On a day where five left-handed batters (No Adrian Beltre. No Elvis Andrus. No Nelson Cruz. And not even Josh Hamilton as one of those lefties) were in the lineup against a kryptonite wielding soft-tossing lefty in Brad Mills, runs were at a premium. But with two swings of the bat by Mitch Moreland and Mike Napoli, the Rangers scored their three runs. That turned out to be way more than they even needed.
The last time Derek Holland pitched on the date July 30 was July 30, 2009. On that day, with Roy Halladay trade rumors swirling, Holland pitched 8.2 shutout innings before finally relinquishing a run on his final pitch while striking out 10 Seattle Mariners. Today, with trade rumors swirling, he did one better with a 4-hit complete game shutout.
And a hat tip to Dave Barnett with this note: Two pitchers in baseball have four complete game shutouts this season, one of them is Cliff Lee, the other is Derek Holland.
Your move, Anaheim.