Elvis Andrus with his first ever walkoff hit last night. That was pretty great.
And I can't even really be upset about the blown Neftali Feliz save. With two outs in the 9th, he allowed an infield single, a parachuted bloop double, and a single up the middle. Only one hit that was hit well...that's going to happen from time to time.
Anthony Andro's game story says it was all about Elvis Andrus on Elvis night at TBIA. Drew Davison writes in his game story that there were questions after the game about whether or not Austin Jackson would have been safe on the 9th inning infield single if Justin Smoak had scooped the ball. Ron Washington, who may or may not have been protecting Smoak on a tough play in his major league debut, says that Jackson would have been safe anyway, although Elvis says Jackson would have been out.
Evan Grant's post-game notes focus on Rich Harden's struggles, and Grant wonders if the Rangers are going to yank Harden from the rotation to bring up Derek Holland in the near future. Grant points out that the Rangers have been quick to replace Frank Francisco as closer, Julio Borbon as leadoff hitter, and Chris Davis as first baseman so far this season, but unlike those other guys, there's not much you can do with Harden other than put him on the disabled list...and then there's the question of what you do with him when he's there. I think it is too early, at this point, to be talking about dropping Harden and replacing him with Holland.
Meanwhile, over at the Bleacher Report, Jason Kim has some hard-hitting analysis of the Harden signing.
Speaking of changes, Jarrod Saltalamacchia caught again last night, and seems to be progressing well. It sounds like he could be back next week, and my gut feeling right now is that Matt Treanor would stick as the backup catcher, with Taylor Teagarden going to AAA.
Teagarden says that, despite the 0 for 22 to start the season, he's just trying take things day to day. Washington had praise for Teagarden's handling of the pitchers in Thursday's shutout, but regardless of how good he is at handling the pitching staff, given his offensive struggles, it seems likely he's AAA bound before too long to work on getting his bat going.
ESPN Dallas has video of an interview with Smoak up at their site. Anthony Andro has a story about Smoak joining the major league team.