A lonestar in california

Ahh, satasfaction. Unlike the Rolling Stones, Ranger fans may have been able to find just a little bit of that on Friday night, as our boys in blue steamrolled the hated Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the Angel Stadium home opener.

The offense, which had previously been stone cold up in Seattle, awoke to churn out 11 runs on 10 hits, including 7 extra-base knocks. David Murphy (who went 2-4 with a walk, scoring twice) got the Rangers on the board in the second inning, when he doubled, got moved to third on a Marlon Byrd fly ball, and scored on a wild pitch by Angel starter Dustin Moseley.

Then in the 4th inning, with Texas still up 1-0, Ben Broussard socked a Grand Slam off Moseley to increase the lead to 5-0, giving the Rangers firm control of the game. Texas padded its lead later in the game, including a 5 run 8th inning off the unfortunate Rich Thompson, who Angels manager Mike Scoscia seemed perfectly content to watch get bombed. Other offensive highlights for the Rangers included Ian Kinsler, who had 3 hits, including two doubles and 2 RBI, and Josh Hamilton, who doubled and tripled home 3 runs.

Meanwhile, lefty starter Kason Gabbard was busy putting his spring training struggles behind him. He fired 7 shoutout frames, thanks in part to the three double plays the Rangers turned behind him. A groundball pitcher, Gabbard was certainly “On” with a capital “O”, getting 16 ground ball outs to one fly ball, which allowed him to work around the 7 hits he surrendured. He was pulled after 92 pitches, and nearly twisting his ankle covering first base in the 6th inning, walking two and striking out four en route to his first win of 2008.

Kazuo Fukumori took over for the 8th, and bounced back nicely from his disasterous debut in Seattle, walking one batter, but getting bailed out by the Rangers fourth double play of the evening. 

Trouble did strike in the bottom of the 9th inning, however, when recently accquired releiver Dustin Nippert went out for his first appearance in a Ranger uniform. It was not a pretty debut for Nippert, to say the least, who hadn’t pitched in nearly a week. He didn’t seem to have much command or zip to his highly-touted stuff, giving up 5 hits and walking one in just 0.2 of an inning. All 6 men he allowed to reach base came around to score, and the Rangers had to bring in two more pitchers before they finally brought the marathon bottom of the 9th to a close. Franklyn German was brought in to face one batter, who he surrendured a hit to, before he was lifted for Eddie Guardado, who allowed a hit himself before finally getting the final out of the ballgame on a fly ball that sent RF Marlon Byrd all the way to the wall.

Certainly not a very glamorous end to what was otherwise an extremely satisfying and well played game by the Rangers. Granted, this is only a single outing but Nippert was so horrible, it certainly makes me wonder at least, exactly why we went after him. As Rangers radio voice Eric Nadel pointed out during tonight’s broadcast, Nippert wasn’t just missing with his pitches, he was “missing by a lot”. Even though he only walked one, Nippert’s offerings were getting whacked around the yard by the Angels – he clearly did not seem to have an inkling of command or movement on his usally dominant fastball. I’m sure the Rangers will give Nippert a certain amount of rope, but another outing like tonights could possibly spell a quick end to this latest Jon Daniels “low-risk, high reward” experiment – after all, the Rangers will need to clear a spot on the 25-man roster for 5th starter Luis Mendoza come April 12th.

A few other random notes from Friday night:

Hank Blalock was held out of last night’s lineup with afteraffects of the flu bug that managed to make it’s way around the Rangers entire infield in Seattle. Hopefully, “Hammer” will return tonight – it’s already been a bit of a rough 2008 for Hank, who is of course coming off his Thoratic Outlet Syndrome surgery last season, and was involved in a car accident early in spring training.

TR Sullivan also has some thoughts on the fact that the Rangers set a Major League record tonight, going 195 games without getting a complete game from one of their starters. Not the greatest record to be holding, of course, but the way Rangers starters have performed so far this season compared to years past, I’m having a hard time complaining right now.

Guess who hit a solo home run in last night’s 10-6 OKC Redhawks loss to Memphis? That’s right, Jarrod Saltalamacchia. It was his only hit of the game but it’s still a good one to have if you can only get one. Gerald Laird, by the way, is batting a red-hot .091 so far. Hurry back, Jarrod, hurry back.

 Marlon Byrd wants to hit righthanders better. That’s nice, I appreciate the attitude, but it would be even better if he could actually do it. I still say the Rangers missed out on a golden opportunity to upgrade the outfield when they passed over the chance to trade Byrd to the Cubs for Matt Murton this past winter and spring. Nothing against Byrd, but he’s 30 years old, and according to his history, he’s just not that good an offensive player, depsite the fact that he had his career year last season.

And finally, the Rangers say Milton Bradley could make his first start of the year in the OF tomorrow when Kevin Millwood takes on Jered Weaver. Ron Washington says he wants to get Bradley into the OF “before the team returns to Arlington” so he can have “more flexibitly in the lineup, and allow Frank Catalanotto to settle in at DH”. Boy, I just can’t wait for that.