It was difficult to watch Thursday afternoon as closer Frank Francisco’s lack of command caused C.J. Wilson’s gem to go up in smoke.
Locked in, Wilson pitched seven scoreless innings and surrendered five hits. Wilson’s quality pitching got him out of two on, nobody out jams in the fifth and sixth innings, each time getting two strikeouts after a pair of runners reached. Wilson fanned nine batters and unlike Rich Harden yesterday, only walked two. Toronto’s Ricky Romero also pitched seven innings and gave up five hits. The only Ranger run came in the seventh on a wild pitch by Romero during a Josh Hamilton pinch hit at-bat following a David Murphy double and a Taylor Teagarden groundout to advance Murphy to third. The wild pitch was one of four tallied by Toronto pitchers in the game.
In the second, Vladimir Guerrero singled and Nelson Cruz doubled to start the inning, but neither scored in the end. A fourth-inning single pushed Guerrero’s career average at Rangers Ballpark to .401. In the sixth, Guerrero singled once again but was thrown out attempting to go to second. Guerrero and Cruz accounted for a large percentage of the Rangers’ offense during the season-opening series.
Wilson showed the Rangers can count on him to go seven. Over his career, Wilson has averaged 18 pitches per inning, according to the broadcast. Thursday, that number shrank to 12.
Neftali Feliz, the newly-anointed official setup man, displayed his full capabilities in the eighth, striking out the side and reaching 99 mph in the process.
Francisco couldn’t keep Mr. Long Ball (Vernon Wells) within the fences. Wells is the first Blue Jay ever to hit four homers in the first three games of the season. Following Wells, Lyle Overbay tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Edwin Encarnacion to give Toronto a 2-1 lead. Two hits and two walks brought an insurance run across. The Blue Jays batted around, and the Rangers needed three pitchers to record the final three outs.
They really are the hardest ones to get.
Other Notes
Jarrod Saltamacchia has a stiff upper back and was put on the DL already. Let’s hope this doesn’t become routine. Teagarden will now start most games.
Hamilton and Chris Davis pinch hit late but did not start. David Murphy and Ryan Garko started.
No comments:
Post a Comment