A.L. West Opening Day 2014 notes

Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

A few leftovers from Opening Day 2014…

Rangers

Well the Rangers pitching appears to be as suspect as it did before the season started.  Yu Darvish missed the start due to a stiff neck, but the rest of the staff had plenty of work to go around.  Texas pitching gave up 14 runs to a likely anemic offense in Philadelphia.  The Rangers managed to score ten runs, but still dropped the season opener.  A side note: because of the long day the pitching staff had yesterday, the Rangers recalled right-handed pitcher Daniel McCutchen from Triple-A Round Rock.

In good news, Darvish threw 86 pitches today in a bullpen session.  MLB.com reporter T.R. Sullivan quoted pitching coach Mike Maddux on Darvish’s session:

"We did the assimilation of probably four innings of work, getting up and down. All pitches were good. He looked very good, feels healthy. But we’ll know more [Wednesday], and see how he recovers from that. So the next step would be to wait until [Wednesday]. He’s on the right track."

The Rangers’ ace is eligible to come of the disabled list on Saturday, but likely won’t pitch then.  Either way it’s good news for Rangers fans that their best pitcher seems to be on the mend.

Mariners vs. Angels

Angels’ center fielder, Mike Trout tried to make the Mariners opening game a bad one right away yesterday.  The star hit a two-run homer in the first inning off Seattle’s ace Felix Hernandez before an out had been recorded.  That was by far the highlight of the day for the Halos.  The Mariners won 10-3 and King Felix struck out eleven batters.

It was the Mariners eighth straight Opening Day win and Hernandez has started the last seven of those games.  The Mariners scored six runs in the ninth inning which included a three-run homer by Justin Smoak and a three-run triple by Dustin Ackley.  New second baseman Robinson Cano added two hits.