Spring Training Notebook: Dunning Battles Baby, Hickory's Stream, Crowding the Plate Does Breakfast

"I didn't realize that it was in play. I think kind of half our team was that way," he said. Marte scored on a sacrifice fly later in the inning.

"You could tell he wasn't quite as sharp," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "but he always finds a way to get through it. That's how good he is. He's got four pitches, and now he's experimenting with that [splitter]. He's got good deception, too. He's not a guy we're looking to power through the lineup, and [his velocity] is quicker than you think."

Eugenio Suárez led off the second with a single and later scored on a two-out sac fly after Dunning hit a batter and walked another to load the bases. He got Marte swinging on a 2-2 slider in the dirt to end the inning.

"I got into trouble but worked out of certain situations, made some pitches when they needed to be made, but I just can't get myself into those positions to begin with," he said. "Just need to get back in the grind, get my legs under me a little bit more, and get the ball rolling again." 

You've been warned, Mack.

Hickory Live Streaming 2024 Season

The Rangers High-A affiliate Hickory Crawdads announced they will livestream their 2024 home games on MiLB.TV and Bally Live with play-by-play from Brian Rushing. Subscribers will be able to hear live broadcasts of all 66 home games.

The stream will include a fully automated video broadcast component that "utilizes artificial intelligence and multiple camera angles to pan and cut to the action," according to the team's release. Hickory, which is about 60 miles northwest of Charlotte, N.C., is partnering with Pixellot on the video automation.

MLB.TV subscribers have access to Minor League Baseball included as part of their subscription. Rangers fans already subscribed to MLB.TV can now also tune into Crawdads games using the same plan.

MiLB.TV-only packages are also available and allow fans to watch home and road games. The Crawdads’ broadcasts are also available for free in the Bally Live app.

Rushing's play-by-play will be available as audio-only through StreamGuys and paired with the TV broadcast.

Quotables

"We can be perfectionists at times, obviously. Nowadays, the game has seemingly gotten more complicated, but it hasn't changed. It's the same simple game, but there are a lot more numbers and data and metrics and analytics that seem to be relevant. But it's just about filtering those out, and I'm getting better and better at that and making things as simple as possible." — Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter on trying to simplify his approach on the mound

Crowding the Plate

I love a good breakfast, especially late at night.

Another good time for breakfast is in the late morning when you've actually built up an appetite. I've never been a morning meal person. I know it's supposed to be a healthier approach for our diets, but my stomach is just not motivated before noon. Maybe because I'm not a morning person by nature, or my job has made me a night person by default. Whatever.

The point is, covering spring training means getting up at 7 am every morning — which, off-topic rant for a second — it never made sense to me that MLB runs spring training like an early morning workout cult, but as soon as the real games start, everything is shifted to late nights. Again, whatever.

The early mornings don't typically offer a lot of free time for donuts and breakfast burritos because I'm lucky just to make it to the Rangers' complex in time for Bruce Bochy's daily morning meeting with the media. The few times during the spring schedule that do allow for a leisurely sit-down breakfast experience are when the team is playing on the road, and there is nothing of import happening on the backfields before their 1 p.m. first pitch. That was the perfect storm we had on Tuesday, with the Rangers playing the Diamondbacks at Salt River Fields in Scottdale, about an hour east on the opposite side of the Phoenix metro area.

Crowding the Plate made it a point to hit one of my favorite breakfast/lunch spots in the valley. It's "The Place" on Bell Road in Glendale, about 20 minutes east of Surprise. The family-owned restaurant has served scratch-made breakfast, brunch, and lunch items seven days a week for more than 30 years. Each time I've hit "The Place" over the years, there's always a steady stream of customers. It's easy to see and taste why. On Tuesday morning, I ordered the French Toast Breakfast, which comes with two slices of French Toast, two eggs any style, and your choice of meat. I chose bacon. And also sausage. And I added a piece of wheat toast. And a side of hashbrowns. I need toast to help eat my over-medium eggs. I need a variety of meats in case one of them is subpar, or in this case, because both the bacon and sausage patties are way above par. 

It was all excellent, except my over-medium eggs were over-easy and a little too runny for my taste. The French Toast was perfectly fluffy and sweet. The hashbrowns were crispy on the outside and perfectly warm and mushy underneath. It was another home run for "The Place." One of these days, I'll try their lunch sandwich options. I snuck a peek at some fellow diners, and the lunch plates looked similarly legit.

The only drawback about scarfing down a huge, two-person breakfast by yourself? Struggling to stay awake during a relaxing, sun-drenched, lazy spring training baseball game. But I did it for you, the devoted Crowding the Plate reader. You're welcome!