Thoughts on a 3-1 Rangers win

via i.imgur.com

• On that play, Kendrys Morales was up, and the Rangers used their shift where they have Ian Kinsler in shallow right field and the shortstop -- Garcia -- behind second base. It was a slow roller that Kinsler was nowhere near, but Garcia, looking like a roadrunner (as Grieve described him), flashed that 80 grade speed and was able to get the out on a unique play.
• Alexi Ogando was fine, but seemed to have trouble putting hitters away the second time through the lineup, and ended up making it thru just 5 innings, needing 98 pitches to get that far. He struck out 5, allowed 5 hits and 1 run, and walked a single batter.
• The bullpen pitched four shutout innings, with Joe Ortiz getting the win by virtue of going 2 and allowing just a single hit. Robbie Ross looked like he was cruising through his inning, but gave up a 2 out hit and a walk, with the result being that he needed 31 pitches to get through his inning, while Ortiz needed just 22 to get through 2 innings. Joe Nathan had a Nathan-esque 3 up 3 down 1K save in the 9th.
• The offense picked up just 5 hits and 3 walks -- one of them, an intentional walk to Adrian Beltre, being intentional -- once again being unable to do much damage against Joe Saunders. Still, they scratched across three runs. The first came on a weird sequence in the top of the 6th. Leury Garcia singled, then Ian Kinsler hit what appeared to be a tailor made double play ball to shortstop. Brendan Ryan booted it, though, giving Texas two on and no outs. Ron Washington returned the favor by having Elvis Andrus bunt, then Beltre was issued his intentional walk, loading the bases. Nelson Cruz then hit a line drive to Justin Smoak at first base...Smoak dropped the ball, however, and threw to second. Ian Kinsler had held up initially, and when the M's then threw on to third to try to catch him, Kinsler stopped and broke back to second. He was ultimately tagged out for an inning-ending double play, but not before Garcia was able to cross the plate with the first run of the game for Texas.
• The other two runs came across in the 8th, due to a Craig Gentry walk, a hit-and-run with Leury Garcia that got Gentry to second, and then, after an Ian Kinsler pop out, an Elvis RBI single, an Elvis stolen base and advance to third on a wild pitch, and an Adrian Beltre single which gave the team the 3-1 lead that was ultimately the final score.
• Not a good offensive showing overall. Kinsler, A.J. Pierzynski and David Murphy all went 0 for 4, and the only player to get on base more than once for Texas was Leury, who was 1 for 2 with a walk.
• 8-4, and just one game back of Oakland, with Nick Tepesch going against Brandon Maurer tomorrow.