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I'm not saying that it's how I would have done things, but perhaps the reason Joey Gallo was riding the pine in his handful of days back in the big leagues was for an inning like today's 4th inning for the Rangers.
Perhaps it's disingenuous to make this point, because we all wanted to see Gallo in the lineup for one or more of the slumping 1B/DH power(less) hitters, but it seems like a decision was made to keep Mitch Moreland and Prince Fielder in the lineup because they either fielded a position the manager wasn't comfortable with Gallo playing yet (Moreland/first base) or was a hitter starting to show the tiniest inkling of life (Fielder/DH) over the last week.
A few hours after Moreland homered and Fielder hit a rocket off the top of the wall in center in last night's win, and with the Rangers down 2-0 and Martin Perez having just survived a runners on second and third no out situation, Fielder led off the bottom of the inning with a solo home run, his first in May.
Three batters later, after a couple of walks, Moreland hit a bomb to Mazaraland in the upper tank to put the Rangers up 4-2 in a game they would eventually win 6-2. Joey Gallo is back in Round Rock and he's playing first base today. He'll be back and he'll be ready. For now, it was good to see the guys Joey's gunning for come up big.
The Rangers are now eight games above .500 for the first time this season and, as of this moment, tied with the Mariners for first place in the AL West.
Player of the Game: Man, besides Prince and Moreland finally escaping the black hole with some majestic dong today, give me Martin Perez tossing a gutsy six innings where he had to wiggle his way out of jams. Lest we forget, jam-wiggling has long been Perez's bugaboo.
Up Next: The Rangers travel to Cleveland to take on the first place Indians in a match-up of two good American League teams. Texas will send Colby Lewis to the mound in Monday's series opener against RHP Josh Tomlin. The Texas Tech product is 7-0 for the Indians in 2016. First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 pm CT.