Baltimore Orioles @ Texas Rangers (April 8th-10th)

[Molina00]

The Rangers will play their home opener tomorrow playing host to the Baltimore Orioles. Jason Jennings will be taking the mound for Texas looking for a little bit of redemption after giving up 4 runs over 5 innings in his Ranger debut against Seattle.

The Rangers have a job ahead of them trying to cool down the 5-1 Orioles, but coming off a 2-1 series win over the AL West leading Angels, they should be up to the challenge. The Rangers have the advantage with former NL rookie of the year and veteran Jason Jennings going up against Brian Burres who will be making his first start of the season. Burres is 6-8 with a 5.68 ERA in 49 career appearances, only 17 of them starts. He has pitched 1 scoreless inning in relief so far this year.

[Turn 2]

This will be a good series. The Orioles are having some clutch hitting which has been just amazing this season. If the Orioles starters can be productive and get the game to there bullpen it could be a hard task for the Rangers. I know that the Rangers have a pretty strong lineup, but the improved Orioles bullpen has been pratically lightsout this season so far.

[Molina00]

This will be a good series. The Orioles are having some clutch hitting which has been just amazing this season. If the Orioles starters can be productive and get the game to there bullpen it could be a hard task for the Rangers. I know that the Rangers have a pretty strong lineup, but the improved Orioles bullpen has been pratically lightsout this season so far.

I wish I could say the same for the Ranger pen. It has pretty much been hit-or-miss the first week of the season. Fukumori and Nippert have been lit up with Benoit pitching mediocre, while the rest of the pen has been solid. The Rangers really need to get their bats woken up. The only guys doing well right now are Kinsler, Hamilton, Murphy and Blalock. Everyone else is batting .250 and some below .200. Laird was just 1 for 11 before last night's breakthrough. They really need to get to Burres early in the series opener. If they can do that, they could set the tone for the rest of the series.

How you liking Murphy on your fantasy team so far? Batting .409 with a homerun and 2 stolen bases.

[Turn 2]

I really am enjoying him. He has been a huge surprise.

[Molina00]

The Rangers home opener turned out to be a bust, and Jason Jennings pitched poorly again. Texas was only outhit 12-9, but they could not get hardly any run scoring going against Orioles starter Burres, who allowed only 1 run on 7 hits over 6 innings of work. The only Ranger run came in the 7th with Ian Kinsler driving in David Murphy in what was already a 6-0 Baltimore lead. The Rangers went on to drop the opener 8-1 and fall to 3-4 on the season.

Jennings, in his 2nd start as a Ranger, pitched even worse than in his first start allowing 4 runs on 7 hits over 4.2 innings. The bullpen wasn't much better with Wright and Rupe combining to give up the other 4 runs over just 3.1 innings of work.

My pick for Ranger player of the game is David Murphy who went 1 for 4 and scored the only run of the game.

[Turn 2]

Great pitched game by Burres. Burres can be an effective lefty as he has shown periodically last season. He just needs to consistently put some good games together. He will never overpower hitters to win the games so he will have to earn every out he gets. The bats once game came through at the right time for the Orioles. They were awful last year with runners in scoring position and this season they have been working miacles with men on base. This is now 6 in a row. Utterly amazing.

[Molina00]

No game took place yesterday due to rain, and it was looking iffy for today's games too with, according to the Rangers site, tornado sirens going off and homes in the DFW area. I can certainly relate to that. A little while ago we had the tornado sirens by my house go off 3 times in a span of 3 hours.

Anyway, Wednesday's game getting rained out worked in the Rangers favor. They ended up with a double header scheduled for today and narrowly took the first game 3-1 backed by another stellar outting from Kevin Millwood. Only difference this time is he finally notched his first win of the season.

The Rangers broke through early against Baltimore starter Steve Trachsel scoring a run in the first, but the Orioles responded by tying it up with a 2nd inning run off Kevin Millwood. That was the end of the scoring until the 7th inning when Texas put two more runs on the board against Trachsel to take a 3-1 lead. Michael Young and Jared Hamilton provided the bulk of the offense going a combined 3 for 6 with 2 runs scored and all 3 RBI. Kevin Millwood was almost unhittable despite having a slight control problem. He allowed only 3 hits over 7 innings but allowed 5 walks. C.J. Wilson pitched a perfect 9th for his 2nd save.

Season Note: Kevin Millwood is now 1-2 with an incredible 1.29 ERA in 3 starts this season.

[Molina00]

The Rangers are off to a good start in game two of the double header. Currently Texas is leading 4-1 in the 4th inning. Michael Young has hit his 2nd homerun of the year and Kason Gabbard has allowed 1 run on 4 hits over 3.1 innings.

[Turn 2]

Even though the Orioles lost both games of the double header yesterday, I still am pleased with the way they are playing. They continue to hustle and have that never give up attitude throughout the game. Steve Trachsel pitched really well in game and Loewen wasn't that bad in game two. The bullpen continues to really impress me. If the Orioles continue to play this way throughout the season they may surprise many people.