Thoughts on a 7-2 Rangers win

Rangers 7, Angels 2

• That was fun.
• How about that Kyle Cody? Manager Chris Woodward had said before today’s game that he wants hoping Cody, who was slowly increasing his pitch count after having worked out of the pen earlier in the year, would be able to give the Rangers five innings. Cody did go five, in an efficient 61 pitches, and after allowing a Mike Trout single in the first and then a Justin Upton one out double followed by a Taylor Ward RBI single, Cody retired the final 11 batters he faced.
• It was an impressive outing, featuring 5 Ks and 0 walks, and first pitch strikes to 16 of 18 batters he faced. Cody also generated 8 swinging strikes out of his 61 pitches. He now has a 1.53 ERA on the season. Cody hasn’t pitched as well as the ERA would indicate — I mean, it’s a 1.53 ERA — but he’s looked like a major leaguer this year, and the slider looks like a legitimate out pitch.
• John King once again came in behind Cody, though the lefty got into trouble right away. After an infield single and then a regular single to start the sixth, Cody got Trout to pop to center on a curveball down in the zone, but then walked Anthony Rendon to load the bases. With action up in the Rangers pen, King got Shohei Ohtani to ground out to first baseman Sherten Apostel — in the game for Ronald Guzman, who was lifted due to a tight hamstring — for a run scoring single before getting Justin Upton to fan to end the inning. King then put up a 1-2-3 7th before turning the game over to Taylor Hearn for the 8th.
• Hearn had a 1-2-3 eighth, including a K, and Kolby Allard pitched a scoreless ninth to end the game. That’s an impressive game the Rangers got from four very young pitchers today.
• Offensively, it was all about the home runs today. Joey Gallo had a two run shot in the first to put the Rangers on the board, and then Anderson Tejeda homered to lead off the second. Rougned Odor doubled home a pair in the third for the team’s only non-homer runs of the game, and also homered in the eighth inning, as did Derek Dietrich. Sam Huff, meanwhile, picked up his first major league home run in the fourth.
• Texas only had three singles today — two by Willie Calhoun and one by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. It was very good to see Willie pick up a couple of hits...a strong finish to a snakebit season is something he deserves.
• Anderson Tejeda’s home run was the hardest hit ball of the day, at 112.2. Joey Gallo’s home run was 108.7, while Sam Huff’s was 101.7. Willie Calhoun had a 105.6 mph single along with a 103.7 mph groundout. Rougned Odor, meanwhile, had a line out of 106.4 to go along with 98.6 on his home run and 99.0 on his double.
• The hardest thrown pitch by a Ranger today was Taylor Hearn’s 96.4 in the 8th. Kyle Cody topped out at 95.3 and pretty consistently was at 93-95. John King hit 94.4 with his sinker and was generally throwing 93-94.
• I just assume the Rangers were done with this series after today, but they have an afternoon game against the Angels tomorrow before heading to Arizona for two games, then finishing out the season with four at home against the Astros. Just seven more days of Rangers baseball in 2020.