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This game started off great – the first batter (Ranger Jason Romano led off the game with a home run), the rest was pretty much blah. The opening home run was our only offense of the game, and our pitching again was “eh”.
Hidecki Irabu once again just pitched “OK”. Didn’t exactly suck, but didn’t set the world on fire, either. A pretty boring game for a Ranger fan, actually. :)

I was busy doing house stuff this afternoon, and totally forgot this game was on until there was about 5 minutes left. Oh well, didn’t miss much – we lost for the second day in a row.
In looking at the scores, it was a tight game, but mostly because of Arod’s grand slam. Todd Van Poppel’s line was the worst of the pitchers we used. Rocker looked pretty unimpressive too, but I’m not worried – yet. We did have another HR, one by Herb Perry.
Found it interesting that Rob Bell was sent down today. I know he’s not lighting the world on fire, but I find it surprising that this happened – figure if he was to be sent down, it would be late in camp.

This game can be summed up by just pointing the finger at two players. Vincente Padilla & Hank Blalock. Padilla because he pitched quite well for the Phillies, and Blalock for providing our offense with a two run hr in the 5th (yeah, we scored one in the 9th, but it was really over by then).
I follow the Phils too, and I was aware of Padilla (he came over in the Curt Schilling trade), but he certainly sounded good on the radio. As I have the MLB Extra Innings package on DirecTV this year, I’ll probably get to see a few Phillies games. Anyway, he shut us down except for a monster home run by Blalock.
In listening to the game, I don’t recall us doing anything really bad to deserve 8 runs scored against us. However, I was driving around at the time and went in and out of several stores, so I did miss a few minutes here and there. Anyway, after the big run of the last week, I suppose a loss here and there isn’t too bad for the soul, eh? :)

The wins keep coming. We’re now 12-3, we’ve won 6 in a row (actually, there’s a tie game in the middle of that), and we’re rolling along well in spring training. Seems the only questions are:
Who will be our starters past Park / Rogers / Davis – and who will open the season at third? Lamb is OK, but his defense is still suspect. I suspect it will still be Lamb, but whether he lasts the year is another question.
This game was long ball. It was being covered by MLB.com’s MLB radio folks – although they cut out in the middle of the game to cover the Cubs / Giants game – Grrr… They read an email of mine on the air, too! If you were listening, I was the one who asked about Arod’s salary). Longballs from Greer, Raffy, & Kevin Mench accounted for 4 of the 6 runs we got, and Rusty had a great day with a single, double, and a home run. Dave Burba pitched well, as did Rudy Seanez. Jeremi Gonzalez did not, but he’s a kid, so I’m not gonna harp too much on that.
Can’t wait for opening day – now only a couple of weeks away! :)

Two days – four wins. Gotta love that, especially when one of them is against the Yankees. There wasn’t much coverage of this game online (no pictures, even – which is odd given that it was the Yankees).
Also, of the three runs we gave up, 2 of them were unearned. Unearned runs bug me, but at least they’re not runs that “count” in the ERA stats – but I could do without unearned runs, too. (OK that sounded weird).
Anyway, always nice to see a win against the Yankees. Too bad they can’t come in October instead of March.

The runs continue to come (two games in a row, 28 runs), and the wins continue to come – 4 straight, and a total record of 10-3 now. A couple of home runs, one by Bill Haselman, and the first of the year by Juan Gonzalez. Good pitching overall, with starter Rogers only allowing a single run in his four innings of work, and none from anyone else (Rocker, Miceli, Cordero).
It looks like a good team so far, but that’s probably just spring training optimism speaking. :) Still, it’s always nice to see your team do well, even if it is March.

My brother was in town visiting over the weekend, and as such, I didn’t have any time to update the site or listen to the games on the radio over the weekend, short of a few minutes of the Phillies game on Sunday. Due to that, I won’t be posting my own commentary for said games, but I will do update pages on them.

My brother was in town visiting over the weekend, and as such, I didn’t have any time to update the site or listen to the games on the radio over the weekend, short of a few minutes of the Phillies game on Sunday. Due to that, I won’t be posting my own commentary for said games, but I will do update pages on them.