42-44 - Hooray! Cole Hamels and the Rangers are good again!

If the Rangers could distill this game, bottle it, liberally pour it into a sports drink cooler, and have Elvis Andrus dump it on every member of the team to begin the second half that would be nice.

Tonight the Rangers played basically the perfect game of baseball.

The Rangers beat the Angels 10-0 tonight. Just that sentence is enough to bring me joy. But the details make this one seem like a dessert that’s so rich you have to take it home and finish it later.

There was home runs by Adrian Beltre and Nomar Mazara. Beltre’s blast came on a 2-for-4 night as he drove in two runs for Texas. Rougned Odor had three hits (!), Delino DeShields had two hits, and heck, even Jonathan Lucroy hit a double.

And then there was Cole Hamels...

Player of the Game: Hamels allowing seven runs in his return from the DL in Cleveland in that game the Rangers blew a 9-2 lead seems like a distant memory. When Hamels followed it up by allowing two runs in the first inning in his next start in Chicago, we were all thinking maybe Cole Hamels was dunzo.

Since then? A big nothingburger for the American League.

Tonight, Hamels was aces going 7 ²⁄₃ and allowing just three hits, a walk, zero runs, while striking out six Halos. All on just 95 pitches, Hamels was dominant.

Up Next: The Rangers and Angels reconvene for the second game of this first-half finale with Tyson Ross set to face Jesse Chavez. First pitch is scheduled for a bit later than usual at 8:05 pm CT.