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Thoughts on a 2-0 Rangers win

Rangers 2, Tigers 0

Dave Reginek/Getty Images

Rangers 2, Tigers 0

  • They say momentum is the next day's starting pitcher.  The Rangers had a very flat 4-0 loss yesterday, but Colby Lewis was today's starting pitcher, and that was all the momentum the Rangers needed.
  • Colby just threw strikes and let the defense do work behind him.  7 IP, 6 hits, 1 walk, 2 Ks, 1 HBP.  Detroit was 2 for 9 with RISP, but still couldn't get any runs across.  It was Colby at his boring, workmanlike, inning-eating best.
  • The closest Detroit came to scoring was when Miguel Cabrera led off the 4th inning with the first of what would be three doubles for him on the night.  Victor Martinez lifted a blast to deep right-center that initially I feared would be out...however, Delino DeShields ran it down.  Cabrera, instead of tagging, went halfway to third, even though the ball was hit deep enough that if it fell in, he likely would have scored from second even if he'd been tagging.  Cabrera thus was on second when J.D. Martinez flew out to Shin-Soo Choo for what would have been a sac fly if Cabrera had been on third, and then, when Nick Castellanos followed that up with a single, Cabrera was thrown out at home for the third out of the inning.
  • Cabrera was originally called safe, but the replay showed he was pretty clearly out, and Jeff Banister's challenge was upheld.  Detroit also challenged a play, when the umpires ruled Cabrera was doubled off of second in the 6th inning on a Martinez line drive to Rougned Odor.  The replay took almost 5 minutes, with the umps in New York looking both at whether there was evidence to say that 1) Elvis Andrus wasn't on the bag when he caught the throw from Odor, and 2) Elvis didn't tag the bag before Cabrera got back.  The call was upheld, though I think it was one of those plays where it would have been upheld if he'd been called safe, too, due to a lack of clear and convincing evidence either way.
  • Keone Kela pitched a scoreless 8th, though the inning was delayed due to a foul ball striking a fan in the stands right behind the dugout.  She was taken out in a neck brace and on a stretcher, and photos show a baseball-sized knot coming off of her forehead.  I'll be surprised if nets aren't in place past the dugouts by the start of next season.
  • Shawn Tolleson gave up an 0-2 double to Cabrera to start the 9th, and then fanned the next three batters, with the home plate umpire seemingly giving Tolleson a very generous outside corner.  Tolleson, seeing that he was getting a wide strike, kept pumping pitches in that same spot, and ended up ending the game with his 24th save.
  • Only five hits for Texas tonight -- a single and a double for Elvis, a double for Will Venable, a single by Prince Fielder, and a bunt single by Delino DeShields -- to go with a pair of walks, but the Rangers didn't need much else.  Venable singled in Elvis for the first run in the second, and the insurance run came when DeShields followed up his bunt single by eliciting a bad pickoff throw by Justin Verlander, allowing DeShields to advance all the way to third, and then score on a Prince sac fly.
  • Texas now has the same record as the Orioles, and will either be a half-game or a game-and-a-half back of the Angels for the second wild card spot, depending on what LAAAAA does tonight.