Well, that was a mess. About the only good thing is that Chan Ho Park gave up 9 hits and 8 runs in 5 innings. And today is decision day on the roster according to the local press. Look at the line score. It was brutally ugly going back and forth.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E - - - - - - - - - -- - - - TEXAS 0 1 2 4 0 1 0 0 2 2 12 15 1 SAN DIEGO 4 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 0 3 13 16 1
You can view the rest of my update on this game here.
After trying to catch on this spring with the New York Mets (why a NL team, wouldn’t it have been easier in the AL), Andres Galarraga announced his retirement this afternoon.
His time in Texas wasn’t the best period in the team’s history, but I always liked him. With his cancer issues over the years, and from what I can tell his general likability, he was someone I wanted to see succeed, even when he was playing for the hated Braves.
This spring, Galarraga hit .235 in 17 games, with a double, three home runs and seven RBI. Over his entire career, he was a .288 hitter, playing in 2,257 games. He had 1425 RBI’s, and 399 home runs, just one short of the 400 club.
There’s more details in a press release by the Mets here.
You can also view my old roster page for Andres here.
A quick note.. John Wasdin was reassigned to minor league camp this afternoon. John wasn’t on the 40 man roster, so no change in that regard. With that move, there are 40 players still in camp, according to the Rangers press release on this move.
As I write this, the game has ended, but I haven’t seen any box scores on the game. But with a score of 2-1, you can be pretty assured of one thing. There was a lot of pitching and defense. There always is in a 2-1 score. Was definitely a crisp moving game, coming in at only 2:13.
The linescore is in, and that alone tells me a few things. Chris Young pitched well. The two runs he gave up were in the first and the sixth. The run from the first was a home run to JT Snow, and the Rangers tied it up in the fourth with our only run, a solo home run by Gary Matthews Jr (who seems more and more to be not just a backup outfielder). But that was it for Rangers offense. We did have seven hits all told, but the only one that mattered was Matthews’ jack. Chris Young was a hard luck loser today. :(
Our old buddy Al Levine, who is with the Giants (I wasn’t aware of that) got the save. Nice to see him hanging around. I rather liked him when he was a Ranger awhile back.
On Saturday afternoon, Buck Showalter named Ryan Drese the opening day starter for the 2005 season. I suppose it’s technically opening “night” starter, as we open the season on the road again against the Angels.
This is pretty cool for Ryan, and I’m happy with it. Last year, Ryan had by all accounts a stellar year (I’m starting to detest the term “breakout”). He went 14-10 with a 4.20 ERA. Struck out 98, and walked 58. Total of 207.2 IP. A decent season (by today’s inflated stats).
So yeah, he’s probably deserving of this based on how much better he was in 2004 than before. I will freely admit, I was part of the “Dump Drese” contigent to start the season. I didn’t much care for him, he kept getting lit up, and I wanted to put someone else in there. But I will also admit I was wrong on this. He seems to have figured it out, and doesn’t seem to be afraid of our own ballpark, which is a good thing.
I’m hoping he continues to do well in 2005, and I’m looking for another good season. I get a good vibe from him. He’s never going to be a Nolan Ryan type that totally dominates people, but he certainly now looks like a good, servicable pitcher for the rotation.
Also, Kenny Rogers was named the pitcher for the home opener on April 11th.
This game started off pretty much like one would want it to. The starting pitcher was great, we got off to a lead early, and it held up. Kenny Rogers went 4 strong innings, giving up just one hit, one walk, and had six strikeouts, for no runs. The guys who followed for the next 3 innings (Montero, Bukvich, & Feldman) all gave up a total of no runs and 2 hits (both by Feldman). It was looking like a walkway win, a great one with great pitching.
Then we hit the eighth inning. RA Dickey came on for the eighth, and after some glowing praise by Josh Lewin (might have been Tom Grieve, I can’t remember now), he proceeded to not only let the Brewers back in the game (at that point, we were winning 4-0), but let them tie and then TAKE the lead by giving up an ugly six spot. After the top of the 8th, we were losing 6-4. Dickey was totally ineffective in this game, and even gave up a balk.
That was pretty disheartening. But in an inning that had shades of last May against the Tigers, we managed to pull off our own six spot in the bottom of the frame to retake the lead, and the game. I believe we had 7 straight singles at one point – although at least one of them probably should have been an error. It was nice to see the team (although at this point, the regulars were all out of the game) come back. Laynce Nix was a later inning replacement, and went 2 for 2 with 2 RBI’s. In fact, two was the number of the day, as several of our guys had two hits.. Soriano, Mike Young, Adrian Gonzalez, Mark Teixeira, & Kevin Mench. A pretty nicely balanced attack.
The bonus for me was that this was the first Rangers game on TV with Josh & Tom. There were two games on ESPN earlier in the spring, but we didn’t have our guys in the booth. This time we did. It’s likely going to be the only spring TV game I get to see, as there are two this weekend, but my brother will be in visiting, so I doubt I’ll be watching much Ranger baseball.
You can view my full update for this game here.
Our old buddy, Mr. Baggy Butt himself, Juan Gonzalez was named the starting RF for the 2005 Cleveland Indians. I found this surprising, as Juan doesn’t seem to fit into what the Indians are doing personnel wise. They seem to be doing mostly what we are, which is a close knit group of young players who are growing together. Close knit is not something that Juando is really known for. He’s known to be moody, selfish, and not a big “team player”.
I liked him when he was here, but after he left the first time, and even during his second tenure with the Rangers, he just didn’t seem like the same player he was before. I wish him well, but along with most other Ranger fans, I have to wonder how long he will go before being placed on the disabled list with some small injury that he doesn’t want to play through.
Here’s a wire story about this issue:
One of the guys who has been a phenom this spring has been the White Sox pitcher Brandon McCarthy. His line has been fabulous. But not anymore. The Rangers torched him. McCarthy gave up 9 hits and 7 earned runs in 3.2 IP. The amusing thing is that none of the other White Sox pitchers gave up anything. We had scored all our runs in the second (5) and third (2) innings. After that, donut. Cotts, Hermanson, & Walker kept the Ranger bats under check for 5.1 innings. But the pasting we put on McCarthy was more than enough.
In the pasting was a home run by Hank Blalock (his first of the spring). In total, Blalock and 3 RBI’s. Gerald Laird had two, and Adrian Gonzalez had one. In fact Gonzalez went 3 for 4, and is looking more like a guy who is ready to come up to the majors in my eyes. I suspect if he doesn’t make it up this season, he might get moved, unless we’re holding on to him incase Teixeira/Boras wants insane money for Tex to stay. Richard Hidalgo also went 2 for 4, and is looking like an awesome acquisition so far this spring. Alfonso Soriano seems to have broken out of his slump, going 2 for 3 this game, although from what I’m reading, he still isn’t at 100%, and it might be mental.
Pitching wise, Ryan Drese pitched like he was in mid season form, going 6 innings, 5 hits, and just one earned run. The only downside is that he walked 4 and only struck out 3. But still, he got the job done, and has earned the opening game nod from Buck Showalter; Kenny Rogers gets the home opener. Our other pitchers (Nunez, Tejera, Wasdin, & Brocail) gave up just one run (it was Tejera) over their combined 3 IP.
Overall, a very well played game. Too bad we haven’t had more of these this spring.
You can view my full report for this game here.
I don’t know what you know about Christian Holy Week ceremonies, but I spent the night before at church in a vigil, and as such I got under two hours of sleep for the night. I crapped out early on Friday night, I was blowing z’s by 9PM, which means I heard little of the Rangers game.
Ricardo Rodriguez broke his streak of awesome pitching performances this spring with a real “Chan Ho” type of outing, going 4.1 innings, giving up 12 hits, and 6 earned runs. Ron Mahay who also has been spectacular all spring had a stinker of his own, giving up 3 hits and 3 earned runs in his one inning of work. Not a good night for our staff at all, save for Ryan Bukvich who gave up nothing in his 1.2 innings of work.
Offensively, I can’t really tell what happened with the Rangers, as all the online box scores are broken, giving zeroes across the board for every Ranger player, and it only lists the starters, too. Some highlights I can glean from repots are that Kevin Mench had a home run, as did Gerald Laird (his third), who seems to be trying to win back his job again, he’s playing as well as he did last spring too, I think.
You can view my full update for this game here.