Thoughts on a 1-0 Rangers win

Rangers 1, Astros 0

• How about that Martin Perez?  8 shutout innings, 5 hits allowed, 3 walks.  Perez struck out just a pair of batters, but he got a bunch of ground balls (again), and when a runner did get on base, it was usually quickly snuffed out...of the 8 Astro runners, 4 were erased on double plays, and 2 more were thrown out stealing.
• Joakim Soria pitched the previous two days, so Ron Washington went with Alexi Ogando to pitch the 9th.  Ogando threw an easy 1-2-3 inning to pick up the save.  Its interesting that, in a save situation with Soria unavailable, Ron Washington went with Ogando, who, after a slow start, has gotten himself back into the manager's good graces.
• Elvis Andrus was ejected when, after getting called out on strikes, he argued the call and flipped his bat.  That left the Rangers with an infield of Prince Fielder, Donnie Murphy, Josh Wilson and Kevin Kouzmanoff.  That's not an infield that is going to win many games.
• It was an ugly effort from the offense today, as the Rangers could generate just 5 baserunners against Brett Obertholtzer (who went 7 innings) and Jerome Williams.  Two hits from Kevin Kouzmanoff, and single hits from Michael Choice, Shin-Soo Choo and Josh Wilson.  The lone run of the game came when Wilson and Choo had back to back hits in the sixth inning, and then Donnie Murphy brought Wilson home with a sacrifice fly.
• I don't know what else to say about this game.  The offense is awful right now.  Three guys expected to be starters -- Adrian Beltre, Jurickson Profar and Geovany Soto -- are hurt, and Prince Fielder has been terrible.  The pitching has to be near-perfect to give the team a chance to win right now.  The pitching staff has been good enough to have the Rangers at .500 through 12 games, and the pitching staff is probably going to have to keep carrying the team if it is going to stay afloat in the early part of the season.