Thoughts on a 6-2 Rangers win

Rangers 6, Dodgers 2

• Hey, a win! That’s two out of their last four!
• The story of today, of course, was the work of Mike Minor. Minor was really good two years ago, was great last year, and has been awful this year. Minor went six shutout innings tonight, though, striking out six, walking three and allowing four hits.
• It started out like it was going to be another unpleasant outing, with Minor giving up singles to Mookie Betts and Corey Seager to start the game. He got a K, a ground out that advanced the runners, and a ground out to end the inning.
• Minor allowed a pair of Dodgers to reach in both the third and the fourth, but he was able to escape each of those innings with no damage, as well.
• Minor’s velocity still wasn’t great today — he was 91-93 in the middle innings, but his final two four seamers were 87 mph and 88.4 mph — but he mixed his pitches and went much heavier with his secondaries, to good success.
• Joely Rodriguez had a rare down outing, allowing the Dodgers to tie the score in the 7th with a two out RBI Seager double followed by a run scoring Justin Turner single, bumping his ERA on the year to 2.79.
• Jonathan Hernandez, however, given a lead to protect in the 8th after the Rangers rallied, fanned one in a perfect inning, and Rafael Montero fanned a pair in the 9th.
• The offense got on the board early, with Leody Taveras reaching on an infield single with one out in the third, stealing second, and then scoring on Shin-Soo Choo’s double. Choo went to third on a bad pickoff throw by Dodger starter Dustin May, and scored on a Nick Solak single.
• There was little doing after that until Texas got to the seventh inning. Derek Dietrich, a late addition to the lineup when Danny Santana went on the injured list, homered to the opposite field to start the seventh and give Texas a 3-2 lead. Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Scott Heineman singled, and then after a Leody K, Choo singled home IKF. A Nick Solak double brought home Heineman and sent Choo to third, with Choo scoring on a great slide after a Jose Trevino medium deep fly ball. The throw was in time but Choo appeared to avoid the tag and was called safe, with the replay challenge by the Dodgers being unsuccessful.
• Every Ranger starter had a hit except for Joey Gallo, who had three walks. Choo, Frazier, IKF and Solak each had a pair of hits.
• IKF broke 100 mph in exit velocity twice today, registering 105.1 on a single and 102.4 on a groundout. Derek Dietrich’s home run was 104.3, and Todd Frazier had a single that was 100.1.
• Dustin May had the hardest thrown pitch of the game, hitting 100 on a 6th inning fastball to Gallo, but Jonathan Hernandez hit 99.8 on a sinker. Joely Rodriguez topped out at 96.8, and Rafael Montero hit 95.9.
• It was a solid all around game for the Rangers, who have Lance Lynn taking the mound tomorrow.