43-44 - Rangers turn back clock, move forward with third straight win

The Rangers were wearing their sexy ‘70s powder blue jerseys tonight for Turn Back the Clock night. Funnily enough, the Rangers were actually starting tonight’s game an hour later than usual. And while the Halos — wearing their California Angels road greys — even looked good, the Rangers looked best of all.

Tyson Ross was good. He wasn’t Cole Hamels last night good but he was avoiding the walks (just two tonight) that have plagued him during his brief Rangers career and gave the Rangers 5 ²⁄₃ innings of one run ball.

The bullpen trio of Jeremy Jeffress, Matt Bush, and Alex Claudio did their job by pitching the final 3 ¹⁄₃ with the Angels scoring their second and final run off Claudio too little too late in the ninth.

As for the offense, well, Adrian Beltre connected for his 2,978th career hit. It was also his 452th career home run which tied him with Carl Yastrzemski for 38th all-time. Every time Adrian Beltre takes a breath, he’s making baseball history.

Player of the Game: Drew Robinson hit one almost to the back wall of the bench seats to the right of Greene’s Hill that Josh Hamilton of earlier this decade would have admired.

The blast was DRob’s first home run at The Ballpark and it turned a 3-1 game that the Rangers were toying with into a 5-1 game that gave everyone a little room to breathe.

For the evening Robinson finished 1-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout. Drew Robinson is definitely a modern ballplayer.

Up Next: The Rangers close out the first half of the season with the opportunity to sweep the Angels tomorrow afternoon. Yu Darvish will make the start for Texas opposite JC Ramirez.

Ramirez gave the Rangers fits back on the last day of April and Texas hasn’t won a Yu Darvish start since June 12. However, if Texas can take this one, they’ll be at .500 and no worse than two games out of the final Wild Card spot in the American League.

First pitch of the finale is scheduled for 2:05 pm CT.