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After a few tries at it, Bartolo Colon finally has win No. 243 which puts him in a tie with legendary hurler Juan Marichal for the most wins by a pitcher born in the Dominican Republic.
Colon only pitched the required five innings to pick up the victory, and allowed the nightly home run to Khris Davis, but five innings were all the Rangers really needed from him tonight as Texas scored the first six runs of the game.
Colon’s next win will put him alone atop his country’s record book and then he can set his sights on Dennis Martinez’s record of 245 wins by a Latin American pitcher.
The reason Colon was able to so comfortably pick up his awaited win is Texas hit four home runs in the first four innings to take a 6-0 lead about 22 hours after they hit five dingers against the A’s last night.
Jurickson Profar batted fourth in the lineup and looked like a cleanup hitter after a two-out, two run blast in the first inning. Joey Gallo followed with a solo shot to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead. Profar hit his second home run of the night in the third and Ronald Guzman finished off the fireworks show with a two-run dong in the fourth.
Before the night was out, Texas padded the lead to the eventual 8-2 final score as Profar provided two more RBIs in a seventh inning rally.
Player of the Game: Profar went 3-for-5 with the two bombs and five RBIs in what was the first two-dinger game of his career, a contest that was half a decade in the making.
After the many trials and tribulations that have been well documented here, Profar is quietly having himself a solid year and it’s certainly nice to see it for a guy who kind of literally lost his smile in Texas.
Up Next: The Rangers welcome the Astros to Arlington for another trial in the historic Silver Boot Series beginning on Thursday night. It’ll be some Cole on Cole action in the opener as Cole Hamels will face Gerrit Cole with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.