Enrichment.
Firsts on May 3: 1. Tommy Hunter made his 2010 debut, throwing a sharp three innings (no runs on two singles and one walk in three innings, 26 of 38 pitches for strikes) in a start for Oklahoma City. 2. We saw a pair of concentric rainbows in the East sky around 7 p.m. 3. Justin Smoak blasted a big league home run from the right side. 4. A multi-hit game for Craig Gentry, who was key tonight. 5. Neftali Feliz recorded saves on back-to-back days. 6. I enjoyed watching Rich Harden make a Rangers start. I enjoyed watching that very much. Command. Control. Velocity. Efficiency. First-pitch strikes two-thirds of the time. Sixteen swinging strikes (which is 16 more than in his last start). Harden looked like the guy who went 18-9, 2.98 lifetime as a home pitcher in Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, not the one who'd been so difficult to watch as a Texas Ranger until tonight. Harden came into tonight's game with 23 walks in 23.2 innings. Tonight: zero walks in seven frames. Before tonight, he'd thrown 57 percent of his pitches for strikes. Tonight: 71 percent. In fact, only two A's hitters worked a three-ball count off Harden all night. (Well, one: Daric Barton did it both times.) To sum it up: In each of Harden's last five starts, including tonight's, he has faced between 23 and 25 hitters. In two of those games, he lasted 3.2 and 4.1 innings. Tonight, he logged 7.0. Tremendous effort, any way you look at it. That's the guy Texas was excited to land in December. Jon Daniels made a point before the game that, despite all the moves the Rangers have made over the season's first four weeks, many of which have been fairly drastic, the club has not made one roster move involving a pitcher. It's a stunning thing to say about a Rangers club. Rich Harden made it emphatically clear tonight that he wasn't going to make a pitching move necessary. =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com Twitter @newbergreport