» Elvis Andrus

“Bloop”

I’m starting to lose track of how often that word is thrown around by those few fortunate commentators of the Rangers opposition who undoubtedly bear a mile-wide grin upon the utterance of the word. Naturally, this is followed by the excited roar of an away crowd or the all-too-often heard cry in disbelief from the home cats.

Today the Rangers were looking to avoid falling victim of a sweep to the Tigers, “looking” being the key word. What they found was another well executed exercise in what are blatantly their two most glaring weaknesses: pitching, and defense.

Kevin Milwood started for the Rangers, he faced Edwin Jackson. I’m not going to lie; I don’t really know anything about Jackson so I won’t go into too much depth on him. Comerica Park would see a classic Milwood performance on the mound; all said and done he would throw 112 pitches, 70 of which were strikes. Seven innings of shutout baseball, in addition to a productive early offense primarily provided by Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Elvis Andrus, and Josh Hamilton; each scoring a run in the first three innings. Both Hamilton and Kinsler would knock two-run homers over the fence.

Apart from the chilly 49 degree weather, not much seemed to be able to faze the Rangers, who played pretty well most of the game (at least the part of the game with Milwood in it). Of course, inevitably a single pitcher can’t carry a whole game on his back, so it was time for some relief on the Ranger mound. That relief came in the form of CJ Wilson who in just 24 pitches allowed 6 runs. Yeah, you heard me right: six runs in twenty-four pitches. I know; I couldn’t believe it either! If it weren’t for an easily avoidable error by the rookie Andrus the blow might have been softened, but then speculation never really ends in anything productive. The fact is; the guy on the mound just didn’t perform. Warner Madrigal was called in to try to get the Rangers out of the inning, which he did successfully in twelve pitches, but the damage had been done.

The Rangers would see their last three at bats, but they couldn’t seem to break through the embarrassment they rightly bore on their shoulders. It seemed they had given up.

It’s going to be a long trip back to Arlington, but there’s no rest for the mediocre. Tomorrow is another day, another game, another opponent: the Orioles of Baltimore.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to really enjoy a full season of baseball. Joining the military kept me out of the loop in a lot of aspects of life for probably about the first year. Then I got about half a season in before I was sent to England – a country where baseball is almost unheard of. Football on the other hand is all that is spoken of here, and not the pig skin kind that most of this crowd will find at the front lines of their thought. Opening day this April was broadcast on our military satellite service, so I was happily reintroduced to my love for the game, the atmosphere, and how much I missed home.

Coming back into the game now, I see a lot of new names, and faces – a lot of the players I had come to know from teams have been traded, retired, or apparently are free agents now. I’ve been a long time Cubs fan, but had the pleasure of watching a Rangers game last year, and quite enjoyed it. Add to that the probability of me going to college in Texas in a couple years, I figured I’d start to learn the team. I’m not new to disappointment, certainly, as I’ve grown accustomed to a history of failed Cubbie seasons.

It’s no secret that the Rangers aren’t among the best teams in baseball having only made a few playoff appearances in a little over a decade, and never really making it very far when they did. I’ve listened to the first five games they’ve played this season; and found a good amount of excitement in three of them, with an equal amount of disappointment in three of them (not totaling six, just found issue in one of their wins). Their first two games against the Indians went surprisingly well. The third game was a little tense, that’s about when the Rangers’ pitching problem(s) started to rear its ugly head. Scott Feldman came in relief to give up four runs in just two innings. Luckily the Texas offense was able to counter the inefficiency of their pitching counterparts, shooting them to a 12-8 victory over the tribe.

Then it was off to Detroit – a team that had lost two games out of a series of four against the Blue Jays. The Rangers’ performance in their first against the Tigers was abysmal, to put it nicely. This was Kris Benson’s first start of the regular season and if there were any question to him making starting rotation on a regular basis, surely that question is bordering the answer of “no”. Benson gave up eight runs in five innings.

Game two at Detroit was a little more positive – it wasn’t a blowout loss, but surely one the Rangers could have, and should have pulled off – if they could add just a little tweaking to their defense, and obviously their pitching. It was a 4-3 final for the Tigers.

So now the Rangers sit on a no-more-than-average 3-2 record. While it is still extremely early in the season, it has been made incredibly clear; work is needed on pitching and defense. Also, I think it wouldn’t hurt if they started wearing red on a regular basis, maybe for luck.

For someone reacquainting himself with the faces, and names of the league, some standout so far on the Rangers roster: Elvis Andrus, a promising rookie with incredible speed. Salty, Blalock, Hamilton, Cruz, Byrd, Young – well quite frankly the whole roster given that my primary devotion now lies with the Rangers.