Rangers 8, Athletics 5
- Kris Benson apparently had a dead arm and no fastball velocity today, which resulted in his getting roughed up for 4 runs in the first inning as the A's batted around on him. But Benson rebounded to allow just 2 baserunners over the next three innings, one of them reaching on a Hank Blalock error.
Blalock, back after 2 days on the shelf with a sore quad, had a bit of a rough afternoon in his first action at third base since last July. The Rangers are looking at him to be Michael Young's backup at third this year, as they don't think Joaquin Arias or Omar Viazquel has the arm strength to play there (which is kind of ironic, since that was the reason Hank was moved off third last year). It seems Hank found out not everything is as easy as riding a bike: he bobbled the first chance he got in the second, and then took a swan dive into the Oakland dugout in the 5th inning while chasing a foul ball.
"I thought I had it," Blalock said. "I was right there. Too much momentum. I'm pretty sure the ball ticked off my glove."
"I haven't played third base since last July. "I've been working on first base and my hitting. I had a couple of plays I should have made, but it showed I'm rusty. If the rust was gone, I would have been more used to my surroundings, broken down my momentum and just leaned over the railing. The effort was there; I just didn't make the play."
Blalock of course left the game with a couple nice gashes in his head for his trouble, but is apparently okay nonetheless - I only wish he could've actually made the catch, so we could call him as "clutch" as Derek Jeter.
- Dustin Nippert also left the game today with "stiffness in his right rhomboid" after pitching 2.2 innings of 1 run, 2 hit 2 walk ball. Dustin is a guy I'd like to see make the team this year just based on his pure stuff - and he's also pitched fairly well this spring, with only 2 runs and 4 hits allowed in his 8.2 innings pitched (for whatever spring sample sizes are worth).
- The big story of the day however is the announcement that the Rangers will not be placing Andruw Jones on the big league roster by Friday, after which Andruw can take his free agency if he so chooses. JD says he'd like to keep Andruw in camp after the deadline, but there doesn't appear to be room on the big league team for Andruw as Murphy/Hamilton/Cruz appears to be the starting OF options right now, and Byrd looks like a fully healthy backup again. Even the AAA Oklahoma OF roster seems full, with Brandon Boggs, Julio Borbon and Greg Golson appearing to be the probable starters there.
If Andruw opts out, it shouldn't be much of a loss for the Rangers - it was probably going to take a particularly impressive showing (or Marlon Byrd starting the season on the DL) for Jones to win a spot on the roster, and that just never really materialized. Jones hasn't even played in an "A" game in a a week, leading me to think that he hasn't been much of a priority for some time - I wish him luck elsewhere, but it seems all he ever was is an insurance policy, one that we're not going to need.
- Getting back to the game, the Rangers offense is still on fire - they came roaring back in a 6-run third inning to get Kris Benson off the hook and propel themselves to their fourth straight spring win. Omar Vizquel (who went 3-5 batting leadoff) got the scoring started with a single that scored two runs thanks to an error by A's CF Ryan Sweeny, and David Murphy and Marlon Byrd followed with a 2-run double and a 2-run HR respectively. They scored twice more in the 8th and Frank Francisco closed the game out in impressive fashion in the 9th, notching two strikeouts en route to the save.
- Other links of interest: Mike Hindman has a rundown of the infield/DH options up over at inside corner... the Rangers made another round of cuts today, while CJ Wilson and Luis Mendoza both threw live BP sessions.
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