Rangerfans.com

Well, I was really sick this day. When I came home from church, I lied down on the sofa, and did not move for over five hours. I did turn on the game, but I was asleep for most of it, so I’m not going to write much, as I missed it all. Doing a commentary just on the box score when you lose 14-6 isn’t much fun.
Brandon McCarthy was rather Chan Ho Park with his pitching. 6ER in 2IP. Ugh. Even Mark Clark wasn’t that bad! (Yeah, I know, two Mark Clark references in two games) Course none of our pitching was really when you give up 14 runs.
Offensively, the real high point was Ian Kinsler’s 9th inning home run which led (I’m sure) to his being named AL Player of the Week (link).
I did TiVo the thing, but I saw the score, and wasn’t interested in watching any more. I just turned it off, and went back to sleep on my couch.

If I wasn’t sure before, I was now. This is the Vicente Padilla that wore out his welcome in Philly. We got the random hit batter (which we used to talk about with Chan Ho Park, too). Padilla went 6, which was more than I thought he was gonna get. He gave up 6R (4ER) on 6 hits and three walks during that time. Didn’t look at all like the guy who went 15-10 for us last year. He turned in another Mark Clark effort.
CJ Wilson didn’t fare much better, going just one frame, giving up 2ER on a home run.
Seattle starter Miguel Batista was pretty good, given all the time off he had with the snowouts in Cleveland that the Mariners had to sit through.
Course, we gave up three errors, which is never good. Even Kansas City or Pittsburgh could beat us that way. Heck, the kids who play in the Jr Rangers ballpark next door could have probably beat the Rangers.

Let’s see, we’re in Seattle, so watching the game on TV means..
1) Remark about weather – check.
2) Clip of train running behind ballpark – check.
3) Josh & Tom “pretending” to not notice the clip is taped – check.
4) Shot of old guy with blue hat in the stands – check.
5) Demolition footage of the Kingdome – check.
6) Great pitching by the Rangers seals the win – check. Wait, WHAT?
Eric Gagne was activated off the DL today, and immediately got in the flow of things. Kevin Millwood started the game, and while he wasn’t as crisp as I’d seen him in the past, he certainly got it done when he had to. It resulted in a great line for him, 6 innings pitched (only 82 pitches), 7 hits, and just one run. Benoit, Otsuka, & Gagne followed, and didn’t allow any runs, which is the way you draw it up. Combined, we had 9IP, 2ER, 11H. More than enough to get the job done.
Speaking of getting the job done, Ian Kinsler continues his great spring. He went 2-3 with 2RBI, and a run scored, with another home run (his club leading 5th). Mike Young was 2-4, and Matt Kata was 3-4. We only had two more hits total outside of those above, so it wasn’t a dominating offensive performance, but we had enough to get it done.
I didn’t see Gagne, unfortunately, as I fell asleep watching the game; when you’re sick you can’t force yourself to stay up as late as you want. :)
EDIT: I was reminded that Benoit did give up a run, but that’s what I get when trying to read box scores when I should be in bed sick. :)
EDIT 2: Thanks to commenter James for reminding me about the Kingdome footage being shown all the time too. Don’t know how I forgot that.

I didn’t write about this when the game happened, and as I sit here Friday afternoon, I don’t have much time to write either. I’ll just go with a few short remarks that would probably sum it up anyway.
At the time, I remember thinking “This must be the Tejeda that the Phillies decided they had enough of”. He still looked good overall, had a bad inning, but that’s what we saw a lot with when Chan Ho was here.
Michael Young broke out big time, with two home runs. That was good.
Kameron Loe was the best he’s been since the season started.
Jack seems to have found a good home as a reliever, which is nice, as you always kind of want one of your own to stick around and do good. I’ve said some ugly things about him in the past on this site, but it’s nice to see him figure it out.
We did only get five hits TOTAL all game, which (again) is not good.

Well, those who read my site know how I feel about Bruce Chen & Jamey Wright. They bookended the game last night, and both proved why the Rangers are the 9th and 6th different major league club respectively for each. I won’t rag on them too much, will just let the lines do the talking:
Jamey Wright: 2.2IP, 5H, 5ER, 3BB, 1K, 1HR
Bruce Chen: 2.0IP, 3H, 3R(0ER), 0BB, 2K, 1HR
Neither was particularly stellar. Chen’s runs weren’t technically earned, but the way he pitched it looked like they should have been. Yeah, I know rules about earned runs are there, but to me he didn’t look that stellar. Take away these two guys who I didn’t want here in the first place, and it would have been the lopsided game it felt like. Jamey Wright was actually OK in the first two innings, and then fell apart. Sounds like the definition of a middle innings relief guy. Go a couple, then out. But he seriously stunk up the joint in the third, giving up a 5 spot. I know Tampa Bay can hit a little, but it was ugly in the third.
Fortunately, Jae Seo for the Devil Rays stunk up the joint worse than Jamey Wright did in the third. Seo went three innings, giving up TEN RUNS (only 5 earned, technically). There was a span there where it seemed like I could jump out of the stands and hit a ball to the Rangers bullpen. When you have double digit runs before the end of the third inning, it feels like a runaway, not the somewhat close score the final turned out to be.
Funny thing is with all of that offense, we had three of our starters with no hits in the game. One was Michael Young, who did walk twice, though. The top of the lineup got their act in gear tonight. Kenny Lofton led off the game with a home run that didn’t look more than a bloop to right – it SERIOUSLY carried. In all, Lofton was 3-3 with a walk, scoring three times and getting three RBI’s. So you couldn’t ask for more from your leadoff guy. Frank Catalanotto followed him up with a 3-5 night, falling just a double short of a cycle. Tex was 2-5, Wilkerson was 2-3, so it was a good night for the offense in general. It is just Tampa Bay pitching, but I’ll take the runs and a win where I can get them. Just wished this was against Anaheim or Boston; would have made it more impressive.
We wrap up the series Wednesday night with Robinson Tejeda going against James Shields. It’s another of those “Uh-oh. A pitcher with next to no track record will probably kill us”. It always seems to happen.

I think most people expected the Rangers to beat the Devil Rays at least two out of three, and after the first game, I’d say they’re well on their way to that. They beat the Rays pretty handily. The offense showed up tonight, we had pretty decent pitching, and it looked like a fun time in the Rangers dugout.
This game started off relatively quiet. Oh sure, the Rays bunched a couple of hits together in the second for a couple runs, and the Rangers manufactured a couple of runs in the fourth thanks to a steal of second, but for the most part, it was a pretty well pitched game through five and a half innings.
Brandon McCarthy went six innings, giving up just two runs on 5 hits and two walks. A few too many, IMO, but the bottom line was not bad. Kameron Loe followed him, and has NOT looked like the same guy we saw in spring training. The scary part about that is that it will likely keep Jamey Wright in the starting rotation longer, which is something this Rangers fan is not looking forward to. Scott Feldman and our other scrapheap pitcher, Bruce Chen did toss scoreless innings to keep us in the win column.
The sixth though was a good inning for us, as we put up a six spot, and it seemed that no matter what the Rays were throwing we were hitting it. No home runs mind you, but a lot of hits, and that works, too. In fact, at one point, our output in the sixth was: single (w/steal), single, single, single, walk, single, double, walk. The coolest part of the inning was that Rangers backup catcher Chris Stewart started his first game, and also got his first major league hit, which also came in a (at that time) close game, and came with an RBI as well. This was the funny moment, because the umps pulled the ball out of the game, handed it to the Rangers coaches, who passed it from person to person where it landed up in the hands of Matt Kata, who faked throwing it into the stands. Ron Washington was watching that and threw up his hands as if to go “NO – DON’T DO THAT!”. Kata pulled his hands down and busted out laughing. I caught it as it happened, before Josh & Tom talked about it on the TV replay. I don’t think we would have seen anything like that under the Showalter regime. It’s nice to see that kind of atmosphere in the dugout.
It is kind of weird to look in the box score and see our first three guys all with batting averages under the Mendoza line. This would be Lofton with .115, Catalanotto with .111, and Young with .194. Even Tex is only batting .261. The only two guys who seem to be fine out of the gate offensively are Hank Blalock & Nelson Cruz. That’s good, as there’s an article on the Rangers site this morning saying that Cruz will be playing a lot more. He’s a great defender, and seems to be moving towards getting it together offensively, too.
Also, the guy the Rays have playing third made some great defensive plays, especially that really hard hit ball he grabbed when he was playing in against the bunt. That was one of the better lineout plays to third I’d ever seen, and I watched guys like Brooks Robinson & Mike Schmidt in my youth. Akinori Iwamura plays a great third. Not sure what he’s going to be like offensively here, but if he is good, that will be a great pickup for Tampa Bay.

You know, as much as I don’t much care for ESPN’s Joe Morgan/Jon Miller combo anymore (need a new team in there) ESPN does have some seriously good camera angles. I watched most of this game, and saw some really cool angles both inside and out of the park that local Fox (FSN/FOX/etc) coverage gets. Not that I have anything against our local guys, but I wonder if a different director of Rangers games might bring a fresh look or something. The shot of Catalanotto running during his HR trot which was obviously taken from a cameraman running alongside him in foul ground was nice. I loved the shots of the outside of the park before the game started. Also, ESPN pitch tracker is better than the one the Rangers have started using (which doesn’t bother me at all). Anyway..
Four of the five runs scored in the game overall were on the longball. We couldn’t contain David Ortiz any longer, and he jacked not one, but two home runs against Vicente Padilla, who pitched better than he did in his last outing. All three Boston runs were off of Ortiz homers, which was a good thing, I suppose. Overall, Padilla had a great night, going seven innings, giving up 4 hits and three runs – almost all to Ortiz. He only walked one, and struck out four. Nice ratio there. That odd play he made in the sixth was briefly troubling, looking like he might have twisted his ankle. Shame we couldn’t score more runs – but Curt Schilling overcame his first start of the year to pitch like the guy who normally inhabits the “38 – Schilling” uniform.
Schilling was better than Padilla, going seven, giving up just one run on four hits, and 6k’s (1BB). Joel Piniero, a guy we used to beat up a lot when he was with Seattle, wasn’t given the chance to get beat up, as he faced just three batters, two of which were walks. Our second run came in this inning, when Nelson Cruz got an RBI on a fielder’s choice. Our other run was on a home run by Frank Catalanotto in the first inning, which was right to the left of the foul pole, and into the wedgie in right field.
Another game where we had a total of five hits for the whole game. Looked like we were breaking out of it on Saturday night, but we ran into a good pitcher in Curt Schilling on Sunday. The loss dropped us to 2-4 on the young season. Not bad, but never like to see twice as many losses as wins, even if it’s just 1-2.