Thoughts on a 5-4 Rangers win

Rangers 5, Rays 4

• That's four games in a row now for the Rangers, who are just a half-game back of the Angels for 2nd place in the A.L. West.
• The Rangers are still undefeated in Nick Martinez's starts, although Martinez didn't pitch long enough to get a win yesterday.  It was a strange outing for Martinez, who faced one over the minimum in the first four innings, came into the bottom of the fifth with a comfortable 5-0 lead, then saw the wheels come off.  Martinez gave up three singles, a double and a walk while retiring only a pair, resulting in him being lifted with two on and two out in favor of Alex Claudio.  It was the shortest outing of the year for Martinez, who had gone at least 6 IP in each of his first five starts.  It was also, oddly, the fourth straight no-decision for Martinez.
• Allowing 3 ER in 4.2 IP raised Martinez's ERA on the season to 1.47.  As we've said before, Martinez wasn't going to have a sub-1 (or a sub-2) ERA all year, but if he can pitch well enough to put up a sub-4 ERA, I think we'll all be happy.
• Alex Claudio, Keone Kela, Shawn Tolleson and Nefali Feliz combined to strike out 7 batters in 4.1 IP of relief work, and allowed just one baserunner, when Tolleson gave up a home run to someone named Kevin Kiermaier in the 8th.  Feliz, in particular, had folks raving about his performance after the game...he struck out a pair of batters and had three swinging strikes out of 12 pitches.  His fastball was hitting 95 and the slider was sharp.
• The Rangers had a 4 run 2nd inning, though only two players got on base for Texas more than once yesterday.  Kyle Blanks was 2 for 4 with a double, and Delino DeShields walked three times and stole three bases.  The only starter not to get on base was Rougned Odor, who was 0 for 4 with 3 Ks.  His OPS is now down to 485, and the talk is getting louder that he may be heading to AAA.