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Well, tonight was a game that I was hoping would be against the Angels, actually. Vicente Padilla and the Angels is always something fun to watch. We didn’t get that. We got the Mariners. And we got Felix Hernandez, who always bothers me because “King Felix” is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Not because of his pitching – he’s a great young pitcher. But the ego and arrogance of the nickname. Oh well.

Last night we made Erik Bedard work. This night we made Felix Hernandez field. He fielded his position a few times tonight, and made plays that were seriously close – the point where you’d think both went the wrong way without 15 different angles on the replay. In all, Hernandez had a great game. Seven innings, five hits, three walks, and only one run allowed – even it was unearned.

Vicente Padilla also only allowed one run, although he allowed a bit too many other things. Like eight hits and three walks in six innings. However, it was just one run allowed (this one was earned).

The thing is, one word that could describe this game was sloppy. The Rangers had three errors, and the Mariners had two. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view), both teams managed to escape real damage. The Rangers loaded the bases twice in the middle innings – nothing. In all, the Rangers left 10 men on base, and the Mariners left 15 – Good Lord, that’s a lot of wasted opportunities!

The game certainly had a roller coaster feel to it. From the wasted opportunities, to the feeling of winning in the top of the 8th, to the “Oh crap” feeling in the bottom of the 8th to back on top again in the 9th. To top it off, you had a bit of queasiness in the bottom of the ninth feeling they were going to let it get away. Fortunately, we ended up on top of the roller coaster, and that was because of Josh Hamilton.

Yeah, that’s a not relevant picture, but it is a funny one, so I wanted to use it. Josh made two really great plays in the outfield. The Willie Mays style catch and crash into the wall one, plus one where he ran a really huge distance across the outfield to catch a ball were both really awesome to watch. On top of that, he hit a game winning two run home run in the top of the ninth off of JJ Putz to give us the win. Was a great night for Josh Hamilton, and a nice win for the Rangers. As was said on TV, you don’t want to start the season, or leave your first stop on a trip with an ofer. Ugh.

A few pitching comments: We had another wild pitch leading to a run. That’s not good to see ever, and especially two days in a row. Padilla allowed a lot of baserunners, but was able to get out of it when he needed to. That was nice to see.

Just for the heck of it… Richie Sexson looks bad. USSMariner thinks so, too. ;)

Kevin Millwood’s good news from the 2008 opener is that his ERA is zero. The bad news is that he’s also 0-1.

The start time for this game was rather odd. 5:40PM Central time is hard for me, as I get off of work at 6PM, and as such it was difficult to avoid the score. Oh, I know where to avoid, but the temptation to check it out as it’s happening was rough. So I got home, and ate dinner, played with my little girl a bit in the back yard, and then settled in to watch the game after it had technically ended. Dinner tonight was hot dogs, too, so I was ready to go.

I started watching the game with a Stella Artois and my Palm so I can score the game in hand. Like most Rangers fans I was quite excited seven pitches into the season when Michael Young deposited a Erik Bedard pitch over both Brad Wilkerson and the WaMu logos for a one run lead in the top of the first. When you’re emotionally invested into a team like that, a home run seven pitches into the season brings up visions of 100 win seasons, playoff wins, etc, etc, etc. I was jazzed at that point. The other cool thing is that Bedard was NOT as advertised. He went to full counts on a ton of Ranger hitters, and was out of the game in the fifth due to a rather high pitch count. He still only gave up one run, so it’s not like he was terrible, but wow did he have to work for what he got in this one.

Kevin Millwood was pitching like he was the #1 starter. Kevin’s was let down by some defensive issues in the field in the sixth. Michael Young couldn’t handle a hot smash from Ichiro for an error, which led to the two unearned runs Kevin gave up in the sixth. He did look really good. Josh & Tom spent a lot of time talking about how he looks better, new conditioning and all that, and it did look good. When he got into some minor trouble, he was able to pitch his way out. He wasn’t being helped by the home plate umpire who seemed to be squeezing him at points.

One moment that made me chuckle was the argument that ensued between home plate umpire Jim Joyce and Ron Washington over Milton Bradley. Bradley was hit in the foot by a pitch, and went to first, but Joyce didn’t see it, and ruled he wasn’t hit. So he came back after some mild discussion with Washington, and then the next pitch was a ball, he threw his bat away (a bit hard, IMO) and went to first. Bradley never said a word to the umpire, and just went to first. Ron Washington came out and said a few things, and apparently someone from the Rangers dugout did too, as there was a very clear camera shot of Joyce bitching at someone. What’s funny about that is Bradley has a reputation (as Carl Everett did when he came here) of arguments with umpires. His first game as a Ranger, and there’s confrontation. It just amused me.

Anyway, the game went on with the Rangers leading 1-0 for awhile. After the aforementioned error led to us being down 2-1, Millwood was pulled after six innings, and Kaz Fukumori made his Rangers debut. His spring ERA of zero must have been in play, as his outing today more than made up for it. Only one third of an inning pitched, and in that time, he gave up two hits, two walks, three earned runs, and to top it off, had two wild pitches – one directly leading to a run. A rather ghastly debut, leaving his ERA at 81.00. At least it wasn’t as bad as Tom Gordon for the Phillies yesterday, whose ERA is 135 after his 0.1 innings on the mound.

Fukumori was followed up by Franklyn German, who did keep his spring performance intact, by going 1.2 innings, and not giving up any more runs. German looked good.

Offensively we were quite literally led by Michael Young. He had the home run in the first, but also went 3-5 for the game, now batting .600 after the first game. Hits were at a premium despite Bedard’s struggles. In all the Rangers had seven hits, Michael Young having three of them. David Murphy had two, and the other two were Josh Hamilton and Ian Kinsler. All were singles except the home run. The best thing though was the way the players worked the count at the plate. Something we’re not used to seeing from the boys in Arlington – and I don’t mean the team that will be in Jerryland. I mean the real boys from Arlington – the Texas Rangers.

Gerald Laird threw out two baserunners in the game; that was always exciting to see.
Nobody likes to be 0-1 after the first game, but the euphoria you get from the start of Game 1 was certainly diminished. I don’t feel really beat down, but I was definitely LET down. Doesn’t get any better tonight as we face Felix Hernandez.

That’s always an embarrassing headline to write. In theory, one should never lose to one’s own minor league team. Still, that’s what our Rangers did. Yeah, it’s the last game, yeah it doesn’t even count in the SPRING standings. But still, you don’t want to lose that for pride. But my guess is nobody will talk about it, since all the movement now is towards tomorrow in Seattle when the season opens for real.
Kason Gabbard had a real Chan Ho Park moment in this game. He started off with four perfect innings. Then he totally lost it, and gave up four runs in the fifth inning, then returned to pitch a scoreless sixth. When you five four perfect in a row, then just give it up like that, it just screams “MENTAL LAPSE” to me. Still, five out of six innings pitched with no runs is very encouraging. Kea Kometani & Bill White gave up the other three runs.
The Rangers offense was pretty non existent. Makes you wonder how hard they really tried against their AA team; perhaps they didn’t want to show them up? Who knows. Ian Kinsler (homer), Marlon Byrd (single), and Michael Young (single) were the only “regular” Rangers with hits. We had seven hits in all, but the other four were from subs (Jason Ellison, Casey Benjamin, Adam Melhuse, Joaquin Arias).
So that’s it. Another spring comes to a close. Our final spring training record was 17-11-2. A pretty decent spring, and we have several batters on tears, and our bullpen is looking pretty good. Starting pitching is a question mark, but when is it not, really?
Unless your name is Randy Galloway, you’ve got to have a decent feeling going into the 2008 season.

Friday brought the Rangers and the Southsiders from Chicago to Oklahoma City for an exhibition game.
Michael Young led our offense, having a phenomenal spring which we’d all be talking about if it wasn’t for Josh Hamilton. Michael went 2-3 and raised his average to .403. Ben Broussard also went 2-3, and has his average recovered quite nicely from his early spring slump (it’s at .298). Hank Blalock doubled off of former Rangers farmhand John Danks, as did Ben Broussard off of Mike MacDougal. The rest of our hits for the game (nine of them) were all singles. No longballs, so the “chicks” were disappointed. ;) All of the regulars/starters had at least one hit, so that was very nice to see. Always like a more balanced attack. Ironic then that all of the guys subbed in for the starters did not get any hits at all. Milton Bradley’s first inning single was worth two RBI’s, and his numbers are small, but that’s because of his late start.
Pitching wise, the Rangers ran out there nine relievers. No starters in this one. Each guy pitched a single inning. C.J. Wilson (4th) and Josh Rupe (7th) were the only guys to give up any runs (Wilson 2, Rupe 3). All the other guys put up blanks in the run column. Fukumori & Benoit still have ERA’s of zero for the spring, and Franklyn German has a very un-Franklyn German ERA of 0.90.
Our pen looks good this season, which is why the trade announced last night was a bit of a head scratcher. The Rangers acquired reliever Dustin Nippert from the Arizona Diamondbacks Friday evening. It was quite the day for Dustin, as his wife gave birth to their second child earlier in the day. Quotes in the evening from Rangers brass say the final spot was down to Nippert & Robinson Tejeda. Tejeda, who is out of options will be DFA’ed. You wish you could hang onto that in case he figures it out, but it’s the old options thing. Nippert comes into the organization also out of options (which is why he was available), and goes straight into the pen. His career (and spring 08 numbers) don’t seem to indicate he’s a “Oh my GOD – WE HAVE TO HAVE HIM” kind of pitcher, so it definitely falls under the category of head scratcher to me. If you want to read more in depth on Nippert, check out Jamey Newberg’s entry on the trade. Good details there.
One spring game left, and it’s against the Frisco Roughriders in Frisco. It doesn’t technically count in the spring training standings.
I’m not entirely sure what the official deadline is to submit our 25 man roster, but I believe it’s a day before your first game, which would mean we have to submit it sometime tomorrow. That means a bomb of transactions all at once.
Just about there, and then the fun begins. Last year, the season just cropped up on me, and I didn’t have much in the way of anticipation for it. This year I admit to actively looking forward to it, which is odd, given I’ve made the conscious decision to not attend all that many games this year (mostly because of cost, but also because I’ve donated that money to my church in a capital campaign we’re having to build a new church).
I’m also working on an article on the 2008 Home Parking situation which I’ll be posting either Sunday or Monday. If you know the parking at the Ballpark, prepare to have your world rocked – if you’ve been keeping up with what they’re doing out there.