their lines:
Hernandez: 7IP, 7H, 3R, 2ER, 1BB, 5K, 1HR, 110P
Harrison: 6IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 4K, 0HR, 110P
Yeah, Hernandez was out there longer, but he did give up more runs. The pitchers left the field with Harrison on top. Dustin Nippert and Neftali Feliz held down the fort. Nippert had a little harder time, as he gave up two hits, but neither surrendered a run.
Then Frank Francisco came in and laid an egg. A big stinky smelly one right in the middle of the diamond. For the second time in a few games, too. He gave up three hits, three earned runs and a walk. In 0.1 innings pitched. Faced just five batters, threw fifteen pitches. He was rather lustily booed, and his manager lost confidence, as Feliz was named the “temporary” closer not long after the game was over. Yikes!
It was annoying as hell, but lost in the annoyance was the fact that Joaquin Arias went 3-3 against Felix Hernandez. That was a really impressive feat. Wouldn’t have expected that from Arias, but we’ll take it.
P.S. I’m bloody sick and tired of Felix Hernandez being called “King Felix” – even by our own announcers. Come on Lewin. He’s not our player. That we’re promoting an opponent with an “ego boosting” nickname like that really bugs me. Most players (like say CoCo Crisp) have a nickname that’s part of their name. Yeah, his name is “Covelli Crisp”, but nobody calls him that. All the records and everything say Coco Crisp. Nobody calls him “King Felix”. He’s Felix Hernandez. If I was a Mariner fan, I might be inclined to say that, but I’m not. And I don’t think our announcers should be doing that, either. Grumble, grumble..