The Texas Rangers will face a familiar face on Wednesday night, when they take on Kevin Millwood, the team’s opening day starter from 2006 to 2009, now with the Seattle Mariners. Millwood won 48 games as a member of the Rangers before being traded to the Orioles following the 2009 campaign.
After a year with the O’s, Millwood spent 2011 bouncing around the league, between the Yankees, Red Sox and Rockies. He signed with the Mariners in January.
"I enjoyed my time here," Millwood said of Texas, per the team’s official website. "There's not a huge difference in the guys over there. It's still pretty much the same team. But it's just another game, really."
According to outfielder David Murphy, the team’s familiarity with tonight’s opposing starter might provide something of an advantage, but that it won’t change the team’s approach at the plate at all.
"Whether it's a guy you know or have played with or don't know, you're still trying to do the same thing," Murphy said. "It might be an advantage having watched him work over a few seasons, what he's got and how he pitches."
As Zack Meisel points out on the team's website today, this will mark the third time this season that texas will face a starter that has spent time in the organization, and they've fared well against the group thus far--defeating Chicago's John Danks on Opening Day and Seattle's Blake Beavan on Tuesday.
