Monday
Apr022007
A Few Random Observations
Texas trails Anaheim 3-1 going into the bottom of the 7th inning right now. Here are a few random things I've seen during the first 6 innings:
- Sammy Sosa's 0 for 2 with a walk and a strikeout looking thus far. He did not look good at all against Lackey's breaking pitches, although not many of the Rangers did. His timing seems a bit off, and his swing looks a little wild. He did a nice job working back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk in the 3rd inning, though, as he laid off of several tough pitches down and away.
- Hank Blalock is looking impressive in his first game after after having the cloud of Buck Showalter lifted, going 2 for 3 so far with an opposite field double to left center field and a single up the middle off lefty Darren Oliver. His swing on the double was a real thing of beauty, and I hope we see a lot more of that. Unfortunately, he was robbed by GMJ on a bloop job to center field with the bases loaded to end the 3rd inning rally.
- Brad Wilkerson is 0 for 2 with a walk and a strikeout. It's extremely early, but he doesn't look much different from the guy who hit a disappointing .222/.306/.422 last season.
- Texas has left 8 men on base through 6 innings. Absolutely inexcusable. This is the sort of thing that killed the Rangers in 2006.
- I don't like Gary Matthews Jr. anymore.
Hopefully Texas can put together a late rally, but as a whole they're not really looking that great tonight. Stay tuned.
3 Comments | in The Season
Reader Comments (3)
Starting Pitching: Millwood was adequate in 5 innings of work. He struck out twice as many as he walked and never had a bad inning. I believe he could have went longer as he only has 80 something pitches going into the 6th.
Bullpen: Better than I thought. I was worried about how they would perform, but one run in three innings against a hyped-up Angel line-up is not bad at all.
Big Hitters: Young, Tex, and Sosa were bad, very bad. They hit for nill, struckout most of the time, and added zero to the offense. Tex needs to start hot or else we're doomed (see 2006 for examples)
Smaller guys: It's good to see Brad off to his old self. He only struck out a couple times and didn't get a hit. Laird probaly was the worst of them all. Small ball my a*s, Laird ends any chance of a rally with a bunt pop-up.
Final thoughts: K. Loften and Kinsler were the bright spots in a bad hitting day. But stranding 8 runners and sending the starter to the showers after only 5 innings does not bode well to start the season. To be honest, I stopped watching after D. Oliver was pulled since it seemed like the team has basically given up.
Prediction: Tommorow Cruz will play and Wilkerson will not have a chance to continue his strikeout hot streak!
I'm not worried about Tex or MY, because you know those guys will produce. Wilkerson and Sosa are my biggest concerns at the moment. The more ABs Nelson Cruz gets, the better off this club is.