Texas Ranger Probables, April 23

The first road trip of the season is over and the Texas Rangers come home with the best record in all of Major League Baseball. Yet the start to tonight’s game is going to be bitter sweet. It will be the time when Ivan Rodriguez, Pudge, joins the ranks as former players as he announces his retirement. There will be laughs and cheers and probably more than a few misty eyes from the Rangers faithful. I have been trying to remember a retirement for a former Ranger player that is going to be this emotional since Nolan Ryan and I can’t come up with one that the entire fan base will be unified behind like this one.

For the game the Rangers will have another fan favorite on the mound, Derek Holland. In his 4th outing of the year Holland will look to improve on his 2-0 record with a 3.1 ERA. He is averaging just under 7 strikeouts and 2 walks per game. This ratio is fine and he just needs to maintain that. However the average of 4 runs per 7 innings is a bit much combined with his walks. Yet the southpaw looks to be fine against the New York Yankees as they come to Arlington. With Sunday afternoon’s win over the Detroit Tigers the Rangers are now 13-3. Tonight will be game 17.