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12:58: Started out the day on a tragically sad note. Angels RHP Nick Adenhart, 22, was killed in a car accident early this morning and the news was just starting to circulate around the clubhouse around 10 a.m. Later, began the afternoon with a moment of silence. Only Ranger who really knew Adenhart was RHP Warner Madrigal, who was a teammate at Class A Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2006. But when a player dies, it does strike deep through the fraternity around the league.

“The last thing I’m thinking about right now is baseball,” 3B Michael Young said. “When we came in here this morning, we were playing music and feeling pretty good. Now, we’re all imagining what the Angels and the Adenhart family must feel like. And then you go through all the things that a parent and a child thinks about in a situation like this. And we’re all big leaguers. We go through the same things, so we can relate to how things feel from that perspective.”

1:13: C Jarrod Saltalamacchia arrived at the park feeling much better Thursday, but he wasn’t in the starting lineup. That had been planned since before the season-opener. C Taylor Teagarden started the game.

1:15: Discussed last night’s infield throwing errors with manager Ron Washington during his pre-game chat. He had some interesting observations. He agreed that 3B Michael Young’s throw to first in the fifth inning was too high, but Washington thought 1B Chris Davis needed to leave his feet to go up and catch the ball. Davis didn’t jump and the ball got away, leading to Cleveland’s Mark DeRosa getting second base.  The Rangers addressed that with Davis after the inning. In the seventh, Davis did indeed leave the ground to go up to try and catch SS Elvis Andrus’ high throw on Travis Hafner’s grounder.  The problem, however, was that Andrus was playing in the grass behind second on an over shift against Hafner. That was too deep. When Andrus fielded a Hafner grounder perfectly in the opener, he was in the dirt behind second base, not in the grass. Washington said that “oversight” had been addressed, too.

1:27: Message on the bulletin board in the Rangers clubhouse this morning “No Red Unis on the Road.” This from clubhouse manager Zack Minasian, who probably can’t stow all the different uniform combos the Rangers now own. Especially since they pretty much just created this red hats, white tops look out of the blue. The Rangers lead 5-0 after one inning while wearing Red hats today. Good luck, Zack, trying to keep the red stuff off the plane.

1:37: No winners today in the Home Run Pool. Nobody took Marlon Byrd, who capped off the five-run first with his first homer of the year.We’ll try the first road edition tomorrow from chilly Detroit.

1:45: A little minor league pitching stuff for you. The minor league seasons open tonight, but tomorrow will be a very exciting day for the prospect lovers out there. RHP Neftali Feliz (Oklahoma City); RHP Michael Main (Class A Bakersfield) and LHP  Martin Perez (Class A Hickory) all pitch. On Saturday, the highlight is RHP Blake Beavan (Bakersfield) and Sunday it’s LHP Derek Holland (Oklahoma City).

1:50: Thanks to 2B Ian Kinsler’s two-run homer in the second, the Rangers now lead 7-1. Couple of things about that: They have yet to trail this season. And they have scored at least seven runs in every game. The Rangers were 50-19 when scoring more than five runs last year and 40-12 when scoring at least seven. They didn’t have three seven-run games until April 16 last year.

1:56: Er, they are now up to nine runs today. So, they’ve scored at least eight in each of their first three. Didn’t have that many games with at least eight runs until April 27 last year.

2:10: Perhaps you are wondering why Marlon Byrd got the start today against a right-handed pitcher. Well, the Rangers had only two players with at-bats against Cleveland’s Carl Pavano: Byrd and Andruw Jones. Byrd, who homered off Pavano in the first inning, was 8-for-20. But that doesn’t come close to explaining Jones. He was 1-for-19 against Pavano. Nevertheless, manager Ron Washington had promised that Jones would start before the opening series was done and start he did. Jones had a soft single in his only at-bat against Pavano.

2:26: Be interesting to see how far Rangers push Brandon McCarthy today. He’s thrown 92 pitches in four innings of work. Kevin Millwood went 113 pitches in the opener and Victene Padilla went 109 last night. Still way, way, way too high. But he’s got a  9-3 lead. Biggest blunder: He’s twice walked No. 9 hitter Asdrubal Cabrera. That’s bad, especially when Grady Sizemore follows with a homer as he did in the third.

2:30: Shocking development: Red wins dot race again. Is now 3-0 for the season.

2:37: Alarming or not? Vicente Padilla hit Ryan Garko with a pitch to force in a run on Wednesday. Counting that plunking, there have been five hit batters over the last 10 innings.

2:48: McCarthy has 105 pitches through five innings (21 per inning – yuck!) and Scott Feldman is warming up. Do the Rangers push McCarthy to go one more inning?

3:34: It’s slowed down out here quite a bit. Just a battle of attrition now with the Rangers and Indians bullpens trading runs. Scott Feldman allowed a pair of homers in his two innings of work. Looks like the Rangers feel safe enough to turn a five-run lead over to Warner Madrigal for the eighth. He’s warming up.

3:38: No Mad Dog just yet. Feldman still in game to start eighth.

3:46: Too close for Madrigal. After a one-out double, the Rangers instead went to Josh Rupe to protect what is now an 11-7 lead. I’d say roles in bullpen are still a work in progress. Apparently C.J. Wilson is not available today after throwing 26 pitches last night. Eddie Guardado is now the man warming in the Rangers bullpen.

3:58: Kerry Wood, of Irving or Grand Prairie, depending on whether birthplace or high school education is more important, is making his first career appearance in Arlington. But he didn’t expect it would be as the mop up man with 40 mph winds and an eerie haze swirling around the stadium. Andruw Jones greeted him with a double.