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Well, here’s one of my multi game catch up posts, which will cover all the games that happened while I was away in Florida for Phillies Spring Training.
ST21: Rangers beat Brewers 8-6 (Fri Mar 23)
The Rangers jumped out early in this game with a four spot in the first inning, but then the game played catch up and see saw in the middle innings. We went up 5-2, and let the Brewers back in the game with the old peckaway theory who tied it in the fifth. We went up for good again in the sixth, but did let the Brew Crew back in to make it close 8-6 for a final score. Eric Gagne pitched a scoreless first inning, and most of the damage was off a guy I really hope doesn’t wear a major leauge Rangers uniform during the season, Bruce Chen. Chen had a really ugly line, which had 6 hits (3 home runs), 5ER, 2BB in 3.2IP. He also hit a batter. The only other run was Jesse Ingram in the ninth, who actually got the save in the game. Offensively, Sammy Sosa was back in action, hitting his fourth home run of the spring, which was a grand slam. If you take his spring homer rate and stretch it out over the regular season, he’d be in the neighbhorhood of 25 home runs. Certainly not vintage Sosa, but I’ll take 25 home runs. Gerald Laird also picked off a runner. [ mlb.com game recap ]
ST22: A’s beat Brandon McCarthy, 5-2 (Sat Mar 24)
I phrased it that way, since all 5 runs the A’s scored were all off of Brandon McCarthy in his 2.1 innings on the mound. That gives McCarthy a spring ERA of 10.45. The remaining Ranger pitchers (Ron Mahay, Aki Otsuka, & Mike Wood) pitched 5.2 innings of shutout relief. Problem is we couldn’t really score against the A’s. We did have two runs, but they were unearned, so we really didn’t “get” any. Blalock went 2-2 in this game with an RBI (the other was Sosa, likely a SF since he didn’t have any hits). I still have faith in McCarthy to make the trade of Danks a good one, but it’s hard to feel good about numbers like that. I was getting cooked by the sun in Sarasota at the Reds stadium when all this was happening. [ mlb.com game recap ]
ST23: Rangers beat White Sox 10-2 (Sun Mar 25)
Kameron Loe proved yet again he deserves a spot in the starting lineup higher than #5. The last week or so has been taken up with talk about Loe getting the #5 position over Jamey Wright, or some other retreads. In my opinion he’s pitched well enough to be up higher than #5 anyway. Loe went six innings, giving up just two runs on 5 hits and walking none. A really nice performance. Former dominant White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle continues to stink up the joint this spring, giving up 4ER on 12 hits over six innings. The next guy the Sox brought in (something Russell) wasn’t much better, giving up 6ER on 9H in 2.2IP. Jerry Hairston had a great day, going 3-6 with 3RBI and 2 runs scored. Chris Stewart and Ramon Vazquez were also 3-4 themselves, as was Adam Fox. Lots of offense here – although most of it by guys who won’t be with the big club shortly. The performance likely isn’t going to get Loe better than long man in the pen, and that’s a shame. [ mlb.com game recap ]
ST24: Rangers score 10 again, beat Mariners, 10-6 (Mon Mar 26)
The Rangers rode three 3 spots (and a single) to a 10-6 win over the Mariners on Monday. It’s always good to beat up on your division opponents like this. We had 17 hits and 10 runs. The barrage included three doubles, a triple, and one home run. Tex seems to be doing well at the end of spring, which is good – he had a double and a home run today. Kenny Lofton is picking it up as wel, going 3-4. Ian Kinsler & Brad Wilkerson also had multihit games. Our fifth starter (sigh; Jamey Wright) got hit hard today, giving up 2 home runs amongst six hits overall. Afterwards I saw the quote saying that the starting pitcher decision had already been made, and that this outing would not affect that. I wonder how hard he would have had to have been hit to make it a decision. Oh well. [ mlb.com game recap ]
ST25: Rangers utterly destroyed by Padres, 24-7 (Tue Mar 27)
The less said about this mess, the better. Cue the clip of Bart Simpson in the fetal position saying “Krusty is coming, Krusty is coming!” [ mlb.com game recap ]
ST26: Rangers roughed up again, 11-8 (Wed Mar 28)
There must have been something cool in Milwood’s trashing by the Padres yesterday that Vicente Padilla enjoyed, as he decided to jump in the same fire in this game. Yuck. Not good at all. [ mlb.com game recap ]
ST27: Rangers lose again, but not as badly; 7-5 to Royals (Thu Mar 29)
The Rangers lost their third game in a row in the 2007 Arizona finale. The game was played against our roommates the Royals. Brandon McCarthy started this game, and while he wasn’t awesome, it was significantly better than his last outing. McCarthy gave up 3ER on 5 hits – the damage was almost all the long ball, as he gave up two of them. Ezek Astacio also gave up a bunch of runs in his one inning of work (4, 3ER). Matt Kata also showed why he deserves to be on the 25 man roster, going 2-4 with a double and a triple. Of the Rangers’ 8 hits overall, Kata was the only one with more than one. We did have two home runs in that, one by minor leauger Casey Benjamin, and another by Sammy Sosa; his fifth of the spring. A loss is a loss, but given the way we were torched the two days before this, it’s much better. [ mlb.com game recap ]