Ringing in the new site with a win

The evening the new site goes online, the Rangers beat Anaheim, 7-5.

I'll take that as a good omen.

The most positive thing about today, clearly, is the Chan Ho Park start.  Since coming to Texas, Park has shown flashes of...well, not brilliance, but at least competence.  This flashes, though, have been all too brief, and generally seem to last about four innings before devolving into a walk/homer/walk/HBP/double/yanked sequence around the fifth or sixth inning.

Today, though, the Ho looked better than I've seen him look since joining the Rangers.  He was locating his pitches well, showed good movement, and generally seemed in control throughout.  Most promising, he had six strikeouts and just one walk, and didn't even mix in his usual random HBP that seems to pop up in every Ho outing.

Last April, I compared Ryan Drese's teasing ways to the girl you are "just friends" with.  I was writing off Drese's early performances as just being part of Drese the Tease, and spent much of the first couple of months waiting (in vain, thankfully) for the other shoe to drop.  

I still am not sold on the Ho.  He still has a very long way to go before I start having any faith in him.

But I will say, today's start was the first glimmer of hope the Ho has provided me in at least 18 months.  And I'm going to cross my fingers, and hope it is a sign of things to come...