Game 5: Rangers at Angels

Tonight, it's Kevin Millwood vs. Jeff Weaver. This is going to be a good game. Millwood pitched six innings in his first start of the season.

Scouting Report: (from MLB.com)

Rangers: The Rangers are going with a four-man rotation for the first two weeks of the season because of two off-days and won't need a fifth starter until April 12. Luis Mendoza won that job when Brandon McCarthy went down with severe inflammation in his elbow. Millwood, who lost to the Mariners on Opening Day in Seattle, is 2-2 with a 3.59 ERA in seven career starts against the Angels.

Angels: For openers, Weaver wasn't razor-sharp, putting too many fastballs in good locations to Twins hitters. But he was resourceful in getting out of jams and kept his team in the game while yielding three earned runs on eight hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings. His endurance (106 pitches) was excellent, and he struck out five hitters.

Millwood officially doesn't have any spring numbers. I remember him doing fairly average - nothing to really write-in about, I guess. He does have a ZERO ERA but an 0-1 record. He's not given up an earned run AND he still takes the loss. I don't know what a guy has to do to get a win around here... Almost every starter has gone six innings. Gabbard went seven last night, the deepest a Ranger starter has done in this early season. On a side-note, Millwood has pitched over 200 innings five times in his career, but the last four seasons, he has only hit 200 just once.

Hitters Millwood Should Take Notice:

• Vladimir "Vlad the Impaler" Guerrero: 68 AB; 22 hits (4 HRs) - 15 RBIs (.324 BA)
• Torii Hunter: 21 AB; 11 hits (2 HRs) - 8 RBIs (.524 BA)
• Garet Anderson: 16 AB; 5 hits - 1 RBI (.313 BA)

Jered Weaver had a great spring this year. He went 4-0 with a 1.29 ERA in four starts while putting together a wonderful 14 innings of work. He only gave up two runs on five hits. But then, some really wonder just how great are the stats in Spring Training. Sometimes you end up pitching against minor leaguers and you can get some great numbers that way... you can also be told to throw only fastballs for one outing and pile up some horrible numbers. So, in a lot of cases, you take Spring with a grain of salt. But either way, Weaver had a sweet spring. As it is, reality hit when Spring was over, he's 0-1 with a 4.26 ERA. He gave up 8 hits in 6.1 innings, allowing 3 to score against the Twins.

Hitters Weaver Should Throw FAT Pitches To:

• Michael Young: 18 AB; 5 hits - (.278 BA)
• Hank "The Hammer" Blalock: 11 AB; 4 hits (1 HR) - 1 RBI (.364 BA)
• Ben "Bro" Broussard: 19 AB; 7 hits - 3 RBIs (.368 BA)

Weaver, in his career against the Rangers, is 1-1 with a 2.79 ERA. He has started six games against the Rangers and put together 38.2 innings of work against them. The Rangers have 36 hits, 14 runs, but 12 earned. Weaver has given up three HRs, walked 12, and struck out 30. The Rangers hit a wee .245 against Weaver. Hopefully, last night's hitting parade will continue on tonight.
The Rangers struggle against the Devils, historically speaking. Will the Rangers poney up for Millwood tonight, after they didn't do that on the season opener? They should. Weaver didn't fair well against the Twins. Does he start the season slow? That could be the case. Forecast: Ranger's pen blows this one: 5-3.

Home Plate