Rangers Finish Royals 5 to 2 – and Other Notes from Surprise

Yesterday afternoon the Rangers played their Spring Training cohabitants the Kansas City Royals in Surprise, Arizona. The Rangers won 5 to 2, but may have won in a much bigger way as it seems the Derek Holland we have been waiting for may have arrived.

Derek Holland who spent most of last season in the bullpen went 5 innings yesterday allowing five hits one run and no earned runs. “The Dutch Oven” was dominant and had his pitches working for him picking up three strikeouts along the way. –This whole starting rotation conversation is getting more and more complicated as the spring moves forward.

A surprise for sure was the play of Brett Tomko in the exhibition. Tomko who turns 38 in April did not record a game played in the majors for the 2010 season, came into the game in relief of Holland. There was no need for a third pitcher in the game as Tomko ate up the remaining four innings allowing four hits and one earned run. Tomko could be a real gem of a pickup for this ball club. Ron Washington said the team wanted to see as much of him as they could and after this performance I would like to see more as well.

On the offensive side Mitch Moreland hit his 3^rd homer of the spring off of Vin Mazzaro. Outfielder Julio Borbon stole a base in the game, his fifth of the spring and Ian Kinsler had an RBI double early in the game. Kinsler’s stats this spring are nothing short of amazing, he’s batting .370 with an OPS of 1.321.

A few additional notes –

We did not have an opportunity to recap Saturday’s game against the Seattle Mariners but they lost to Seattle 9 to 8 with the game going to extra innings. There were two big notes in this game, Neftali Feliz started another game for the Rangers and went 5 innings giving up two runs and four hits. This was an excellent appearance for Feliz who continues to make his case to be in the rotation for the Rangers. Darren O’Day had another rough outing in relief going only one inning but allowing 4 hits and 4 runs, three of these were Home Runs. This makes the relief pitcher’s ERA 10.29 for the spring.

Today’s Game –

The Rangers will play the Milwaukee Brewers this afternoon at 3:05pm Central time, this game is not televised but you can catch the radio feed from MLB.com.

-Jonathan