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Rangers 8, Orioles 6
- The Rangers dropped 6 in a row last week, and had people getting all emo again. Now, they've won 3 of 4 and are back to 2 games above .500, and we're feeling better.
- Its a long season.
- Colby Lewis had a very Colby Lewis outing, giving up 3 singles and 3 home runs while striking out 3 and walking no one. Chris Davis hit two very long two run home runs off of Colby, accounting for 2/3rds of the Orioles runs. Colby Lewis is the type of pitcher it seems Chris Davis would just inherently destroy.
- Okay, I went and looked...prior to today, Davis was 2 for 5 with an HBP and 2 Ks against Colby.
- Colby gets credit for a Quality Start, and Colby now has 6 straight quality starts. I still kind of think that giving up more than 3 runs in 6 innings, but getting a QS because you gave up only 3 earned runs, is kind of cheating, but no one asked me. Because Rougned Odor booted an Adam Jones grounder with two outs in the first, right before Davis's first homer, both runs were unearned.
- I also tend to think that allowing any runs that score with two outs after an error to be treated as unearned is kind of squirrelly. But then, if I were in charge, I'd get rid of errors and unearned runs entirely.
- Colby has had a weird season so far. After 7 starts, he had a 2.40 ERA. Then he gave up 21 runs in a three game span, including a disastrous 2.2 IP, 10 run outing against Cleveland. Then he started this streak of 6 straight quality starts.
- Keone Kela pitched for the second night in a row. At least tonight, it was in a close game, with Texas up 6-5, compared to the 8-1 game he pitched in yesterday. Kela, who is 22, is on pace to pitch in 77 games this season. Only five times in the live ball era has a pitcher 22 or younger pitched in that many games. Mitch Williams, interestingly, did it twice.
- Tanner Scheppers pitched for the third night in a row. I'm assuming he's unavailable tomorrow. I do have to wonder why Scheppers pitched yesterday in a 7 run game when he had pitched the day before.
- Anyway, Kela and Scheppers each had perfect innings. Shawn Tolleson got two quick outs in the 9th, walked J.J. Hardy, and then gave up a deep line drive to right field to Travis Snider that brought Hardy home and put the tying run at the plate. Fortunately, Tolleson fanned Ryan Flaherty looking to end the game, and pick up the save, but still, it was a little scary for a moment.
- Bats...let's see. We had home runs today. We had, in fact, 12 hits and 4 walks, an impressive performance, with every Ranger having a hit. Mitch Moreland hit a pair of home runs, boosting his line for the season to .305/.353/.563 and giving him 14 home runs on the season, with four coming in the past two games. Josh Hamilton and Robinson Chirinos also had a pair of hits, and Chirinos and Shin-Soo Choo homered.
- The second of Mitch Moreland's home runs, which came in the 8th inning off of Chaz Roe, was noteworthy because off the bat it looked like a routine opposite-field fly out. Everyone acted like it would be caught, but the ball kept carrying, and carrying, and carrying...and then finally fell into the left field stands, giving the Rangers an 8-6 lead. It was, dare I say, Gallo-esque.
- The Rangers could have put up some more runs were it not for some untimely GIDPs. Between four DPs and a 1 for 7 performance with RISP, you'd think that the Rangers would have been on the wrong side of the score.
- But nope, Texas won.
- Woot!