Thoughts on a 6-5 Rangers win

Rangers 6, A’s 5

• Winning streaks are fun.
• Nice start from Nick Martinez, who gave the Rangers a Quality Start and kept them in position to come back and pick up the victory. Didn’t miss many bats, striking out just 1 batter in 6 innings, but he also walked just 1 and was generally pretty efficient, allowing just three runs.
• Martinez also had a nice heads-up play that led to an out in the fifth that helped keep an Oakland rally from getting out of control. with runners on second and third and one out, Matt Joyce laced a ball down the line in right field, scoring both runners. It appeared set to be a double, but apparently hit a chair and caromed over to Nomar Mazara, who got the ball back in quickly. Joyce took a big turn, seeing that Mike Napoli wasn’t anywhere near the bag, and seeing that, Nick Martinez, snuck behind him to cover first base. The Rangers threw behind Joyce to Martinez, who put the tag on him for the second out.
• Tony Barnette gave up a run on three hits in the 7th, but wasn’t exactly getting hit hard. He also was the beneficiary of a bizarre 6-5-6 double play, again featuring Matt Joyce. With Rajai Davis at first and Adam Rosales at second, Joyce hit a ball back up the middle. Rosales, concerned it might be caught on the fly by Barnette, headed by to second initially, only to see the ball hit the ground and be fielded by Elvis Andrus. Elvis stepped on second and then ran towards Rosales, who was trapped between bases. Elvis ultimately threw to Joey Gallo, who threw it back to Elvis, who tagged Rosales, giving us a 6-5-6 GIDP to go with the earlier 9-4-1 play.
• Keone Kela pitched the 8th, after going two innings the day before, and gave up a home run to Yonder Alonso on a high fastball that was supposed to be up and in but instead was just up. He also struck out a pair of batters.
• Matt Bush closed it down in the 9th, fanning a pair of batters before getting pinch hitter Stephen Vogt to line out to first base to end the game.
• The Rangers offense got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead in the third when Elvis Andrus singled home Joey Gallo, who had walked to lead off the inning. After Oakland tied it on the top of the fourth, Texas took the lead back on a pair of singles and a ground ball out in the 4th.
• The big rally, however, was in the 7th. Ryan Dull relieved Sonny Gray and, after getting Carlos Gomez to ground out, walked Joey Gallo on a terrific, grinding at bat by Gallo after he started out 1-2. Delino DeShields singled, and then both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Shin-Soo Choo walked to load the bases, leading Bob Melvin to go get Liam Hendriks from the pen to face Elvis Andrus. Elvis lined a singled to left to bring home Gallo and DeShields, and then Nomar Mazara laced a double deep into the left-center gap, bringing home Choo and Elvis, and giving the Rangers a 6-4 lead.
• Two hit games for DeShields, Elvis and Mazara, with Mazara, who has struggled since a hot start to the season, looking much better at the plate. Joey Gallo had a pair of walks, Robinson Chirinos had a single and a walk, and Ryan Rua, who had entered the game as a defensive replacement, picked up a single.
• All in all a nice productive game all around and a solid win for Texas, who will be looking for the sweep on Mother’s Day.