8-7 - Rangers climb back above .500 with 12-7 beating of Angels

Boy it sure looked like this one was going to be ugly early when Shelby Miller allowed three runs before getting out of the first inning. And even so, it was 4-1 heading into the bottom of the third in a game where it looked like the Rangers would be done in by their starting pitching with the baseball boogeyman lurking in the opposing lineup.

If we’ve learned anything about this early season Rangers team though, it’s that they seem to thrive under these sort of conditions as before you could say “Mike Trout’s groin was miraculously healthy enough to rejoin the lineup specifically to face the Rangers,” Texas scored the next ten runs in the game to ultimately run away with it.

Player of the Game: Apparently Joey Gallo is the Mike Trout of the Rangers when facing the Angels as after a difficult couple of games following a scorching series in Anaheim, Gallo went 3-for-5 with a dinger, double, and RBI single that he placed the opposite way. Gallo needed that one after going hitless in his last three games.

Also, Shin-Soo Choo homered and went 3-for-4 on the night with a walk. Choo is now hitting .340 this season. In fact, every member of the Rangers offense had at least one hit except for Logan Forsythe and he walked twice. Overall, the Rangers drew seven free passes.

Up Next: The Rangers and Angels will play the second game of this series on Tuesday night with good ol’ TBD (probably Matt Harvey?) set to face off against Mike Minor for Texas. First pitch from The Ballpark is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.