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Glendon Rusch is looking like he’ll be the pick for the fifth starter spot (behind Rogers, Park, Dickey, & Lewis) with Benoit going to the bullpen. Yesterday he did pretty well again, except for Raul Ibanez, who killed him. The only thing that bothers me about that is that I thought we were supposed to be “going with the kids”, and then we play someone like Rusch. He may not be Kenny Rogers’ age, but he’s not anywhere near John Danks, either. :( Thing is, I don’t see him as a long term solution, so even if he does great this year, I don’t see him sticking around. Could be wrong, but my gut feeling says no. Joaquin Benoit continued to show that he’s likely to make the team as a reliever. Jay Powell wasn’t too bad, either (scary, I know).

Our offense was kind of scattered. We had three runs driven in by different people. Normally, spreading the wealth is a good thing, but when it’s just three, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot. Ramon Nivar, Chad Allen, & Manny Alexander had two hits each, the rest were all singles. None of those three I named are going to be on the roster April 5th, so the guys who did play that “mattered” for the opening day 25 didn’t do much. Oh well.

Overall a loss is a loss, but it wasn’t as bad as some of the 16-3 fiascos I’ve seen the club give up the last few years.

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Not available – no time to write commentary.

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Not available – no time to write commentary.

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I didn’t get to hear the start of this game, I came in right as Chan Ho Park was coming out. From the looks of the reports here, I didn’t miss much. While he didn’t give up 618 runs, he did give up 4 earned runs (5 total), which wasn’t stellar, it’s an ERA around 9 or so. Chan Ho also had a wild pitch and a hit batter. Not a whole lot positive to say here. The rest of our pitching (Almanzar, Nelson, Shouse, Mahay) was pretty good, going 4 innings giving up 3 hits and one run. All told, we had 10 strikeouts (5 by Park, 5 by everyone else). K’s are good sign.

Offensively something happened that hadn’t happened yet this spring. Home runs. We had four of them, which is the most we’ve had in a game so far. The HR probably won’t be as prevalent as it used to be in our offense this year. Chicks aren’t the only ones who dig long balls. Other highlights were Soriano’s hitting streak getting to 13 games. Mike Young has a .382 on base percentage for the spring batting leadoff.

It was a see-saw game until we finally took the lead for good in the eighth with a solo shot by Jason Conti. Was kind of surprised that Cordero didn’t come in for the save.

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I was working out in the yard tilling dirt and pulling weeds while listening to the game. It was gorgeous out yesterday, so having a Ranger game on the radio made it a really nice afternoon – I didn’t mind working in the dirt. :)

When it started, I thought we were going to get destroyed by another former Ranger pitcher. Jeff Fassero was starting this game for Colorado. In fact, there were several former Rangers in this game for Colorado. Fassero, Royce Clayton, & Todd Greene. The Rocks even have Benji Gil in their camp this year. :) Anyway, when we went behind, I wasn’t thrilled – but the one run we gave up was the only one (although it was close a little later in the game).

It was a nice smooth game – no major outbursts by either side (like 7 runs in an inning or something like that). A friend of mine once said, I don’t mind 15-1 games, but I prefer them to get the 15 2 runs here, three there, one that inning – not 13 in a bunch in one inning. I can see his feeling somewhat (while a 13 spot can be fun). It makes the game more even keel. That’s what happened here. We scored our 6 in the middle three innings. We should have had more, as we lost a couple of home run balls to the wind.

Was a nice pitched game, although Jay Powell gave up 3 walks in less than two innings – never good.

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Ugh.

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