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Even though I missed a week’s worth of updates, and am doing shorter than normal updates for the games I missed, there’s not much else to say about this one, except:

I missed an entire week’s worth of updates, so I won’t say much about this game, other than to add that early on, it seems like CJ Wilson is doing well this year. I know some (myself included) were wondering if he could keep up last year’s level of pitching into this year). So far, so good.
Beltre continues to knock the ball around, as he went deep (with Moreland). This also stopped the Angels five game winning streak.
Wilson went seven innings, just one run. Nine hits, but also nine strikeouts. Looking good.

As is my policy for the last few years, I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.

As is my policy for the last few years, I don’t write about losses to the Yankees.

It’s always great to go into the Bronx and beat the Yankees? Who doesn’t like putting that self righteous franchise a few pegs lower down on the totem pole? The only thing better than a Yankees loss is a Cowboys loss, but that’s a blog post for another time.

Matt Harrison took the mound, and continues to post like a guy you wouldn’t expect “Matt Harrison” to post like. While he didn’t have dominant stuff, he did certainly manage to get the job done. Just look at his line:

8IP, 7H, 3BB, 2R (1ER), 3K, 104P.

That’s a great line. While he did allow more hits/walks than innings pitched, he was most certainly helped out by the defense, which turned not one or two, but SIX double plays behind Matt. The first one was by Alex Rodriguez, which prompted me at home to declare out loud, “The Chiller is back”! Arod’s having a great spring, but not this game. He started it off by grounding into a double play. The only better thing than that was the called strikeout of Arod last October.

Anyway, Harrison continued to look like a brilliant pitcher. After three outings, I’m starting to think that this might be the new Matt Harrison, and making the Mark Teixeira trade with Atlanta look even more brilliant on our side.

The other really interesting line from this game is the fact that the Rangers scored five runs to win the game. However, the team combined had just four hits. But, the Yankees allowed SEVEN walks, which is where the bulk of the action came from. On the hit side, all we had was a double by Adrian Beltre & Michael Young, and singles by Michael Young & Nelson Cruz. That was IT. Pretty spartan offense, but with all the walks, you could make the point that Ivan Nova gave it to us, as five of the walks were on his ledger.

Neftali Feliz gave up a run in the ninth to make it a little closer, but despite the lack of a real offensive attack, it always felt like our game. Which is always ALWAYS good against the Yankees.

The Rangers final game in the Detroit series was an odd one. First off, due to the doubleheader, we needed a spot start, that it was chosen to be Dave Bush.
Who did a decent enough job Three innings, three hits, three walks, and no runs allowed. He only went three innings, so it was really a bullpen game from the start. I thought he’d go more than he did, especially as when he came out, he only had 71 pitches. Way high for just three innings, but he didn’t look awful when he came out, I figured on four at that point. Oh well.
He was followed by Mason Tobin, who did pretty well. Went two innings himself, allowed just a hit and a walk – no runs. He looked good.
What didn’t look good was what was next. Mark Lowe. Blown save, allowed the two runs the Tigers got to tie the game in the sixth. Given we had just scored our two runs in the top of the sixth, it was a momentum killer, for sure.
Arthur Rhodes kept up his end of the bargain with a perfect inning thrown in the seventh.
Even Darren Oliver was OK in the eighth, but he went back out in the ninth, and allowed the winning run in the bottom of the ninth for the loss. Bummer.
Offensively, we didn’t string much together. We had a double by Michael Young, and eight other singles. That was it. That seems like a lot of hits when I play the “not a lot of offense” card, but the Tigers did a good job at spacing them apart, and keeping us off the scoreboard. Managed to string enough together in the top of the sixth to score our two runs then on RBI singles by Nelson Cruz & David Murphy.
That was it, though. Dropped a series for the first time this year, 1-2 in Detroit. Which is better than we have been playing there lately, which would have been 0-3. Sigh.