Your Texas Rangers are in sole possession of second place in the American League West. And in 2020, second place in the division makes it to the playoffs. Kind of crazy, isn’t it?
Lance Lynn had what qualifies as a pretty terrible outing for him, relative to his tenure with the Rangers, and what is for a normal pitcher a fairly solid start. He was unhappy about the strike zone (a common complaint today), needed 109 pitches to only go five innings, and allowed four hits and three walks while striking out six. Lynn allowed two runs in the game, on a two out Tommy LaStella two run homer in the fifth. As a result, his ERA on the year has blown all the way up to 1.16.
Edinson Volquez pitched the sixth and allowed a run. Joely Rodriguez threw a scoreless seventh inning.
Things got a little scary, though, in the eighth. Chris Woodward has said that Jonathan Hernandez is his eighth inning guy right now, but with new closer Rafael Montero unavailable after pitching two days in a row, Hernandez was handling the ninth rather than the eighth.
So lefty Brett Martin started the eighth, instead. Martin walked Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon before striking out pinch hitter Taylor Ward. Martin was then pulled for righthander Jimmy Herget. Herget struck out wunderkind Jo Adell, then walked Jason Castro. With Luis Rengifo up as the potential go ahead run, you’d figure Hernandez would be an option to get a four out save...but with the new three batter minimum rule, Herget couldn’t come out of the game yet. Fortunately, he fanned Rengifo to end the inning.
Hernandez retired the side in order, with Mike Trout ending the game on a pop up. Huzzah!
Texas actually got a quality game from the bats today, as well. The Rangers got on the board first in the third when Rob Refsnyder led off with a single, and then came around to score on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa double.
The game was broken open with a crooked number in the fourth. Nick Solak doubled with one out, and was singled home by the struggling Rougned Odor, who battled back after getting down 0-2. Odor went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by the struggling Elvis Andrus. After a Refsnyder fly out, Jeff Mathis singled, and then stole second base, allowing him to score on Shin-Soo Choo’s two out double.
After the Angels scored two runs in the fifth, the Rangers got one back on some clown ball. Nick Solak lofted a ball to deep right field. Jo Adell appeared to be set to catch it for an out...and it bounced out of his glove and over the fence for a homer run. Or what should have been a home run...Elias apparently advised the official scorer to change it to a four base error. Hopefully MLB fixes this.
Nick Solak scored the final run of the game in the 8th, robbing Jonathan Hernandez of a chance for a save. Solak doubled, advanced on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch.
Every starter got a hit except for Joey Gallo, who struck out three times. Elvis had a pair of hits, and Solak had two or three, depending on if they change that one play back to a home run. No walks drawn by the Rangers today, but that’s okay, they didn’t need them.
Both Nick Solaks doubles were over 100 mph in exit velocity, coming in at 104.6 and 101.4, while his homer/error was 100.0. Rob Refsnyder had a 104.7 mph single, and Rougned Odor’s single was 103.0.
Jonathan Hernandez was bringing it again tonight for the Rangers, with four pitches of at least 98.0 mph, topping out at 98.4. Lance Lynn topped out at 95.9 mph and spent much of the game in the 94-95 range.
A nice start to the home stand. Now we get the hated Mariners tomorrow.
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67179416/1264912973.jpg.0.jpg)