The Rangers Are 7-6

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If baseball were a horse race, the Rangers tonight would have been the horse that lags behind but comes on strong for the backstretch to win.

  • Colby Lewis started his third game of the season tonight, and early on, it looked like that wind would end up being a problem for him. Sure enough, he gave up three of them. Fortunately, each one came with no men on base, so the damage was a bit minimized. Colby finished with 6.0 innings pitched and 4 earned runs on 10 hits, 2 walks, and 7 strikeouts.
     
  • With the wind blowing the way it was, I expected to see some of the long ball from the Rangers tonight as well, but it never really happened. The bats were hitting the ball hard all over the field off of Yovani Gallardo, but never really managed to string anything together.
     
  • That is, until the 7th inning. Gallardo, who hadn't retired a batter in the 7th inning or later since last June 27, was sent back out, and after he walked Brett Nicholas, Delino DeShields sent a line drive double out into left field. That drove Gallardo from the game for good.
     
  • T.J. McFarland came into the game to face Nomar Mazara, and Mazara worked a 6-pitch at-bat, the last of which he hit straight at Chris Davis. Mazara raced down the first base line, beating it out for an infield single, and Brett Nicholas scored. A Prince Fielder groundout scored DeShields from third, tying the game at 4 apiece.
     
  • With first base open, Baltimore elected to intentionally walk Adrian Beltre to face Mitch Moreland. It seemed like the smart move, as Moreland deoesn't typically hit left-handed pitching very well. However, McFarland hung a 79 mph slider over the plate too much on the first pitch, and Moreland barely missed having himself a 3-run homer, instead settling for a 2 RBI double that gave Texas a 5-4 lead.
     
  • Still in the bottom of the 7th inning, Rougned Odor hit a ball out to right field that got by Mark Trumbo and all the way to the wall. By the time the play was over, Rougned Odor was standing on third base, credited with a single and 2 RBI and Trumbo was given an error.
     
  • Finally, Elvis Andrus finished off the night's scoring by singling to left field and plating Odor to give Texas a lead of 8-4.
     
  • After that, the bullpen did its job. Sam Dyson pitched the bottom of the 8th, making some hitters look silly with a Bugs Bunny changeup, and in the bottom of the 9th, Shawn Tolleson only needed 7 pitches to induce a popout, a groundout, and a strikeout and preserve the win.
     
  • Derek Holland takes the mound tomorrow for a day game at 2 PM in the series finale against Mike Wright and the Baltimore Orioles.