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Thoughts on a 4-1 Rangers win

Rangers 4, Dodgers 1

By Adam J. Morris
Sarah Crabill/Getty Images

Rangers 4, Dodgers 1

  • Whaddya know?  The Rangers are capable of performing at an acceptable level with their defense in a game Yovani Gallardo starts.  I never would've thunk it.
  • Solid job by Gallardo, who threw 7 scoreless innings, allowing 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4.  He got help from a strike-'em-out/throw-'em-out double play, as well as a trio of GIDPs, while getting the Dodgers to pound the ball into the ground, with his defense making solid plays behind him.  Gallardo's ERA on the season is now down to 3.16.
  • Oh, and that was the 11th straight quality start for the Rangers, a team record.
  • It was also the 9th straight game the Ranger bullpen has given up a run, in this case via a home run by Yasmani Grandal off of Tanner Scheppers on the first pitch he threw.  This was, according to Twitter, the 10th time a Ranger reliever has allowed a home run to the first batter he has faced.  It feels like the 100th time.
  • Scheppers, who came in to pitch the 8th, was off again today with his command, throwing a Paul Lynde middle-square pitch to Grandal that got driven a mile, retiring Jimmy Rollins, then walking Alberto Callaspo and giving up a single to Joc Pederson, bringing up the tying run with runners on first and second.  Jon Edwards and Sam Freeman were warming at that point, making me feel like Chevy Chase in Fletch when Jon Don Baker walked in and confronted Tim Matheson -- "Thank goodness...its the police..." -- but Scheppers got out of the jam, striking out Puig swinging (which resulted in Puig breaking his bat over his knee) and then getting Adrian Gonzalez to pop up to Hanser Alberto, on like the third or fourth foul ball Gonzalez hit that looked like it might get caught.
  • Here's Puig breaking his bat:
  • I don't know what to do about Tanner Scheppers right now.  When his command is on, he's probably the best reliever the Rangers have on the roster.  But his command is completely off right now, and its making him hittable.  He has options, so you could send him down, but as it is, people want Sam Freeman and Jon Edwards and Ross Detwiler dropped from the bullpen already, and it isn't like you can just have Keone Kela and Anthony Bass pitch all the innings where Shawn Tolleson isn't getting a save.  There's not a real good solution.
  • Anyway, Shawn Tolleson came in for the ninth, and while he was leaving balls up initially, and gave up a Howie Kendrick single to lead off the inning, he settled down and retired the next three batters.
  • Oh, hey, Roogie is back!  The Rangers had six hits today, and Rougned Odor had half of them.  The Rangers had four runs today, and Roogie drove in half of them.  Odor's two RBIs came on a two strike pitch where he went the other way with the ball, rather than swinging from his heels, as he had a tendency to do in big situations before he was sent down.  That was the end piece of a sequence that went walk-walk-single-single-sac bunt-single in the sixth, bringing all four runs in in the one inning.
  • Let's see...what else of note was there from the bats?  Shin-Soo Choo hit a ball a mile high that Busby thought was going to end up in the second deck, but which got knocked down with the wind and was caught on the warning track in right-center.  You could tell by Choo's reaction after it was caught that he thought it was gone, too.
  • Hanser Alberto hit a blast down the left field line that looked like it would be a homer, but it went just foul.  But that was pretty exciting.
  • Man...Joey Gallo hits the hardest outs I've ever seen.
  • Anyway, the Rangers won.  And by the looks of the weather radar, the chances of getting the game in tomorrow aren't great, so this may be a one game homestand before the team heads out to L.A. for a pair of games.  And we won't have to worry about a rainout there, because, as Tony! Toni! Tone! sang, "It Never Rains in Southern California."