68-68 - Elvis lives! Andrus dingers help Rangers down Halos

.500 again, at last!...again?

Despite another scary ninth inning, the Rangers are now 7-3 against the Angels and Astros over the last two weeks and that’s pretty good. Give yourself a hand, Texas.

It’s a good thing they didn’t ever and will never play the Oakland A’s.

Also, Martin Perez had a stretch of four games between July 19-Aug 4 where he allowed 23 runs and then noticed he was tipping pitches. Despite the pitching instructors rolling their eyes at that notion, Perez has now allowed 14 runs in six starts since then and the Rangers have won every game he’s started.

Special bonus note: Will Middlebrooks collected an RBI hit in his first at-bat as a Texas Ranger and that must have been really neat for a kid from Texarkana who grew up loving the Rangers.

Player of the Game: Elvis Andrus hit two home runs today. We live in a world where that’s a thing that happens more often than never. Home runs No. 17 & 18 puts Elvis beyond Adrian Beltre (16) in dingers on the year, and, since Adrian Beltre likely won’t play again this season, gives Elvis an excuse to annoy Adrian Beltre forever.

Up Next: The Rangers visit a ballpark in Atlanta that laid the groundwork for them to not be embarrassed to announce a new stadium before their current one is older than the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld.

That is to say Andrew Cashner and the Rangers will face R.A. Dickey and the Braves at SunTrust Park beginning tomorrow night with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 pm CT.