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Due to work concerns, I was unable to listen to any of this game until about the middle of the seventh inning, when almost all the scoring was done. At that point, the game was tied 4-4, and the only real excitement I got to hear was Andruw Jones’ home run to win the game in the ninth. This is the last time we’ll see the Angels until May 16th (on a Saturday afternoon Fox game of the week). We faced them just two times this spring, and won twice (13-7 on Sunday, 5-4 today).
The Rangers only threw out three pitchers today. None of them are guys making the club. Doug Mathis started. Doug appeared in eight games for the Rangers in 2008, posting a 6.65 ERA. Which is pretty close to what his spring ERA is in 2009 (6.75). In this game he went just four innings, giving up just three hits. However, he accompanied those hits with three walks for a total of three earned runs. Two of those runs came on a home run ball to Matthew Brown. Tommy Hunter followed with a scoreless inning (Tommy was in 3 games in 2008, for a 16.36 ERA). The final Rangers pitcher was Derek Holland, who had the weird line of 4IP, 3H, 1ER, a blown save, and the win.
That win came on the aforementioned home run by Andruw Jones in the ninth to take the decisive lead. Jones had come in for Josh Hamilton in his slot. Josh himself had a solo home run earlier in the game. Jones also had a double in the slot as well, so this hole had some power on April 1st. You know the drill, four doubles, two home runs, six singles, Rangers scored, we won. Old hat, eh? hahahaha
Anyway, it’s nice to see the page flip to April. Next Monday is Opening Day. I’ll be there, as will most others living in this area that read this site, I’d wager. Bunch of roster moves are imminent.

I’m not saying much about this game. The reason is there’s a big Giants fan where I work, and the less said about this fiasco the better. Still, a few comments:

1. This game featured no position player substitutions. I believe that was the first game like that all spring. The same guys who started the game in the field (save for the pitcher) ended it.
2. We had just six hits, two of ’em by Josh Hamilton, and one of THOSE was a three run home run off Barry Zito, accounting for all our runs.
3. Matt Harrison was not good, I actually got a chance to listen to the start of this game at work yesterday. Was ugly.
4. Barry Zito didn’t sound too bad. Of course, it’s the Rangers, so he could go 1-16 all season, the 1 would be against us, naturally. Just like the Oakland days.
5. Of the nine guys who batted this game, the lowest spring batting average at the end of the game was .258 (Blalock). The highest was Josh Hamilton (.384)

Sunday’s game featured four home runs accounting for nine of thirteen runs. Monday’s game featured four more home runs, this time accounting for all seven of the runs! Here’s Monday’s list…
Taylor Teagarden – Three run shot in the second inning off Matt Cain
Andruw Jones – Solo shot in the fourth off of Matt Cain
Justin Smoak – Solo shot in the ninth off of Luis Perdomo
David Murphy – Two run shot in the 10th to win the game off of Felix Romero
That’s eight home runs in two games accounting for 16 runs. That’s some nice power. But then again, that should be no surprise to anyone who follows Texas Rangers baseball. Overall, we’re looking at ten hits, of which four were home runs, one was a double, and the other half were singles. It was another scattered hits day, as only Andruw Jones had more than a lone hit (home run and double).
The pitching. We had six guys on the mound this game. Only one of them is actually on the 40 man roster right now (Josh Rupe). The last two innings were thrown by three guys who won’t be with the club when we break (Kasey Kiker, Beau Vaughn, & AJ Murray). Those guys gave up one run (Kiker) between them. The other guys have a realistic shot, although if you had asked me a couple of weeks ago, the starter had zero chance, but seems to be pitching his way into contention. This of course is Mr. Anna Benson. However, we’ve seen this kind of NRI “bag of magic beans” before in spring training. If he does make the club, it had better not be for just two good starts, and cost us someone else off the 40 man roster (Doug Davis, anyone?) Anyway, Benson went six innings, giving up six hits and zero walks for three earned runs – a technical quality start. Not a bad performance, actually. Josh Rupe, who seems to be saving his spot, threw a scoreless inning, and Eddie Guardado had a blown save. He hasn’t been in 2009 what he was in 2008, his ERA is over 10 in the spring. Not exactly confidence building. If that doesn’t work out, call Mike Venafro. He’s not doing anything now. :)
What I found amusing tonight when I sat down to write this was the fact that it’s still March, and we played our thirty first spring training game. I know that’s because of the World Baseball Classic and all, but it still seems like a lot, even knowing that. Something else is I haven’t heard hardly anything about the WBC since the US was eliminated. I mean, I know it’s out there, but I’m not being hit in the face with it like I was before. When I wrote this paragraph, I didn’t even know who was in the finals, so I hit the site for the thing, and found out Japan won again. And it was a week ago. I didn’t even know it was over! Wow.

This game was all about home runs. There were quite a few of them.
Josh Hamilton – Two run shot in first inning off of Sean O’Sullivan
Josh Hamilton – Three run shot in second inning of of Sean O’Sullivan
Chris Davis – Solo shot in fifth off of Darren Oliver
Taylor Teagarden – Three run shot in seventh off of Marc Bulger
That wasn’t all the offense, mind you, but those four hits (of the 17 we had total) accounted for nine of the thirteen runs we had in total, so I’d say that was the game right there. While I didn’t hear or see it, the stories say that the home run by Chris Davis was probably the furthest hit of the spring. We don’t get distance calls in spring training (why not?), but the reports say it went totally over the berm and the party tent beyond that. Sounds like a titanic shot to me.
Two other hits were extra base jobs, both doubles (one by Chris Davis, one by Nelson Cruz). The remaining eleven hits were all singles. With seventeen hits total, you know there were several guys with multiple hits. A glance at the box score shows this to be true. Kinsler was 3-4, Young was 2-3, Hamilton was 2-5, Chris Davis was 3-4, even Elvis Andrus was 2-3. Everyone else had just one hit.
Brandon McCarthy started the game, and was OK. I’m unclear why he came out when he did (I can’t really figure that out by the box score), but he went four innings, gave up just two runs on six hits and no walks. Normally I’d pass that off on pitch count, but we don’t get that in spring box scores, either. Derrick Turnbow had the worst performance, giving up a three run home run to Torii Hunter in the sixth. Warner Madrigal & Frank Francisco each gave up a solo run in their respective innings. The only zeroes were CJ Wilson & Josh Rupe.
Nice to see the big sticks come out against a division foe. Hopefully that can continue into the regular season.

In a game that I knew was on the radio, but due to life, had no chance to listen to, the Rangers won 8-5 over their Surprise roommates.
Scott Feldman started this game, and if the recent rumors are to be believed, it might be one of his final starts for awhile. There’s a lot of talk about him going to the pen and giving the fifth starter spot to Mr. Anna Benson. Whether that’s smart or not, I don’t know, but Feldman didn’t help his case today. He went five innings, giving up six hits and a walk for a total of four earned runs. He did strike out six, though – that’s something good, but not enough to overcome the earned runs. He was briefly followed by Jimmy Gobble, who pitched just one third of an inning, before being relieved by Jason Jennings, who finished the game with a 3 and 2/3 inning performance to get the win. Jennings allowed just three hits, and one walk with four strikeouts for his shutout performance.
Offensively, we had ten hits that were pretty fairly well spread out. Only one Ranger had more than one, that was Nelson Cruz, who went 2-4, one of which was a two run home run in the first inning. Omar Vizquel & Frank Catalanotto had doubles. Hank Blalock & Jarrod Saltammachia had triples, and there was Cruz’ home run. However, the most important hit was by back of the book guy Marcus Lemon, who had a sac fly in the ninth, giving the Rangers the lead they would keep for the win.
I did miss this game, but had a lot of fun having an afternoon out with my daughter. Explained about a letter about the return and regular addresses, the stamp, and how the letter gets to where its’ going. Given how much time I’ve put into this site over the 11 years I’ve been doing it now, it’s quite easy to NOT do it do do something like explain to your kid how to mail a letter. Hopefully she likes the Rangers game we’re going to on Saturday as much. :)

After the fiasco of losing 11-10 to the Brewers, one was hoping for some redemption on Friday night. In a televised game, the Rangers went up against the Milwaukee Brewers. Kevin Millwood took the mound, and had a line that looked fairly ugly, even if it pretty much wasn’t his fault.
The good stuff in Kevin’s performance was that he went six innings and gave up just four hits. He did however, walk three, and allowed six runs, although three of them were unearned. That came after an Elvis Andrus error. If you take out the unearned runs, it qualified for a quality start, but it still was six runs surrendered. It just felt “bad”, even if the line wasn’t terribly awful. The three relievers was pretty decent. CJ Wilson had a scoreless inning with no hits, Derrick Turnbow went one, gave up a run on one hit and a walk, and Josh Rupe had a one hit no run inning. Wasn’t awful, but the three unearned runs really hurt this game.
Offensively, we were led by Chris Davis, Taylor Teagarden, & Michael Young. Young, in his first game back from the minor injury went 2-3 with a solo home run to right center field in the first inning. Teagarden went 3-3, although he didn’t have any RBI’s. Chris Davis, however, went 3-4, scoring twice, and with two RBI’s. He was definitely the leader here. His two RBI’s came on a two run home run in the sixth inning. Other offensive notes were three doubles (Andrus, Teagarden, & Davis), a triple by Taylor Teagarden, and the aforementioned home runs by Young & Davis.
Michael Young also had an error in addition to the Andrus one. A disappointing loss for sure, the three unearned runs in the first inning definitely were a major factor in this loss.