Game 4, Mariners At Rangers
Bedard vs Holland, 5:05 pm.
I’m excited to watch Erik Bedard throw tonight. I’m not excited about the circumstances of his first regular season start in nearly two years. The Rangers beat the Red Sox to a bloody pulp this weekend, posting a ridiculous .469 team wOBA in thier match-up against some pretty good Boston pitchers. For comparison, the best wOBA of Albert Pujols’ career is .462, so if you’ve wondered what a line-up of nine Pujols’ would look like, just rewind the tape and watch what Texas just did to Boston.
Of course, it’s just three games that don’t mean anything for predictive puposes, but this a good Rangers offense, and Arlington is not your typical cold-and-damp April climate. The ball was flying out of the park all weekend, and so Bedard is going to have make sure he keeps the ball down and misses bats, or else the Rangers could spoil his return to the mound with some crooked numbers in a hurry.
Based on what he was throwing in Spring Training, he’s still got the stuff to get good hitters out, regardless of the situation. I just wish it wasn’t trial by fire right off the bat.
Oh, and the Rangers are throwing LHP Derek Holland tonight, so the M’s offense is likely to get shut down again. If the M’s are going to win, they’re going to need Bedard to be amazing.
Ichiro, RF
Figgins, 3B
Bradley, LF
Cust, DH
Smoak, 1B
Olivo, C
Langerhans, CF
Ryan, SS
Wilson, 2B
Comments
102 Responses to “Game 4, Mariners At Rangers”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Oh well…4 games into the season, 2-2, and we’ve been competitive in 3 of them. Who wouldnt have taken this to start 2011?
Despite the loss, there were some positives to take away here:
–Smoak continues to hit lefties hard. It’s way too early to judge, of course, but if he can keep it up he’ll quickly warm into fans’ hearts.
–Bedard was a bit erratic, but his curve had the same bite it always had, and he didn’t leave the game on a stretcher. I’m hopeful here.
–Jack Wilson is just amazing at second. They won’t hit, but our middle infield defense is set for now. Nothing to worry about there.