Thoughts on a 7-4 Rangers win

Rangers 7, White Sox 4

• Another rubber game won, and Texas is back to six games over .500.
• Adrian Sampson started today, and after two bad outings, he needed a good outing to quell concerns that he was coming back down to earth. And Sampson delivered...7 IP, 7 hits, 1 walk, 1 run allowed, and 4 Ks. He dropped his ERA on the year to 4.14.
• That being said, Sampson did give up a lot of hard contact today, including 6 balls in play that had an exit velocity of at least 100 mph. There were 3 GIDPs behind him, and just 4 Ks. So...if you had concerns about Sampson’s ability to maintain his early success heading into today, this outing may not have been all that reassuring.
• Things went bad for Texas in the top of the 8th. With a 5-1 lead, Chris Woodward went to rookie righty Peter Fairbanks, who has been solid all year. Fairbanks started the inning allowing a single and a walk, however, and after an F8 for the first out, another single loaded the bases. Fairbanks got to 3-2 on James McCann, then missed badly on a slider to force in a run. Fellow rookie Brett Martin then came into the game, and gave up a line drive that Delino DeShields misplayed for a two-run, two-base error. Suddenly, what had been a low-stress game saw the Rangers guarding a 5-4 lead, with two runners in scoring position and just one out.
• Martin managed to fan Yonder Alonso for the second out, and then Woodward went to Shawn Kelley for the four out save. Kelley got Tim Anderson swinging, getting out of the inning, and then, after getting a couple of insurance runs in the 9th, kept the ChiSox off the board in the 9th for the save.
• The Rangers got their initial 5 runs early, scoring 4 times in the second on a Rougned Odor double, a Delino DeShields sac bunt, a Ronald Guzman sac fly, a Tim Federowicz solo shot, a Shin-Soo Choo reached on an E-3, and then a Danny Santana bomb. The fifth run came in the third, when Nomar Mazara doubled and scored on a DeShields single.
• Texas’s offense largely stagnated after that until the 9th, when Elvis singled and stole second, scored on another Nomar double, and then Delino brought home Nomar again with another RBI single. Those two runs allowed us to relax a little more in the 9th.
• Delino had a 3 hit day, meaningful at a time when he is potentially on the bubble to be sent down when the Rangers return to an 8 man bullpen, and Nomar continued his red hot series with the pair of doubles. Guzman, another guy who could potentially end up in Nashville when moves need to be made, was hitless.
• Texas has wrapped up the much discussed 21 games in 20 days stretch with a 12-9 record, which is better than I think most expected. Texas now has an off day tomorrow before playing 13 straight days heading into the All Star Break.