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Thoughts on a very annoying, vexing, yet ultimately triumphant 1-0 Rangers win

Geez.

Tom Pennington

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Rangers 1, Astros 0

  • Yu Darvish was awesome.  Shin-Soo Choo was very good.  The bullpen was terrific.  Everyone else was varying degrees of unacceptable, including Ron Washington.
  • Yu:  8 innings, 1 hit (a bloop single), 1 walk, probably not more than 3 or 4 hard hit balls, 0 runs allowed.  He has yet to throw a single pitch this season where the score wasn't 0-0.
  • Joakim Soria, Alexi Ogando, Neal Cotts and Jason Frasor each threw scoreless innings.  Good job, bullpen.
  • The offense was pathetic.  8 hits, 9 walks, 2 HBPs, and just 1 run in 12 innings (okay, 11.2 innings).
  • Leonys Martin was the only hitter to have more than one hit.  He was 2 for 4 with an IBB.  Shin-Soo Choo was 1 for 3 with 3 walks.  Prince Fielder walked 3 times, but two were intentional.
  • J.P. Arencibia is hitting .111.  I'm surprised his average is that high right now.
  • Michael Choice and Donnie Murphy spent the entire game on the bench, while Josh Wilson and Mitch Moreland played the entire game.  Josh Wilson batted with the bases loaded and two outs of a scoreless game in the bottom of the 7th, for some reason.  Moreland was allowed to face the Astros' lone lefthanded reliever leading off the 9th inning, despite Choice being available.  Wilson also hit in the 9th and in the 11th innings.  Just to put this in perspective, Josh Wilson came into the game with a career 598 OPS in almost 1100 plate appearances.  He is literally the worst hitter among the position players on the team, and I wouldn't be surprised if Alexi Ogando was a better hitter than Wilson.  I have no idea why Wilson repeatedly hit in key situations.
  • That said...the Rangers won.  And the Rangers seemed more celebratory in their walkoff celebration than usual.  I think there was a great sense of relief that washed over them once they pulled it out.  I know I felt a great sense of relief.