Thoughts on a 3-1 Rangers win

Rangers 3, Twins 1

• Another unexpected Ranger victory.
• Hyeon-jong Yang got the spot start today and baffled the Twins hitters. 66 pitches generated 15 swinging strikes, a remarkable number of whiffs for a guy who maxes out at around 91 mph with his fastball. Yang only went 3.1 innings but he struck out 8 batters — only two outs were recorded by balls in play.
• The one run off Yang came on a Mitch Garver second inning home run. Byron Buxton doubled in the third but was left stranded. Yang got into trouble in the third, loaded the bases with no one out, struck out Jorge Polanco to get the first out, and then was lifted for John King, who recorded the final two outs.
• King continues to keep runs off the board. 2.2 scoreless innings today lowered his ERA on the year to 1.13. He didn’t walk anyone, struck out three, and allowed just two hits...pounding the bottom of the zone arm side is generating a lot of ground balls, and generating a lot of zeroes.
• We saw Brett Martin, Joely Rodriguez and Ian Kennedy throw scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth innings, while the Twins bullpen had issues once again. Kennedy and Joely have pitched in each of the last two games, so I’m not sure what their availability tomorrow will be.
• Texas had no RBI hits today. Runs scored on a Joey Gallo ground out, a sacrifice fly, and a wild pitch. That’s kind of interesting. Or maybe not.
• Two hits for Nate Lowe. A walk and a hit for Nick Solak and Adolis Garcia. Andy Ibanez had another hit. It wasn’t a real active game offensively though.
• Ian Kennedy was the hardest throwing Ranger tonight, registering 95.1 on his fastball. Joely Rodriguez reached 94.5 mph. John King hit 92.9 mph with his sinker, while Brett Martin touched 92.4 mph with his sinker. Hyeon-jong Yang topped out at 91.4 mph.
• Andy Ibanez had some loud contact tonight — he had a 108.1 mph groundout, a 100.5 mph sac fly, and a 97.4 mph single. Jose Trevino had lineouts at 107.5 mph and 107.0 mph. Adolis Garcia had a 108.1 mph single. Nate Lowe had a 105.2 mph exit velocity on a single. Nick Solak and Eli White had fly outs of 102.5 and 102.2 mph, respectively.
• Tomorrow is a day game. Can the Rangers win another four game series? I don’t know. You tell me.