Rangerfans.com

I didn’t get to see any of this game when it happened – Saturday was a big day for my family, we had friends from church over to help paint the bedroom of our second kid, who will be arriving in about 4-5 weeks now. By the time we were done with that, went out to eat, came back watched a movie, and took one of them back home, I was wiped out. Because of that, my commentary on this game will be short.
I did put on the Rangers game, but I already knew the score, so I just watched the Rangers score. Plus, since all of our runs (but one) came in the first three innings, it was done quickly. That was fun, because it was a ton of home runs accounting for five of our six runs. The highlight was definitely Ian Kinsler, who jacked two home runs off of Mark Hendrickson. Hendrickson gave up all the runs, although one was unearned. The home runs were a two run shot by Kinsler, a solo shot by Kinsler (to lead off the game), and solo shots by Chris Davis & Andruw Jones. As the home runs increased the Baltimore fans were bringing more boobirds, too.
Pitching wise, Scott Feldman started in place of Mr. Anna Benson. Feldman should have been in the rotation to start the year, I think, and he made a case to stay. Only went five innings, but could be a “not stretched out” issue. Five innings, just one run on four hits. He was followed by Derek Holland, who from the linescore looked impressive again. Three innings, one hit, one run. It was a solo home run to Baltimore, their only home run of the game. CJ Wilson followed, and showed why he’s not the closer anymore, and finally, Frank Francisco did finish it off for his fourth save of the season so far.
Salty went 2-4, raising his batting average to .260. Nice to see him come around the last few days.
If I wasn’t so wiped out tired, I probably would have watched the game, but I’m glad I got to at least see the high points. We go another win today in Baltimore. Brandon McCarthy goes for his third win of the season, which would be three times more than he got in 2008.

The Rangers were held off by Japanese import Koji Uehara for most of the game. From what I gather of him, he’s not a dominant strikeout kind of guy, but early on, he was punching out Rangers at a pretty good clip. In all, he went 6.2 innings, striking out six Rangers – although most of them were in the first couple of innings. Four hits, two runs, he pitched pretty good, certainly well enough to deserve the win. However, his bullpen didn’t hold it for him.
But before we get to that, Vicente Padilla continued to pitch “meh” in 2009. He went the same length as Uehara, 6.2. However, Pidente had seven hits, three walks, with a home run four all four runs the Orioles would get. His season ERA is 8.27. Definitely not good. It feels odd, as you kind of felt (via that gut feeling sort of thing) that he was going to be significantly better than this. He certainly has time to turn it around and be OK, but wow, this is not a good start to the 2009 campaign.
Our pen was pretty good, we had four relievers combine for 2.1 innings, giving up just one hit and two walks, but no runs, the most important stat. One of the relievers was Eddie Guardado who pitched to just one batter, and walked him. Darren O’Day was in this game (with his own uniform), too!
Back to bullpens. Baltimore’s did not hold it for Uehara. First, Jim Johnson gave up a run on four hits, which is surprising that it was just one run. However, the big blow was the home run by Michael Young which gave the Rangers the lead, and the eventual win.
Offensively, it was mostly a singles game. We had 12 hits in all, just three extra base ones. The aforementioned home run by Young, another home run by Hank Blalock, and a double by Saltamacchia were it for extra base jobbers. Elvus Andrus & Josh Hamilton both took ofers. Kinsler, Young, & Blalock each had two hits, everyone else had just a single hit. Expect Salty. He had a good night, going 3-4, and raising his average from like .180 to .239. His offense has struggled a lot, much in the same way that Gerald Laird’s did when he was finally told “the job is yours, don’t worry about your offense”. I hope Salty comes around, he seems to have the Blalock “wild, big swing and a miss” going on right now.
But was a nice comeback – hopefully we could sweep in Baltimore, we certainly need it.

I’m taking my first mulligan of the season (there will probably be a big one in a month or so when my second kid is born) for the Toronto series. There’s a lot going on in my personal life now (in prep for the kid), and with work at the same time, so I need to give up these games and catch up by cheating. This page is here as a placeholder.
Bummer, as I wanted to talk about Derek Holland, the Darren O’Day uniform thing, but I need to give myself a break. :)

I’m taking my first mulligan of the season (there will probably be a big one in a month or so when my second kid is born) for the Toronto series. There’s a lot going on in my personal life now (in prep for the kid), and with work at the same time, so I need to give up these games and catch up by cheating. This page is here as a placeholder.
Bummer, as I wanted to talk about Derek Holland, the Darren O’Day uniform thing, but I need to give myself a break. :)
There is a fun link to Darren O’Day wearing the wrong uniform number here on the mlb.com site.

I’m taking my first mulligan of the season (there will probably be a big one in a month or so when my second kid is born) for the Toronto series. There’s a lot going on in my personal life now (in prep for the kid), and with work at the same time, so I need to give up these games and catch up by cheating. This page is here as a placeholder.
Bummer, as I wanted to talk about Derek Holland, the Darren O’Day uniform thing, but I need to give myself a break. :)

I know there was more to talk about, but the only thing that mattered was the walkoff home run. We won the game on the second pitch of the bottom of the ninth. Michael Young won it. Prompting these. I mean, really – do we remember anything else? I don’t.

We needed this heading out on the road. If we had not won this, it would have been a mighty bad way to hit the road against a division leader.

You hear the term “hard luck loser” a lot if you hang around baseball enough. Last night was one of those nights. The guy wearing 33 on his back for the Rangers definitely qualified. Kevin Millwood threw a nine inning complete game. Gave up just five hits and allowed only two runs. Struck out three (walked three though). By all accounts a great game, one definitely deserving of a win. This should have been Kevin’s third win of the year already. It wasn’t.
That was because of Zack Greinke of the Royals. He also threw a nine inning complete game. Problem is while he allowed more hits than Millwood did (7 to Kevin’s 5), he also struck out 10 and allowed no one to cross the plate. The pro writers will have an eloquent way of saying this in their reports.. “Greinke was friggin awesome!” I mean what else needs to be said really? He dominated the game totally – we looked mostly stupid at the plate. Only Blalock managed more than one hit. Of our seven, only two were extra base hits (one double by Salty, a triple by Blalock). In fact, Hank’s triple led off the inning, and he was stuck there, never scored.
As much as you feel bad for Millwood, it was a totally masterful and dominant performance by Greinke. Definitely deserving of praise from this Rangers fan.

What is it with Kansas City. Even when they’re at the lowest of the low (which was most of the time), we have problems with them. This is a team that until this year teams are supposed to beat easily, and we’re constantly losing to them. Is it the time in Surprise? Who knows. But it happened again.
After the “Good Karma” of Kinsler’s 6-6 cycle, it pretty much did not carry over. Kinsler himself went 2-4 for this game (with a walk), which was better than most everyone. Hank Blalock went 2-5, but Elvis Andrus led the way from the 9 hole with a 3-4 night. No runs or RBI’s, but he was the only Ranger with three hits. Blalock, Byrd, & Salty each had solo home runs which accounted for all three of our runs.
David Murphy came in as a replacement, and took another ofer. He remains ofer 2009. That’s a bit disturbing. If it doesn’t turn around soon, it might affect his playing time or his spot. In another odd move, Michael Young was pinch hit for by Omar Vizquel. I’m not sure I understand that one.
The pitching, however… Matt Harrison is not looking in 2009 like he did in 2008. This game was well, ugh. Five innings and six earned runs on eight hits with four walks. Two of the hits were home runs. Bleh. Willie Eyre, who was just called up to help the pen was no help. 1.1 innings, giving up three runs on four hits and two walks. Josh Rupe was even worse. 1.2 innings, three runs on six hits and a walk. Eddie Guardado finished up, and actually threw a scoreless inning, which REDUCED his ERA to 11.25.
The pen has been pretty bad to start the season, and we haven’t had much of a chance to test Frankie. If this keeps going for too much longer, there probably will be some big bullpen changes.